Last week i got a copy of Hit Parader, and their salute to the hard rock heroes of the 1970s. One of the acts profiled were Slade. so if they were new in 2007 (not a heritage act obv), and were doing their usual type stuff, would they end up in the Indie-Rock and Alternative section or the Punk and Metal area??? is there not much difference between them oasis, the kinks and the fratellis or are they total pop (being #1 recording artiste types???)

 

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Slade are without no question a Hard Rock band who wrote unpretentious Pop Anthems. Therefore, they would fit perfectly in the Punk & Metal forum.

 

Wolverhampton based Noddy Holder (although he was born in Walsall) lived over the road from his good friend (Led Zeppelin's) Robert Plant and before either were successful with their respective bands they would help each other's old bands (Noddy's N'Betweens & Robert's Band Of Joy) by being roadies to each other.

 

Slade also headlined the 1980 Reading Festival and were regularly played on Tommy Vance's BBC Radio 1 Friday Night Rock Show.

 

When in the early 1980s they replaced their long time manager Chas Chandler with Sharon Osbourne (yes I know it may seem hard to believe, butonce upon a time she was a highly credible manager of Hard Rock Bands whose other clients included Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, Motorhead, Coal Chamber and The Smashing Pumpkins)

 

It has been said that Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer based their fictional band Spinal Tap, in the film This is Spinal Tap, on Slade. However, the comedians have since confirmed that the band in the film was based on the "tour diaries" of numerous UK "heavy metal" and "glam" bands. The events occurring to Spinal Tap in the film are based on the real exploits of not only Slade but also Deep Purple, Saxon, Led Zeppelin and Ozzy Osbourne.

 

While doing research for the film, Shearer and his fellow writers and cast-mates interviewed a number of 70s Rock stalwarts requesting their greatest "road stories". Slade happily contributed several. One of the film's primary plot-points revolves around Spinal Tap attempting to "break America". Slade spent a great deal of time trying to translate their very British style of entertainment to American audiences with minimal success. The story of Slade's bewildered (and sometimes misguided) tries at U.S. audiences resulted in the film's primary concept; thus, their frequent association with the movie.

 

In fact, at one point in the film, Spinal Tap is listed on a marquee as playing second billing to a Puppet Show. Noddy Holder tells a similar story regarding Slade's "low phase" in his autobiography, "Who's Crazee Now?!".

 

Their influence on Punk & Metal can be found via these quotes:

 

"Slade was certainly our greatest influence; not only in the crafting of rock songs but also as performers. Before Slade, no one really knew $h!t about how to make an audience riot. We really got off on that. There would probably never have been us without them." - Gene Simmons (Kiss)

 

"I spent most of the early 70s listening to Slade Alive thinking to myself, "Wow - this is what I want to do. I want to make that kind of intensity for myself. A couple of years later I was at CBGB's doing my best Noddy Holder." - Joey Ramone (The Ramones)

 

"Slade never compromised. We always had the feeling that they were on our side. I don't know but I think we were right." - Steve Jones (Sex Pistols)

 

"They are a good group. I wanted to join them!" - Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow, Blackmore's Night)

 

"Absolutely. Slade! A band that would never bend over." - Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)

 

"Slade was pretty much the only thing metal about glam rock in the 70s." - Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe)

 

"Whatever happened to bands that rocked liked Slade? Y'know, that no-bull$h!t, f*** you, in your face, we're bad-as-hell-and-we-know-it kind of band?" - David Coverdale (Whitesnake)

 

 

If I had to name one track that is the perfect fusion of Punk & Metal then this is it:

 

Slade - We'll Bring The House Down (1980)

A couple other songs I remember bt Slade are ' Mama Weer All Crazee Now' and 'Run Runaway'....with ' Mama' being covered by Quiet Riot...

tbh i think theyd be derided in the same way busted were....its easy to look back on the past with rose coloured spectacles, but i never regarded them as 'hard rock', none of my m8s who were into hard rock rated slade as hard rock.. they were a glamrock pop group who in my generation wasnt refarded in the same light as deep purple, black sabbath, led zeppelin, hawkwind, golden earring, bad company etc etc etc...

 

slades fanbase was the young 'suedeheads' dressed in 'crombies' , ben sherman shirts, doc martens, sported 'feathered' haircuts. they were chart fodder and were not taken seriously by the 'hard rock fraternity'.

 

i dont think they can be placed in the same catagory at all as the inovative kinks... but slade were good, they were a good contemporary pop group, but as with other pop... disposable.

 

so yes, id liken them more now to busted then oasis, complete with their cheap disposable pop and teenage girl fanbase.

 

they were pure pop, and i was there at the time so :P

Yeah, pop definitely. Has anyone seen that great archive footage of when Dave Hill bought a house next to a girl's school? They were all hanging around outside and he popped his head out the door and they all screamed. Lord knows why - he was never a heart-throb now was he?

Yeah, pop definitely. Has anyone seen that great archive footage of when Dave Hill bought a house next to a girl's school? They were all hanging around outside and he popped his head out the door and they all screamed. Lord knows why - he was never a heart-throb now was he?

 

because he was in a successful pop group...

 

i must add that the 'flavour' of pop back in the early 70's was 'heavy' compared to 'pop' today... watertwat practically re-defined the genre making it a discription for 'manufactured' music.

 

people call busted and mcfly 'rock' or 'boyband'... they are neither, they are/were a good old fashioned 'pop group'.

 

SWEET were more accepted by the rock crowd then slade ever were, indeed they were much more suited to the term 'glam rock' then slade were. but glam rock was just noisy pop, it was never considered real rock.

 

 

Glam rock and leaning far more towards pop/glam rock as opposed to rock/glam rock

 

Much preferred stuff like Geordie (Brian Johnson) and Heavy Metal Kids (Gary Holton) from that genre than I ever did Slade, the heavy side of glam rock

Glam rock and leaning far more towards pop/glam rock as opposed to rock/glam rock

 

well yes.... 'glamrock' refers to the pop style characterised by sweet, slade, trex,... as opposed to that awful stuff the americans churned out in the 80's which also purported to be 'glamrock' (the yanks didnt have the real thing)... all that big hair ans spandex....

I'm sorry but for me Slade should be categorised as a Heavy Rock band.

 

Why else did they Headline the Reading Festival in 1980 along with UFO, Whitesnake?

 

Why else were they headliners of the 1981 Monsters Of Rock Festival along with AC/DC, Whitesnake & Blue Öyster Cult?

 

Why else were they regulars of Radio 1's Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show throughout the 1980s and their records featured in the Rock Singles & Rock Albums Charts if they were not a Heavy Rock band?

Yeah, pop definitely. Has anyone seen that great archive footage of when Dave Hill bought a house next to a girl's school? They were all hanging around outside and he popped his head out the door and they all screamed. Lord knows why - he was never a heart-throb now was he?

because he was in a successful pop group...

 

i must add that the 'flavour' of pop back in the early 70's was 'heavy' compared to 'pop' today... watertwat practically re-defined the genre making it a discription for 'manufactured' music.

 

well in terms of the pop section here its pop = manufactured bubblegum cheese but the very word pop is v. ambig, and are Slade pop* because they are/were popular and so have become co-oped into the mainstream at a certain point in time as that style has become the trend or does their rhythmicly time musical style make them Pop!**

 

(then again you could argue that yes they are pop because all the artists in here are popular music and not classical and most genre definitions are a very fluid thing that X amount of the time change with the season and XX amount of time total w*** made up by bored journos)

 

 

 

*a fab, gear and groovy term for popular music

** bouncy bouncy s club 7 here we come!!!

 

i dont think they can be placed in the same catagory at all as the inovative kinks... but slade were good, they were a good contemporary pop group, but as with other pop... disposable.

 

so yes, id liken them more now to busted then oasis, complete with their cheap disposable pop and teenage girl fanbase.

 

well obv [boring dadrockers/dull retrorockers/britpop lords/britrock heroes etc etc]* Oasis were mentioned because of Cum on Feel the Noize being known as an Oasis song, and tbh thats not something that could be said as being cheap & disposable is it (whether you like these groups or not)???

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Dontlookbackinanger.jpg

 

 

*whatever def you want :lol:

 

I'm sorry but for me Slade should be categorised as a Heavy Rock band.

 

Why else did they Headline the Reading Festival in 1980 along with UFO, Whitesnake?

 

Why else were they headliners of the 1981 Monsters Of Rock Festival along with AC/DC, Whitesnake & Blue Öyster Cult?

 

Why else were they regulars of Radio 1's Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show throughout the 1980s and their records featured in the Rock Singles & Rock Albums Charts if they were not a Heavy Rock band?

 

by 1976 they were a spent force as regards the charts. they stayed together and altered their style of music, in the advent of punk opening doors and breaking down boundaries it became more acceptable to like more then 1 genre of music. i guess by then they were accepted as rock, but id suggest its only because their old fanbase grew and matured with the group... so the kids from 72 buying 'mama were all crazee now' were by 1980 buying rainbow, whitesnake, acdc etc... and were probably 'bait' to lure in fans to then listen to heavier(real) acts.

 

but when you talk about slade, you talk about their chart run in the early 70's... and that was pop... otherwise so many other acts would also qualify as heavy rock. i dont regard anything ive heard by slade to be especially 'heavy', and are certainly not 'heavier' then the stones, kinks, cream, busted, sweet, ...

 

id also add that in the early 70's you were strongly known by your taste in music which reflected your dress sense. heavy rockers were older and did not dress in the same clothes (outlined above) that slade fans did. it was very unusual for people to like more then 1 style of music... you couldnt! lol, thank god for punk breaking down those polarised stereotypes.

by 1976 they were a spent force as regards the charts. they stayed together and altered their style of music, in the advent of punk opening doors and breaking down boundaries it became more acceptable to like more then 1 genre of music.

 

yeah!!!

 

and on page 115 of Anarchy in the Uk - the stories behind the anthems of punk by Steven Wells is a certain Paul Julian Strohmeyer...

 

http://bibbly-o-tek.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/coolgreen.jpg

 

who, from the licencing of loads of indie compliations by Rough Trade likes Run DMC and their boom-bap a lot.

 

and you know that hip-hop thing, well that like a black punk music wasnt it, and thats the most popular form (and murchandized type) of music in the charts it seems [once you except Syco's tv tie-ins], and on the other hand Sum 41's Fat Lip is a great pop song....

 

so punk could hep the argument either way