Slade Quittin' Bak 'Ome

Record & Radio Mirror, April 27th, 1974

WE'RE LEAVIN'OME

Up untill now those 'down to earth' boys in Slade have resisted the temptation to leave their stomping ground in Wolverhampton. But now they've succumbed and Noddy Holder explains to John Beattie why they've made the decision. 

The lads themselves aren't exactly the prettiest band in the world. In fact I'd envisage meeting their Rind in a working men's club or something rather than in the plush surroundings of a London hotel. 

However, it's Slade we.'re talkin' about and the way these guys are makin' it, they might well be taking up residence in Buckingham Palace sooner or later.

But to discard fantasy for a moment and think about reality, Noddy and Co. are seriously thinking about building themselves a second home in London and leaving their "multi-racial" homeland up in the grassy Midland town of Wolverhampton.

"Well., it's like this. ya see," says Noddy deciding to be the main spokesman 'on this particular issue. "We're in and out of the airport down here so much that it's a waste of time havin' to keep on travellin' up and down the M1 every time."

"We've got to find some place down 'ere to live 'cause after all, London is the most central place for international travel and we really don't like spendin' our time on the motorways when we're 'ere in England."

"It's not as if we'll be deserting Wolverhampton for good," says Noddy, "we'll still go back 'ome when we're here for a while. Take just now for instance. A month off in between tours and we're down in London most of the time for interviews and recording sessions. It's silly if we don't have a base here."

Dave Hill seemed less enthusiastic about the idea because he obviously enjoys the seclusion his hometown offers.

"Nobody's in the business up there and so we don't get anyone talkin' much about it. The only thing I've had is, "what is it like on the tele," or somethin' like that."

"In London though, your in the scene and meeting people in the business all the time. I like this town to have a look at and then buzz off back home really."

Slade are spending more of their time abroad and when their current British tour is over, it'll be back on the jet set trail across the Atlantic and more tours of the States.

One can justify the reasons why the band have to spend more time abroad and why they only do one tour a year in their homeland. They have attained an international status and even the individuals in Slade can foresee world - shattering records being broken.

"Ya know the Beatles had about 25 hits and the stones had around 20 in ten years, we've already had 11 in two years," says Jimmy Lea trying extremely hard not to come over in an egotistical fashion. "It's just that we're havin' them at more than twice the rate. The Beatles only had four number ones and we've had three and we're still very much into getting the top position each time we release something. "

Everyday, Slade's latest single surprised a lot of people with its difference in style compared with previous efforts but Jimmy believes the "change" came months ago with My Friend Stan and the Xmas single.

"They've all been completely different from what we have put down before. Some say Everyday is very Lennon-ish but I don't see how anybody can say we've ripped off anyone any more 'cause there's so many people who have ripped us off now."

Must be the change of air and travel, which has caused this dramatic change then? "Na, it's the constant change of food, it makes you shit."

Noddy: "The amazin' thing about it is that when we were playin' years ago, people compared me to Lennon and now it's just a constant tag. I think I'm much rawer than Lennon, more like Little Richard if anyone!"

Slade didn't expect Everyday to do the usual jump to number one because the song' was taken from the Borrowed and Blue album which had already sold thousands of copies beforehand, "we've never released a single this way before," adds Noddy tactfully.

The conversation somehow slithered back to the Skinhead era and the buzz the band got out of playing, then as opposed to the somewhat routine performances of today ..

I mean have you ever been confronted by a mean-looking Skinhead? Like the time when one Ted approached me and was particularly interested to find out if I could sew at all as he brandished a knife in his hand.

The Skins were a hard mob but Slade had the guts to identify themselves with them to a certain extent, which seemed to collapse once the hits started coming.

"Yea, maybe we lost some," adds Noddy looking interested, "the music did get basic because it was a hellava lot more complicated before the hits. There's two sides to it though - look at the number of fans we've gained through having the hits.”

"Doin' the Isle of Arran every Bank Holiday was fun," recalls Dave, "all that queuing up waiting for the ferry back to the mainland and then pukin' up over the side after a night on the booze. " 

The image was effective," we'd get a blue head every time at the barbers_ all the festers in ye"re head used ta show up. Matter of fact, we looked so terrifying, we frightened each other!" 

"Gawd, we never got any chicks for about six months, nobody would come near us, they were petrified and it got so bad we couldn't get work in the end."

"I collected the cash though," adds Dave, "the promoters would give us the money before the gig 'cause they were really shit-scared of us."

"Just imagine," says Noddy, "you surely must have read about the Skins puttin' in shops and kickin' old women in the streets, people booked us without knowing what we looked like and they froze . . .” 

Jimmy said that his mates thought it was all a laugh at the time, "me parents didn't though. They would have liked me to get a haircut when I came home with a blue head they were sayin', 'grow ye're 'air son, grow. ye're 'air!'

"We stayed in this hotel in Glasgow and the landlady was frightened because she thought we were gonna beat her up. We all experienced the Sgt. Major trip where some big Scotsman would say, 'rite lads, ya can stay the nights but na birds, OK?"

"There was no chance of that anyway," adds Jimmy laughing, "remember the hot water bottles in the bed and this tankin' great Scotsman wakin' us up in the morning at 7 am, 'rite lads, breakfast,' it was good food mind ya."

"There definitely is a bit of Scottish in us," adds Noddy adjusting his shades, "it was the first area we really broke.”

"I had this wallet and the first time I ever went to Scotland I brought home £25 and it was the most money I 'd ever seen in one lump sum - Christ, we even ended up with 150 quid in the wallet."

"They were some of the funniest and most nostalgic days... you'd look in the mirror and think, "bloody hell, what have I done" and then you'd meet the chicks in braces and boots - hardly very attractive."

"Yea, the chick scene got very mixed up," says Dave despondently, "birds lookin' like blokes . . . ugh." 

John Beatty & The Boys

OK, so the Scottish bit still exists but the Electric Gardens, Arran and honkin' up in the back of van days are far away now. The Slade machine has run smoothly and each single has been an expression of the band's mood at the time - with the exception of Merry Christmas Everybody. 

"That one had 250,000 advance orders, " says Jimmy recalling the time, "we were in the States and we were really goin' up the wall with pleasure 'cause it was well after Christmas and it was still there.”

"Blimey, it was cold in New York and it was snowin' and people were stuck in their houses”, adds Dave, "we were number one though and we were alright." 

Despite its success, the band feel that there won't be arty more records like Merry Christmas - "no seasonal stuff of any sort," they say. "No, never again," adds Jimmy backing up the comment, "that song was written and it just happened to be around at Christmas there’s no way you can get round that single, it'll probably come up every Christmas now." 

"The nearer it got to the 25th the better it sounded but we didn't know what we were gettin' ourselves in for when we first had the idea for the song in Los Angeles in late summer. We put it down in New York and it just came I out without realising it ourselves."

So what sort of music will we have ·to or want to hear from Slade in the future' then?

"Oh, we'll be in the studio rattlin' off brain music," says Noddy, "maybe more slower things along the line of Everyday - we'll change as we feel - the progression term is rubbish.“

John Beattie

In the same issue Peter Harvey speaks to Graham Nash (formerly of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) who gives an insight into how Slade were perceived by many serious muso’s at the time.

"...in the past England was a frontrunner of rock 'n' roll. After Bill Haley there was the Beatles and all the trip, but that ain't happening now." 

We talked about Slade and glitter music, which prompts him to recall that he once wore a bearskin when he was with the Hollies. But things were different then, he decides.  

"It seems to me there's not a lot of musical content in what's going down in the music industry here. There's more emphasis on visuals and theatrics. I'm trying to find out if it's music or theatre. And what's this stuff I've been reading about drag stuff in pubs in the East End? When I was a kid if you went into a pub and your hair was a little long they'd throw you out and say 'queer' and shit like that. People are dressing up in dresses in pubs and getting away with it? Amazing! The two don't mix. "  

So we've got debauchery and decadence in the pubs and Graham wants to know if Slade are part of that.  

"I saw them on television and I can't even listen to their music. I can't think that anyone that looks like that can play good music. It seems to me that their music lacks so they need to balance it up by looking ridiculous."  

Anyone who's heard Wild Tales will know Nash is into tunes as well as words...

It seems to me that an 'across the board' judgement like that is somewhat akin to saying 'white people can't dance' or 'girls can't drive'.... If you can't listen to their music, you ain't in a position to make a judgement!

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I Left My Heart In Scotland

DISC, December 16th, 1972

Don Powell... Plays like King Kong
AN AMERICAN VIEW OF SLADE FROM LILIAN ROXON IN GLASGOW

TONY BENNETT may have left his heart in San Fnancisco, but I left mine in Scotland last week. Glasgow,for instance, has had so much bad publicity over the years, especially lately, that I honestly entered it fearing for my life.

Instead, I found it a warm, friendly town filled with the nicest people I have met in years. Why is it no one ever thinks to mention that? Let me start at the beginning. As pop columnist for the New York Sunday News (which at 5 million has the biggest readership of any paper in the US) I had the opportunity a few months ago to pass an opinion on a new album called "Slade Alive." I heard those opening three notes and I knew immediately what it was going to be - album of the year. 

I loved it and also loved the band when they came here for their short tour. American audiences also loved them, but not quite enough, the boys grumbled. One or two, for instance, didn't stamp along every single moment and occasionally their were some people actually sitting down! "If you saw us at home you'd know what we meant," the boys explained, which is how I came to see them not just in England where I know they are very popular, but in Scotland where they are downright royalty.

I deliberately chose the Glasgow and Edinburgh gigs over Liverpool and Brighton and others for several reasons. One, I'd never been to Scotland and I wanted to see it. I was once engaged to a Scotsman and I wondered if there were any more like him up there. Two, I wanted to see Slade at their absolute best and I had a hunch, totally justified later,  that their love affair with Scotland was one of the romances of the century. Three, I wanted to check out for myself the recent reports that the Scots audiences are made up of ill-mannered louts and dangerous roughnecks. So, here's what I discovered - one, there are more at home like him. Two, Slade were fantastic. Three, Scots audiences are rowdy and exuberant and very demanding but they are lovely. In my whole life I have never felt such electricity and excitement in a room or such total audience involvement. No one works harder than Slade at any time, but in Scotland they apparently always outdo themselves and for good reason - because the audience works hard for them.

For Slade, it's a dream audience, always giving as good as it's getting, matching every one of Noddy's impertinences with an impertinence all of it's own. At one stage in the evening of the Glasgow show I was so knocked out by the vibes and the energy that the audience were giving out that I found myself close to tears. The performance? Well you don't need me to tell you what Slade does or how well they do it. Everyone in those audiences was up and stamping even before the shows began and they didn't stop till well over the last encore.

Now I know what you've heard about broken seats in Scotland. That's just the Scots having a good time. This is not an angry or bad mannered audience, just a happy one. Besides, to be honest, the seats are so old and shaky that I don't wonder they break easily. I stood up for just one moment and to my great shame and embarrassment there was a loud crack as one of the legs went. (A few days later in Southampton the chairs being newer and more expensive stood up well to being jumped on).

You would not think so, but in good old formal Edinburgh the audience was just a little rowdier than the infamous Glasgow. The bouncers kept trying to get people to sit down. Sit down? At a Slade concert? Noddy was visibly upset. He told them it was all right to stand up as long as they didn't stand on the seats. Even the promoter, Mel Bush, who is a much more gentlemanly version of the promoters I know in the US, agreed people should not be asked to sit down.

One thing that struck me about Scotland generally was the natural beauty of the girls at the concerts. They are not particularly tall but they have perfect, even features, nice smiles and a gorgeous sprinkling of freckles. They were friendly and kind to me and also well informed and intelligent. I loved talking to them, I see so many sleazy groupie scenes in New York that I found it hard to accept that these nice girls were coming round to see the band as friends and were welcomed by the band in the same way.

At the North British Hotel in Glasgow and the Carlton in Edinburgh those cool and collected waiters and desk clerks totally lost their cool at the sight of Slade and had the boys signing autographs non-stop for hours. Outside the Carlton a girl recognised Dave as he was hobbling into the car and rushed up to kiss him. "Aren't you going to kiss the others?" I asked. "I only like him." she said. Dave looked very pleased with himself.

The whole excursion gave me a good opportunity to study Slade as people as well as musicians and entertainers. All four are extremely friendly and know exactly how to handle newspaper people. They treat them like old pals. Dave is the most outwardly sophisticated and confident. Noddy, when thinks no one is looking, always looks sad and worried. I suspect he is the one who feels things most deeply. But when we were all watching TV his comments were the funniest. He definitely should be in movies. Onstage he looks like a marvellous drawing.

Jimmy is such a powerful bass player that I was surprised to find him shy and unspoilt. Don, who in the conventional sense, is the handsomest, is also surprisingly quiet and modest for someone who plays the drums like King Kong. The group even have a good looking road manager, Graham Swinnerton, who could double for Mick Jagger. Come to think of it Chas Chandler, a former teenage idol himself, isn't too bad. I can't see how the Slade crew can fail to win friends in the United States. I think they will be particularly popular with younger audiences who are not afraid to get down and get with it. In fact, I would like to see Slade do a whole bunch of matinees in America for the under-17's who are often not allowed out at night. Just to check out my reflexes and make sure I hadn't been dazzled by Scotland, I took in the Southampton show taking with me a colleague, Tony Scaduto, the American author of "Bob Dylan." He almost fell off his seat, which he was standing on by the way. I kept telling him this was tame besides Scotland, but he had no idea what I was talking about. "Can't you see?" I said. "Some people aren't singing." He still had no idea what I was talking about. "Some people are sitting down." I said. He still looked puzzled. Next time Slade go to Glasgow or Edinburgh they'd better take him with them.

Many thanks to Chris Selby for supplying this one. Lillian Roxon  'Mother Of Rock' (8 February 1932 - 10 August 1973) was a noted Australian journalist and author. In 1959 she moved to New York, becoming the first Australian female overseas correspondent and the first Australian journalist to establish a high profile in America. She became one of the leading lights of the scene centred the New York music club Max's Kansas City, which was frequented by members of the Andy Warhol circle, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, Jim Morrison and many others. One of Roxon's last print articles reported on the landmark New York concerts at Max's Kansas City by Iggy Pop and The Stooges and her final piece, filed in early August, was on rising British glam rock star Marc Bolan.

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