Slade: Bovver Boys Who Grew Their Hair And Got A Hit

 

SLADE, BRITAIN'S first skinhead band — were launched just over a year ago in the true tradition of eye-catching pop publicity. But the implications of their hard-case imagery was so stark, and foreboding, that it quickly resulted in the most unforeseen repercussions.

"Things got to such a point that other bands wouldn't even share the same dressing room with us," a stocky Noddy Holder, his limp tangled hair now fringing his collar, admitted with a chirpy one-of-the-lads grin. "They were really scared of us."

And it appeared as though it wasn't just the groups who were suddenly side-stepping Slade... for with the vested interests of their venues at stake, the nation's bookers and promoters were most reluctant to give this band a gig.

"I suppose I could see why other bands weren't too keen to play with us though," Noddy continued, with an almost apologetic trait. "We used to get a lot of the local bovver boys turning up to our gigs and though they acted just fine with us, they sometimes gave the other bands a hard time. "Those places that did take, what they thought to be a chance on booking us, soon realised that as a band we weren't into that whole agro scene and quickly re-booked us. 'Cause wherever we played we nearly always went down a storm with the crowd."

Up until just over a year ago Slade, or as they were then known Ambrose Slade, were just one of a thousand anonymous groups scratching out an existence in the provinces, Wolverhampton to be exact. Undoubtedly, the hardest task for any unknown group, no matter how good, or bad they might be was to get someone... anyone to take an interest, no matter how small in what they were doing.

Ex-Animal and now manager Chas Chandler took notice. And from then on in he set himself the unenviable self-imposed commission of trying to make as many people as possible aware of this band's existence. A thankless preoccupation, for like, just what the world needs right now is yet another new rock band.

Initially, controversy had to be the password. Following that the band had to rely entirely on its musical abilities. Sure, Arthur Brown may have set himself on fire, Pete Townshend excelled at guitar smashing and Keith Emerson proved himself to be an organ rapist, but primarily it was talent that sustained them following these formative front page grabbing escapades. To this end, in the now shortened name of Slade and their hair, an infamous publicity campaign was perpetrated. Right, people did talk about this menacing mob of spike heads, but the truth was that the activities of the skinhead cult was not only wrecking havoc on the soccer playing fields of England but causing distressed questions to be raised in the House.

Though their press clipping book was full, their date book was empty, it appeared Slade were in fact worse off now that they were known, as opposed to the days when they were just anonymous hairies. There was now only one alternative left, they had to grow their hair once again.

"Well we had to, didn't we," Noddy said rather glumly. "The colleges and universities didn't want to know us and the promoters were still giving us a real hard time. "It's bloody stupid, for just because our hair is now a few inches longer we can get all the gigs we want. The only reason we cut our hair off in the first place was because we wanted to shock everybody. "Well... everyone was beginning to look the same, 'cause the groups were influencing the crowds and we found that the crowd was influencing us. I personally think that it has been the introverted ultra-cool attitude of far too many bands which has caused a general cooling off everywhere. "Me and our mates are just a bunch of ravers. Black Sabbath are the same as us... Black Country Yobbos. We like being like that, we don't care if we are a bunch of yobbos, we are what we are, if ya know what I mean."

From talking to Noddy, and the rest of the ravers, Dave Hill, Don Powell and Jimmy Lee it would appear that their chart entry 'Get Down And Get With It', constitutes their very basic, "You-Jane-Me-Tarzan" philosophy. For as Dave, with hair resembling a Crusader's helmet pointed out unsubtley. "I think people wanna start dancing 'gain. It's still all down to having a good time... we can see it when we're on stage, as soon as we start bashing it out everyone starts leaping about. "Now when it's like that a bloke can get in and pull a bird, take her for a drink and have a good evening, then he'll go away and tell everyone that he had a good time. "People, especially in the North work hard all day and when they go out at night they want to be entertained."

All are in agreement that they have had to battle every step of the way, and just because they've got a chart entry doesn't mean that the struggle is over... it's only just begun.

"It's a bloody long road," Dave moaned, "but it's the only real way of making it."

When I asked Noddy, if growing their hair hadn't taken the sharp edge off their impact, his reply was in the affirmative, but added with a dangerous twinkle of the eye.

"Once we've managed to establish ourselves, we'll shock 'em all again and cut our hair off."