SLADE Day!

SLADE Day dawned gloomy and wet and with much ouch-ing whenever I moved and whenever I didn't move (some days you just can't win). My back has been getting steadily worse over the last week and today was the nadir - I couldn't stand up and couldn't sit down, couldn't walk and couldn't lie down, changing positions every few minutes to bring some ease is so tiring. A trip to the docs and some magick pills have done the trick now but it's funny how pain can block all other thoughts from the brain. A primitive animal response. Luckily, SLADE Day was delivered by first class Voisey Mail late this afternoon and I'm in mid-animal response to the glory that was, is and always will be SLADE!

Four re-mastered CDs flood the record shops today made up of seven SLADE albums. I got 'SLAYED?' a couple of weeks ago (it was released early in HMV stores as part of a promotion) so the first one to hit the CD deck was 'Old, New, Borrowed and Blue', mainly so I could hear the 'B' sides I haven't heard in three decades.

The sound is so much clearer and louder than the previous CD release and the packaging is great, a nice little biographical booklet with loads of photos. It's almost like a layer of dust has been blown off the record and I'm hearing it fresh and new. I love it! And the bonus tracks are three 'B' sides and 'The Bangin' Man' single. I've always had a soft spot for 'Kill 'Em At The Hot Club Tonight', the '20s-style oddity 'B' side, and it sounds fabulous in this re-mastered format.

I can't get over the sound and how fresh and clean the albums sound in comparison to the CDs from the '90s. Someone's put some effort into letting us hear SLADE as they should sound.

I'm currently listening to 'SLADE ALIVE! - The Live Anthology', a double album made up of 'SLADE ALIVE!', 'SLADE ALIVE Vol Two', 'SLADE on Stage' and 'Alive At Reading '80', the EP that saw their re-birth at the start of the 1980s. It's packaged in a gatefold digi-pack format using the iconic red and black cover of the original 'SLADE ALIVE!' cover from 1972. That was my first SLADE album, the first of many. It was a thrill to open the digi-pack for the first time.

The sound is, again, excellent, and shows SLADE doing what they do best - play live. Always a great live band, Noddy goading on the audience, Dave providing spectacle and Jim and Don keeping it real with the pounding bass and drums. I love the live version of 'Get Down and Get With It'.

The fourth CD is made up of 'Beginnings' (by Ambrose Slade, their first ever album before they dropped 'Ambrose') and 'Play It Loud'. 'Beginnings' is what it says, their early work from 1969, a bit hippy, a bit progressive. Oddly enough, it includes a cover of the Beatles' 'Martha My Dear' - I've never quite understood why unless it's very oddity is justification enough. 'Knocking Nails Into My House' is an excellent track, so much going on beneath the surface of the record and you can hear it properly for the first time.

'Play It Loud' is skinhead SLADE with some great early tracks written by Dave and Don before all song-writing chores went to Noddy and Jim. It's recognisably SLADE before they'd found their 'sound' and feature more lyrics per song than normal, but you know who it is from the start. I like this album, it's more of a late-night album when you still need something with a bit of edge and some balls.

The first CD is, of course, 'SLAYED?' which I've been playing for a few weeks now. The bonus tracks are 'B' sides not previously available on CD, so that alone keeps me happy. I'm particularly fond of 'Candidate' and 'Man Who Speeks Evil'.

Next release is a four-CD box set due in September. That's all I know about it. I will, of course. be chomping at the bit come September, but I'm so happy with the four CDs I've got so far.

SLADE Day started out so badly and ended so well courtesy of Voisey Courier Services Inc. Ta indeed!