Slade may just be the most underrated band of all time. They basically became famous in the US, thanks to Quiet Riot who had a number 1 album with two of their songs. Slade always had to live under that shadow here. And to tell you the truth, that’s how I first heard of them. From Quiet Riot. I didn’t even really get into Slade until a decade or two later, but it turns out they were always with me in one way or another. You see, in the early ’80s, Twisted Sister used to do a rip-roaring cover of “Let the Good Times Roll” and then mash it up into “Feels So Fine” as a live b-side to one of their singles. It always blew me away. How original to do these covers like these! This completely rocks! What a work of genius! Then a couple years after that, I heard Soul Asylum cover Janis Joplin’s “Move Over” on their Clam Dips And Chowder Delights EP. How original to cover a song by Janis Joplin like this! Again, this is genius! It wasn’t even until a few years ago, when I started getting into Slade’s live concerts, that I found out that Slade did it all first! Twisted Sister and Soul Asylum were doing COVERS of the COVERS that Slade, in their genius manner, decided to cover! So all this genius and originality was Slade’s to begin with!
When an all-female tribute to Slade was coming to the Casbah for their American debut, I had to go. Slady started when their singer/guitarist Danie Cox, aka “Gobby Holder”, auditioned for Dave Hill’s version of Slade. The manager told her it would be a “conflict of interest”, so she didn’t get the job. Later, she went to see Dave Hill’s version play and she was like “I can do that! Better still, I’ll make it all female and call it SLADY!” Perfect!
I don’t have any problem with cover bands. If they’re playing music I like and doing it well, then so be it! And Slady were amazing. A full-on rock ‘n roll high energy party of most of Slade’s hits. Danie totally sounded totally like Noddy (it has to hurt to sing like that!) and since it wasn’t Christmas, they properly didn’t play “Merry Christmas Everybody”. Instead, they did the b-side to that single instead. They showed the greatness of Slade and probably could’ve played a lot longer, as there were a few songs that were missing. Anyways, it was all fun and a great crowd there to celebrate the music of Slade, the most underrated band ever.
Leave a Reply