Slade biography
In 1975, while residing in the States, Slade was influenced by Southern boogie rock bands and as a result, Nobody's Fools featured a wide mixture of styles including soul, country, rock, funk, folk and blues. The album also featured some soulful female backing vocalists. After the band returned to the UK in 1977, they began to merge their American influences with a classic, hard rock. The resulting sound, in turn, became an influence to American grunge artists. Return to Base.... (1979) featured elements of classic rock, acoustic rock, rock ballads, ambient rock and rock and roll. Two albums, released in 1981; We'll Bring the House Down and Till Deaf Do Us Part adopted a hard rock and heavy metal sound, as a result of the band's revival amongst heavy metal fans, following their success at the Reading Festival.
The 1983 album The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome featured a change in musical direction, with a more commercial-friendly rock sound, mixed with hard rock and glam metal influences. Many of the tracks followed a motor racing theme. One single from the album, "My Oh My" followed a power ballad sound, whilst the next single, "Run Runaway" was reminiscent of a Scottish jig. Slade's next album, Rogues Gallery featured a strong use of synthesisers, which were a popular instrument in the latter half of the 1980s as did the band's final album You Boyz Make Big Noize, although this album had a slightly grittier hard rock sound.
Legacy
Slade have influenced numerous artists including: Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Poison, Def Leppard, Oasis, Cheap Trick, Twisted Sister, the Undertones, the Replacements and the Runaways. Other artists include Hanoi Rocks, Queen, Kirka, Hot Leg, Candlebox, Cock Sparrer and Girlschool. Their anarchic attitude was adopted by the Damned, the Wonder Stuff, and Oasis, the latter of whom covered "Cum on Feel the Noize". Comedians Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and Mark Williams affectionately parodied the band in a number of what the band called 'hysterically accurate' "Slade in Residence" and "Slade on Holiday" sketches, in their The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer television programme in the early 1990s.Joey Ramone stated "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."
"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 of Sex Pistols
NME commented on Slade's legacy in a review of a greatest hits album, "They embodied the glorious absurdity of the greatest pop, in the sideburns, the mirrored top hat and Dave Hill's pudding bowl haircut. As such they were the simplest, most effective possible, riposte to prog rock's bloated pretensions and pseudo-intellect." In 1981, Adam and the Ants' lead guitarist and co-songwriter Marco Pirroni stated that he was greatly influenced by the first gig he ever attended which was Slade at Wembley Pool in 1973.
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