Play It Loud

Biography

Play It Loud is the first album by the British rock group Slade (and their first under this name, having previously been known as The ‘N Betweens and Ambrose Slade). It was released on 28 November 1970 but did not enter the charts. With very little promotion and advertising, the album failed to reach a wide audience. The absence of a ‘hit’ single was also a factor in this. It is regarded by some as an influential rock release, foreshadowing punk rock nearly seven years prior to its UK explosion...

Play It Loud is the first album by the British rock group Slade (and their first under this name, having previously been known as The ‘N Betweens and Ambrose Slade). It was released on 28 November 1970 but did not enter the charts. With very little promotion and advertising, the album failed to reach a wide audience. The absence of a ‘hit’ single was also a factor in this. It is regarded by some as an influential rock release, foreshadowing punk rock nearly seven years prior to its UK explosion. The band appeared on the UK show Disco 2 to promote the album. They made three appearances during 1970. Three songs were performed from the album; Shape Of Things To Come, Know Who You Are and Sweet Box. All three performances have never surfaced since broadcasting. Slade, in this incarnation, had adopted a “skinhead” image by suggestion of their manager Chas Chandler. Background After the commercial failure of the album Beginnings as Ambrose Slade, Chas Chandler decided to shorten the band’s name to ‘Slade’. It was also Chandler’s decision to court controversy by projecting the band as skinheads for the single called ‘Wild Winds are Blowing’. Dave Hill and Jim Lea were mortified by a revised image based upon Dr. Marten boots, braces, cropped hair and aggressive ‘bovver boy’ posturing. By 1970 the skinhead craze was starting to become passé. “We got a lot of flak for being a skinhead band, so gradually we changed,” Holder told Classic Rock in December 2005. “We replaced Doc Martens with platform boots. We became more colorful and then it all went berserk – Dave the Superyob with his spacesuits and all the rest. It was a great laugh.” Yet Slade were still skinheads when they released their second album, ‘Play It Loud’, in November 1970. By this time, Chandler had moved the band onto Polydor Records, also assuming responsibility for the group’s production. Slade themselves were also working hard at writing their own material. Although it had once again failed to chart, ‘Play It Loud’ was and remains an underrated piece in Slade’s catalogue. Holder’s voice was beginning to show its great potential and songs like ‘Shape of Things to Come’ (the records first single), ‘Raven’, ‘Dapple Rose’ and ‘Know Who You Are’ (which also was released as a single) offered solid proof of the band’s talent. SIDE A: “Raven” (Holder/Lea/Powell) – 2:37 “See Us Here” (Holder/Lea/Powell) – 3:12 “Dapple Rose” (Lea/Powell) – 3:31 “Could I” (Griffin/Royer) – 2:45 “One Way Hotel” (Holder/Lea/Powell) – 2:40 “Shape of Things to Come” (Mann/Weil) – 2:18 SIDE B: “Know Who You Are” (Holder/Lea/Hill/Powell) – 2:54 “I Remember” (Lea/Powell) – 2:56 “Pouk Hill” (Holder/Lea/Powell) – 2:24 “Angelina” (Neil Innes) – 2:50 “Dirty Joker” (Lea/Powell) – 3:27 “Sweet Box” (Lea/Powell) – 3:25 NME magazine reviewed the album upon release. “Aggressive – that’s what the music and vocalising of Slade seems to be, though they vary the volume with great skill, at times quiet, then turning it up and shouting at the listener as in “Know Who You Are”. They also bark out a love song to “Angelina”, and get a good rhythm going with handclaps on “Dirty Joker”, and on “Sweet Box” they attack the music ferociously with guitars and voices. Of the more tuneful items (and the tune isn’t given much of a chance on most tracks) is “Could I”. The lead vocalist is inclined to shout too much, but then, maybe that is the appeal of the group. Pity their names and the instruments they play aren’t mentioned on the sleeve, where only their pictures appear. Chas Chandler gets the credit of producing.” In August 1991, Q Magazine reviewed CD re-issues of Beginnings, Play It Loud and Slade Alive! in one review, using the opening line “Three re-issues from the Slade archive that cover their pre-Merry Xmas japery”. For Play It Loud, a rating of two stars was given, with the review stating “By 1970’s Play It Loud, they’d dropped the ‘Ambrose’ and succumbed to record company ideas, adopting skinhead garb, while giving their sound a tighter groove, best illustrated by the single of that moment, ‘The Shape of Things to Come’, which led the music press into clamour for non-glamour and a Next Big Thing tag. Some 20 years on, the track still sounds exciting and belligerent but the rest lacks real fire.” Record Mirror magazine reviewed the single “Know Who You Are” upon release, “Chas Chandler, ex-Animal bassist, states categorically that this group will make it. But then he’s said that before about Jimi Hendrix. Lost momentarily in a skinhead scene, this group is basically most musicianly. This is a strange, staccato sort of production, lead voice stamping, as in bovver boots, on the lyrics. Stark simplicity behind. The effect is very good indeed. Darn near slayed me – chart chance.” NME reviewed the “Know Who You Are” single upon release, “A powerful item from the skinhead group, making its Polydor debut. The lyric is forcefully delivered, virtually snarled at time. It’s a hard-hitting piece of philosophy with a walloping beat, which explodes into a wall of sound in the title hook. Insistent and gripping, but limited in its appeal.” NME reviewed the “Shape of Things To Come” single upon release, “The Midlands group whose main claim to fame is their skinheads. But in this rip-roaring rocker, the quartet also display abundant musical ability. The fervently shouted solo vocal rides above the thunderous beat and raucous guitar sounds, to create a dynamism and a fiery attack reminiscent of the early days of The Who.” The fan trivia of the title order is upside-down and includes a twist at the end of the album similar to a Jig-Saw Puzzle arranged within the production. The order for listening is Side One: Sweet Box, Dirty Joker, Angelina, Pouk Hill, I Remember, Know Who You Are, Side Two: The Shape of Things To Come, One Way Hotel, Could I, Raven, See Us Here, Dapple Rose. Backward song titles improve the overall impression of the album, probably, as originally conceived by the band, although, The Shape of Things to Come, appears to be the best hit title opening, and other arrangements are possible. CREDITS: Slade Noddy Holder – lead vocals, rhythm guitar Dave Hill – lead guitar Jim Lea – bass guitar, violin Don Powell – drums Additional credits Chas Chandler – producer George Chkiantz – engineer Anton Mathews – mixing engineer Gered Mankowitz – photography Hamish and Gustav – sleeve design Released: 28 November 1970 Label: Polydor (UK) Producer: Chas Chandler Notes: Manufactured by Polydor Recotds Ltd., London Printed and made by E. J. Day Group, London and Bedford A: 1-3, 5 Barn Music/Schroeder Music 4, 6 Screen Gems-Columbia Music B: 1-3, 5, 6 Barn Music/Schroeder Music 4 S. Bron Music Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.