Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We are more than just players upon the stage, we also have the responsibility of selling the tickets to this mad show we call life, we are the agents taking the cash in the small wooden booth, we are the ushers, the refreshment sellers, and we are the audience; the hats we wear, the songs we must sing, we are the response to the belief that All The World Is A Stage.
Many hats, much respect, overwhelming achievements, and the fall of a legend, before the good sense prevailed and the inevitable rise thanks to nostalgia and recognition of just how immense the sound and music was; for there are few like Slade who can stand in both the presence of Lear’s Fool and King Hal and be perfectly at ease, not only in the company, but being requested to immerse themselves in the appropriate role.
For many the heyday of the Wolverhampton rock band Slade saw them constantly at the top of their game and in the national press from the moment they dropped Ambrose as part of their name and right until Punk changed the landscape as they were preparing to come back from the United States of America. Consistently approachable, consistent singles and albums, two back-to-back number 1’s, four top 20s in a row…and then the fall.
Arguably Slade were one of the biggest names to fall to the way sides as Punk kicked out at the old guard, and yet in that fall, in the decline where they had gone from the heartbeat of rock, one of the Midland’s finest to have performed, they became within a few short years the epitome of what would become the idea of national treasures, the memory of Noddy screaming out “It’s Christmas” as shops started to use their songs in the run up to the festive season, the measure of the band was in their acceptance of returning to playing smaller venues, playing for less audiences, but never giving anything but their best, their most dynamic selves for the crowds.
The five live album release of All The World Is A Stage which incorporates the best selling Slade Alive! the 1982 release of Slade On Stage, which was the culmination of their brief, but welcome resurgence in the minds of the public, Alive! At Reading, Live At The Hucknall Miners Welfare Club, and Live At The New Victoria, sees the ‘bosting’ 4 at their best, most accessible, and with sadness perhaps, the moments when the dawning of their predicament, that their time at the forefront had finally come to an end, are all captured with sincerity in a box set that is more than worth the time, it is in effect essential listening conveniently packaged for a new generation to discover.
A foursome that just wanted to provide the crowds with a genuine good time, that were willing to march back down the mountain of fame with their heads held high and with cheering still driving their hearts on; Slade were in a way the complete opposite of The Beatles, they didn’t go out on top, but they retained the love of performing live and nothing, not even the shadow of the stage light encroaching across them, was going to change that.
A tremendously enjoyable boxset, groovy and bosting, Slade remain alive and accept that Shakespeare’s observation was right, all the world is a stage…but these are more than mere players, for they knew how the public liked it.
Ian D. Hall