THE NOIZE: The Slade Discography Paperback – 23 January 2019

Slade erupted onto the moribund music scene of the 1970s with all the subtlety of a ringtone at a church prayer service. And while the co-authors of this book are residents of Great Britain where the band enjoyed its greatest success, I can testify that as a high school reprobate trapped in Illinois during that vacuous decade, Slade's records were like manna from Heaven.The firepower of those early singles! Noddy Holder's atomic vocals! Jim Lea's propulsive bass playing! Don Powell's stomping percussion! Dave Hill's latest hairstyle! Every piece of plastic--and resulting picture sleeve--in their catalog was a new surprise upon release.Their story got foggy after the brilliant "Slade in Flame" soundtrack--I never even saw the movie until several years ago, such was the isolation of the American Midwest in those pre-Internet days--and it got harder for fans over here to get their albums beyond purchasing expensive imports. When we did land a record or two it seemed as though the group was flailing, caught in the backwash of punk and new wave without a clear sense of direction. At the time I couldn't hear the selective brilliance of those releases as the group seemed to be moving into a harder sound I didn't find particularly appealing. How surprising it was to hear their music regurgitated via Quiet Riot and see the lads themselves on MTV miming to "Run Runaway" and "My Oh My."Now that three of the band members have issued their autobiographies--where have you gone, Jimmy Lea?--it's nice that their story is out there while the group members are still around to tell it. And this book is a welcome addition to that canon, capturing every nuance of the band's career through its earliest days, the iconic years, the obscurity following that fame and finally, the last laugh.My advice is to purchase this wonderful book and follow its timeline with a listening party of every Slade record known to mankind--and authors Ian Edmundson and Chris Selby--and revel in the outrageous rock euphoria that is Slade (no apologies!).

Alles is perfect. Schnelle Lieferung. Danke.

I can't really remember a time when SLADE weren't there! Pictures covered the walls of the bedroom I shared with 'our kid', there were singles in red generic Polydor covers, there were albums with titles like 'Slayed?', there was at gig at King Georges Hall in Blackburn (1973, I was 8 years old, it was our first gig, we sat in the balcony with Dad) they always seemed to be on TV in our house, and then in the summer of 1975 they were in the cinema! 'Flame' was brilliant, it still is, and the soundtrack record might just be my favourite SLADE album.A few years ago now I was approached by Carlton Books to do a book on SLADE, it all happened very fast, one minute a meeting that could have been about anything, the next minute a contract and a pretty fast deadline. We wrote a fairly precise history, adding what we could find through research to what we knew as fans, plus the odd one liner from various meetings with Nod, Jim, Dave & Don. Next thing we knew management were trying to get the publisher to cease and desist? It made little sense, there was nothing remotely outrageous or scandalous in the text. Suddenly a compromise was reached, Carlton Books had recently seen some great success from re-printing the Jackie Annuals, the decision came to shrink the text, add more pictures, throw in a quiz (why a quiz? I'll never know!) and publish at Christmas in a format that looked very much like an Annual. Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? It's the time that every Santa has a ball. Does he ride a red-nosed reindeer? Does a ton-up on his sleigh? Do the fairies keep him sober for a day? Not sure, but for us it felt like a cop out, although some fans tell me they like the book.Right at that point I said, to whoever might be listening, that the only way to get a really good SLADE book away was to publish privately and hopefully swerve management. I've never really understood why the catalogue and subsequent exploitation of such a well liked band is policed so strongly? They should take a look at what Apple Records or the Estate of Elvis Presley are doing, and learn from it. Not everybody will want a lunchbox, fair enough, but a lot of the things that are possible will have them queueing around the block. It might be in smaller numbers, but it will be significant.At this point enter 'The Noize' a private undertaking by two die-hard SLADE fans, which dropped through my letterbox from amazon just yesterday. It looks and feels like a big police or FBI file, I say that because it's about the only thing I can compare it too, and very much in a good way. A last word look at the SLADE discography, loaded with facts, information, record covers and a mountain of memorabilia, to say the boys done good is an understatement! If your a SLADE fan you need to own a copy NOW! As Nod might say; "Give it full po!"Something like this has been missing from the SLADE bookshelf for years, infact for three hours last night I was lost in it! And I'm still going strong today.... A case in point from what I said earlier is that the book also covers the still missing in action 2018 UK Singles box, which fingers and management crossed should appear in 2019. It will stand very nicely next to the 'When SLADE Rocked The World' album box set, which I for one love.More projects like this can only keep the name alive and the fire burning! And you never really know where that might lead.... Not unlike The Beatles, SLADE still have quite a few tricks up their collective sleeves that would look good on DVD/Blu-Ray or indeed CD/Vinyl, and surely something like this can only help the steps towards that....

Interesting history of a great group, by looking at their discography.

Great for any Slade fan.