Your Cart is empty
Subtotal£0.00
Your order details
For a time from the early to mid-70s, the British charts were dominated by glam rock. Although I didn’t think so at the time, it was a really unusual genre, dismissed as pop music by some, but attracting a rock audience as well as pop. For a couple of years it was incredibly popular, probably because it had a crossover appeal.
Leading the way was Slade of course whose popularity was phenomenal. They were the first band since the Beatles to go straight in at #1 on the singles chart. They had 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The British Hit Singles & Albums names them the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles. They were the first act to have three singles enter the charts at number one; all six of the band's chart-toppers were penned by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea. As of 2006, total UK sales stood at over 6,500,000. They had 3 #1 albums.
Briefly, in 1972/3 The Sweet were very popular with several top 3 singles. Despite annoying everyone’s father by wearing make-up, they were a great heavy live band, closer to Led Zeppelin than pop music. Their best music was later in the decade with The Sixteens and Love Is Like Oxygen. They only had one album on the charts at #27.
Matching Slade, almost, was T.Rex. They had a couple of #1 albums and had 3 years of consistent success on the singles chart. But by 1974 it was all over for them. The one thing they all had in common was a failure to break America. Even for Slade, popular all over the world, couldn’t do it, their biggest chart success was the 80s single Run Runaway, which got to 20. The only album to chart was Sladest which got to #129. They even moved to America, but to no avail.
Other bands came, had a bit of success, then disappeared. Roy Wood’s Wizzard were popular in ‘73. And the likes of Bowie, Sparks, Suzi Quatro, Roxy Music, Alvin Stardust and Cockney Rebel flirted with the genre to greater or lesser success. The irony was there was nothing glam about it. Most bands looked like the proverbial 'brickie's in lippy'. But there was good rock music to come out of it, if you pick your way carefully through it.
.