These Boyz Make Big Noize! Slade are back. Still playing it LOUD and proud. Only Dave Hill remains from the original band but they are still a great night out and lotz of fun. The memories come flooding back from seeing them at Sunderland Locarno in 1971 and 1972, the Lincoln Festival 1972 when they turned round a hippie/hairy crowd who saw them as pop chart artists and who started by booing them and then proceeded to get really into them and ended up singing, dancing and clapping along. That day was a triumph for Slade.
Then a concert at Newcastle City Hall around 1974 when they were at the height of their fame, lots of Noddy Holder top hats and screaming girls, followed by a Whatever Happened to Slade concert at the City Hall where shock horror Dave Hill appeared with a bald head and massive earrings. Next an appearance at Middlesbrough Rock Garden, filled with skinhead fans who went crazy and the band were somewhat down on their luck, followed by an iconic appearance at the Reading Festival where they replaced Ozzy Osbourne at short notice and once again triumphed with the rock crowd, resulting in them becoming heavy rock heroes for several years.
And finally some concerts again at the City Hall and Sunderland Polytechnic. Happy days. Throughout these years they were always a fantastic live act, very loud and much more of a rock band than you would expect. You had to see them to believe it. They were literally one of the best live acts I ever had the pleasure of witnessing.
The concert was opened with support act Sons of the Seventies, who played covers of Rocky songs from that era including T Rex’s “20th-Century Boy”, Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” and songs by Rainbow, Led Zeppelin and Whitesnake. Some of these songs were not strictly from the 70s but who cares, they did a good job of covering them and warmed the crowd up for the main act. Great hair, guys, by the way.
After a short interval during which I purchased a lovely red Slade Alive T-shirt which features the logo from the album of the same name which I bought when it was released in 1972 and played it again and again. It contains the live stage show of Slade in 1971/72 which included a lot of covers like opening song Ten Years After’s “I Hear You Calling”, the Loving Spoonful’s “Darling Be Home Soon” and the closer for which they turned the volume up to 11 Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild”. Magic. If you haven’t yet heard the album I fully recommend it to you.
The current line – up of Slade is quite different to the last time I saw them. As well as the concerts I have mentioned above, I have also seen the new line – up of Slade a few times, including a show for the fan club at London’s KOKO nightclub. Each time they have been great but tonight was a revelation. This time the frontline consists of Dave Hill centrestage, standing aloft on a speaker cabinet, flanked on either side by bass guitarist/violinist to his left and keyboard player to his right.
All three of them sing together and along with Dave’s guitar cranked right up to as LOUD as possible they recreate the sound of the original band. They were absolutely deafening and delivered many of the hits from throughout the band’s career. They finished of course with “Merry Christmas Everybody” complete with Santa hats. Fantastic. Elaine, Jan and I all really enjoyed it. This was the best time I have seen them for many years. Of course it is not the original line – up, but Dave Hill and the boys do a great job.
Many thanks to Elaine for the photos and Chris for helping me load this on to the site.
Setlist: Take Me Bak ‘Ome; Lock Up Your Daughters; Look Wot You Dun; Everyday; Coz I Luv You; Run Runaway; My Friend Stan; Far Far Away; The Bangin’ Man; My Baby Left Me; Gudbuy T’Jane; Mama Weer All Crazee Now.
Encore: My Oh My; Cum On Feel the Noize; Merry Xmas Everybody.
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