Slade live at O2 Academy Oxford (16.12.2025) with Sons of the Seventies supporting.
No photos to share with this blog and it’s just a brief note to mark the occasion. This was the pre-Christmas get together of me and a regular gang of gig-going friends. Our gig was spent drinking, dancing about and singing along at the back. No camera and just a distant phone shot (and several drunken videos of our group enjoying the music which I kept for myself).
I had come straight from my work Christmas lunch in London and started my evening in the adequate and Slade fan filled, Cowley Retreat pub, about 100 yards from tonight’s venue, The O2 Academy Oxford. The number 3 bus is convenient to get out there from the main station.
Having met up with friends there, we were a bit late in, so no queue but the near sell-out crowd was already in position and Sons of the Seventies already well into their set.
Not much chance to find space for the group of eight of us so we settled for the back, near the bar, where we were happy. Sound was good, but hard to see much of what was going on up on stage.
There are two venues in one here and this gig was switched to the bigger of the two as tickets sold well. After all this is billed as The Final Tour.
Slade only have one original 70s member these days: guitarist Dave Hill. I saw the same line up in Salisbury in December 2019. The vocals are good mind.
We all know the hits but Slade have such a depth to their catalogue. While they glammed up at the end of their chart topping era, they were a hard rocking band earlier on. You can hear the influences in later heavy metal bands and even in Oasis material – and they cover some so the influence is acknowledged. (Oasis live)
Sons of the Seventies are a welcome support band choice. Covers of AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz was more squarely on the Slade glam rock trail. Then to finish, Born To Be Wild and a big singalong to Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls. Crowd suitably warmed up, while the aircon at the back poured cold air on us.
It’s a low ceiling in this venue and that gives it more of an old club feel. I remember seeing Elbow on an early tour here, and Echo and the Bunnymen in more recent years. Many legends have played here including Black Sabbath, as the wall mural reminds us. The other room is smaller with a higher ceiling and we went in there to see The Slow Readers Club a couple of years back.
In the first part of the set there is a great run of more mellow numbers: Everyday; Run Run Away and Coz I Luv You (oh to hear Noddy Holder sing that one live with his beautifully gravelly Black Country voice).
A family trio in front of us have a teary huddle – this means so much but who knows why. Emotional just watching them.
The stomping My Friend Stan hints more at Slade’s pub rocker origins. Far Far Away is another classic single. Fifty one years old that song and it still does the job. So many gems to rediscover. Even older is the wonderful Gudbuy T’Jane (they do luv their yobbish spellings eh). (1975 YouTube video link.)
Seventeen consecutive top twenty hits, six of which made number one. What a massive band they were!
The main set finishes with the wilder Mama Weer All Crazee Now. (Top of the Pops video).
On the return, Dave Hill says his words of thanks and shares his gratitude for a lifetime in the band. Is he done? Who knows. It seems that in so many cases ‘you can’t stop rock’n’roll’.
Then it’s the arm and imaginary scarf waving of My Oh My before maybe their best song – Cum On Feel The Noize. I say ‘best’…of course they finish with the monster lifetime hit that is Merry Xmas Everybody. It is a special thing to hear live, one original member or not.
I think my Spotify Slade selection maybe about to take a hammering. Perhaps time to watch the Slade in Flame film again.
Merry Xmas Everybody! 🎶🎸
Gigs with Ivan 