“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

Around the age of 12 my musical tastes started to, not narrow, but become more partisan shall we say. The cause of this was my growing obsession with the Black Country’s, nay, the country’s finest Glam Rockers, the mighty Slade. 

The first evidence of this growing obsession came when I bought…AN ALBUM. The album in question was “Slayed?”, their 3rd studio album but their first as bona fide pop stars. It was home to the singles “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” (#1 Sept 1972) and “Gudbuy T’ Jane” (#2 Dec 1972, the week of my birthday !) . It had a great picture of them on the cover looking like some rough arsed gang of Glam boot boys and all sporting the word SLADE biro’d across their knuckles (I’m sure they were going for the gang-tattoo look but I was 12, I didn’t know what a tattoo was, but I did have easy access to biro’s). 

Keeping those two singles company were a raft of Slade classics. Track 1 Side 1 “How D'You Ride" was considered as a single (maybe The Seers realised the potential in that opening riff when they lifted it for “Wild Man”); “The Whole World's Goin' Crazee" is good a time time rock ‘n’ roll song about being in a good time time rock ‘n’ roll band driven along by a stampeding herd of elephants style performance by Jim Lea and Don Powell; if you listen very carefully at the start of “I Won't Let It 'Appen Agen" you can hear Don shout “yeah” he was having such a good time playing it. 

Side 2 is made up of 4 bangers in a row by the now settled songwriting partnership of Holder/Lea including those #1 and a #2 singles plus “Gudbuy Gudbuy” and “I Don’ Mind’. Other than covers of Janis Joplin’s “Move Over” and live favourite “Let The Good Times Roll” Nod and Jim wrote all the songs on “Slayed?”.

I gotta make mention of a track that’s not on this album. I’ve always admired bands that made non-album singles. Record companies don’t want singles that aren’t on albums, they want singles on albums to help sell the albums. Non-album singles are a nuisance, something to put extra resources into, chiefly, an extra expense. Three of my very favourite bands often released non-album singles (is it a coincidence they were all on Polydor ?), The Jam, The Wonder Stuff and obviously Slade made one of THE greats in the thundering Glam Rock behemoth that is “Cum On Feel The Noize”. It was released after “Slayed?”, between it and “Old, New, Borrowed And Blue, it entered the charts at #1,  it stayed in the charts for 3 months! It is like a microcosm of all good things Slade, it’s loud, you can stomp about to it, it’s got an ace singalong chorus and think about what they’re asking you to do. They’re not asking you to listen to the noise or hear the noise or dance to the noise, they’re inviting you to FEEL THE NOIZE, and feel it I still do.

NME said “Slayed?” was "one of the greatest rock 'n' roll releases ever"! The Illinois Wheeling Herald concluded (and I love this especially as Slade never did crack America) "Slade is punk, street rock at its best and loudest" and no matter what you think of them Slade DID have an influence on Punk Rock. The juggernaut was rolling and Slade were about to become as big as it gets.

I Won't Let It 'Appen Agen - https://youtu.be/PlOsRKIQIJw?si=QE9az14DfnFHPNd1

In 1971 Slade had their first 2 hit singles, “Get Down And Get With It”, which reached number 16 in August, and “Coz I Luv You”, which became Slade’s first number 1 in November. The latter of those two was the first of their string of 70’s hit singles written by the partnership of Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea. Their live set still leaned heavily upon covers but Nod and Jim were starting to get it together on the writing front. They didn’t yet have enough of their own songs to put together a whole album but a new one was needed. Slade had made their bones slogging the length and breadth of the country playing live, they had a reputation as a formidable live band, not just players but entertainers. Manager Chas Chandler formulated a plan to record Slade where they were at their best, in front of an audience.

So on the 19th, 20th and 21st October 1971 Slade set up at the Command Theatre Studio in London’s Piccadilly. The BBC used to own the former theatre that had been converted into 3 studios all set up to hold a full orchestra and an audience. The band performed 3 shows in front of a specially invited audience of Slade fans so that the band’s increasingly talked about live show could be captured perfectly.

“Slade Alive!” was released in March 1972. Slade were so confident in their live show that “Coz I Luv You”, their number 1 hit single, isn’t even on this album! Their first hit, a cover of Little Richards “Get Down With It” (actually Bobby Marchan’s “Get Down With It” but Slade didn’t know that at the time) is on the album, cunningly retitled “Get Down And Get With It”, and if you are ever sat near me when I receive a text message be prepared for your ears to be assaulted by Noddy’s full throated roar of “WELL ALLLLLRRRIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHTTTT EVERYBODY” which has been my text notification for many years.

For a single buying pop kid, as I was up until then, the album is a big progression. I knew what albums were about, a collection of songs that mostly were not singles, which were split between the 2 sides of the record with nice uniform silent gaps between the tracks. I owned “Slayed?” so I knew what to expect and my Dad had albums by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and others that demonstrated the same behaviour. But “Slade Alive!” was different. There were no uniform silent gaps between the songs, the band were talking, in fact everyone was talking, and shouting, and belching, and stomping, and clapping, and woooo-ing, in fact there was even a hint of someone bawling out swear words from the audience. 

This album captures exactly what Slade were in the months just before they became the biggest band in Britain, a fearsome, finely honed live band fronted by one of the greatest voices in rock and roll who also happened to be something of an old time music hall character constantly involving the audience in the show. You can hear the excitement in the room from the very start when “Hear Me Calling” just slides into being, the audience pick it up immediately, clapping and stomping and hollering along and you can feel the band feed off the vibes in that room.

It’s another record I own multiple copies of (1972 original, 2017 45th Anniversary Edition, 2022 Red/Black splatter vinyl). Despite various statements to the opposite, they played and recorded 3 nights so surely there must be more material as there are only 7 songs on the album. Whatever, I bloody love it, “Slade Alive!” is the greatest live album ever made, no argument will be entered into…

Hear Me Calling - https://youtu.be/K9o_1uMlBSc?si=Y0Hhe1_JuyOcyXYj