NO PLACE FOR THE FAINT HEARTED

 

SLADE/ CITY HALL, SHEFFIELD 12/06/1973

 

If you wanted to get down and get with it, Sheffield's City Hall was the place to be last night. It was no place for the faint hearted coz Slade - yer actual working class band - were there to tak it all bak 'ome.

They said 'gudbuy t' Jane and let the good times roll'. Boy, you couldn't half feel the noize as Noddy and Co skweezed everything into a real crazee performance to pleeze the fans. Friend Stan would have been proud.

 

Since Slade let their hair down and outgrew the skinhead stomping they've been outrageously successful with a string of top five singles hits plus album best sellers, of course.

Critics who slated their brand of rock have been left standing as the lads from Wolverhampton have becum one of the hottest properties around.

Much is due to the colourful Mr. Neville Holder known to all and sundry as Noddy. Apart from co-writing all the hits along with bassist Jim Lea, he's also the voice of Slade, grinding out the lyrics in a rasp that sounds like Marc Bolan being gobbled up by his own guitar.

Between numbers he growls at the audience in the same tone and it's a wonder his tonsils aren't in shreds by the end of the night, but he keeps up a blistering pace and comes over as a genuinely funny character.

Support band Beckett are worth a mention. They weren't just tolerated as a warm up for things to come. this North east band have a great talent in singer guitarist Kenny Mountain who penned much of the material on their promising Raft album.

 

 

KS, SHEFFIELD STAR 13/06/1973

Original article sourced by and courtesy of Andy Walton, Slade In England Yorkshire operative