The first album I ever owned was ‘Sladest’ the 1973 released compilation album by Slade. It came with a second hand cassette recorder my mother picked up for me for my 7th birthday and as such it left a truly indelible mark on my life.

Of the ten 7” singles featured here in this soon to be released box set from BMG the A sides of the first six singles were all featured on ‘Sladest’, so there’s no way I could feel anything other than total delight when listening to the likes of ‘Coz I Love You’ and ‘Gudbuy T’Jane’ and the only thing that kind of disappoints me is that the likes of ‘Look What You Dun’ and ‘Get Down And Get With It’ aren’t included too.

Still you can’t have everything I suppose, its just that after the lavish ‘When Slade Rocked The World’ LP box set released by Salvo back in 2015 which contained a cornucopia of wonderful Slade ephemera from the 1971 -1975 era the fact that nine of the ten singles contained within this set also draw from the same period I do have a real sense of deja-vu when revisiting these songs so soon after, and again if you are going to focus on this period and not include the seismic ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ single then you do start to wonder what BMG are really trying to achieve with this release.

The answer I guess lies in the fact that those nine singles all come housed in internationally released picture sleeves, complete (where applicable) with non-album B sides; songs like the acoustic stomp of ‘My Life Is Natural’, the Kinks-y pop of ‘Kill ‘Em At The Hot Club Tonite’ and the simply superb ‘Wonderin’ Y’, a song Noel Gallagher must have heard many times over when composing most of the ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ album.  Once again though these tracks have all been released previously on the expanded Salvo versions of the corresponding Slade albums, so it really does boil down to the fact that if you are a Slade completist if the tenth “promo only” 7” of ‘Night Starvation’ is really worth the admission price for this set?

Look, I’ll admit I’ve already pre-ordered a copy of ‘Feel The Noize’, but if you are something of a more casual fan there are certainly much more cost-effective ways of getting these songs. You just won’t have the pic sleeves or the (ahem) flip-top box.

Slade’s music is timeless, and (largely) faultless, they are THE BAND I go to whenever I lose faith in life, plus as I once got caught with me trousers down by Noddy Holder at an Ozzy gig in Birmingham Odeon I do feel like we connected that day. Oh and please remember Slade are for life not just for Christmas, but there’s certainly nothing stopping you adding this box set to your Christmas list.

Buy it Here

Author: Johnny Hayward