Chas Chandler had gained fame as the bassist of Eric Burdon’s Animals. When the Animals broke up in 1966, he declared himself a freelance producer.
It was Chandler who discovered the guitar prodigy Jimi Hendrix and provided him with two English musicians. He became Hendrix’s producer and was always convinced that he knew best what was good for his protegé. He cut Hendrix’s songs down to three or four minutes in the studio – until the musician got fed up with it and fired him. In the same year (1969), Chandler heard a young band called “Ambrose Slade” in a London studio. Although the boys from the coalfield (“Black Country”) had been pretty unsuccessful so far, Chandler believed in their potential and made them his next project. He suggested that the musicians shorten their band name to “Slade”, prescribed them a skinhead look, had lyrics written for one of their instrumental songs and produced their next album. But none of this saw any short-term success.
But this didn’t stop Chandler from trusting his instinct. This time, he suggested a Little Richard song to the band – and lo and behold, they had their first top 20 hit. He then had the musicians adopt a glam rock look with wild costumes and make-up. Singer Noddy Holder would usually wear a checked dress with a cape and hat. Dave Hill, the guitarist, glittering silver overalls. But the most important thing (according to Chandler) was that they should write their own songs in order to develop a band identity. The bassist, Jim Lea, then tried his hand at composing – he was (also outwardly) the most well-behaved of them. Noddy Holder wrote the lyrics. Their first own song – “Coz I Luv You” – surprisingly became a number one hit in the UK. And so began one of the most amazing and sudden success stories known to the rock world. Starting with the Little Richard song, Slade placed 17 singles in unbroken succession in the UK Top 20. Slade had six number one hits in the UK, three more songs at number two, two at number three. They were the most successful British band of the 1970s in terms of single sales.
They also had three number one albums – Slayed? was the first of these. The perfect tense of “to slay” should be “slain”, of course, but the play on words “slayed” suited the anarchic street orthography that became a hallmark of the band (“crazee”, “noize”, ‘wot’, “pleeze” etc.). The New Musical Express called Slayed? one of the greatest rock albums of all time. For the Guardian, the ten songs on it were nothing but “party riff monsters”.
The first single released was called Mama Weer All Crazee Now and was inspired by the sight of smashed seats at Wembley Arena – after a wildly acclaimed performance by the band. The second single from the album was called Gudbuy T’Jane, it was a rush job at the end of a recording session – the band had never rehearsed the track before. The two songs reached number one and number two in the UK charts. (In Germany: number six and three respectively).
Slade’s glam and glitter rock became the most popular sound of the early seventies – a mixture of hard rock and rock’n’roll, with fuzz guitar and boogie rhythm, absolutely danceable and sing-along. The Sweet, Wizzard, Mud, T. Rex, Suzi Quatro, Gary Glitter and Roxy Music were also part of this scene at the time. But Slade also had that rough “street credibility” – they appealed to the working class milieu. The Wheeling Herald in the USA wrote: “Slade are punk – street rock at its best and loudest.” A good role model for the “real” punk bands that would emerge a few years later.
Armitage Shanks, founded in 1991, were already part of the third or fourth wave of punk. They also came from the English provinces: “The epicenter of the revolution is Wrotham,” they proclaimed. They never made it big, but they did enjoy a certain cult status in the underground. The press called the Shanks “a punk band in the purest sense”. As is customary among punkers, the musicians chose expressive pseudonyms. The guitarist calls himself “Rod Vomit”, the bassist “Serge Dirtbox” – they are no virtuosos. They write ironically about themselves: “Nothing could stop them. They sometimes even played in front of more than 20 people in London, then went on their first (and only) UK tour, drinking their way through the country. They mocked the music industry. Chords, guitar strings, tuning and the music itself are completely irrelevant.”
The good-humored sourness can also be felt on the cover photo of their album Urinal Heap. The fact that the word “Shanks”, having six letters, doesn’t quite fit on the five fingers of one hand doesn’t seem to bother the musicians. “Vic Flange”, the drummer on the left, imitates Noddy Holder, wearing a wig, scarf, a colorful shirt and a crooked grin on his face. “Rod Vomit”, pictured right, has his upper body exposed like his guitarist colleague Dave Hill.
Musically, however, there are no direct references to Slade or other colleagues. However, the title track – the sixteenth and last song on the album and purely instrumental – at least has a (not exactly flattering) reference in its name. Every rock fan will recognize the band Uriah Heep behind “Urinal Heap”. The term “Urinal Heap” also fits the band’s name “Armitage Shanks” – the name of a venerable English company for sanitary facilities.
Find Slade – Slayed? at jpc.de…
… and Armitage Shanks – Urinal Heap at Damaged Goods