The Hair Raising Saga Of Slade

 

THE continuing saga of Slade would appear to be a case of changing horses in midstream. Originally this pack of Wolverhampton Wanderers were covered in hair and known as Ambrose Slade, a name under which they made a couple of obscure albums and singles for Fontana.

Then around the beginning Of 1970, they were denuded of their locks, and their psychedelic apparel replaced by Ben Sherman shirts, denims and bovver boots. Redubbed SLADE and launched with a hard aggressive record called "The Shape Of Things To Come."

Accompanying the record was a handout, which I recently found amongst a bunch Of old copies of Playboy, a dried up cheese sandwich and subscription to Curious. It read ...."This is the Wolverhampton group who first hit the headlines because they realised that long hair had become a lie (oh really), some months later John Winston Lennon reached the same conclusion with the same result.

Slade are symbolic of a new generation who are looking for their own identities in much the same manner as the mods of yesteryear who found the WHO were wearing their clothes and singing their song - "My Generation." Soon Slade were to be known as the bovver boys of pop, but though they projected this hardcase skinhead imagery their music wasn't reggae but heavy rock.

After a while one realised that the group's shiny pates weren't showing through their prickly coiffures. In fact freshly grown locks were hanging over their collars and ears, they had turned full cycle allowing things to die a natural death,- they recharged their energies and hit back with a group adaptation of an old Little Richard rocker, "Get Down And Get With it" which has nudged its way into the NME chart this week. (#28)

Comprising: Noddy Holder (guitar and vocals), Jim Lea (bass, violin and guitar), Dave Hill (lead guitar and saxophone) and Don Powell (drums), Slade have had to contend with a lot of questionable publicity which has nothing at all to do with music or reality, to their credit they have made the first step to overcome it.