The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 17th,
and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.
Slade
Old New Borrowed And Blue
At No.2, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is Slade with Old New Borrowed And Blue.
The boys were back,..
…with probably their most anticipated and welcomed album yet, especially since the events which had come precariously and scarily close to finishing off the band altogether. The circumstances of which I covered during the chart run of their greatest hits album a few places back in the chart this same week.
The unplanned extended hiatus…
…had been dealt with effectively by their manager, and if one hadn’t known why, then they wouldn’t have realised they’d even been away at all, except for the lack of personal appearances.
I should think, while Don began to recover and convalesce, the rest of the band would have had their heads down, writing new material in anticipation of the group gelling back together as four once again. So in that respect, there’s a different feel in places on this album to what their followers were more used to.
Of course,..
…you still have the blazing throat shredding rock-belters, guaranteed to kill any quiet romantic evening in a hail of ear-splitting raucousness, as people were accustomed to, but there was a more mature sound to a lot of it too. Plus there were the forays into different styles of yesteryear, such as “Find Yourself A Rainbow” which, if they’d been around 50 years before, would have felt quite welcome on a shellac 78.
On other tracks there was more of an inwards feel to them, as if, just like the cover of the album itself, they were taking a long hard look at each other, and wondering where they could go from here.
For now though, they, as well as their fans, were just happy they were even back at all.
The album…
…crashes into the chart as this week’s highest new entry. Not quite able to topple the biggest seller this week, but they wouldn’t have to wait long.
From here,..
…they will succeed in that endeavour, and manage to usurp that last remaining LP just above them, to climb that one significant place higher during the last week of February, to claim that No.1 position in its second week and stand proud at the pinnacle which is the top of the charts.
After this, the album will relax a little and stay mostly in the Top 10 for the next couple of months, before it gives way a little more at the beginning of May.
Eventually though, the album will begin to run out of steam as summer comes around, and where it falls out of the Top 50 altogether.
It does come back for one last appearance during the middle of June, but then is gone for good after that extra final week, taking its tally up to 16 weeks of chart action in total.
Side 1
Side 2
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