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

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Also on this blog:

Alice Cooper - Back when he was genuinely scary

Sparks release 'Kimono My House', 1974

T. Rex in 1971 - Electric Warrior

The Who 'Put The Boot In' at Charlton FC, 1976

It was a game of two halves this one. The weather played its part in dampening spirits and some bands dealt with it better than others. The Americans came off worst,  while the two bands at the top of the bill did particularly well, being British and more used to playing in inclement conditions.

Billed as 'Who Put The Boot In' - because it was a tour of football grounds - this festival roadshow hit London on a Monday afternoon, a May bank holiday in 1976. My friends and I set off across London in our mate's car, he having just passed his driving test.

That was our first mistake. It was to be a baptism of fire for us passengers, because it turned out that whoever allowed this guy to drive away from the test centre the previous week must have been having a laugh. We actually lost count of the number of times we nearly crashed on the way to The Valley, Charlton Athletic's ground.

Vintage bank holiday weather at The Valley

Even though we drove to The Valley in the shadow of death, we did eventually get there and joined the throng outside the ground.

It was fairly chaotic, as there were a lot of fake tickets about. Once inside, it was very crowded and I suspect it was over capacity. Going to the toilet was likely to be a challenge (see the reader's letter below).

Football grounds in the 1970s were still very basic, with covered stands only on one side of the ground (for the home supporters) that were little more than tin sheds. The weather was OK when we arrived, but at some point in the afternoon it started raining. It continued for what seemed like most of the day. There was nowhere to shelter, unless you wanted to cram into the one covered area, with limited sight of the stage.

So conditions were not ideal and some of the acts that appeared were clearly ill-prepared for the English weather. Hard rockers

Nick Gough's photo of Streetwalkers at Charlton

Widowmaker were probably up for it, though I have only the vaguest memory of their appearance. This was the band formed by former Mott the Hoople and Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor, aka Ariel Bender, with singer Steve Ellis from the Love Affair.

Streetwalkers was another supposed super-group, formed by ex-Family members Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney, along with guitarist Bobby Tench and future Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain. Their more funky and soulful approach went down well and they included some Family songs in their set too, including 'My Friend The Sun' and 'Burlesque'.

Getting country rock across to an audience of damp denim-clad Brits was always going to be a challenge, but The Outlaws did their best. The rain had started by now, so it was going to be tough going for the Americans to win over this audience. 

Little Feat play on through the rain

 
Riding a crest of critical acclaim in the UK after their previous visit, on the 1975 'Warner Brothers Music Show' tour, Little Feat were the hip band of the moment. Their leader Lowell George had even featured on the cover of the NME six months previous, billed as the Future of Rock 'n' Roll. 

But when it's raining, you're wearing a stetson and you've got a giant jelly with a Hollywood sign as your stage backdrop, you're the proverbial square peg. The soundboard recording shows they played great, (although there were clearly problems with Bill Payne's vocal mic) and while most of the crowd responded warmly to their set, the damp weather conditions were not the ideal setting.

Little Feat up close at Charlton

The NME's review of Charlton said, "Little Feat almost made it, despite the circumstances. The audience were there for the taking and, sandwiched between the Outlaws and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and given time to play an album's worth, they should have done the trick. Somehow they let it slip through their fingers.

"They sure started off on the right feat, working out on such familiar material as Sailin' Shoes, Oh Atlanta and Dixie Chicken. They demonstrated the necessary attributes to carve their niche as one of the premier bands of the mid-seventies."

Interviewed that weekend in Sounds

But the reviewer noted that towards the end of their set, Little Feat failed to maintain their energy levels to the extent that they weren't called back to encore. "Truth to tell, they didn't garner sufficient applause to warrant a return."

The audience was a little distracted. Just as Little Feat neared the end of their set, one fearless young man climbed halfway up one of the floodlight pylons. 

"There, he proceeded to offer a display of spectacularly stoned aerial calisthenics that took your breath away," said the NME.

There were angry calls over the PA for him to come down, but when SAHB took the stage he was still up there.

Hey you, stop that fuckin' fight!

However, Alex had other things to attend to. "Stop that fuckin' fight!" he bellowed to a section at the front who were getting restless. By this time, we were down the front ourselves, so we had a great view of the SAHB show.

Alex and his colourful band knew how to entertain, with the visuals being a factor in the group's success. 

The band themselves were great musicians and while Alex wasn't blessed with much of a singing voice, he could bellow out the tunes with plenty of character.

SAHB at Charlton

SAHB were at turns funny, funky and rocking, with guitarist Zal Cleminson and drummer Ted McKenna (situated stage right) on particularly fine form. Their keyboard player, Hugh McKenna, had collapsed that week and doctors had ordered him to rest, so Tommy Eyre played keyboards with SAHB at Charlton. 

Alex did his Hitler shtick for 'Framed' and got the audience jumping around for 'Faith Healer' and the encore of 'Delilah'. It was a proper show, with Zal and bassist Chris Glen playing strong supporting roles to mainman Alex. 

As evening fell, The Who took the stage.

The rain relented a little before The Who's arrival, but the stage was still soaking wet when they did hit it. Roger Daltrey joked about "The Who on Ice" as he slid onto the stage.

The Who always put on a good show, certainly when I saw them in the 70s, and this one was special because it was one of the last gigs they played with Keith Moon. The set list was the usual mix of oldies such as Substitute and I Can't Explain, a bunch of songs from Tommy, the classics from Who's Next and more recent material from Quadrophenia and 'By Numbers'.

They played great too. From recordings of the show, you can here that Townshend was on fine form, with Entwistle and Moon a tight rhythm section and everyone in tune. 

This audio clip is The Who playing  'Sparks' from the Tommy album at Charlton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI97tPtb604 

Despite being an outdoor gig, it was also one of the loudest shows ever. The amplification had a total output of 76,000 watts and official sound readings measured 120 decibels, a record at that time. 

Keith did his vocal turn on 'Bellboy'. The set finale was lit by lasers at the climax of 'Won't Get Fooled Again', the beams being reflected on mirrors stationed on the floodlight pylons. This was high-tech by 1970s standards.

It was triumphant gig for The Who and overall it was a fun day.

I don't remember the journey home, which is probably just as well.

The NME's review of Charlton 1976 and my souvenir badge

A reader puts the boot in...

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Also on this blog:
The Who at The Isle of Wight, 1970

Who's Next - Lightning In A Bottle

Little Feat at the Warner Bros Music Show, 1975