The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

Slade : Merry Xmas (The Penthouse Club Invite) version

by 3 Comments

I had a great week digging down south recently and amongst all the 7″ goodies I found was rarest Slade 7″ flexi-disc. It was originally given to specially chosen guests as an invite to a party they held at The Penthouse Club in White Horse Street, Mayfair, London on December 19th. It is now long closed down, but it was here at the club owned by Bob Guccione, creator of Penthouse magazine that Slade held their 1973 Christmas party, just a week after their classic song Merry Xmas Everybody was released. It has specially recorded verses for the guests sung inbetween the familiar chorus, I assume ‘Created by Jimmy’ as mentioned on the label is band member Jim Lea, but there is so little info out there on this flexi and this is the first time it’s been available to hear in over 50 years.

Slade – Don Powell interview

by 14 Comments

The rather wonderful “Strange Brew” podcast has long been a favourite – interviews with mainly 60s/70s musicians, and not just the famous ones. One of the more ridiculously memorable was an interview with the bass player from the Troggs who has of course written a book. Essential reading…

Anyway the latest is with the drummer from Slade, Don Powell. It brought back memories for me of my time living in London in 1973-74 when Slade were on TOTP just about every week, and with a new single every couple of months.

I’ll put a link to the YT version in the comments but I recommend subscribing to the audio podcast

I also see that there were several interviews with Salde’s bass player and great songwriter Jim Lea

Jim Lea – time for a reappraisal?

by 15 Comments

For decades, Noddy Holder’s media profile combined with former Slade co-writer Jim Lea’s seclusion – partly for health reasons (which Jim has been open about) – has perhaps allowed the impression to build up that Noddy was the central force in Slade’s creativity. The rumour is that Jim felt it was time to address any slight skewing of appreciation for his contribution to the magic of Slade – and fair enough, say I.

He now has a Facebook page and over the last few months whoever runs it has voraciously mobilised fans to keep voting for various tracks from Jim’s 2007 album ‘Therapy’ (his only post-Slade solo release to date) in something called ‘the Heritage Chart’. During that period, Jim has filmed a couple of promos for these old tracks. It seems a lot of effort for some contrived and pointless chart, but it has undoubtedly energised his fans and given him/them a new sense of purpose – and if he isn’t in good enough health to perform in public, or at least not in any sustained capacity, then I suppose whipping up fans to vote on multiple occasions for something he did 16 years ago in a chart » Continue Reading.

When Did It Become Unfashionable To Like Slade?

by 60 Comments

I have slowly been working my way through the 1001 Albums… book and have recently listened to Slayed? by the Wolverhampton Quartet. Reading reviews by people who have already started this challenge, I find that they are often ridiculed, dismissed as stupid and compared to darts players etc. Yes, the ‘spelling’ is a gimmick that doesn’t work anymore, but is it really worth getting hung up about?

I was born a generation too late to appreciate the band at their peak, but my Dad loved them, and so did many, many people. They are, in terms of sales, the most successful singles band of the 70s and yet they are hardly ever mentioned these days, expect in reference to that Christmas hit.

By 1975 of course, they were past their peak. But perhaps their death knell was the explosion of punk, or was it the Reeves and Mortimer pisstake, or even the fact they were adored by Oasis.

These days, when discussing Glam Rock (of which they were surely one of the leading lights?) they appear to be dismissed as a footnote, purely for not being T-Rex or David Bowie (i.e. fashionable)