The GTK Footage '73

Australia January 28th, 1973

"I don't look at meters. I just turn the faders up to full ..."
Charlie Newnham.

"What an absolute classic!

It's things like that that makes us all love Slade. The Oz tour info from Jands is really interesting and explains quite simply what I've been trying to put into words for years;

When Slade Alive! was released here, taking into account that;

• Colour telly wasn't here yet and there were no music shows on anyway - especially in the country areas!
• You take into account the gatefold cover photo of Slade Alive! (the red and black cover)
• You listen to the "toughness" of the music - Slade were indeed a heavy rock act at that time

Australian audiences must have been absolutely "bemused" by the outfits the lads wore on stage. Nod's mirrored hat, everyone would've expected him to be in a flat cap!

It was very interesting for me to read that perspective, being a kid from the country, I just assumed that the Oz Kids in the city must have known about Slade and the Glam thing?

Slade's first tour of Oz began 23 January 1973 when they left the UK for the long journey. It was a big old world back then and the band reported on it in their April/May newsletter;

"In Sydney it rained and everything was a washout ... the audience soaked to the skin enjoyed every minute of it. The same wet Sydney weekend Melbourne was both thirsty for rain and entertainment but a week later the black clouds appeared over Melbourne, there was a crack of thunder and down poured the rain. Everyone was convinced that Slade's appearance would have to be called off. Over 25,000 Melbournites stood for six hours in the pouring rain and waited for Slade. And when they appeared the crowd went beserk ..."

I am certain this is the gig filmed for GTK - hence Nod thanking everyone for "waiting in the rain". It could also be the Melbourne Showgrounds (which makes sense since GTK was shot out of ABC Melbourne). GTK stands for Get To Know (I only found out myself a couple of years ago).

The are two versions of the Slade in Oz footage, one complete (approx 8.5 mins), and one incomplete (approx 4.2 mins). Considering GTK in the 1970's, went to air between ABC TV's long running soap Bellbird, which was broadcast at 6.30pm, and the ABC Nightly News at 7pm. I reckon the 8.5 minute segment was the full GTK episode minus opening and closing credits.

The incomplete version is A1 digital broadcast quality black & white footage of the Get Down & Get With It performance taken from the GTK episode in question, and broadcast as Get Down & Get With It on ABC TV's Saturday overnight music show Rage.

RAGE is often programmed by "guest programmers" - usually touring overseas bands who go into the studio and introduce their fave songs and clips. I remember the night this went to air, the show was programmed by the Dirty Three. Warren Ellis (the Dirty Three violinist) introduced Get Down & Get With It as...

"...the record that got my Dad away from the record player ..."

...and added that...

"I've never seen this particular clip before."

I'm guessing has happened is that even though RAGE has played the black and white video of Get Down & Get With It where the boys get around in the big convertible car, and go climbing up the silo's, etc. the people at Rage extracted Get Down & Get With It from the GTK episode and screened it as a video.

The other version, which I believe is the full episode of GTK, is poorer quality and contains the Get Down & Get With It , plus interviews with people in the crowd, a gold record presentation (filmed I think, at the airport), a snippet of Hear Me Calling, and finishes with the band performing Mama Weer All Crazee Now at which point the stage is invade and the group are swamped with dancers.

During the encore, Mama Weer All Crazee Now...

...there is a stage invasion and the stage fills....

...but incredibly the band just keep on playing!

The audio is dubbed, and Get Down & Get With It begins mid way through the song when Nod's urging everyone to "get your boots on". You do hear Nod thanking the crowd for waiting in the rain and also urging them to feel up the girls during a "romantic number" which I assume is the live prelude to Darlin' Be home Soon. Nod's talking to the crowd is definitely live, and I can only assume that GTK substituted the live songs with recorded versions because the audio on the day wasn't good enough for broadcast, I am speculating though?

This footage though is definitely not filmed at Sunbury. It's even captioned...

"Slade live in Sydney"

However, during the middle of the full length footage, the film cuts to another location for about 10 seconds where there's approx 10 hippies standing around, and a caption comes up;

"Meanwhile ... at Sunbury"

It then reverts back to Slade playing. I've taken this as a tongue in cheek thing where the GTK producers are basically saying, 'here's Slade rocking out big time, or you could go to the Sunbury Festival' (which is just out of Melbourne). It's a parochial thing that only people from Sydney or Melbourne are likely to get. The bottom line is that this is where I think the confusion has come with the BBC crediting the footage as 'Slade at Sunbury'.

I'm certain Slade never appeared at Sunbury. It just did not happen!

This is all I can tell you about this footage, and you can judge for yourself with both versions of this footage."

Steve Cross
Australia

Many thanks to SteveClassic for supplying the info and media for this post. Now if we can just get you to pop down to the Sydney News Archives?

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Duck on Last FM recalls the night that the RAGE edit was broadcast:

"On the 19th August 2006 Dirty Three were the guests that programmed RAGE. RAGE is a late night Australian TV show which invites bands or artists to pick their favourite music videos or just songs or video clips. It broadcasts on ABC TV during the night time hours.

At this time it was Dirty Three’s last full Aussie tour for the new album Cinder which was now a year old. Warren Ellis has joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and started a new band with called Nick CaveGrinderman. Jim White is playing for Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Beth Orton and Nina Nastasia so he’s a drummer for hire. Mick Turner has been the quietest but has had solo albums and painting exhibitions. Dirty Three have played together a few times but these shows are getting less and less. Since this tour they have done Chinese tour, curated the ATP festival in England and played festival shows in France, Spain, Australia and the last one being The End of the Road festival in England. The Dirty Three DVD which came out in 2007 and it’s the closest thing to a new album and a good music documentary and live show. Anyway here what Dirty Three picked that night -

• Nina Simone - Revolution
• Erykah Badu - Tyrone
• Ol' Dirty Bastard - I Got Your Money
• Cat Power - Living Proof
• Deerhoof - Wrong Time Capsule
• Art of Fighting - Reasons Are All I Have Left
• Joanna Newsom - Sprout And The Bean
• Art of Fighting - The Unappreciate
• Smog - I Feel Like The Mother Of The World
• Joel Silbersher - Through the manoeuvres
• Tendrils - Soaking Red
• Joel Silbersher - Flappin' On A Hook
• Russell Morris - Sweet Sweet Love
• Robert Forster - Baby Stones
• Palace Brothers - Ohio River Boat Song
• Crow - Railhead
• Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin'
• Them - Baby Please Don't Go
• Canned Heat - On The Road Again
• Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Ice Cream for Crow
• Beasts of Bourbon - Words from a Woman to Her Man
• Ed Kuepper - The Way I Made You Feel
• Dave Graney with the White Buffaloes - Robert Ford On The Stage
• Dragon - Get That Jive
• Slade - Get Down & Get With It
• Rose Tattoo - Rock & Roll Outlaw
• God - My Pal
• The Saints - Run Down
• Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the U.K.
• The Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet
• The Stooges - Loose
• Laughing Clowns - Holy Joe
• The Reels - Bad Moon Rising
• Jimmy Cliff - Reggae Night
• Bob Dylan - Things Have Changed
• The Who - Can't Explain
• The Birthday Party - Release the Bats
• Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch

RAGE then played all of the Dirty Three music videos and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds videos followed."

Duck, 32, Australia