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about this album
Play It Loud is the first album by the British rock group Slade (and their first under this name, having previously been known as The ‘N Betweens and 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. Background 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 Mart
