#dave hill

Daryl Easlea: Whatever Happened to Slade? When the Whole World Went Crazee (2024)

It's no coincidence I've chosen this time of year to review this voluminous book about glam rockers Slade, because, as any British citizen will tell you, the group's "Merry Christmas Everybody" remains one of their all-time best-loved yuletide staples.

Over 400 pages in length, this is indeed the 'Slade Bible,' for better and for worse … but mostly better, because its comprehensive, wall-to-wall chronicle (verging on T.M.I.), will spare you from having to read each individual band member's autobiography.

On Whatever Happened to Slade?, Daryl Easlea tenaciously sifts through everything that was ever written about Slade (or so it seems) so you won't have to; and though it was clearly written by and for super fans, the author rarely succumbs to blind worship.

He is extremely patient, however, and you will have to be as well to get through this ...

Personally, I greatly enjoyed his detailed description of the group's humble Wolverhampton origins, when they changed monikers (The Vendors, The 'N Betweens, Ambrose Slade), image (beats, hippies, skinheads!), and sound (covers, soul, mod, psychedelia, hard rock), every few years.

And when Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Jim Lea, and Don Powell latched onto the meteoric rise of glam rock, backed by tireless manager Chass Chandler (ex-Animals, Hendrix, etc.), Slade absolutely OWNED the U.K. charts in '72 and '73, with five No. 1s, two No. 2s, and 1 No. 4.

As the author explains, Slade's working-class roots and intentionally unrefined vocabulary (as evidenced on hits like "Cum On Feel the Noize," "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me," and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" countered glam's less relatable pomp and poseur element, no matter how outrageous Hill's costumes got.

This relatability helped Slade cross over beyond glam's core female audience to appeal to young men who, right or wrong, felt uncomfortable with the style's more androgynous stars -- much like heavy metal bands conversely enjoy bigger sales when they cross over to the female audience.

But Slade's incredible commercial heyday was over as fast as it began, and when the band failed to crack America and slunk back to England where they'd since lost their momentum, Easlea posits 100 theories EXCEPT for the most obvious: musical fashions had changed and the hits simply dried up.

Moving on, the band's late '70s decline and sporadic early '80s revivals are intriguing enough, but the book's final fourth devotes more words to Slade's irrelevant years than casual fans will care for; even the author concedes a half-dozen times that "perhaps it should have ended here."

But what 'Slade Bible' would be complete without an exhaustive (and exhausting) cataloguing of every last album, single, tour, award, side project, marriage, divorce, parallel career, and fish and chips consumed by the four band members up to 2024?

So just keep this in mind if you decide to take the plunge into Whatever Happened to Slade? because if you get through its encyclopedic expanse, you probably won't have to read another word about the group ever again.

Featured Records:

Slade: Slayed? (1972)

Slade: Slade Alive (1972)