Play It Loud
| Play It Loud | ||||
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| Studio album by Slade | ||||
| Released | 28 November 1970 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 34:05 | |||
| Label | Polydor (UK), Cotillion (US) | |||
| Producer | Chas Chandler | |||
| Slade chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Play it Loud | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| NME | favourable |
| Q-Magazine |   |
| Allmusic | |
Play It Loud is the second album by the British rock group Slade (and their first under this name, having released Beginnings under the name 'Ambrose Slade'). It was released on 28 November 1970 but did not enter the charts.
With very little promotion and advertising, the album failed to reach a wide audience. The absence of a 'hit' single was also a factor in this. It is regarded by some as an influential rock release, foreshadowing punk rock nearly seven years prior to its UK explosion.
The band appeared on the UK show Disco 2 to promote the album. They made three appearances during 1970. Three songs were performed from the album; Shape of Things to Come, Know Who You Are and Sweet Box. All three performances have never surfaced since broadcasting.
Slade, in this incarnation, had adopted a "skinhead" image by suggestion of their manager Chas Chandler.
Play It Loud was remastered in 2006 and released with the Ambrose Slade album Beginnings on a single CD. Bonus tracks are the singles "Wild Winds Are Blowing" and "Get Down and Get with It".
After the commercial failure of the album Beginnings as "Ambrose Slade", Chas Chandler decided to shorten the band's name to "Slade". It was also Chandler's decision to court controversy by projecting the band as skinheads for the single called "Wild Winds Are Blowing". Dave Hill and Jim Lea were mortified by a revised image based upon Dr Marten boots, braces, cropped hair and aggressive "bovver boy" posturing. By 1970 the skinhead craze was starting to become passé.
"We got a lot of flak for being a skinhead band, so gradually we changed," Holder told Classic Rock in December 2005. "We replaced Doc Martens with platform boots. We became more colourful and then it all went berserk — Dave the Superyob with his spacesuits and all the rest. It was a great laugh."
Yet Slade were still skinheads when they released their second album, Play It Loud, in November 1970. By this time, Chandler had moved the band onto Polydor Records, also assuming responsibility for the group's production. Slade themselves were also working hard at writing their own material. Although it had once again failed to chart, Play It Loud was and remains an underrated piece in Slade's catalogue. Holder's voice was beginning to show its great potential and songs like "Shape of Things to Come" (the record's first single), "Raven", "Dapple Rose" and "Know Who You Are" (which also was released as a single) offered solid proof of the band's talent.
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