Slade 'Radio Wall Of Sound'

Chart Peak: 21

YouTube

The slightly silly mood of the previous track continues with the last hit by the original incarnation of Slade (not counting re-releases of 'Merry Xmas Everybody' of course), which was released to promote the similarly-titled best-of compilation Wall Of Hits; after one more flop single from the collection, Noddy Holder and Jim Lea retired from music, though a rump version of Slade persists to this day. Of course in their real glory days I wasn't around; the first I remember of them was seeing them on Cheggers Plays Pop or some similar show in the early 1980s and my mother being surprised to see them because they'd been a big band so long ago; indeed this is the only Slade hit I can really say I'm old enough to remember from the time it was in the charts.

'Radio Wall Of Sound' is among the few of the band's hits where Lea takes the lead vocal. Apparently he'd already recorded this for a solo project and Holder's voice didn't suit the key, so he's only an (admittedly unmistakeable) backing singer here, though I presume he also contributes guitars. Somewhat less welcomely, perpetual rock-star wannabe Mike Read plays the part of an inane smarmy disc jockey, although you'd have to admit he's very convincing in the role. The very late-80s hard-rock production (Lea again, but imitating the style of big-name American producers) may have helped contribute to the track's success at the time but it does feel very dated now, and in a way seems not entirely to play to the band's natural strengths: on their best singles Slade were convincing hard-rockers with the best of them but there was something charmingly human about the sound they made together that distinguished them from other heavy bands and made them more accessible to non-metallers. I'd class myself as not being a native hard-rock fan and perhaps that's why this isn't exactly my favourite of theirs, and yet I retain some affection for it probably because I fondly recall liking it at the time. With hindsight, I can see why it might have done more for my thirteen-year-old self, but it wasn't a bad way to go out.

Also appearing on: Now 2
Available on: The Slade Box [Box Set]

Slade 'Run Runaway'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

If there's a them to this side of the record, it's alternate tracks by veteran artists. Slade obviously hadn't been around quite as long as the Stones, but this still finds them ten years after their last Number One single, although they'd just had a near miss with the Christmas Number Two 'My Oh My'.

Whilst that song had crept into the US Top 40, 'Run Runaway' has the honour of being their highest-charting single of all time over there. It doubtless helped that Quiet Riot had raised their profile over there with a couple of cover versions, and apparently it was quite the MTV favourite in its day. Slade having spent much of the late Seventies trying to crack the American market, this isn't really the same sort of thing as their biggest UK hits, featuring a modern-at-the-time production (the clip I've linked to misses the thudding intro) and more of a studio-bound sound. And of course they didn't spell it "Run Runnerweigh" or anything... Despite all this, it's aged unexpectedly well, still capturing some of the charm that made them famous, and backed by Jim Lea's crazy violin playing, a common thread with their first Top 10 hit, 'Coz I Luv You'. In fact, this sounds more Celtic to me than the Big Country record.

Also appearing on: Now 20
Available on: The Very Best Of Slade