Joey Ramone once said of Slade "I spent most of the early 70s listening to Slade Alive! thinking to myself, "Wow - this is what I want to do. I want to make that kind of intensity for myself. A couple of years later I was at CBGB's doing my best Noddy Holder." & Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols said "Slade never compromised. We always had the feeling that they were on our side. I don't know but I think we were right."

Considering that I'm generally a pretty serious & intense about politics & culture it might surprise some to find out that Slade are one of my all time favourite groups. I often reckon that particularly to that Xmas Song I reckon most people seem to think of Slade as jovial, jokey & something of a novelty. But if you move past that one song you'd find a hard rocking band that produced three minute blasts of back to basics foot stomping rock 'n' roll anthems performed with individualistic flair such as Noddy Holder's sideburns & David Hill's haircut & liking for wearing platform boots. Pretty much Slade were the proto of what came later that decade packaged as punk rock & as far as I'm concerned Slade are just as punk as the Buzzcocks or the Ramones. As Paul Weller said of Slade ""The whole punk rock thing really happened because of bands such as Slade and the like; rock bands that wouldn't back off."

As for being something of a 'novelty' band hmm do 'novelty bands put out songs out such as this or this or this. Sure Slade were better known for their foot stomping anthems such as Mama weer all crazee now, Get Down and Get With It & of course Cum On Feel The Noize. They ain't novelty songs they're all time great rock anthems & in the case of Cum On Feel The Noize has been covered by the likes of Oasis & influenced at least one Ramones riff.

Slade's influence can be heard with bands such as The Ramones & Oasis as well as bands such as ACDC & Motley Crew.

To me Slade were Punk as any Punk band as they were one of the one of the greatest exponents of unpretentious. no-bullshit, fuck you, in your face, rock & rock bands & it's a shame there ain't more bands like them these days.