Alive! At Reading is the recording of the band's legendary set, as last-minute replacement headliners for Ozzy Osbourne in August 1980. This set was last re-issued as long ago as 2022, when it was one part of the box set All The World Is A Stage, but is now available as a stand-alone album both on Yellow and Black splattered vinyl or cd with a gatefold sleeve, as the classic lineup of Noddy Holder, Jim Lea, Dave Hill and Don Powell give a masterclass in how to slay a huge crowd, none of whom bought their tickets expecting to see Slade.
Opening with the roar of the huge 80000 crowd welcoming them onstage, they launch into a good tight Take Me Bak 'Ome sounding like a super heavy rock band, who know how to please a huge field of rockers, who are clapping along and singing along with the band before the songs over, as they break thing down and start to have fun.
Noddy asks if it's loud enough before they launch into When I'm Dancing I Ain't Fighting, this is a good speedy version, with a huge audience singalong to the harmony backing vocal bits, as they make sure everyone knows this set will be a hard rocking love in, even when Dave Hills guitar goes a bit Status Quo.
New song Wheels Ain't Coming Down is about a near miss, as they almost die in a plane crash, this is a story about near tragedy set in a roaring, at times a touch ragged rock song with some fearsome jet engine noises.
They then go all Jive Bunny with a medley of a furious super speedy Somethin' Else that mutates into Pistol Packin' Mama an back again, before they freak out, slipping all sorts of metal and rock tunes in from Purple Haze to a drum solo and on to a mad violin solo, Noddy gets everyone to Keep it Rockin' through a short blast of Black Sabbath come Motorhead madness.
Noddy then gets the crowd to sing You'll Never Walk Alone and it sounds as much like a football crowd as rock crowd, as they then go into Mama Weer All Crazee Now that gets blasted full pelt audience participation sounds like it was mandatory.
Get Down And Get With It is of course a foot stomping romp that must have had a truly immense mosh pit, such a perfect hard rock pop song, a pity the audience can't manage to clap their hands in time, but by that point in the festival they are all the worse for wear, as they all try to follow all of Noddy's instructions.
Noddy then makes the mistake of asking for any requests and the audience shout Merry Xmas Everybody, Noddy sings the first line and the audience do the rest, before they launch into Cum On Feel The Noize and the place sounds like it's still going mental, a total romp to close the set with a few bars of Singing In The Rain.
They of course got an encore coming back out to storm through Born To Be Wild with the total ease and power they seem to have on tap, as they show just how to go and storm a festival you weren't even advertised as playing.
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