Slade - 1970s glam rockers back at No. 1

Kipper tie? Yes, two sugars plays

So, here it is - for a brief time at least, it looks like we are back in the era of kipper ties and platform boots. Slade are back at the top of the album sales charts with a 'Best Of' - Cum On Feel The Hitz.

A couple of months ago I listened to a podcast from the 'Strange Brew' website, featuring Jim Lea, Slade's bass player and songwriter. It reminded me how much I used to love Slade back in the early '70s.

They had a great run of hits from '71 to probably '74 and must have been one of the top selling artists of the decade.

I picked up on them when they had their first big hit in 1971, Coz I Luv You. They had two or three more number ones in 1972, when their main rivals in the pop glam stakes were T. Rex.

T. Rex had the best of it in 1972, but 1973 was definitely Slade's year and when they went straight to number 1 in the singles charts with Cum On Feel The Noize and the follow up Skweeze Me Pleeze Me, it was the first time that had happened since The Beatles in the mid-1960s.

Lea was a multi-instrumentalist, playing piano and violin as well as bass. Along with singer Noddy Holder he was the principle songwriter, providing a lot of the hooks to their songs. Think of the violin on Coz I Luv You, their first number one, or the bass riff at the beginning of Gudbuy T' Jane.

According to Lea, he was the chief songwriter, with Holder often adding the lyrics. But his profile in the band was always overshadowed by Noddy and the weirdly-fringed guitarist Dave Hill. They were an odd-looking bunch and their stage outfits became more and more cartoonish as their fame increased.

Dave Hill living the high life in LA, mid-1970s

Although they were seasoned musicians and probably had their fair share of rock and roll shenanigans, they were down to earth Black Country boys at heart. Lea said they never felt like megastars, they kept their feet on the ground and remained close to their roots.

In a recent interview with the Shropshire Star's Andy Richardson, frontman Noddy Holder, who left the band in 1992, said "We started having success but we'd grafted five years for it, sleeping in the van when there was snow, fog and ice, huddled together for warmth, fucking starving."

I saw Slade at Earl's Court in July 1973, at the peak of their Glam Rock fame, with a bunch of school mates. I remember the buzz in the crowd, with lots of people glammed up in Slade-inspired outfits. Silver foil sales rocketed around that time. Holder remembered, "People were travelling on the trains dressed in top hats and mirrors. It was like aliens had landed in London."

The concert itself was typical of Slade shows - everyone screaming, clapping and stomping along to their hits. You didn't come to a Slade show to sit on your hands.

The support at Earl's Court was The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, who had recently released their first album 'Framed'. Alex left a big an impression on me that day, especially his theatrical performance of the song Framed. I became a big fan of SAHB and bought their second album 'Next' when it came out in 1974.

Slade's world came crashing down, literally, just four days after the Earl's Court triumph, when drummer Don Powell was involved in a terrible accident driving his Bentley. His girlfriend Angela was killed instantly and Powell was on life support.

"His car was like a tank, a huge Bentley," said Holder. "But it was concertina'd; his memory was totally shot." Powell survived and eventually returned to playing with the band. For Slade though, this was the beginning of the slide down from their peak.

Pop stars of the time would regularly branch out into films as a way of getting more songs out there and hopefully making more money at the box office. As it turns out, Slade in 'Flame' is one of the better, more authentic films about the ups and downs of a rock band. And it yielded one of the band's very best songs, How Does It Feel?

Slade's most enduring song, of course, is Merry Christmas Everybody, which must provide Lea and Holder with a decent pension. But Lea said that the rest of the band hated it initially and refused to record it. They must be glad he convinced them it was worth doing.

It's funny listening to Slade now, especially since I was such a big fan back in the day. The first album of theirs that I owned, Slade Alive! is a rocking album, but I feel oddly detached from it, because unlike a lot of the old records from my youth, I really haven't listened to it since the early '70s.

Slade made their reputation as a live band, playing things like Get Down and Get With It, where they whip the crowd into a frenzy of clapping and stomping. Slade Alive! hasn't aged well though and it's not that representative of their other records. The follow-up album, Slayed? has material that I think is more representative of their abilities, especially as songwriters.

Here's a documentary on Slade's breakthrough, put together by someone called Crusher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JZqycd8gJc

Slade - Mama Weer All Crazee Now

Slade were brilliantly lampooned by Reeves and Mortimer years later, complete with those unmistakeable black country accents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWksvwqM3Ok

Also on this blog:

Alice Cooper - Back when he was genuinely scary

Sparks release 'Kimono My House', 1974

T. Rex in 1971 - Electric Warrior

New music from Green of Scritti Politti

Green Gartside, a closet folkie

On his last proper album, 2006's White Bread Black Beer, Scritti Politti mainman Green Gartside showed he didn’t need the production gloss of previous records to craft music of depth and imagination. 

White Bread Black Beer contains many songs that are right up there with his best. The album got some very positive reviews at the time and was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. There was hope that further releases would follow. 

Green obviously had a store of great songs still to release, because he played quite a few of them at a gig in Kilburn in December 2007.

Pretty Green, 1980s

But since then, there have been only two new Scritti songs released, on the 2011 Absolute Scritti Politti compilation. The new tracks, A Day Late and a Dollar Short and A Place We Both Belong were written with Cupid & Psyche collaborator David Gamson.

Green admits to finding it hard to finish songs, so fans just have to wait patiently to hear what’s next from the sweet voiced Mr. Gartside.

The good news this week is that there is new music on the way. Green, it seems, is harking back to his time as a hardcore folkie in the 1970s.

He's releasing a solo 7" single on Friday June 19th, featuring two songs composed by the reclusive folk singer Anne Briggs, Tangled Man and Wishing Well. 

Anne Briggs, a shadowy yet influential part of English folk

Briggs' music is available on an album called The Time Has Come (with sleeve notes by Colin Harper) and it's well worth investigating if you like English folk music of the early 1970s. 

Musically, it wouldn't be totally inaccurate to describe her as a female Nick Drake, with a touch of Bert Jansch vocally. Wishing Well was a co-write with Jansch. 

This is them performing Black Waterside, the tune that inspired Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. And here's a link to Anne's version of Tangled Man. 

Green's explanation for his new folk direction appeared on this Twitter post:
I can honestly say I love just about everything Scritti have ever done. I thought The Sweetest Girl  should have been a massive hit in the early 80s. I can still remember the thrill of hearing Wood Beez  for the first time on Anne Nightingale’s Sunday night show in 1984. I bought all the singles on 12" single. The follow up album, Provision, refined the syncopated funk sound and contained the hit single Oh Patti, featuring a solo by Miles Davis.

You can buy Green's new songs at Rough Trade: https://roughtrade.com/gb/green-gartside 

 Scritti Politti - 'The Sweetest Girl', live at the Luminaire club in December 2007. 

I also filmed them playing 'Robin Hood' from the White Bread Black Beer album and a special treat for the encore 'Merry Christmas Baby'

Bob Marley and The Wailers - live in New York, 1978

In a recent blog on the punk rock bands, I mentioned my first visit to New York in 1977. Since then I have been back there on many occasions, most recently in the late summer of 2019, for my epic 50th anniversary weekend in Woodstock country.

The reason I am so fond of New York is there is always plenty of live music to enjoy. The best musicians on the planet - the ones playing on all your records - are either in New York or LA. Any night of the week you can see them playing in small clubs. If I had to choose one city to live in, other than where I live now, New York would be it.  

The first big live concert I saw there was in the summer of 1978, when I returned from my home in the UK to stay with a friend and her family in Long Island. One day, itching to get out of the suburbs and looking through the newspaper, I saw an advert for a concert at Madison Square Garden - Bob Marley & The Wailers, supported by Stanley Clarke. 

Too good to miss, I thought, so I got the train into the city and headed for The Garden.

My ticket

I wasn't so familiar with how to get about the city in those days. As I mentioned in the punk story, New York in the 70s was not a safe place. The city was on its knees financially, virtually bankrupt. There were regular blackouts and street crime was commonplace. 

I once saw a guy chasing his girl down the street in broad daylight brandishing a kitchen knife. She ran out in front of a police car (the only way to get them to stop in some neighbourhoods) and the guy walked back past me with the knife tucked under his shirt. Everyone else just carried on as if this was an everyday occurrence. 

There was a group of vigilantes - the Guardian Angels - policing the subway so that folks could travel safely. On one occasion in Manhattan, I had made the rookie mistake of getting on the wrong subway train - the famous 'A' Train that - as the song says - takes you to 125th Street in Harlem. 

The New York subway has express trains that skip several stops and the A train is one of them. I got on it downtown and then it sailed right past my stop. When it arrived at 125th St, I stepped off the train and was greeted with a scene straight out of the Velvet Underground's I'm Waiting For The Man.

"Hey white boy, what you doin' uptown?"

It was comical really. I didn't feel at all threatened. It was obviously a routine situation for these Harlem drug dealers. I politely declined the goods on offer and crossed the platform without fuss.

On the night of the Bob Marley concert I had no such issues, because the Long Island Railroad terminates at Penn Station, which is right where Madison Square Garden is located. 

Once inside, I was keen to hear Stanley Clarke slap that bass. I was a jazz rock fan and Stan was The Man. He had crossed over with the rock audience at this time, with his albums School Days and Journey To Love. But the Bob Marley crowd at The Garden were not much interested and became restless during his set. 

I remember Clarke said something from the stage like, "I know you're not here to listen to this...we won't take too much more of your time...here's one called School Days..."

Here's a clip of the Stanley Clarke Band from Montreux in 1977 which includes his more well-known tracks like Silly Putty and School Days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFdfD4-jm7M

Bob Marley & The Wailers were one of the top acts in the world at this point. It was a privilege to have witnessed them in such an auspicious venue. The crowd were in good spirits - there was a constant waft of dope smoke -  and the concert seemed to get better as it went along. 

The 1978 US tour was promoting the latest album Kaya. I had the record, so I was familiar with the new material as well as recent classics such as Exodus, Get Up Stand Up and No Woman No Cry.

A review of Bob Marley at MSG

Bob and The Wailers started the show with Positive Vibration and they played several other tracks from the Rastaman Vibration album, one of my favourites, including Crazy Baldhead and War.

Reviews of the tour from the time reflect the fact that in America reggae was still considered black people's music. While we in England drew no racial distinction - in that white kids enjoyed reggae too - in the US white kids were getting their kicks mostly from Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton and Foghat. 

Make no mistake, this was Bob Marley at the peak of his powers. You can hear what the 1978 band sounded like on the live album Babylon By Bus.

After the concert, I bought the tour t-shirt, which might have been a mistake since it featured a picture on the back of Bob smoking a massive bifter. I put the shirt down the wash chute back at the family house in Long Island. 

Second time I saw them was at Crystal Palace, 1980

It didn't come back for days. I went down to the den room and it was draped on the back of a chair - Bob in all his Rastaman glory, puffing on a spliff. I took that as a message of disapproval. A youthful indiscretion on my part. I'm sure my parents had the same reaction when I took it home.

          *       *       *      *       *

I've pasted here some contemporary clips of Bob Marley to give you a flavour of the times.

1978 rehearsal and interview footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9I11LJcy_Y

'I Shot The Sheriff' live, 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p80TP8kUI2A

Satisfy My Soul, BBC Top of the Pops, 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aws_3k-GDKM

Rebel Music, live, 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djqj50ilx7M

Natty Dread - One Love Peace Concert, Jamaica 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDUJ2tpsnu8

Audio of the Madison Square Garden show, June 17th 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR1STewPNMQ