Slade: April 2006

Slade in Bremen, 1984 (c) Wilfried Mende

Slade in Bremen, take 2 (c) Wilfried Mende

Fooling around (c) Wilfried Mende

Slade outdoors in Bremen (c) Wilfried Mende

Nod (c) Wilfried Mende

Jim (c) Wilfried Mende

Slade in Bremen, 1984

Wilfried Mende, former president of the German Slade fan club, recently sent me some great pics that he took on April 5, 1984 in German town Bremen. Slade was there to perform Run Runaway on German television. Thanks a lot, Wilf! Truly wonderful photos!!

Dave in San Francisco, 1975

Don

Noddy

Jim

Live in San Francisco 1975

During 1975-1976 Slade lived and worked in the USA. They toured a lot over there and one of their concerts, namely one in Winterland Arena, San Francisco, 1975, was taped. I've had the good fortune of seeing a copy of that tape.
The concert runs for 60 minutes and the set list is:
Them Kinda Monkeys Can't Swing
The Bangin' Man
Gudbuy T'Jane
Thanks For The Memory
How Does It Feel?
Just A Little Bit
Let The Good Times Roll/Feel So Good
Get Down And Get With It
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Although the footage is b/w, it's a wonderful documentation of Slade's performances in the States. I especially enjoyed seeing the boyz do songs that you normally don't see, that is, tunes that weren't big hits such as Just A Little Bit and Let The Good Times Roll/Feel So Good. The guys really give their all on stage, Dave and especially Jim even drowning out Nod's voice in the choruses. Other favourites of mine are How Does It Feel?, Them Kinda Monkeys Can't Swing and Thanks For The Memory.
During Thanks For The Memory Jim does a simple but extremely elegant piano solo, toying with the notes of the song. Unfortunately Dave's solo at the end of Just A Little Bit is not as elegant, but turns into a rather tedious three minutes long wannabe psychedelic affair. Luckily Jim is back with another great solo, this time on bass during Let The Good Times Roll/Feel So Fine. Man, can he play that bass fast and he even sneaks in some of Rossini's William Tell Overture. Great interaction with Don on the drums as well. To me this is the absolute highlight of the whole concert.
The boyz get an okay response on most songs, but I think that Slade had the audience puzzled. Their music comes across very hard, but their stage present is still a glam one, Noddy even sporting the mirrored top hat. Somehow it doesn't add up when seeing it with American eyes. So the American audience is not all together receptive to Slade's music, some of them even booing and throwing things at the band. And the crowd is definitely not amused when it comes to the audience participation during Get Down, so of course Nod viciously goes all the way, seemingly delighted by the whole thing.
By the end of the concert the booing increases and you can actually hear Jim say, "Go have a shit while we're on," before Nod comments on the booing and then launches into Mama. With audience participation!
This footage is truly a little gem and I'm so glad that I got to see it. Thanks a lot, Don!

Slade on RTL television

Don

Dave - on his birthday

John and Mal

The show's over

Look Out! Confetti!

Don and John behind Sally Carr (Middle of The Road) and show host Oliver Geisser

Slade on German RTL television

On April 12th Slade participated in "Die ultimative Chart Show" on RTL. The show listed the 50 most successful songs in German TV commercials. Slade made it to No. 2 with "Far Far Away" for a C & A commercial, only beaten by Sam Cooke with "Wonderful World" for a Levi's commercial.
Slade appeared live in the studio with "Far Far Away" and it was great seeing them on stage.
Besides playing "Far Far Away" you could also spot the guys at the end of the show where all artists were on stage along with the show hosts. Furthermore there was a short intro to the song where different German celebrities commented on the song and clips from the original promo-video with Noddy and Jim were seen.
The show was taped on Dave's birthday, April 4. Four days before the show was aired Monika Kahle from Pop Rock News talked to Dave about doing "Far Far Away" for the show on his birthday. You can watch a clip from that on You Tube .
Dave also talked to Monika about working with Slade with 40 years. You can see a clip of that here.
Finally Don made some promotion for his upcoming interview on RMN Radio.

Nod on Friday People, BBC

Jim twenty years ago

Dave on the lean years

Get a shave, Don!

Twenty years ago on BBC

At the moment Slade is celebrated their 40th anniversary. That is, these days it seems that only the fans are celebrating. But 20 years ago at the 20th anniversary the band itself celebrated as well.
Back then the BBC had a programme called Friday People which did a 3 minutes piece about an anniversary party for Slade. Here reporter Jan Ravens interviewed the guys. Noddy told that when the band started out it was a lot more fun than nowadays when it's all down to money. He also talked about Poland & bog rolls and about MXE.
Jim said that when they started out they had to have gigs and become good before getting a record contract. Today the contract comes first, so when young kids are having hit records they don't know what to do when they're thrown on stage, because they've never faced an audience before. He also talked about glam rock and Dave's clothes.
Dave on the other hand told about the lean years of the band, and Don…well, Don didn't say a thing, but he really needed a shave!!
Mike Read and Anne Nightingale were also interviewed and a clip of Mama Weer All Crazee Now from Top of The Pops, 1972, was shown.
Happy anniversary, all!