WEMBLEY: THOUSANDS CHEER
SLADE NME SHOW TRIUMPH
Roy Carr on Sunday's poll tribute
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"To Noddy" it read, "or to any hunky male 17 plus."
Not fussy, just serviceable, it had been carefully weighed with a cotton-spool and lovingly prepared with all manner of intimate information appertaining to its maidenly owner. There was also a phone number. Plus the name of the sender but we'll keep this to ourselves to protect the innocent. What does matter is that this extra mammary missile landed at the silver stacked flying feet of Dave Hill during one of the two NME Poll Concerts at Wembley Pool on Sunday.
A double barrelled day when before 20,000 demonstrative fans - Slade not only received the silver inscribed spoils of their national victory but consolidated the ardour bestowed on them by those for whom Arsenal and/or the Faces no longer appeal. Not until they attacked the senses with sheer electric ferocity, did I begin to count off the hits that Slade have hammered, one after another, up the charts: "Gudbuy T' Jane" the , "Mama Weer All Crazee Now", "Coz I Luv You", "Take Me Bak 'Ome", "Get Down Ạnd Get With It" and ''Cum Feel The Noize".
But then Slade aren't just a transient hit-music- machine. They're showmen supreme without any inhibitions: a raunchy, groin-grabbing, garage band without any pretentions - and for me the best party band to emerge since the Who hold court at the Marquee in the Mod Summer of '65. Other visual highlight of the evening was a mighty video- projected screen on which every movement of the artists was seen high above the array of thundering electronic hardware. The whole effect almost defied description.
But it was Slade's night, and it was around Britain's Top Band, as voted by NME readers, that the show had been deliberately slanted. They really showed their worth too, when they got to grips with "Hear Me Calling" and Janis Joplin's classic thumper "Move Over Baby", which had Jimmy Lea and Don Powell loosing the brickwork while Noddy screamed out the vocal line with the finest pair of rock 'n' roll lungs since Lennon had done likewise at an NME concert before.
Supporting act Home came high in the "Promising Newcomers' section of the Poll, but although they have built up a strong following by slogging it out on the greasy club, college and pub circuits, they still have to learn how to size up a crowd. It may well have been a Slade audience, but it was one which was receptive to whatever had gone before as guest name Duster Bennett proved in his opening spot. Home played an extremely good set but did not take into consideration that out there in the dark were 10,000 (at each concert) who'd come to boogie. When they performed 'Roll Over Beethoven' they pulled the house down, but killed it when attempting to turn the Pool into small club by playing very slow stuff.
Duster Bennett has always been a crowd pleaser. He K.O.'d the audience at the London Palladium a week earlier and repeated the same feat at the Slade gig with "Hi Heel Sneakers" he worked his way through all his favourites and grabbed a whole host of potential record buyers. That's the name of the game.
And to Emperor Rosko...
OUR THANKS
A concert of the complexity and style of Wembley on Sunday cried out fo the pace and punch of Emperor Rosko, and that's what both audiences got. Throughout the day and evening shows, which had been put together for NME by promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Rosko kept the action at a real premium backed up by the power of his Orange Sound. Backstage hitches don't bother Rosko.
Well, that backs up much of my confused memories of the day. Slade opened with Hear Me Calling, glad it's confirmed because I wasn't sure whether I just wanted it to be true. The next UK tour due to begin in a few weeks, would end at Earls Court on the 1st July, and Take Me Bak 'Ome would be the new set opening number. And, they were all there, John Peel, Bob Harris, Emperor Rosko, Hawkwind, Maggie Bell, Lulu, Michael Appleton, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all. Thanks
My thanks to Chris 'The Historian' Selby for his relentless research. It is said, in certain circles, that Walsall Archives have a seat reserved specifically for him and that Wolverhampton archives consult him when searching the Express & Star.
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