SLADE ! ! !
Tokyo is a wonderful city and as one gets to know it, one discovers the hidden places in this strange and beautiful city.
Asakusa is a neighbourhood in the city known for the most famous Buddhist temple in Tokyo and the narrow side streets packed with tiny shops selling just about everything you could wish for ! ! !
The area next to the Sumida river is lined with house boats and there is a thriving alternative life style there which gives the area a vibrant and carefree atmosphere.
SLADE – So why am I talking about a neighbourhood in Tokyo when this post is about Slade ? ? ?
Well part of this neighbourhood hosts a flea market called Sumida Park Flea Market, and in the flea market is the shop of my friend Hiroki san.
I do not know how old Hiroki san is, maybe 200 years old maybe 20 years old. Who knowa ? ? ?
He has a stall in the market where he sells second hand Music CDs and he specialise in western rock.
He has an incredible knowledge of Western CD releases and you can spend several hours with him talking about music and groups, and the times they lived in, and their CD releases and as a young and innocent 18 year old when I first moved to Tokyo, I spent many hours with him discussing music.
My dad has a great collection of Soul, Motown, Gospel and Jazz and also Western Rock and from my dad I gained a lot of knowledge. Hiroki san eventually admitted my knowledge of western music – after some time – and we became friends and spent many hours on Sunday afternoons talking about western music of the 1960 to 1980 decades, drinking tea and playing cards and talking to the collectors who stopped by the store. 
One day, I meet Hiroki san at his stall and he said to me . . .
“What do you know about Slade?”
“Slade ? ? ? ?” I replied
“Slade are the best ever British rock band, there would be no Visual Kei in Japan if there was no Slade ! ! ! “
He sold me Slade’s Greatest Hits, and I rushed home to load it onto my iPod. Gosh ! ! ! My life changed ! ! ! How could such a wonderful band nor be famous in Japan – or even actually anywhere outside the UK ? ? ?
They are now part of my life, and my running playlist includes them at a critical moment ! ! !
At 17 minutes in the playlist I arrive at bottom of the hill in Meguro – I dig my heels in – take deep breath , and rush up the hill shouting . . . .
“I say you’re so young ….you’re so young ! ! ! ”
They are so Great ! ! !
Gud Bye Ta Jane ! ! ! The Fabulous Slade
Next Week Mr P and I will debut our exciting new He Said – She Said Concept ! ! !
Dont worry we will not ask you to look into our eyes ! ! !
Dont Miss it ! ! !
The 'Spill 
How funny ! Slade !
They had several number 1’s in Britain in the early 70s and were really quite popular but they were regarded by my pals at the time as a “teenybopper” band ( harshly in retrospect) as they became associated with the “glam” scene ( hence the costumes).
This was an anathema to my schoolmates, we being intellectuals and all that. I was a bit more open to such things and purchased one or two of their singles.
Noddy Holder has become a bit of an institution here and the band have been rehabilitated to a certain extent (particularly on account of their Christmas song which is played ALL the bloody time at Christmas nowadays).
Big in Japan, eh ?
Chortle !
Hi P Sensei ! ! ! !
They are actually not big in Japan -but they should be ! ! ! They are a great band ! ! !
My second favourite if them is . . … . .
I will happily confess that I never liked them. Some of my friends did but the rest of us thought that they were just chart stuff. The only successful early 70s chart acts that really ever managed to appeal to my circle of friends were David Bowie and Rod ‘n’ The Faces, maybe very early Alice Cooper too. Most people I knew thought that Marc Bolan had sold out when T.Rex had hits and became all teenybopper.
There were a few acts that made it from the underground to the charts, Alex Harvey, Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Mott the Hoople, Status Quo, etc, even Lou Reed, briefly, but hardly any that went the other way.
It is funny how the split between chart success and underground credibility came about. If you go back to the 60s, there wasn’t a split. Then, after the end of the Summer of Love, it started to happen, mainly because people like Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Hendrix, Traffic and others just seemed to stop getting the airplay, mainly because their music changed and it wasn’t airwave-friendly.
Hi Carol
I think I am lucky as I do not have these thoughts and only known the music with out the whole social luggage ! ! !
I love Deep Purple also ! ! !
I would like to learn more about the spilt you talk about.
Did you know that the most popular club activity for school girls in Japan is the brass band ? ? ?
this is a school band with a Deep Purple melody – i hope you like it ! ! !
Thank you for listening and reading and taking the time to comment
I’m with Carole, i never liked them much but i don’t dislike them either. Their big hits were on the radio over here, and Gudbye to Jane isn’t a bad one. It must piss them off a bit that Cum on Feel the Noize was a big hit for Quit Riot, but they probably didn’t mind the royalties either.
Hi Hoshino Sakura, you have given me the idea for a post. I shall work on it over the weekend.
Hi there Hoshino Sakura, agree with the other’s comments Slade weren’t really taken as a serious “rock” band. Their Christmas hit, which must make them huge royalties worked against them compared to the credible music of Zep, Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple et al who never had designs on chart success.
I’m sounding old now but the beauty of music then was putting an LP on and truly listening to it and reading the cover, the inner sleeve notes and of course the lyrics; three and a half minute “popular” songs weren’t proper music 😉
What a lovely post, and what a fine rock’n’roll band they were. I learned the violin at school, which wasn’t a very hip thing to do, and I remember being very happy that their first UK number 1, Coz I Luv Ufeatured Jimmy Lea on violin. Their deliberate misspelling foreshadowed text messaging by almost three decades….
Their first hit was a version of Little Richard’s Get Down Get With It and when their two or three years of chart domination had finished, there were still some good ones. Far Far Away I really like.
I think your friend was on to something.
Hi DP ! ! !
Thanks for reading the post and commenting. I am really pleased you liked it ! ! ! I only have the greatest hits album but all the tracks you mention are on it so I know them. I really think they wrote great tracks ! ! !
I was never a Slade fan but I enjoyed reading your post because it’s a fascinating insight into life in Japan, and you write so well! So thank you (but I’m not converted)!
Hi Ali ! ! !
Thanks for reading and commenting ! ! ! I am pleased you found the post interesting ! ! !
Good points all around. Truly apetpciared.
Always loved Slade, right back from the childhood excitement of their new releases on Top Of The Pops. Saw them once, in Liverpool, on one of their we-never-really-went-away comeback tours in about 1980 – they tore the roof off the place. Jim Lea did a violin solo that would have shamed most of the rock guitarists of the time, ending up with him bent forward from the waist, supporting himself on his two feet and his chin on the violin whose head was braced on the floor. For me, they are in the same spectrum as AC/DC, Dr Feelgood, B52s, Kiss, Suzi Quatro etc, standing on the crack between singalong pop and po-faced rock.
‘You told me,
Fool firewater won’t hurt me…’
Gosh I wish I could have seen them live they sounded fantastic ! ! !
This is the most pleasant blog I’ve ever come across, all thanks to Slade. Yes, they were great!!
Hello Sakura san
I was a huge slade fan in the early seventies. The first concert I ever went to was Slade at Oxford New Theatre in 1973 . I have some of their music on my smartphone now but not much of it survives the skip button. I think it was music for its time. If you like Slade you should also try Sweet,TRex, Mott the Hoople and the Ziggy Stardust Album by David Bowie.