Not for Slade's Noddy Holder the life of a wrinkly rocker clinging onto his youth and past glories by going on the road with revival tours. He's 54 now, although has hardly changed since Slade's 1970s days, and unlike those of his contemporaries who refuse to act their age, knew when it was time to hang up his guitar and platform shoes.

He found a new job, one which brings him to Gateshead-based Century Radio to present a double whammy of 1970s hits-and-chat shows from this weekend. Well, not so new as he's been hosting a radio programme for a Manchester station for 12 years.

It's nearly a decade since Holder quit Slade, a band that not only enjoyed hit after hit but outraged our educators with bad spelling of songs titles like Cum On Feel The Noize and Mama Weer All Crazee Now.

"I get a bit nostalgic for the gigs but don't miss everything that goes with it like hanging around in airports and hotel rooms," says Holder during a flying visit to Century's studios to record trails for his shows.

"I wouldn't want to be doing it now. That's why I finished with the band. I didn't want to tour with them any more. I'd done 25 years with exactly the same four guys. We had pretty much achieved what we'd set out to do. I thought we were getting stale and just repeating ourselves, and I was getting offers for work outside the group which I'd been turning down." He gave the band two years' notice of his intention to quit and eventually Dave Hill and Don Powell formed Slade II to continue gigging although Holder's never seen them play.

There are no regrets about leaving. "It's been great. I never thought I'd be so busy. I turn down as much work as I take on. Luckily it's worked out," he says.

The public has never forgotten Slade, thanks mainly to a certain Yuletide song that receives massive airplay in the Santa season. "Every year we get offers to re-form, especially at Christmas, but it's not something that interests me any more. I do different things on different days now," he explains.

'I have a young lad of five-and-a-half as well as a grown-up family. I get to see him which I never did with my other kids. Lucky for me it all fell in place.

"I enjoy what I'm doing and make my own decisions." His radio career began after he got the taste for doing it in the US. Then a couple of shows he presented for the BBC were heard by a producer in Manchester. "He said, 'do you fancy doing a six week series of music from the 1970s?' and 12 years later I was still there," he says.

The offer from Century was one he couldn't refuse.

"I've always loved it in the North-East. Our original manager Chas Chandler came from Newcastle and we used to come up to see him and to play. I have a big affection for the North-East. I jumped at the chance," he explains.

Presenting on radio is the same as doing live band gigs in many ways, he feels. "You have to make a bridge to the audience and ensure they're entertained," he explains.

"You have to put as much effort into it. It's different because you don't get an immediate reaction but you get a feel from your mail whether people like it. My approach is asking, 'would I like listening to this show?' That's my yardstick."

The Century shows will play 1970s music with Saturday as party night and Sunday featuring stories and news clips as well. He knows there are many fans of that period, not just those who were there but teenagers too. The 1970s used to be put down as the decade when nothing happened. That's changed with the influence of bands, fashion and TV of the period finally being acknowledged. The current BBC2 Saturday night series I Love The Seventies is reminding people of this.

Holder has his own theory why the 1970s was forgotten: "People still hold it as an era that was tasteless and it was in a way. That doesn't matter because underneath there's a lot of talent. People thought it wasn't taking itself seriously but that wasn't the point which was to enjoy it and have fun. I think the 1970s was the last decade that happened.

When did you last see a pop band on telly laughing?" At the time, when Slade was living the life of a top band, Holder didn't realise the significance of what was happening. "We were just going through the melee, pretty much cocooned. Especially me and Dave, we couldn't even go out. We were touring for ten months of the year and in the studio recording albums the other two. That circus was moving around the world year in, year out. We didn't have much to relate to in the real world. We had our own little world."

He feels comfortable on radio which isn't surprising as Holder is a good talker, hardly pausing for breath when interviewed. Finding a gap in his chat in which to put the next question isn't easy, in contrast to the often monosyllabic replies of younger musicians.

"I've always been a radio fan and am a radio buff from when I was a kid. I love the radio. I feel at home there," he says.

"I'm still a music fan but couldn't tell you what was in the charts. They used to be for all choices. In the 1970s you could have Des O'Connor and us in the charts. Now the chart is for an even younger age group. With the Spice Girls you had four or five-year-old girls buying their records. It's a dance chart and teenybop boy bands although you have the odd record that comes through from a guitar pop band like Blur and Oasis. I don't have a clue what it's about - and I should not have, it's not for my generation."

As well as radio, Holder has become an actor with a role in ITV's comedy-drama The Grimleys and is also a team captain in BBC1's revived A Question Of Pop.

Going back into the recording studio is something he'd like to do - a solo album of covers and original songs probably - but that Christmas song is never going to go away. "When I wrote it in 1973 I knew it was a hit record and was pretty confident it was a number one because we were top of the tree at the time. But I never thought it would still be going 27 years later," he says. "I'm dead proud of that record. To me it still sounds valid today. It's a classic of its kind."

There's a good and bad side to having such a hit. "When I go out Christmas shopping it's playing in shops and people point at me," he says. "But the money is a nice little bonus. Hopefully it will carry on and become my pension."

l Noddy Holder can be heard on Century Radio from 6pm to 10pm today and from noon to 3pm tomorrow