Slade

Odds and sods about the British rock band Slade

Friday, April 21, 2006

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!

2 Comments:

At 1:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

would love to see this!! heard 'thanks for the memory' on the forum and it was brilliant to hear it live, do you reckon this will ever come out on video/dvd lise? Still enjoy the great blog you got going here, and always look forward to the photos!!dee ps have to go on as anon as dont accept my password, dunno why.

 
At 11:47 PM, Blogger Lise Lyng Falkenberg said...

Hi Dee,
I recognize you anyway! The quality of the video is rather poor, so I don't think it'll get released officially. Too bad!!

 

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