Slade was a band known for its amazing string of Top 20 hit singles. They were the first act to have three songs enter the charts at number one, and during the ‘70s they had 17 consecutive top 20 hits — six of which went to number one in the UK singles chart. Slade was also infamous for their exuberant live performances. So it’s no surprise that when their first two studio albums failed to generate the same excitement as their first three singles, their next gambit was to try and capture some of their live energy on vinyl.
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As many of you know, I have a special place in my heart for live recordings. I was a mad bootlegger as a kid; sneaking a tape recorder into nearly every single concert I attended. I also amassed a substantial library of recordings from live radio broadcasts and trading with other bootleggers. I love those audible snapshots that capture a live moment in time allowing me to attend that performance over and over again. I also enjoy the extra storytelling that often accompanies a live performance; whether it’s a brief history of the song or anecdote about how it was recorded, silly band introductions, and in some cases, fantastical narratives that provide the foundation for what the song is about. There’s something pure about a live recording. It’s where the unexpected and spontaneous can happen revealing the band to be both genius and fallible all at once. False starts, bum notes, a little feedback, or a particularly rambunctious interaction with the audience are all elements that can make a live recording more memorable and endearing than a sterile studio recording where sonic perfection and mixing expertise trumps a soulful or energetic performance.
For many bands, releasing an official live album was regarded as a necessary evil; a stop-gap measure to satisfy the fan’s craving for new product while the band was on tour and too busy to go into the studio to record. However, for some bands, capturing the essence of their live performance on vinyl became the record that truly brought them to everyone’s attention. Albums like Frampton Comes Alive, The Who’s Live at Leeds and James Brown Live at the Apollo are just a few that come to mind. Rolling Stone magazine has compiled a pretty good list here despite a few glaring omissions like Yessongs, Blow Your Face Out by The J. Geils Band, Genesis Live, and the source for today’s Happy Medium Song of the Day, Slade Alive!
For many bands, releasing an official live album was regarded as a necessary evil; a stop-gap measure to satisfy the fan’s craving for new product while the band was on tour and too busy to go into the studio to record. However, for some bands, capturing the essence of their live performance on vinyl became the record that truly brought them to everyone’s attention. Albums like Frampton Comes Alive, The Who’s Live at Leeds and James Brown Live at the Apollo are just a few that come to mind. Rolling Stone magazine has compiled a pretty good list here despite a few glaring omissions like Yessongs, Blow Your Face Out by The J. Geils Band, Genesis Live, and the source for today’s Happy Medium Song of the Day, Slade Alive!
Attending my first concert was still a year away when I bought Slade Alive!, so not only was this album an amazing aural experience, it was an imaginative visual one – in my head – as well. On this album, all the boot stomping and explosive hand clapping wasn’t engineered studio trickery — it was real. The band was on stage rocking out and the crazed (and no doubt drunken) audience was responding in kind. I wanted to be there so badly. Slade Alive! was more than just an invitation to sing along to some hit singles, it was the sirens call to join the celebration of guitars and drums and violin(!?) and growling vocals and applause and dancing at the Command Theatre Studio in Picadilly London… and feel what it meant to be alive.
It would be many years before I finally got to see Slade “alive” in person. The show was appropriately on their home turf in the UK
when they played the Summer “Rag” Ball at Exeter University on February 27, 1981. Slade was riding high on the coattails of a career reviving performance at the 1980 Reading Festival where they stole the show as a last minute replacement for Ozzy Osbourne, so when they hit the stage of the Exeter Great Hall, they were greeted with thunderous applause and an endless chorus of “we’ll bring the house down” — the title of their current hit. The outrageous costumes were long gone by 1981, but the band’s ability to entertain was relentless and unforgettable. |