Parting company with both the hit song-writing machine of Chinn & Chapman and superlabel RAK, Carshalton’s cabaret version of Slade were always going to find it hard to sustain their earlier success. Having notched up four No 1s courtesy of the team behind Sweet and Suzi Quatro, it fell upon guitarist Rob Davis and bassist Ray Stiles to pen original material, little of which came even close to their former glories.
Singer Les Gray largely dispensed with the Presley imitations of Lonely This Christmas and Secrets That You Keep, and It’s Better Than Working saw the group maybe trying too hard to reinvent themselves. The cod disco of Shake It Down was a mediumsized hit but, for the most part, Mud had become a shadow of their old selves.
Off The RAK comprises every single and B-side released after walking away from their sure-thing past, including their last Top 10, a cover of Bill Withers’ Lean On Me. The chronological decline in their fortunes is all too evident. Ironically, Davis has since had a hand in writing million-sellers for Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Kylie Minogue, but his efforts for his own band were all too often below par.
