Slade Alive! - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Upon release, Record Mirror magazine reviewed the album, "Packed in a sleeve with an amusing cartoon, and extracts from many things written about Slade, this is a good quality live recording - made under studio conditions and produced by Chas Chandler. To those who haven't seen Slade this could be surprising, with Noddy's raucous vocal, and bellowed comment - and make their appeal difficult to understand. It's a rocking album and the excitement of the group and crowd has been captured well, but it's not easy listening, somewhat frenzied! On stage the group hold attention with their cavorting antics and general enthusiasm, and to followers this is good album to keep remind of the live performance they'll see. But it's only a fraction of the story. Opens with "Hear Me Calling", an Alvin Lee composition that the group have used since their days as Ambrose Slade. Getting faster and faster with hand claps from the audience and whoops from the group it sets the scene. "Get Down and Get With It" is excellently performed, and shows the extent of audience participation with the group. Their "Keep on Rocking" incorporates phrases and the feel of many an old rock song, and perhaps best indicates what Slade really are about. In contrast Sebastian's "Darling Be Home Soon" is the only slow tempo track - with a shattering 'burp' breaking the mood, should you be taking it too seriously!"

NME wrote ""Slade Alive!" is just what it implies, having been recorded before a rowdy crowd of fans at Command Studios. If you've ever been to one of their noisy gigs, you'll know exactly what I mean."

Melody Maker wrote "Because it was recorded in a studio proper, before an audience, they've achieved the kind of balance and sound not often heard on a live recording."

Diane Kelly, editor of the Slade Fan Club Newsletter wrote "What an album! It's unbelievable! It's the best I've heard for a very long time, all the favourites are there. The album itself is coarse, rare and gritty, just how we like to find them. This is a certain for the top of the charts, as quoted on the cover: "you won't be able to stop your feet tapping and you'll be at the head of the queue for the tickets to the next Slade concert in your area." This is one record no Slade fan will want to be found dead without."

In August 1991, Q Magazine reviewed CD re-issues of Beginnings, Play It Loud and Slade Alive! in one review, using the opening line "Three re-issues from the Slade archive that cover their pre-Merry Xmas japery". For Slade Alive!, a rating of three stars was given, with the review stating "Slade Alive, from '72, revealed their desire to rock out, with a distinctly heavy seven-track selection. It proved to be a turning point, as a glut of commercial singles followed Slade Alive's highlight, the terrace-styled 'Get Down and Get With It'. The laddish rock style is in evidence, most notably on a fairly faithful rendition of The Lovin' Spoonfuls 'Darlin' Be Home Soon': a gentle ballad which vocalist Noddy Holder colours by belching during the moody middle eight. That burp kind of sums up the Slade ethic which was emerging on Slade Alive!. It's just fun and beers all the way."

In early 2010, Classic Rock magazine featured Slade as part of their ‘The Hard Stuff Buyers Guide’ where the magazine reviewed numerous Slade albums. As part of the ‘Superior: Reputation Cementing’ section, a review of Slade Alive! wrote "Released nervously after two studio albums that had flopped, ‘Slade Alive!’ was (much as ‘Alive!’ was for Kiss) the live record that saved Slade’s bacon. Completely devoid of any overdubs, and reportedly recorded for the paltry sum of just £600, this distillation of Slade’s live show of the time, including the show-stopping ‘Get Down and Get With It’, took them to #2 in the UK chart. Those with a nose for a bargain might like to know that the 2006 reissue is an expanded, two-disc edition that adds 1978’s ‘Slade Alive Vol Two’, ‘Slade on Stage’ from 1982 and six songs from their performance at the 1980 Reading festival."