📰 Slade’s Sixth Gold – Article: Feb 1973
- Slade
- Feb 24, 1973
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 18
A celebratory Record Mirror report on Slade’s astonishing Australian success, where Slade Alive! earned its sixth gold disc and became the country’s biggest‑selling album since Sgt. Pepper.
📰 Key Highlights
• Published in Record Mirror, February 24, 1973
• One‑page feature on Slade’s international success
• Slade Alive! awarded its sixth gold disc in Australia
• Described as the biggest‑selling Australian album since Sgt. Pepper
• Includes commentary from bassist Jim Lea
• Notes that Slayed? also went gold within a week of release
• Highlights Slade’s dominance of early‑’70s album charts
📰 Overview
This article documents a milestone moment in Slade’s career — the realisation that their live album Slade Alive! had become a runaway success in Australia. The band, already chart titans in the UK, discovered that their raw, high‑energy sound had struck an even deeper chord overseas. Record Mirror frames the achievement as both surprising and historic, placing Slade in direct comparison with The Beatles’ cultural impact.
📰 Source Details
Publication / Venue: Record Mirror
Date: February 24, 1973
Format: One‑page feature
Provenance Notes: Part of the UK press coverage of Slade’s international chart dominance.
📰 The Story
Six Gold Discs – A Shock Down Under
The article opens with Slade returning home to Wolverhampton after touring abroad, only to learn that Slade Alive! was about to receive its sixth gold album in Australia.
Jim Lea, still stunned, describes the experience as “incredible,” noting that the band had no idea what to expect when they arrived.
The revelation:
Slade Alive! had become Australia’s biggest‑selling album since The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
📰 The Beatles Comparison – A Sobering Benchmark
Record Mirror emphasises the weight of this achievement.
Slade Alive! was being measured against:
• the most acclaimed album of the 1960s
• a release from The Beatles at their absolute peak
• a record that had dominated every musical category
To match — and in some ways surpass — that level of cultural saturation in Australia was framed as extraordinary.
📰 The Raw Power of Slade
The article argues that Slade were the only ’70s band to recapture the “natural thrust and kick” of early Beatles singles — the raw, unfiltered energy that electrified audiences before studio experimentation took over.
This comparison positions Slade not as imitators, but as inheritors of a certain primal rock spirit.
📰 Australia’s Enthusiasm – “Every home must have one”
Lea admits he doesn’t know the exact sales threshold for a gold disc in Australia, but given the country’s smaller population, he jokes that “just about every home must have one.”
The article underscores the scale of Slade’s popularity — not niche, not cult, but national.
📰 Slayed? – Gold in a Week
The feature closes by noting that Slade’s studio album Slayed? had also gone gold within a week of release, and even replaced Slade Alive! at the top of the Australian album charts.
It’s presented as proof that Slade were not just a singles band — they were an album powerhouse.
📰 Visual Archive
“Slade’s Sixth Gold,” Record Mirror, February 24, 1973.
📰 Related Material
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📰 Closing Notes
This article captures Slade at the height of their international power — a band whose live ferocity translated into record‑breaking sales and whose glam‑rock swagger resonated far beyond the UK.
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