Genesis (Slade) (LP 3787 - 3794)

Ambrose Slade  Beginnings (CD, Salvo Records, 1969) ***  

Slade  Play It Loud (CD, Salvo Records, 1970) *** 

Slade  Slade Alive! (Vinyl/ CD, Polydor Records, 1972) ***** 

Slade  Slade Live at the BBC (2CD, Salvo Records, 2009) ****

Slade  Slade in Flame (CD/DVD, Salvo Records, 1974/2015 reissue) ***

Slade  Nobody's Fools (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ****

Slade  Slade Alive, Vol. 2 (Vinyl/CD, Barn Records, 1978) *****

Slade  Return to Base (Vinyl, Barn Records, 1979) ***

Genre: Rock, pop 

Places I remember: Fopp (Beginnings/ Play it Loud/ Live at the BBC/ Slade in Flame/ Alive Vol 2); DJ Records for my original Slade Alive!, Chaldon Books and Records for the UK version with a gatefold cover and JB Hi Fi for the CD; Real Groovy (Nobody's Fools/ Return to Base).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Hear Me Calling (Slade Alive!)

Gear costume: Know Who You Are (Slade Alive!) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Image wise it was a rough beginning but musically there are plenty of great indications about both where they were coming from, and the direction they were going to in the seventies. This post will feature their very productive seventies period. I'll get to the patchy eighties and beyond in the subsequent post.

Beginnings, where they look like typical sixties hipsters from the black country, is well named. Ambrose Slade, as they were named after being 'N Betweens since 1966, were well on their way to becoming Slade. Incredibly they had the same lineup since 1966! 

The album had a few promising self-written songs as well as some patchy covers. The Zappa one is terrific (Ain't Got No Heart), as is Knocking Nails Into My House (The Idle Race) but the Beatle cover is a weird choice (Martha, My Dear). Even so - the Fabs inspiration is evident on the album, and they even sound close to Badfinger style power pop at times.  

Play It Loud has them in their misguided skinhead phase (not their idea, but they went along with Chas Chandler's instructions). The rudiment of their sound is there, and Noddy's vocals are sounding more like Noddy's vocals. There were more original songs this time - Know Who You Are was a reworked Genesis from Beginnings, and one of my favourite Slade songs.

Those two albums would come much later, however. My first taste of Slade was via singles and the radio. Coz I Luv You and Look Wot You Dun paved the way for Take Me Bak 'Ome. After that I had to buy Slade Alive! and that wuz me dun. A Slade fan for evermore.

It's hard to understate the impact the album had on me as a teenager. Hear Me Calling is perfect and from then on it's an adrenalin rush (even Darling Be Home Soon is a muscular version) culminating in the earth shattering version of Born To Be Wild. Lightning CAN be caught in a bottle!

I listened to the whole thing hundreds of times in my bedroom, a million light years away from England's Command Theatre Studio, but I loved this racket all the same.

It was a no brainer to get Slayed? and Old New Borrowed and Blue when they came out (both of them have already featured on the blog).

In 2009 Salvo released a live retrospective double CD - Slade Live at the BBC. The first disc has songs recorded for various BBC sessions between 1969–72, along with Radio One jingles recorded in 1973–74. The second disc is a twelve-song set recorded live at the Paris Theatre, London, in August 1972. The guys perform all of those BBC sessions with gusto!

As a manager, Chas Chandler followed The Beatles playbook, so American tours followed UK success (but they failed to replicate the Fab's success there), and a Hard Day's Night style film was his next agenda item. Except, rather than a jolly hijinks caper, Slade In Flame was a gritty look at the rise and fall of a fictional sixties band - Flame.

It saw the band changing style - adding horns and a different feel, moving away from the successful formula of Slade Alive! and Slayed? I like the changes and there's still some straight ahead rock (Them Kinda Monkeys) as well as some quality ballads (Far Far Away, How Does It Feel), but commercially it wasn't as successful. 

Nobody's Fools is a return to what the band does best - power pop. Yes, they were aiming at an American audience, but this varied collection is especially strong. Jim Lea, Don Powell and Noddy regard it as their favourite studio album and I can see why. It gets better and better with time.

So does Slade Alive, Vol. 2. It's a triumph from start to finish. Everyone plays out of their skin but Dave Hill's lead guitar work is exceptional on this live album. The weird thing is that the world didn't care, and this amazing live set went unheralded in the late seventies. I guess the boys were unhappy, but they kept on doing what they do best - playing heavy rock and tearing up concert venues. Slade Alive, Vol. 2 is a fantastic record of their show.

The guys were undaunted even though Whatever Happened to Slade?* failed to sell as their albums had done in the past and ended the seventies with their eighth studio album - Return to Base. It's generally an unloved album, selling poorly and not well promoted at the time. Punk had shaken everything up and Slade were seen as a hard rocking anachronism by many.

Where do they all belong? *Still looking for a copy of 1977's Whatever Happened to Slade? Eighties and beyond coming next. Whatever would become of Slade?