From Roots To Boots: The Slade Story

COLLECTORS’ LABEL SALVO GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH AS IT CELEBRATES IT'S FIFTH BIRTHDAY

2 NEW RELEASES: THE PIRATES ‘SHAKIN WITH THE DEVIL’ & SLADE’S ‘SLADEST’ SET TO FURTHER ENHANCE LABEL’S REPUTATION FOR OUTSTANDING REISSUES

The downloading generation may have the gizmos, they may have the songs, thousands upon thousands of them at the touch of their fingertips. But what they don’t have is the history in their hands – the kind of history that Salvo excels in providing.

Union Square Music’s collectors’ label is five years old in September. It’s a birthday worth celebrating for two reasons. Firstly, for a specialist imprint like Salvo to achieve such a milestone at a time of enormous and unsettling change within the industry, much of it wrought by unprecedented technological advancement, is remarkable.

Secondly, it proves there remains a market among the serious, discerning fan for re-mastered classic album reissues, unique compilations and definitive artist and label box sets. In short, the kind of product that is lovingly packaged, expertly researched, compiled, annotated, tastefully designed and features rare or unreleased tracks.

Salvo is part of West London-based Union Square Music, one of the most successful independent catalogue labels in the UK. Established in 2000, its roster has grown to more than 850 titles, while a flourishing sub-licensing division controls more than 15,000 tracks from rock to classical, jazz to punk.

Salvo’s roster of over 100 bespoke titles includes the Madness and Slade back catalogues, as well as releases by Procol Harum, The Move, The Undertones, Nazareth, Roy Harper, Liza Minnelli, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Marmalade, Bob James, The Art Of Noise and Peter Green.

In 2007 Salvo won the Music Week Catalogue Marketing Award for the Slade ‘Feel the Noize’ campaign and the MOJO Magazine Vision Award for the ‘Slade In Flame’ DVD Collectors Edition, beating a host of major label projects in each case.

Salvo has a bumper crop of high profile new releases this Autumn, two of which are The Pirates’ ‘Shakin’ With The Devil: The Best Of The Pirates 1977-1979’ and Slade’s ‘Sladest’.

The Pirates collection is a two-disc, 52-track set from the legendary power trio that backed 60s superstar Johnny Kidd, whose ‘Shakin’ All Over’ ranks as possibly the most important English rock’n’roll single of all time. Their formidable lead guitarist Mick Green was cited as a major influence on The Who’s Pete Townshend, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, AC/DC, The Ramones and Wilko Johnson of Dr Feelgood. Reconvening in the mid-late 70s their swashbuckling approach also earned them significant kudos among the punk movement.

’Shakin’ With The Devil’ includes all three of The Pirates’ albums – the explosive ‘Out Of Their Skulls’ (1977), ‘Skull Wars’ (1978) and ‘Happy Birthday Rock’n’Roll’ (1979) - plus rare singles and unreleased tracks, completed by Salvo’s trademark informative booklet adorned with archive photographs.

Slade’s ‘Sladest’, originally released in 1973, captures the Black Country outfit at the very acme of their glam rock fame, featuring no less than five number one hits – ‘Cum On Feel The Noise’, ‘Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me’, ‘Take Me Bak ‘Ome’, ‘Coz I Luv You’ and ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’.

The Salvo version has been expanded by four tracks, among them ‘My Friend Stan’, a number two hit in 1973, ‘My Town’ and the Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappeli pastiche, ‘Kill ‘Em At The Hot Club Tonite’, as well as a never-before-released take of ‘Hear Me Calling’, recently discovered on a vinyl acetate.

New sleeve notes by Slade aficionado Chris Ingham sit alongside new interviews with Slade guitarist Dave Hill and drummer Don Powell in an accompanying 16-page booklet.

Another brace of reissues then that not only affirm Salvo’s reputation as a specialist label par excellence, but celebrate its birthday in suitably rollicking fashion. Here’s to many more.