Introduction
While not the most fashionable name to drop, Slade remain a beloved name, the list of artists whom they have influenced ranging from The Ramones and The Sex Pistols to Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. Like many bands of the late sixties and seventies, Slade were an infinitely heavier prospect live than on record, a fact highlighted by the Kiss-influencing Slade Alive! Yet live documents of the band have been surprisingly thin on the ground – two volumes of Slade Alive! Slade On Stage, a three-track EP captured at the band’s well-regarded Reading set, and a BBC collection being all that has represented over fifty years of activity. Thus, this brand-new box set, entitled All the World Is a Stage seeks to redress the balance.
The Package
A five CD set, it brings together the previously released Slade Alive! and Slade on Stage, alongside the full Alive! At Reading, Live at The Hucknall Miners Welfare Club, and Live at The New Victoria. Like many such archival releases, the set is relatively bare bones. It comes housed in a clamshell box, with promo sticker on the front and a complete track list on the back. Inside, each of the five CDs is housed in a cardboard sleeve, with a cover image and track-listing on the back. There is also a sixteen-page booklet, offering period images and track credits. It does not, however, contain either liner notes (a bit of a missed opportunity, that) or, strangely, any details as to who mixed and mastered the set. This is far from the first set we’ve encountered that lacks this sort of information but given its importance, it is frustrating to see it ignored by the powers that be. Overall, the package is standard for this type of release, but given the relatively high price point at time of writing, more care should have gone into the booklet.
The Audio
While the packaging may be a touch lacklustre, the content more than makes up for it. Fans will likely own one (or both) of the previously released live discs, which is potentially frustrating, but the three unreleased live shows are absolute gems. Alive! At Reading, tantalisingly released as a three-track EP in 1980, is finally here (officially) as a ten-track monster. Given that the performance, a last-minute sub for Ozzy Osbourne, essentially rebuilt the band’s fortunes (which had been waning for some four years or so at that point), the show is of great significance to Slade and their fans and is arguably worth the price of admission alone. Then there’s Live at The Hucknall Miners Welfare Club, a swinging, 18-track marathon tracked in the December of the same year, and Live at The New Victoria from 1975. Thus, the set covers a lot of bases; from 1972, where the band’s popularity was firmly on the rise, through to 1981 (Slade on Stage), just as the band were on the cusp of their American breakthrough.
Slade Alive! (1972)
Of the legendary Slade Alive! little needs to be said. When reviewing the gorgeous, red splatter vinyl, we concluded: “a blistering live set, it sidesteps the limitations of the studio circa 1972 and delivers a primal thrashing that still sounds remarkable today.”
You can check out the review here, but the chances are that, if you’re a Slade fan, you already own a copy of this seminal beast. 9/10
Live At the New Victoria Inn (1975)
Recorded a mere three years later, this previously unreleased, twelve-track set captures the band in transition. Disillusioned with their failure to crack America, their set has a defiant urgency to it that transcends the somewhat primitive recording, which sees the drums lacking in low end heft, although the guitars and vocals come over well. As a bonus, it does not share any tracks with Slade Alive!
Kicking off with the slide soaked Them Kinda Monkeys Can’t Swing from In Flame, the band blaze away, while Noddy’s between song raps (part rock ‘n’ roll show, part panto ham) help to bring the audience to fever pitch. Certainly, the roar that paves the way for The Bangin’ Man (which has a strong Rolling Stones vibe to it) shows an audience lapping it up and, if the drums of Gudbuy T’Jane feel somewhat neutered, Noddy’s remarkably on-point vocals make up for it, giving weight to Ozzy’s assertion that Noddy Holder is one of the greatest vocalists of all time.
Dipping back into In Flame, the band slow the pace for the first time with Far Far Away, but you can’t keep Slade restrained for long and the band unveil a new song (taking a swipe at the BBC’s lyrical concerns in the process) with the bizarre Thanks For The Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam), which is fun, but suffers from a too-loud electric piano sound. Fortunately, the levels settle for How Does It Feel, a song that does much to show the band’s flair for pop melodies.
The second half of the show blazes past, with Noddy declaring “We’re going to start them moving” before leading his band through a blazing Just a Little Bit, which does the band’s hard rock credentials no end of good. Listen carefully, and you can hear Billy Corgan scribbling notes as the band segue between chorus-modulated solo and monstrous riffing. Everyday may be slower, but it gets the audience singing, and then it’s the home stretch, with the cowbell of OK Yesterday Was Yesterday, Raining In My Champagne (a b side to Thanks For The Memory that cheekily rips off the hook from Twist And Shout), Let The Good Times Roll and, of course, Mama Weer All Crazee Now. It makes for a breathless finale and, technical limitations aside, the disc will delight Slade fans. 8/10
Slade Alive! At Reading / Slade Alive at Hucknall (1980)
Both tracked in 1980, Alive! At Reading and Alive at Hucknall Miners Welfare Club show different sides of Slade. The Reading show is somewhat patchy in terms of audio quality, the thunderous opener of Take Me Bak ‘Ome sounding distinctly like the tape has degraded over time. Nevertheless, the band’s performance itself is fantastic. The festival has a long history of bands stepping in to replace cancelled headliners, and you can only imagine the pressure that places on the substitute artist. Slade (standing in for an absent Ozzy) rose to the challenge by delivering a berserker set, packed with audience interaction and heavy cuts from across their catalogue. Throughout the too-short set, the band are all guns blazing: just listen to the way they race through When I’m Dancin’ I Ain’t Fightin’ or Mama Weer All Crazee Now, while closing epic Born to Be Wild harks back to the original Alive! album.
At the heart of it all, of course, is Noddy’s mad-preacher performance which, even at this remove, remains absurdly entertaining – no wonder the set went down in history as a belter – although the most affecting moment is Noddy’s genuine bemusement at the entire crowd belting Merry Xmas back at the band. “It’s the middle of summer!” he protests, but you can tell from the joy with which the band assault Cum on Feel the Noize that the band were moved. Overall, it’s a powerful and necessary document of a pivotal show in the band’s history, but slightly let down by the bootleg quality recording. 8.5/10
In contrast, Alive at Hucknall Miners Welfare Club sees the band playing an extended, eighteen-track set in front of a fiercely partisan crowd. From the moment the band hit the stage with Dizzy Mamma, it’s clear that they’re more at home here, jamming ideas out and having a ball in the process. Sound quality is still a touch patchy, but it’s the best of the three unreleased shows – clear, even if it is lacking in punch, and cursed with the occasional drop out. What really sets this gig apart, however, is the inclusion of four tracks not played at any of the other shows (Dizzy Mamma, Night Starvation, Lemme Love into Ya and Everyday), as well as full versions of Somethin’ Else and Pistol Packin’ Mama (only played in medley form at Reading).
With Noddy in fine voice and the band sounding suitably fired up, Alive at Hucknall Miners Welfare Club offers a none-more-raw counterpart to On Stage’s more polished approach and, in many ways, it’s the better for it. You can practically smell the sweat and spilled beer as the band tear through Night Starvation, a track which neatly laid down the foundation for any number of melodic punk bands, while the strutting riff of Take Me Bak ‘Ome casually batters the Stones into submission. Other treats include the spacey Lemme Love into Ya, a pop-infused change of pace that neatly highlights the band’s versatility.
Speaking of versatility, there’s the country-fried madness of Pistol Packin’ Mama (Al Dexter)juxtaposed with the crunchy hard rock of Keep It Rollin’, while the December setting of the show makes Merry Xmas Everybody both justified and surprisingly essential – as the roar that greets it demonstrates. The show concludes with two covers – Chuck Berry’s I’m A Rocker and, of course, Born to Be Wild. It’s a hell of a finale, and one can only imagine how many spilled pints and discarded fag ends had to be swept into the street in the aftermath. It really is one hell of a show, and it’s impossible not to feel the adrenaline flow as the band lay waste to their fiercely dedicated fan base. 9.5/10
Slade On Stage (1981*)
Last, but by no means least, the previously released Slade on Stage is included in this comprehensive package. As with Alive! the chances are that fans already own this document of the band, and there’s no particular reason to opt for this version over the previous issues, as it does not appear to have been remastered. However, for those who don’t own the album, it’s a must, as it captures Slade at their heaviest.
As Noddy himself readily admits, a certain amount of tinkering went on to ensure that the album was the absolute best representation of Slade on Stage that it could be, and the result is a slick record of a band at their considerable peak. Louder and cleaner than the other offerings here, Slade on Stage feels remarkably contemporary, and the band play with a fire and fury that few artists can match even now. Again, there are tracks here not found anywhere else in the set and, if the mix makes it sound like the band are playing in an arena (especially at the end of Take Me Bak ‘Ome), you can’t blame the band for wanting to emphasize the seemingly unstoppable need of their audience to sing along. 9.5/10
*Note – Slade On Stage was originally released in 1982, but the recordings were captured on 1981 tour dates.
Conclusion
All The World Is a Stage is very nearly the definitive live Slade set. In its favour, it has three full and previously unreleased sets, each one offering its own unique moments. These new shows vary in quality and there’s a roughness to them that suggests minimal polish, but they’re perfectly listenable. The weakest of the bunch, in terms of sound quality, is the New Victoria Show; the strongest The Hucknall Miners Welfare Club; but, in truth, there’s not much in it and the band’s performances are so strong, that you soon lose yourself in the moment anyway.
Where the set loses points is in the presentation, which omits both liner notes and technical detail. While the sixteen-page booklet is fine; at this price point, a touch more effort (for example an essay on the historical importance of these particular shows) would have been appreciated, as would technical details on recording, mixing and mastering.
Nevertheless, for your money, you get a compact set packed full of classic Slade moments. With minimal cross over in the set lists, each show is compelling in its own right, making this an unmissable collection for Slade fans. More than that, for the newcomer, the box highlights just how powerful a live band Slade were, and it’s amazing to note that, across five discs, there truly isn’t a dull moment to be found. With the recent slew of reissues, Slade’s flame is once again burning bright, but if you were to buy just one set, this really should be it. 9/10
