Bang The Drum All Day: 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