Slade

Odds and sods about the British rock band Slade

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Nobody's Fools cover

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Nobody’s Fools

The last of Union Square Music’s February re-issues is ”Nobody’s Fools”. This album was originally recorded while Slade was staying in America and that shows in both music and lyrics.
The album has 4 bonus tracks: the 1975-single ”Thanks For The Memory”, which made it to no. 7 in the British charts and also happens to be one of my favourite Slade-songs, and then the B-sides ”Raining In My Champagne”, ”Can You Just Imagine” and ”When The Chips Are Down”. All 3 can be found on the new B-sides album as well.
The booklet included has some more or less well-known pics of the guys as well as Chris Ingham track-by-track account of the album. As with the other 2 releases (Flame and the B-sides) Ingham’s writings are pretty informative although he sometimes ought to take a closer look at who is playing what on the recording.
Nice album, though, and as Ingham says, Don’s all-time favourite, and with the always perfect remastering of Tim Turan it’s a pleasure to listen to.

Slade in Flame cover

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Slade in Flame

The soundtrack album ”Slade is Flame” is now out, thanks to the good people of Union Square Music. The album consists of the same 10 songs as the original, no bonus tracks this time – probably because this is a soundtrack album. It would have been nice to have had the ”Roy Priest” alternate lyrics-version of ”This Girl” on the CD as a bonus, but you can’t have it all. The tracks are as always superbly remastered by Tim Turan.
The CD comes with a 12-pages booklet illustrated mostly by the movie-stills from the original LP inner sleeve. Also it includes a track by track account from Chris Ingham, and despite minor slips it is pretty informative and includes his personal interpretations of the lyrics.
The whole package is very attractive and as this album has always been a fan-favourite I’m sure it’ll be received well with the wonderful new sound and all.

Friday, February 23, 2007

B-sides cover

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B-sides track list

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B-sides booklet

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B-sides

Union Square Music has now released the Slade ”B-sides”. This delightful double CD contains almost all of the band’s B-sides from their days as Ambrose Slade in 1969 to the end of the original band in 1991. The tracks are in chronological order and thus the 40 tracks take you on a journey not only through time but also through the development of the band and of their more unfamiliar songs.
Slade was one of those very rare bands were their B-sides were more or less as good as their A-sides. Most of them have never surfaced on CD before, only on the old singles, wherefore these songs are unknown to most. As Slade normally kept their singles-material and their album-material apart, most of the B-sides weren’t even to be found on their old vinyl albums.
The B-sides double CD contains a lot of fantastic songs. The early “One Way Hotel” and “C’mon C’mon” are worth a listen as they differ from more well-known versions. You’ll also find the swing-version of “My Oh My” and the instrumental version of “You Boyz Make Big Noize” as well as songs with respectively Powell- and Hill-credits. The Hill/Holder-penned “Do You Want Me” and the Lea/Powell-penned “Wonderin’ Y” are especially good. On a personal level I’m very pleased with this double CD as all my favourite B-sides are there, among them “My Life Is Natural”, “Don’t Talk To Me About Love” and my all-time favourite “Kill ‘Em At The Hot Club Tonite”. But no matter what kind of “Slade-music” you prefer you’ll be pleased with this collection. As usual the tracks are beautifully remastered by Tim Turan.
The packaging is also very nice including a 20 pages booklet where Chris Ingham, composer, producer, jazz pianist and writer, comments on the 2 CDs track by track. Here you get info on A-sides, labels and year of release as well as finer details on the music and interpretations of the lyrics.
Well done Slade and USM. This collection is what loads of fans have been wanting for years!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Sound check in Aarhus

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Don on stage

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Full line up

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Mr. Sensitive?

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Fun was had by all!

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Dave laughing

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John and Don

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Coz I luv you?

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Mal pouting

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More pouting

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Don and Mal

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Hail!

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Yeah!

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Dave and Don

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Superyob Dave

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Bums up!

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Watch out! Band at work!

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John

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Tim disguised

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Don noticing

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