SLADE

Slade started out as The N'Betweens in 1966.
They changed their name to Ambrose Slade, 
but later shortened it to just Slade. 
As The N'Betweens, they wore suits and 
followed the style of most pop/rock 
bands of the time. They cut their 
hair short to look like skinheads. Chas
 Chandler, ex-bassest for  The Animals and
 manager for Jimi Hendrix, took them
under his wing. His vision was to run
 their career like the Beatles. Give them 
an image, get a couple of hit singles
  and make a movie. They did
 get the hit singles, in England mostly,
 but the movie, "FLAME", didn't
 help their career. They continued
 on with the four original members
 until Noddy Holder and Jimmy
 Lea retired. Noddy continued on
as a radio disc jockey and TV personality. 
Dave Hill and Don Powell continued on 
as Slade with new members.
Slade - (a history)
My friends and I  saw Slade perform at 
Winterland in San Francisco twice in 1973. 
You can see our photos and read our 
memoirs at - Brit Rock By The Bay
My friend, Dan Cuny, took this photo the 
first time we saw Slade and framed it.
He brought it with him the next time to 
have the band autograph it. After waiting a while 
outside Winterland, he spotted one of the 
roadies and asked him to give it to the 
band to autograph, which he did. When he 
brought it back out we enjoyed what had 
been scribbled on the frame, but we couldn't
figure out the one on the right. The band finally 
did appear and Dan asked Noddy Holder
what the drawing on the right was. He 
replied, "It's a dog pissing on a tree."
This is me in Dan's bedroom playing 
a ukulele. He decorated his wall with 
rock posters and a Slade flag.
Early promo photos when they 
were The N'Betweens.
Their short lived period
as skinheads.  It wasn't a popular
look for them and even scared people.
The article below is from,
"The British Beat 1960-1969"
By Terry Rawlings,
© Omnibus Press 2002
 This great blog gives a detailed
history of The N'Betweens

The article below is 
from the "Illustrated
Encyclopedia of Rock."
By Mike Clifford.
© Harmony Books 1986.
An early article from "Beat
Instrumental", 9/71. They were being 
promoted as a "New Wave" of 
rock musicians and stated that the 
Beatles were "old men now". 
"Slade Alive!" was a break through
for the band. It captured the excitement
of them on stage and their raunchy sound.
 They prided themselves
at being straight forward rock
with no gimmicks. 
Others would disagree.
A very positive and rather colorful review.
The words "glitter rock" were not used
here, but instead, "Tough-Glam."
A detailed history of the band
and how Dave Hill came up
with the glitter look.
Slade were receiving the attention
they desired with girls tossing their knickers
and bras on stage. They were accused of
copying Bowie and Bolan, but denied
it since they had never heard of either when 
Dave Hill adorned glitter on his face and 
created his space-age glitter suit. Chas 
Chandler dumps on Bowie and Hill 
explains what "Super Yob" means. 
(The writer got it wrong and 
called it "Super Hob").
Since the break up of the
 Beatles, the rock world seemed 
to be searching for a look.
Dave Hill created a big splash with 
his glitter and space-age suit.
It influenced many others, but
 it didn't last long and never caught 
on in the USA. 
Tragedy struck the band shortly
after I saw them play in SF. Don
Powell was nearly killed in an auto 
accident. Jim Lea's brother filled
in while he recovered. 
This article is about 
their US tour
and was published
two weeks after I saw
them for the second time
 at Winterland in SF. 
Don Powell was back,  
but still had difficulty
remembering his 
drum parts.
They had a big hit with, 
"Merry Xmas Everybody."
Jim Lea talks about the 
difficulty of breaking through 
in the US. "The radio DJs
won't play our music."
"Stomp your hands, and 
clap your feet" received 
mixed reviews. 
Their upcoming movie, 
"Flame" is announced. 
They discuss their future
and the movie, "Flame",
which was soon  
to be released. 
"Flame" is released. 
Die hard Slade fans flocked
to see the movie, but it did 
poorly in the US. Their heavy 
accents were hard for Yanks
to understand. Some theaters
even added sub-titles. 
Slade continued to record good songs
and draw large crowds. 
A personal favorite of mine from 1976 - 

Here are some of the 
albums which make up 
the Slade story

10 comments:

  1. Another great page Dave, I haven't read it yet, just skimmed it but some nice photos and mag snags. You put the work in. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dave Kemp, Huntingdon, UK

    Great to see this stuff in the UK. Haven't seen many of the articles before - excellent stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just found this blog, I agree with Mickey and Dave, excellent post, thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I come back here often and can't help being launched again into the roaring 70s as I call them with Noddy Holder and Slade and all the fun parties we had in Australia with their music.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey, who are these egg-spammers here ??!! Get lost why dontcha !!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Disclaimer: Sorry if this is too much info for you...I wasn't even going to include it in the blog, but what the heck - we're friends and family :-)
    gtavapk.best

    ReplyDelete