The Last Days of Glam

“Thanks for the memory
thanks for it all
Wham bam thank you mam
thanks for the ball”.
Slade – Thanks for the Memory (wham bam thank you mam)




So sang Slade in 1975 when glam was all but dead. It had been a relatively short ride, but a memorable one.

From 1971-1975 everything (musically at least) was tainted by glam rock, from Rod Stewart to The Rolling Stones. Glam Rock came to mean something different to everyone. Ultimately, glam became an opportunity for just about anyone to explore and exploit.

Some good bands had appeared during its twilight period, the most enduring being Cockney Rebel and Queen, but glam rock as a youth movement and a musical sub-genre was essentially over by the end of 1975.

It had been in slow decline since early in 1974. The best of the glam anthems had been and gone and established glam artists had either moved on to new pastures or were simply treading water.

A few artists were hanging on for grim death, trying to keep the whole thing going, but essentially glam was dead, its ability to outrage and shock had long since passed in the eyes of the public and mainstream media.

The last days of glam could almost have been some half drunken pub/club act singing ‘My Way’ to bleary eyed, partied out, disinterested punters for all anyone cared.

It was like a time travelling Sid Vicious catapulted back three years singing his trashy and dare I say ‘punk-glam’ version to a shell shocked audience.

“And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain”.

Maybe Frank Sinatra’s more laid back version would be better suited to the lazy, ‘end of days’ feel of glam’s decline, but Frank is obviously not glam in any way, although I’m sure he would have looked great in satin and tat singing ‘Queen Bitch’.

So ‘Whatever happened to the teenage dream”?

Well it just sort of fizzled out as the kids woke up to other things, eventually showing distain and disinterest in an old sound and style. There was still the odd twitch here and there of the glam corpse, even as late as 1976/77, but by then it really was the end.

With Ziggy now in 'retirement', Bowie went on to create the album ‘Diamond Dogs’, which many interpreted as his farewell to the glam movement. His next incarnation would be as a soul crooner, albeit of the ‘plastic’ variety.

Likewise, Marc Bolan made a move toward soul music, though less successfully than Bowie. A combination of substance abuse, and internal strife all helped derail the career of Bolan and T. Rex, as well as alienating fans with a rapid change of styles.

The band quickly faded from the musical mainstream as their album sales and popularity collapsed. His later work produced rather messy and monotonous records with banal lyrics and recurring riffs.

Slade and the Sweet had hits well into the mid 1970s, but when punk arrived, both bands eventually became passe. In 1977, the Sweet changed their image and sound to be more 'progressive,' while Slade carried on as they were, until they found more commercial success (albeit sporadic) in the 80s.

Mud also continued to have smaller hits for a few years, but their future was in the cabaret and club circuit.

Others searched for integrity in their music, Roxy Music carried on until their 1976 split, although when the band reformed they experienced their greatest period of commercial success in the new wave movement of the early 1980s.

Former keyboardist Brian Eno released a few albums of glam leanings before becoming a pioneer in ambient music and a popular producer.

In the United States, the New York Dolls split in 1975, and Lou Reed and Iggy Pop were doing their own thing in their own way.

Gary Glitter carried on as an even greater parody of himself well into the new millennium, until his decidedly un-musical activities caught up with him.

Glam also-rans like Alvin Stardust and the Glitter Band continued for a while before sliding into semi obscurity/retirement. And even Suzi Quatro, eventually turned to musical theatre and an acting career.

There was a storm on the horizon, moving quickly towards the safe harbour where glam was sheltering. A lot of the glam artists were after all already just the “Flotsam and Jetsam of the Music Biz, the Walking Dead and Has-Beens of the Recent (and Not-So-Recent) past”.

‘Year Zero’ and punk rock was about to end their comfortable state of affairs and calm waters for good.

Even in the glam heyday of 1973 a Melody Maker review of the first Queen LP was captioned ‘The Fag-end of Glam’. So from that point of view it had already out stayed and out played its welcome.

“There were times when he wanted to be a musician, and times he wanted to be a star. That was his main internal struggle”. Producer Tony Visconti said when talking about Marc Bolan, but he could just as easily have been talking about glam rock in general.

A friend of mine stopped buying records after 1975, and didn’t really start again until 1979. He couldn’t give me a reason, possibly a hangover from the sweetness and sickliness of the glam years, or maybe he just lost interest. Who knows?

I left glam rock behind at 12, not really listening too, or thinking about it for a good many years, but it was always there, lingering just below the surface to jump out when I least expected it.

Often during some drunk Christmas or New Year disco, where I would be minding my own business and out would pop Slade over the sound system wishing me a merry Xmas and a glittering ‘Ho Ho Ho’.

It is only now in my middle age that I have come to appreciate the music and leave behind any prejudices that I had and can just simply listen to the songs and enjoy.

So rest in peace glam rock, and sincerely; wham bam thank you Glam, thanks for the ball.

Photo copyright Mick Rock

Slade: Thanks for the Memory (wham bam thank you mam) - Last days of Glam Mix

Life After Glam (part 1)

So with the glam rock years slowly fading into memory - what music was produced by some of its guiding lights?

Slade: Nobody's Fool (a-side) released in 1976 - This song did not chart at all even in the UK, the first Slade song to do so. In fact they didn't have another top 40 hit until 1981.

Sweet: Stairway to the Stars (a-side) released in 1977 - As with Slade this song did not chart in the UK. They would only have one other major hit with Love is Like Oxygen in 1978.

T Rex: Dandy in the Underworld (a-side) released in 1977 - This also didn't chart. For Marc Bolan and T Rex it was a case of diminishing returns as far as chart action was concerned.









I guess the time for the big glam acts to have major hits was over. But I can't help thinking that had the above songs been released in 73 or 74 they would have been top 10.

Slade: Nobody's Fool

Sweet: Stairway to the Stars

T.Rex: Dandy in the Underworld

Turn another page on the Teenage Rampage Now!

Fellow blogger “Steve Does Comics” ran a post a few weeks ago about how certain songs reminded him of comics that he had bought.

One of my own posts explained how I associate Sparks ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us’ with The Avengers # 100 and a holiday in Great Yarmouth.

So with that in mind I thought I would put together my own list of the glam rock songs that remind me of certain comics, magazines or books.

1. Avengers UK # 28 – March 1974

Ah yes the joys of playing truant from school and buying a comic to read in the bus station while Roll Away the Stone by Mott the Hoople plays on someone's portable radio. (Don’t do it kids, besides I got caught so no pocket money for weeks).

Who could resist the kung fu-tastic Shang-Chi bursting through the comic cover and into my young life. And all for 6p.

2. Shiver and Shake – 1973

Rockin and boppin with Frankie Stein and Sweeny Toddler to Mud’s Rocket.

 

3. Raven Sword Mistress of Chaos – 1978

The first book didn’t come out until 1978 but it always reminds me of Bowie’s Rock and Roll Suicide from the Ziggy Stardust album.

There’s nothing like a classic Bowie album on the stereogram and a book about a half naked woman with a sword. I was 15; young; hormones and all that. A great cover illustration by Chris Achilleos was a bonus.

4. Look In - 1973 onwards

The classic British TV related picture and story magazine and the Glitter Band’s Angel Face.

 5. Spider-Man Comics Weekly UK # 109 – March 1975

Great cover – well worth the wait to see the Black Widow in her new and improved costume. Anyway this always makes me think of the Sweet’s Teenage Rampage.

 6. The Three Investigators: The Secret of Terror Castle and others

I bought all this series of books as a kid. My friend Brian and I even tried to set up our own investigating agency. Never quite worked out, The Mystery of the Rickety Gate didn’t have the same ring as the above.

But we enjoyed listening to My Friend Stan by Slade while we were dreaming of becoming great detectives.

"Childhood is a journey through another land, lost to us now, to be found only in memory"

David Essex: Stardust (a-side), Slade: Far Far Away (a-side)

Glam @ the Movies

You would think that glam rock was made for the movies, and to a certain extent it was. 

Movies were a big theme and influence in the whole glam rock sound and look. But in the great scheme of things it didn’t come out very well on the TV or on the big screen.

For a genre that was as bold and brash, bright and glittering as glam rock, most movies connected with it were grim and depressing or just plain crap.

How about this; crooner David Essex dying of a drug OD at the end of ‘Stardust’, and Slade in ‘Flame’ instead of a ‘Help’ style glam romp we got a gritty, cynical drama about the rise and fall of a Northern rock band. 

‘Never too Young to Rock’ was meant to be upbeat and colourful, but ended up being as lukewarm and greasy as the food served in the café shown in the film, even the real actors were bad.

Other films that have attempted to capture some essence of glam include:

Velvet Goldmine

Phantom of the Paradise

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Born To Boogie

Remember Me This Way

Side by Side

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

‘Stardust’ is the theme song from the movie of the same name and is a great 70’s pop song, with a fantastic Chris Spedding guitar solo, up there with the best of the decade.

The tagline to the movie was - “Show me a boy who never wanted to become a rock star and I’ll show you a liar”

Martin Gore of Depeche Mode who covered the song said:

“Firstly it was just a song from my youth. I was never a massive David Essex fan, but I liked a few of his tracks and stardust was one of them, and probably my favourite one. It’s a good emotional song and I think it does sum up, somehow the loneliness of being a rock star at times".

“Ah look what they’ve done to the rock n roll clown.

Ah rock n roll clown, look he’s down on the ground.

Well he used to high fly but he crashed out the sky.

In a stardust fling, hey rock n roll king is down”.

‘Far Far Away’ is a # 2 single from 1974, and is from the movie ‘Slade in Flame’.

From the ‘Songfacts’ website:

“Frontman Noddy Holder penned the song after a long period of touring when he was thinking of home. He told Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie on their BBC Radio 2 show that he was looking out of a hotel window overlooking the Mississippi with Slade's manager Chas Chandler when he uttered, ‘I see the yellow lights go down the Mississippi’ and Chandler said, ‘write that song, now!’ So he went next door and after half an hour he came back with the track”.

David Essex: Stardust

Slade: Far Far Away

What's in a name?

A little name changing didn't hurt in the glam rock world.

David Robert Jones - David Bowie Marc Feld - Marc Bolan
Bernard William Jewry - Alvin Stardust
Paul Gadd - Gary Glitter
Barry Ian Green - Barry Blue
Frederick Bulsara - Freddie Mercury
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice - Steve Harley
and best of all

Luther James Grosvenor - Ariel Bender (guitarist with Mott the Hoople)

Tyrannosaurus Rex - T Rex
The Sweetshop - The Sweet
Ambrose Slade - Slade

A couple of classic album tracks, a lost 45 and a Bowie out-take to check out.





'Baby Boomerang' taken from the album 'Slider' 1972
'How Can It Be' taken from 'Old New Borrowed and Blue' album 1974
'Turn It Down' was a single released in 1974 reaching #41 in the UK charts
'Sweet Head' is an out-take from the 'Ziggy Stardust' album in 1972

It's Christmaaas

It seemed like a good idea to get a bit ahead of schedule with some of the blog entries I was intending to write, and to set some sort of order to the songs being posted. So with that in mind I began planning this Xmas post way back in August at the height of the British summer. As it turned out we didn't get much of a summer (as usual).
Anyway the point is, that it nicely links in with the song posted here, namely "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade. It is now a well known fact that this song was recorded in the (not very Christmasy) heat of June in a studio in the USA, to be released in the winter of 1973. It went on to become one of Slade's best selling and best loved 45's.

Originally a #1 in December 73, it has been re-released (in the UK) almost every year since then, giving Noddy and the boys a nice little pension in the process. Rather than posting the 7" version that everybody has heard, I have posted a rocking live version by the band from 1975.
The glam rock years were a golden period for Xmas singles, with Wizzards "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" only a #4 in December 1973 (such was the standard of other singles released at the same time). Mud's "Lonely This Christmas" a #1 the following year, and other less famous ones such as "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John and even "Wombling Merry Christmas" by the Wombles obviously.

Slade: How Does It Feel? (a-side)

In 1975 Slade made the film "Slade in Flame". Partly semi-autobiographical, it was not the film that critics and fans expected of the band. Instead of colourful "Monkees" style musical comedy it showed a more gritty and cynical side of the music industry, and I think it is all the better for that.
It chronicles the rise and bitter break up of a Northern rock band, and the movie's theme is the song "How Does It Feel?" which I think is one of the best singles released in the 70's. But the change in style for the band did not go down well with all fans with the song only getting to '#15 in the charts, a relative failure for Slade, making it their first single in three and a half years that failed to make the top 10.
It is a melancholy and reflective ballad using flutes and piano with string and brass orchestration, not something you would usually associate with their records. Noddy Holders voice shows genuine emotion and it was this song more than any other that gave Noddy Holder and Jim Lea the title of "The Lennon and McCartney Of Glam"
In 2000 on the Big Breakfast TV show Noel Gallagher of Oasis said it was his favourite Slade tune. He said:

"Slade were never pretentious. It was just music to them. Pop, rock, soul... it was all the same to Slade. They wrote great songs. And, besides, I'd like to raid their wardrobe."
"Do you know what it's like
to be searching in your own time?,
to be searching and suddenly find.
All your illusion, all your confusion,
all left behind.
How does it feel turning away?,
and how does it feel facing another day?.
Coz many years from now
there will be newer poisons
and new horizons.
How does it feel?"
Noddy Holder & Jim Lea 1975

Slade: Wonderin Y (b-side)

When starting this blog it was always my intention to highlight the great glam songs that were relegated to the B-sides.

So with that in mind the next few posts will stick to the flip sides of the original single releases, starting with “Wonderin y” by Slade which is the B-side to “Take Me Bak Ome” a number 1 for them in 1972.

Slade - My Town (b-side), She Did It To Me (b-side)

Based on overall chart performance Slade were the most successful artist of the glam rock era. This was highlighted in Channel 4’s ‘Top Ten Glam Rock Artists of All Time’, where Slade and strangely the Bay City Rollers came in first and second respectively.

At their peak Slade were the most commercially popular band in the UK. They achieved 12 top five hits from 1971 to 1974. This included six number 1’s, three number 2’s and two songs at number 3. Three of their singles went straight into the chart at number 1, a feat last accomplished by the Beatles. After 1975 Slade’s success faded however, but they did have some further success in the early 80’s with another two top ten hits, Run Runaway and My Oh My.

I must admit that at times during the early seventies I think I preferred Slade over even Bowie or T.Rex. For great, stomping, heavy, guitar driven pop they couldn’t be beaten. Apart from the great song writing, Slade’s greatest asset was having Noddy Holder as front man. Noddy (Neville) Holder had one of rock’s great voices and unlikely as it seemed had one of glam rock’s great iconic images, the mirrored hat. Along with Bowie’s Aladdin Sane lightning flash and Bolan’s “Corkscrew hair,” that mirrored hat is the most recognisable thing associated with glam rock.
Even now I still get misty eyed when certain songs come unexpectedly on the radio. We had a black Fidelity record player at home when I was a kid in the 70’s, and playing Skweeze Me Pleeze Me (sic) over and over again is one of the happiest memories from my childhood. The intentional misspelling of the song titles was also a good way to wind up teachers and parents.

My Town is the B-side to My Friend Stan released in 1973 and eventually reaching # 2 in the charts. Both are from the album ‘Old, New, Borrowed and Blue’. My Town is the harder hitting flipside to the bar room piano style evident on the A-side. No introduction, no messing about, just straight in after a single snare beat.



She Did It to Me was the flip-side to Bangin Man a 1974 Slade song that reached # 3. This was a slow, piano driven ballad in the style of Everyday the single that Slade released earlier that year. Proving that they could do slow and sensitive with the best of them.