“Sladest” is a compilation, a rather strange compilation and OK it begins with “Cum On Feel The Noize” which you would think negates my waffling about this song at the end of our last blog post. But let me say it again…”Sladest” is a compilation, you get it. ? Good, then on we go.

Eight of the tracks are big hit singles, including 5 #1’s. Of the remaining 6 songs one is from previous album “Slayed?”, four are from “Play It Loud” and lastly there’s a flop single from 1969. All in all a very strange collection.

“Slayed?” had been released in November 1972 and their next album, “Old, New, Borrowed And Blue”, appeared in February 1974, that‘s only 15 months apart which these days is not a great deal of time between albums. In 1973, for a “pop” group, it was a lifetime. 

On the 4th July 1973 drummer Don Powell was involved in a serious car accident which threw Don’s and Slade’s future in to doubt. He was in a coma for 6 days and tragically his fiancée, Angela Morris, did not survive the crash. Slade had begun to record their next album but that was obviously now delayed. Polydor obviously felt that a gap needed filling and in September 1973 “Sladest” was that filler.

The strangest inclusion is the 1969 single “Wild Winds Are Blowing”. It was released by Fontana Records so it wasn’t even a Polydor recording (although by 1972 the Polygram group, which at the time was a subsidiary of Polydor, was distributing the Fontana catalogue). To have this and “Cum On Feel The Noize” on the same album is a striking demonstration of how far Slade had come in just 3 years.

Wild Winds Are Blowing - https://youtu.be/FLzvI2d0IJo?si=waoARGScbiX8KNlO