The Wembley roar for King Rod and Lord Noddy
SLADE/ EMPIRE POOL WEMBLEY, LONDON/ 28/10/1975
TWO OF THE greatest nights in British pop history - The wembley roar for the Wembley Rock showed how a total of 20,000 fans felt.
After Slade's fantastic performance on Saturday it seemed anything following would be an anti-climax. But last night Rod Stewart and the Faces closed the show on new hysterical heights.
Both concerts - sponsored by the Daily Express for the Stars Organisation for Spastics - were sell-outs. And the fans were so happy that they behaved more like the artists slaves than paying customers. On Saturday we saw Noddy Holder, lead singer of Slade, belting out the groups string of hits like some powerful war lord.
He stamped his feet - 10,000 fans stamped their feet. lead guitarist Dave Hill put his arms above his head - 10,000 faithful followers saluted right back. For an hour and fifteen minutes Slade kept the crowd swaying at one point Noddy even got them to sing the football favourite "You'll Never Walk Alone"
Slade's Dave Hill summed it up when he told me : "This is what it's all about - what goes on out there" (pointing to the packed stadium) A hit record cannot give you the satisfaction that appearing in front of 10,000 kids can."
The fans of course know of the organisation and co-operation that went into making this great weekend. Slade breaking a European tour specially to appear........ British European Airways working overtime to bring their gear to the airport at 3 a.m ...... the assistants who worked all night to fix up the equipment........Warner Bros Record lable and Phonogram joining the Express to provide costly zoom video equipment that let everybody see the stars on huge closed circuit TV screens in the Wembley Pool Stadium.
But the fans will know that the £12,000 that is expected to be raised for the charity could not have been reached if so many people had not wholeheartedly chipped in for nothing the time and performance that could have earned them big money elsewhere.
On saturday there came BLACKFOOT SUE who recently made the Top ten with 'Standing In The Road' confirming their reputation as marvellous "live" artists and the London duo VIGRASS AND OSBORNE who have been a hit in America but made their British stage debut at the Wembley festival.
David WIGG
Edited by Slade In England from a Daily Express article dated Mondoay October 30th 1972
Original article researched, obtained and used with the kind permission of Slade In England official researcher and historian Sir Chris Selby.
For an in depth look at this festival pop along to Micky Parker's seemingly semi defunct site.....
Wembley Festival Of Music 1972