1977 The Year of the Single – Sounds Magazine

1977 The Year of the Single – Sounds Magazine.

by Pete Clemons

What a coincidence. As 2017 draws to an end I had been rooting through a box and came across a fascinating article produced by Sounds music magazine from December 1977.

The article’s title was called 1977 the year of the single. And it attempted to document just what had happened during that year in terms of seven inch (or 12 inch) record sales.

As far as the music scene went it was quite a year. We had lost both Elvis Presley, Marc Bolan along with the heart of US rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was also the year David Bowie dueted with Bing Crosby with the song Peace on Earth.

Top selling singles from 1977 included Wings with ‘Mull of Kintyre’, David Soul and ‘Don’t Give Up on Us’, ‘Hotel California’ by The Eagles, Boney M, ‘Ma Baker’ and ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’ by Abba. While top albums included ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac, ‘Bat out of Hell’ by Meatloaf, Steely Dan ‘Aja’, ‘Animals’ Pink Floyd and ‘Exodus’ by Bob Marley. And well over one hundred million vinyl sales were recorded that year in the UK alone.

Other key events in UK music that year saw The Clash, The Jam, The Stranglers, The Damned all release their debut albums. The Sex Pistols, who also released their one and only album during 1977, were twice released from record contracts as both the EMI and A+M record labels both sacked the band.

But away for the headlines, underneath all that, something seemed to explode and it was as though everyone wanted to put a band together and create music or even go as far as to produce it all for themselves. Classic records just tumbled out week after week. It truly was exciting times.

And it wasn’t just the quality of the song. It was the depth and breadth of the music being played. You had disco, rock, reggae, electronic and of course you had punk rock.

In case they are not clear I have reproduced some of the words from the Sounds article below. With the singles in their list, I felt that they certainly captured the mood well:

The year of the single? You’re not kidding. Last year, when the idea of a top twenty singles was broached, only a couple of the Sounds staff were remotely interested. Now they’re so hot on the idea of seven (or twelve – this year also being the year of overstatement) inches of black, purple, sky blue pink or whatever vinyl, that they’ve come up with a list of a hundred of the little bleeders.

And the article concluded:……….

And of course, the article continued, there must be another two or three hundred that probably deserved to have had their picture in here too.

Hopefully the pictures and the scans I have taken of the article reproduce ok and tell the story. It did seem as though Sounds magazine, at that time, was all about the album.

But 40 years on!. It all seems so long ago, and it is. But then sometimes, when you hear some of these songs – it isn’t. As, still today, a lot of these great tunes are still greatly revered.

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The Magical Mystery Tour 1967

THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR 1967

By Pete Clemons

1967 had been a busy and creative year for The Beatles. The first part of the year had seen them complete and release the Sgt Peppers album. And then later on in the year they set about creating the film and the accompanying music for the audience splitting and controversial Magical Mystery Tour.

It was based on the bands childhood memories of village fetes and coach trips from Liverpool to Blackpool in order to see the lights and where the coaches were loaded up with crates of beer and the passengers were accompanied by an accordion player or similar. These memories were mixed with the bands perceived view of the world around them.

Although, in hindsight, the clue was in the film’s title, it certainly split audiences when it was first aired during the Christmas period 1967. But whatever you thought of the film there was no denying the wonderful soundtrack that underpinned it all.

This black and white film, repeated in colour during January 1968 (for those who had compatible TV sets), had been hurriedly selected for a slot that appeared on Boxing Day between the Petula Clark Xmas Special and a Norman Wisdom film. Apparently all that the schedulers knew was that it was a film starring The Beatles. And they thought they were on to a sure fire winner. So in it went without any real prior knowledge of what it was actually about or the furore it would create. And at 8:35pm, a quarter of the country settled back and tuned in to watch it.

Ideas for the film began to emerge just prior to the death of Brian Epstein during the August of 1967. Paul McCartney had already been experimenting with film by way of a ‘cini 8’ camera he had bought himself. Spurred on by Paul a ‘script’ was drafted out as a series of sequences on a pie chart. It had no real correlation but both Paul and Brian were enthusiastic at the format. And Paul was even more spurred on to bring the film to fruition after the loss of Brian.

The finished film was actually unscripted with much of it being ‘ad libbed’. As Paul mentioned some time later ‘what you were about to see was a product of our imagination. But you couldn’t add that as a disclaimer to the beginning of it all as it would have spoiled the effect’.

The coach passengers were a mixture of the band themselves, a selection of jobbing actors along with members of the general public who were given just 48 hours, after receipt of invitation, to decide if they would be available or not. Other actors and artists of note such as Victor Spinetti, Nat Jackley, Ivor Cutler were also invited.

The coach journey itself left London on 11 September 1967. And even that involved the spontaneous decision to travel in the direction of Cornwall. The film and the coach terminated in Newquay ten days, or so, later.

As with previous Beatles films Ringo Starr was given a central role. As a kind of parody, Ringo was often seen arguing with his Auntie on the coach trip as a kind of filler between the sequences. John Lennon was also prominent throughout.

The following day, after it’s airing, Paul chose to appear the David Frost show ‘Frost Reports’ to defend the film. Basically the older generation had been looking for a plot and a storyline. While the younger generation, particularly children it later appeared, were enthralled by it all. There wasn’t a plot or anything such like. It was just a series of events segued. George Harrison described it as an elaborate home movie.

The film itself may or may not have been great. I guess that depends on where you are in life when you watch it. But it did open doors. It was abstract, it was imaginative and it was original. It also captured the growing psychedelic scene. Although The Beatles may not have created it, they were well aware of it and became a conduit for it all. All in all it was a random and surreal view of life as seen, through the eyes of The Beatles.

Magical Mystery Tour Memories (Full Documentary)

The Magical Mystery Tour (Beatles Liverpool Tour)

Magical Mystery Tour EP Booklet

The Songs of Slade

The Songs of Slade.

by Pete Clemons

You know Christmas is on the way when you start hearing the perennial hit ‘Merry Xmas Everyone’ on your radio and TV. It was released in 1973 and it was Slade’s 6th number 1 hit. It has since charted 8 times over the last 5 decades and the whole country seems to know it. But there was so much more to the song’s writers Jim Lea and Noddy Holder. And, despite the song being kind to them in royalties over the years, it really should not be their lasting legacy.

I often bore folk with the story of the time Mrs C and I both attended the same Slade concert at the City Centre Club during the 1970s. Only she wasn’t Mrs C back then. In fact we didn’t even know each other. But we both remember the fantastic gig Slade put on performing a host of their anthemic hits.

Going back to their beginnings, Slade were formerly known as Ambrose Slade and before then The N’Betweens’. Slade were a Midlands band originating from the Walsall and Wolverhampton areas and their success was far from gained overnight. It began around 1966 with Don Powell and Dave Hill who put together a band that played a mixture of Motown and Beatles covers.



The N’Betweens’ signed to Fontana during February 1969 and it was soon after that the Ambrose Slade was suggested. An album of largely covers titled ‘Beginnings’ was released during May. Soon after, Fontana introduced the band to Chas Chandler, who had been the original bass player for The Animals and was the man credited in tempting Jimi Hendrix to the UK and proposing ideas for much of his onstage persona. Chas suggested that the band abbreviate their name to Slade and gave them a look that involved cropped hair and boots.

Slade’s first TV appearance came during May 1969 and saw the band give an early demonstration of their versatility. They first performed a Beatles cover ‘Martha My Dear’ where Jim Lea played violin. They then played an original tune called ‘Wild Winds are Blowing’ where Jim had switched to bass guitar.

A second album ‘Play it Loud’ was released during 1970 on Polydor records. Hugely different from their debut album in as much as it was almost all self-written, and it was at this point you can start to hear the distinctive sound that Slade were famed for beginning to develop.

The skinhead phase kind of backfired on Slade as, despite their reputation as an energetic live band, promoters declined to book them as their appearance gave rise to fears of the perceived audience the band could attract.

Slade ditched the threatening look and, instead, concentrated on their stage presence. And they began to transfer that energy onto record. This masterstroke saw Slade get their first hit single. The record, released during May 1971, was a reworking of a Little Richard tune called ‘Get Down and Get With It’. It was a popular song from their live shows that featured an exuberance of foot stomping and hand clapping that would become Slade’s trademark.

Each subsequent hit became a group composition written by the Holder/Lea team. They had developed an ‘in your face’ pop/rock style fronted by the powerful vocals of Noddy Holder. And between, what was left of 1971 and 1974 the band, namely Don Powell – drums, Dave Hill – guitar and vocals, Noddy Holder – guitar and vocals and Jim Lea - bass, piano, violin and vocals, could do no wrong as far as chart success was concerned.

October 1971 saw the release of the single ‘Coz I Luv You’, the first Holder/Lea composition, and coming with it was a whole new way of spelling by way of a fresh new vocabulary. With Jim Lea once again on violin ‘Coz I Luv You’ spent a total of 4 weeks at number 1 in the charts.

1972 saw ‘Look Wot You Done’ which, given the success of its predecessor, was seen as disappointing as it only reached number 4. Guitarist Dave Hill suggesting that the piano might have played a part in this. ‘Take Me Bak Ome’ took the band back to the number 1 spot. But with it came protests from teachers about the level of grammar being used.

Next up was ‘Mama Were all Crazee Now’ originally titled ‘My My Were All Crazy’ which again topped the charts followed by ‘Gudbye To Jane’ originally titled ‘Hello T’Jane’ which reached number 2. Both these singles came off the LP ‘Slayed’ which topped the album charts when released during November 1972.

By now the popular music scene was becoming dominated by glam and glitter and, for T.V. and live appearances the band was decked out in platform shoes and top hats. On top of that, and by the time the next hit ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’ was released, which incidentally, entered the charts straight in at number 1, each of the band members of Slade were sporting really long side burns and their hair had grown really long. And as the hits continued an appearance on Top of the Pops could almost guarantee an audience of 18 to 20 million viewers.

1973 also saw Slade’s next single ‘Skweeze me Pleeze me’ also enter the charts at number 1 but a road accident that left drummer Don Powell critically injured put the bands future in jeopardy.

Several of Slade’s big hits were non-album tracks. So the second half of 1973 saw a compilation LP, ‘Sladest’, gather together all those songs along with other related material.

Toward the end of 1973 however there then began a change of sound as Slade went for a more melodic approach with their next hit ‘My Friend Stan’ which made number 2. The single, for me at least, sounded subdued compared to previous releases. Maybe it was the switch to bass by Noddy and the reintroduction of Jim Lea’s piano again. Having said that, it was the end of 1973 that saw the release of ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ and, as the whole country knows, that saw Slade back at their most raucous once again.

Slade’s next album, ‘Old New Borrowed and Blue’, released February 1974 inevitably hit number 1. It included ‘My Friend Stan’ along their next single release ‘Everyday’ issued later that year. Again ‘Everyday’ stuck to that slight change of style as Noddy was once more on bass and Jim on piano. The tune still had anthemic lyrics but was in the more in the style of a ballad. And it continued the bands domination of the charts, hitting number three. A succession of single then appeared throughout 1974.

The 1975 song ‘How Does it Feel’ marked, I feel, the start of a change of fortunes for Slade. It was yet another ballad that this time saw Dave Hill on bass and Jim, still on piano. Despite it making only number 15 in the charts it was actually a great tune. In fact Noel Gallagher was once quoted as saying that it was ‘one of the best ever pop songs’.

By 1977 Slade were playing smaller venues due to the change of wind in the air on the music scene. Their records were now being released on Chas Chandler’s own Barn Record label as opposed to their previous Polydor label. The next excursion into the charts, during this period, came in October 1977 when they performed a barn storming version of ‘That’s all right Mama’ which they dedicated to Elvis Presley who had recently passed away. But the difference in the bands appearance was stark. On a TV appearance the wild hair had mainly disappeared. In fact Dave Hill’s head had been shaved. Plus the band was all playing Gibson guitars.

A review of one of the band's 1978 concerts described a new anthem ‘Give us a Goal’ as being ‘of considerable interest to rabid footy fans and of no interest to anyone else’. ‘Give us a Goal’ was one of the last songs in association with and ended the long partnership of Chas Chandler as producer.

By 1980 Slade were almost at the point of calling it a day when suddenly fate played an important part in an upturn in fortunes for the band. Firstly, after Bon Scott passed away, Noddy Holder was approached as being a possible replacement as AC/DC vocalist. Noddy remained loyal to Slade despite the position they found themselves in at that time. Secondly, Ozzy Osbourne had pulled out of the Reading Festival and Slade stepped in at short notice. They took their opportunity well and played a triumphant set in front of a large contingent of ‘heavy metal’ fans. All of a sudden, Slade were back. And this resurgence in popularity also acted as a catalyst for their next hit ‘Bring the House Down’ in 1981. Another single appeared in 1983. Back to their anthemic best the ballad called ‘My Oh My’ turned out to be the bands biggest hit since 1974 featured Jim Lea on piano.

Slade’s resurgence continued into 1984 with yet another hit. This was titled ‘Run Runaway’ with Jim Lea back on violin. This would be the bands last UK hit but ironically it would be the band’s first top 20 hit in the U.S. – an achievement they had unsuccessfully chased for a number of years.

Another crack to top the Christmas chart was attempted during 1984. Titled ‘All Join Hands’ the single, featuring Jim Lea on both piano and bass, peaked at number 15. Slade’s last top of the pops appearance came during 1991 and the classic line up came to an end during 1993.

But Slade never split. Ever since, Dave Hill and Don Powell have steadfastly kept the flame alive, performing regularly with their band.

As a band Slade had, and still have, the ability to create a memorable atmosphere. They have also demonstrated over the years just what a very versatile band they were. Slade, I think you will agree, are far more than Christmaaaaaas.