PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHOUT! FACTORY Slade songs rediscovered
Old fans should enjoy retrospectives
on the working-class U.K. rockers
"Get Yer Boots On: The Best of Slade" (CD)
and "Slade in 'Flame'" (DVD)
(Both Shout! Factory)
While one of the more popular rock 'n' roll bands of the 1970s in the United Kingdom only made a small splash in the United States, these recent and simultaneous CD and DVD releases certainly make a good case for American audiences to rediscover Slade.
The hail-and-hearty band from the industrial Black Country area of England were best known to U.S. audiences during the early years of MTV -- Slade's No. 1 hit in 1973, "Cum On Feel the Noize," was covered by hair-metal band Quiet Riot with a less eccentrically spelled title 10 years later with great success, and the Scottish-reel styled "Run Runaway" was a minor American hit both on radio and on the then-fledgling cable network.
Both songs are included on the best-of CD, indicative of the hard-partying, pint-hoisting anthems Slade was most known for, including "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "Gudbuy T'Jane" and "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me" ("Whoah-oh!!").
But since the band didn't try to disguise their being working-class "yobboes," Slade never caught on across the mainland, although the band apparently had a bit of a fan base in the Midwest.
In a good-humored interview with the band's former front man Noddy Holder included on the DVD of Slade's one-and-only feature film, even with a premiere in St. Louis, the accents were so thick that the movie was screened with helpful subtitles.
"Slade in 'Flame'" is truly one of the lost rock movies of its time, a surprisingly realistic and downbeat depiction of the rise and fall of a fictitious band set in the late '60s that still resonates today.
While the band defied expectations in not doing a Beatles-styled comedy, the movie's unflinching look at the dark side of the music business (leavened with some nice comic moments) is made more effective by showing that regardless of class differences, greed kills the spirit of music in whatever guise.
Slade is still popular back home, and now here's your chance to both see and hear what made them famous in the first place.
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