Slade : Crackers Christmas Album – Smokey White Vinyl Edition
Slade : Merry Christmas Everybody : Snowflake Marble 12 inch Vinyl
BMG Records : 2022
Well in the UK it is not Christmas until Noddy Holder says it is! As it is now December I think it is safe to say Christmas is here!
The Slade Crackers album is one that I thought at the time was the worst idea Slade could ever have had. I thought it was a real career low point back in 1985. The awful point of my opinionated view back then was I has made up my mind without even hearing anything from it.
It should have been obvious that with Slade’s rock n roll party attitude and the way they had turned the Reading Festival in 1980 into literally a festive event in August that this would be one hell of a party album.
The fact is this album rocks. Dave Hill and Noddy Holder guitars shine in an almost 80s metal sheen. The (then) new recordings of ‘Cum on Feel The Noize’ and ‘Get Down an Get With It’ are just fabulous. Slade were a band that made the audience feel they were at the football club terraces so songs like Hi Ho Silver Lining, You’ll Never Walk alone sound like Slade classics here.
I use to go to the Birmingham Odeon in the 1980s for Slade’s Christmas Concerts, they were a riot and tremendous fun.
Now thanks to BMG the album is back and I realise now what I have missed all those years ago.
Phil Aston | Now Spinning Magazine
