Slade @ Sydney, Australia 1974-02-24

Slade - upgrade from the Waz from Oz archive

Slade
1974 Australian Tour

Hordern Pavilion
Sydney, New South Wales
Australia  
24th February 1974

01. Band Introduction > Noddy Holder's Intro > Take Me Back ‘Ome
02. Move Over
03. Gudbuy T’ Jane
04. Just Want A Little Bit
05. Darling Be Home Soon
06. The Whole World's Going Crazee
07. Good Time Gals
08. Let The Good Times Roll
09. Cum On Feel The Noize
10. Get Down & Get With It
11. Mama Weer All Crazee Now
12. Keep On Rockin’

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Slade
Noddy Holder - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar & Rude Comments!
Dave Hill - Lead Guitar & Backing Vocals
Jimmy Lea - Bass Guitar, Violin & Backing Vocals
Don Powell - Drums

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1974 Australian Tour Dates
21st February - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney NSW
22nd February - Festival Hall, Brisbane QLD
24th February - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney NSW  
26th February - Festival Hall, Melbourne VIC
28th February - Memorial Park Drive, Adelaide SA

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I remember this gig because it was the only time I can recall going to see an indoor rock show at 2PM in the arvo, that’s afternoon for non-Aussies.
We’d attended the earlier Slade Sydney show of this tour on the 21st January.
Because that 1st show was a dead set sell out, a 2nd show was quickly added to take place on the Sunday arvo.

Maybe that afternoon was the only time that the Hordern was free & fit in with days off during the current Australian tour schedule.
Also, the timing could be due to the fact that four hours later that night, Elton John was playing up the road at Randwick Racecourse.
That was his only Sydney show on the 1974 Australian Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Tour, so perhaps the promoters didn’t want the two artists to clash?
More about Fat Reg from Pinner as the NME wickedly used to call him later.

I didn’t tape this gig nor the earlier Slade show.
Usually at the Hordern we mainly scored tickets somewhere in the front sections as we did for the two Slade shows.
The front sections at Slade shows were a seething mass of hand clapping, foot stomping accompanied with never ending movement.
This was made even more so for this show because the front section seats had been removed so people could dance.
Taping amongst that bedlam would have been rather troublesome. Plus, we youngsters wanted to enjoy ourselves!

I’m pretty sure this is a Doris Death recording; he was with us that afternoon.
I’ve had this show for decades, it’s on an early CD-R, the ones with the bright purple underside, so that shows how long I’ve had this for.
In my mind I think Doris burnt it for me.

It’s a good recording, some-what distant, my guess is that it was recorded up in the stands at the back of the Hordern or taped from some hidey hole at the rear.
Anyway, the taper is some distance from the action, the band are still very loud (see attachment) especially Noddy’s vocals so they are much more dominant than the audience’s reaction/participation.
Which is a good thing as if it was recorded were we were the audience participation would have overpowered the music.

Because Doris was very tall sometimes he’d feel a bit self-conscious at the front as he stood out from those around him.
So, there was the odd time he’d retreat from the front, heading off further back, so he may have done so on this occasion.

The only faults with this recording occur in Track 1 at 00:13–00:18 & again at 00:36–00.52.
IMHO they’re caused by the recording levels being too high, but they’re quickly turned down and the sound is clean and clear after that.
Check the samples.

I liked the February 1974 gigs because the set list is rather different from the shows the year before.
This 1974 show features two new songs, Just Want A Little Bit & Good Time Gals from the 4th LP Old New Borrowed And Blue which had been released the week before.
Plus two numbers, The Whole Worlds Going Crazy & Let The Good Times Roll (with snatches of Roll Over Beethoven & Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On) from the previous LP Slayed.
Thrown in for good measure amongst the above we got 5 hit singles!

This was the 4th Slade show I’d seen within a 13-month period.
They were a great live band with some of the best singles of the glam rock period.
Another UK band that in the early to mid-70’s had an incredible run of constant hit singles.
After this tour they never made it back to these shores.

After the show Ruby, Recy, Doris & myself took a stroll from the Hordern over to Randwick Racecourse to see Elton John.
Roger hadn’t come with us to the arvo Slade show as he’d decided to go to Randwick to try to save us places in the FOS section.
We found him without too much trouble, not too far from the stage.

From our vantage point during Elton’s performance we spotted all 4 members of Slade on the side of the stage.
Sadly, they didn't do a guest appearance.
Slade playing with Elton on Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting would have been perfect though.

I taped that Elton show but unfortunately lost the cassette before making any copies.
Same goes with the Yes 1973, Black Sabbath 1974, Roxy Music 1975, Bad Company 1975 recordings.
A mixture of accidentally taping over them because stupidly they hadn’t been labelled nor had the tabs been broken yet.
Some became victims of terminal tape chew, one of the above cassettes I remember losing on way home after the gig never to be seen again.

I’ve seen this Sydney 1974 show on a Slade site, the difference with this version is it has been speed & pitch corrected with just a little bit of mixing so this version will be the definitive one.

Thanks to Roger for tracking down Recy’s amateur photos she took at this gig. They are used for the artwork that come with the torrent.
As always thanks to audiowhore.

Enjoy,
Waz

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QBAzTeB-o04udkjeSiCGp6vVmzIvOkEq?usp=sharing