THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: August 31, 2022

SLADE – Alive

August 31, 2022 /

Before Slade became one of Britains favourite glam bands of the 70s they had been knocking on the door for a few years before. They had a love of American blues and that’s what they started off playing. They came to the attention of Chas Chandler who thought a change of image and label would be a good idea. So the skinhead image was adopted and Play It Loud was released. This live album was from that tour.

This was the second full length album I ever owned, and I do have a soft spot for the raw power of this record. There are only seven songs on the album, the majority of which are covers including their first chart single Get Down And Get With It, which has all the hallmarks of the Slade to come. The album closes out with a monster version of Born To Be Wild. But the cover of Alvin Lee’s Hear Me Calling is my favourite track. It’s good to hear how raw and rockin’ Slade were before fame came a knocking.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

LITA FORD – Lita

August 31, 2022 /

This is ex-Runaway’s lead guitarist’s third solo studio release, and her most successful. This was also the beginning of her association with Sharon Osbourne’s management company, hence the co-write on Close My Eyes Forever. You can’t beat extra royalties, eh Sharon? To be fair this is a really good album with a super slick production by Mike Chapman who gets a couple of co-writes himself.

Everyone is familiar with Kiss Me Deadly and the aforementioned Close My Eyes Forever, which were huge hits for Lita, and you could not move without hearing or watching those tunes, but it’s the lesser known tracks that I really like. Can’t Catch Me which was written with Lemmy is my favourite on the album, as it shifts along at a killer pace with a wicked groove and Lita shows she’s no mug on guitar. Blueberry is a typical Mike Chapman tune, very similar to the hits he had in the 70’s with the likes of Sweet. Fatal Passion is more Motley Crüe than the Crüe themselves. Side 1 is a killer side of music and is let down somewhat by Side 2 which has to much filler.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

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