The Sweet and Slade GLive Guildford November 2012

I am sad to say I never got to see The Sweet in their hey day. Around that time I was still quite young and only got to go to gigs that were a stones throw away from my home and sadly they never played locally. I must admit that when I found out that they were supporting Slade at the GLive  in the form of Andy Scott and others I didn’t know what to expect, I know from being a Slade fan that fans don’t take kindly to having a lead singer replaced and if a living lead singer is still sorely missed from the original line up after so many years I am guessing that goes double when the singer is no longer with us.

 

Any fears I had were blown away the instant the Sweet started their set. The hits were there, some HUGE suprise covers were there that really worked and the original  Sweet sound (although this may be hard to imagine unless you have seen them lately) was most definately there !!  Lead vocalist Pete Lincoln was engaging to watch and his vocals were spot on and the band themselves were musically tight.

Visually they were good to watch but maybe just a little bit more over the top showmanship wouldn’t have gone amiss but that would be my only criticism of an otherwise amazing set.

The venue itself was packed out and was seated which meant a lot of people, just, er, sat ….. but by the encore several of us had left our seats and were rocking in the aisles to Action and Ballroom Blitz 🙂

I also saw Slade drummer Don Powell watching from the wings during the early part of the show so he must have been digging it too !

At the interval we were told the band would be pleased to sign stuff so I grabbed a copy of their new cd The New York Connection an album of covers produced by Andy Scott, and got him to sign it. You could have knocked me down with a feather when he said ‘I saw you, you were sitting in the front row werent you? You cant miss that can you?’ he concluded pointing to my red hair ! I told him that seeing as I was sitting up the other end from him that he must have amazing eyesight ! Was  I chuffed? Er yes, just a little bit ! Of course I was !

 

Now for Slade. As just mentioned I was in the front row, right in front of Dave Hills usual spot but by this point there was no sitting down for me and my friends and I stood by the stage waiting for them to come on.

I have now seen the current line up of Slade 3 times and last night I noticed that there seems to have been a real shift in dynamic and I would be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed the same ……

Someone recently asked what Slade were like these days. I (half ) joked that the crowd out sings the lead vocalist , Don is as great as he ever was and it really was all about Dave these days who never fails to disappoint.

Andy Scott had previously pointed out as he dedicated a song to Mick Tucker and Brian Connolly (no mention of Steve Priest !)  that without them he wouldnt be here now and times move on and he is right.

I have said previously that Mal McNulty has gigantic shoes to fill and I can’t imagine how that feels for him, I can only imagine he must have very thick skin otherwise he wouldnt be able to continue with the band.

I wish however he would drop the annoying habit of talking in his normal voice and then introducing the songs in a very bad impression of Nods voice ….. OI MAL ! NO!

However what I noticed last night that hasnt been so obvious before was that he and bass player John Berry, seemed more ….. hmm, struggling for the right word here, disjointed maybe?  than at past gigs.

Dave Hill was even more noticeably doing the whole master of ceremonies bit , which is and always has been the remit of any lead vocalist of a band ….

Slade fans know all the words and sing the whole way through, that much hasnt changed, but instead of interacting with the crowd Mal seems content to sing (quite inaudibly at times) and then stop to allow the crowd to sing in his place ….

Some Slade fans would say thats not a bad thing (Nothing against Mal again, just HUGE shoes to fill) but lets face it lead vocalists are lead vocalists cos they like to be in the spotlight, they like to LEAD they wouldnt be doing it otherwise !

On many occasion he would go and stand near the back by the drums while Dave ‘played’  the crowd.

From where I was standing, the audience were split in two halves, our end were getting all the action, we were all heavily involved with whatever command Dave had just given us (stamp, clap raise your hands in the air) and as soon as Dave left and went over to the other side of the stage the fans over that side did the same. Mals attempts at getting a bit of audience participation going just wasn’t happening from what I could see.

John Berry also spent much of the set standing back from it all (fantastic trousers though it has to be said !)

Both he and Mal barely raised a smile between them though throughout the whole show which was noticably different from The Sweet members who were obviously having a blast.

For me and I imagine many Slade fans these days it really is about meeting up with our friends, the communal sing a long and the enjoyment of watching the showman that is Dave Hill, who was at his mischievous best last night and who is well worth the ticket money on his own for that very reason ( I had to chuckle at the ‘prison white trainers’ he was wearing, so used to his more flamboyant footwear !) but it is sad that some of the energy and feel good factor was not present from the other band members. If The Sweet can do it and can ‘move one’ successfully then why not Slade?

Is it time for a new line up?

I imagine many would say why bother but their continued popularity means people still want to see them with or without Nod so it would be great if they could come up with the full package as other bands including the Sweet have proven that this can be done!

Musically I have to say they werent as tight as The Sweet and a couple of musos in the audience pointed out that on more than one occasion the key had to be changed to allow Mal to sing, which given the time this line up has been together is a worry and another indication that things are not quite right in the camp but I have to say for me personally , to echo what I have just stated, for me it IS about the friendship, it IS about the communal sing a long and it damn sure IS all about seeing Mr.Hill at his over the top best and I had a thoroughly enjoyable night !

A couple of overhead quotes made me chuckle and dispair in equal measures after the gig :-

1. ‘ where were Noddy and Jimmy?’

2. ‘I heard someone say that was the original bass player but he looks a bit young’

Best quote of the evening though was from Dave Hill himself who said ‘ We have had a lot of good times and we are going to carry on having good times’ Amen to that H !!

Keep On Rocking!