Slade Inflamed

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.com

Welcome to the 15th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

This time out, our subject is Slade, a British band who are justifiably legendary in their homeland. From 1971 to 1975, these self-described “yobboes” from Wolverhampton in the Midlands absolutely ruled the UK and European charts with one hard-rocking, rafter-raising singalong after another, lodging 17 straight singles in the UK Top 20, including six Number Ones, three of which came in at Number 1, the first act to do so since The Beatles and the last to do so before The Jam. As the incredible 1975 show from San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom below attests, few acts could touch Slade onstage, either.

But despite numerous attempts to break through in the US — and even after acquiring devoted fanbases in several American cities — Slade never managed to reach higher than #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 (a placing they achieved with 1972’s “Gudbuy T’Jane”) during their UK glory days. In 1983, however, Quiet Riot’s hit cover of their classic “Cum On Feel the Noize” gave the band an unexpected commercial boost in the States, resulting in big MTV hits with “My Oh My” and “Run Runaway,” the latter of which actually made it to #20 in the US.

Both CROSSED CHANNELS hosts are both massive Slade fans — in fact, Dan is currently running a multi-part interview with Slade frontman Noddy Holder on his Substack — but growing up on opposite sides of the Atlantic meant that our respective introductions to Slade and their music were vastly different. We get into our origin stories on this episode, as well as our favorite songs and albums from the Slade discography, and how the act’s growth as songwriters did not yield equivalent success; we also debate the relative merits of Slade In Flame, the gritty 1975 film that follows the travails of an up-and-coming 1960s band called Flame (who are, of course, played by the members of Slade). Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Slade In Flame will be rereleased in UK theatres this spring, as well as released on Blu-Ray for the first time… though only one of us is at all excited about this news.

As always, the full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in all its Slade glory, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them!