Whatever Happened to Slade

The above title was an album released by Slade in 1976, but that is not what is going to be discussed about here. What I am going to write about is what became of Slade and the reasons why.

Slade were originally known as Ambrose Slade until Chas Chandler took them under his wing and he convinced them to drop the Ambrose. From 1971 to early 1976, they were very popular due to the simple and very catchy Glam Rock they produced and it looked like there was no way in stopping them. They had 12 top five hits in a row and 6 of them went to number 1. What happened?

Around 1975/1976, Slade went to the good old USA for a year and were virtually forgot about in the UK. This was so tragic, as sales in the USA were quite poor and the group came back with their tails between their legs. If US sales could have matched crowd attendances, they would have been on top of the world. We now know of course that they had a resurgence after a successful Reading appearance in 1981 and had a few more hits in the UK with a few good albums thrown in too, but in the early nineties, Noddy Holder left, then Jimmy Lea did too and now they carry on as Slade 2 all but almsot forgotten in their home-land apart from the loyal few.

The one thing that I find incredible is that youngsters of today don't seem to know who they were and what their hits were like apart from the ubiquitous Xmas hit. Why doesn't radio play their songs anymore? I think it may be because they were of their time, but now seem quite frivolous and dated to some. It is such a shame as young people would still get quite a lot from hearing these wounderful and catchy tunes. Radio people are you listening?

I was browsing the Amazon site in the UK and came across the re-release of some of their albums along with some b-sides which have not been seen since their original release in the '70's.For once, I thought that the label may be doing something right, but looking at the singles discography, it appears that a number of the b-sides are missing. I hope that this is not another cock-up like the poor release of the greatest hits and accompanying DVD last Xmas. Maybe some of the b-sides may be lost or maybe they may not be available due to licensing restrictions. Who knows, we may find out in time. I expect a fair bit of back-lash to come from the loyal and trusting fans.

Footnote added 11/10/06. All Slade material is being released including a separate CD of most of their b-sides including the ones not released as extras on individual studio albums (this information gleamed from a release schedule available on the web).