Slade in Flame

When Wolverhampton rockers Slade were at the top of their tree in the early Seventies, it seemed only natural that they would branch out and make a movie. The original idea was to make a sci-fi spoof called The Quite A Mess Experiment, scuppered by the fact that Dave Hill was eaten by a monster in the first half an hour.

Into their collective laps fell a script by Andrew Birkin about a band called Flame. It seemed like a perfect vehicle, although for the band, much of the script didn't ring true. So Birkin and director Richard Loncraine went on tour with the lads.

The revised script came back and was much more on the ball. The result is a rarely seen music drama, one of the bleakest and most intriguing in history which is a fascinating alternative to the Beatles offerings and the David Essex movies of the period.

Glam rock band, Slade caught the zeitgeist in the early-'70s although by 1975 their flaming fire of success had declined in the UK. ''Slade in Flame''- aired in cinemas in 1975 shows Dave, Noddy, Jim and Don involved in the British film world with this gritty tale about the rock industry, using the last burning embers from their success. Slade showed adventure when during that exciting flower-power year of 1968 they performed gigs in the Bahamas and ''Slade Alive'' recorded in London in October 1971 is a classic. 1975 was the year of Leeds vs Bayern Munich and West Ham vs Fulham, The Ramones debut album, ''Brut'' aftershave and the early stirrings of the punk movement. The film shows the seedy side of the music industry featuring pubs, clubs and bingo halls plus the corporate world of London in the pre-Thatcher era. Stout, bald, bespectacled London actor, Johnny Shannon is excellent as the thuggish agent, Mr Harding: he was in ''Performance'' (1968-1970) with James Fox and Mick Jagger. NME's Barney Hoskyns saw value in Slade in a 1983 article featuring nihilistic LA punk band The Angry Samoans, noting Slade's influence on the LA hard-core punk scene alongside The Stooges and Black Sabbath, while US hard-rock band Quiet Riot took ''Mama Weer All Crazee Now'' to Number 2 (?) in the American Billboard charts in 1983 (?) and Slade actually had American chart success in the early-'80s via newer songs. There are some sharp telling scenes: Don Powell up to no good in a bingo hall and first-class train carriage; the ''I'm not a fish-finger'' phrase from Jim Lea and a vicious scene involving the Jack Daniels figure (Alan Lake). The album, though only features one exciting song ''Those Kinda Monkeys Can't Swing''. The well-known ballads, ''How Does It Feel'' and ''Far Far Away'' are too slow.

When 70's Glam Rock champions Slade where asked to appear in a movie, several script options came their way. It was not until Manager Chas Chandler and John Steel came across Flame that the ball started rolling (and Rocking). Original songs where written by usual Slade Songsters Noddy Holder and Jim Lea. Slade spent the latter end of 1974 filming around Leeds and London. The Movie premiered in 1975 accompanied by the hit record "Far, Far Away". The Movie shows the rifts building within the group and the behind the scenes wrangles of Management. Snatched from obscurity, Pub and Club band 'Iron Rod' are discovered just as their relationship with seedy Manager Ron Harding is ending. They are given a make over "Im not a bloody fish-finger" moans Paul (Jim Lea). But Flamboyant Barry(Dave Hill) and reluctant singer Stoker (Noddy Holder) are keen for glory. Drummer Charlie (Don Powell) provides the on screen laughs. New Manager Robert Seymour (Tom Conti) employs ex-Singer Jack Daniels (Alan Lake) to steal the group's contract from Harding, but Daniels gets discovered by Hardings heavies and is beaten up. Harding threatens Seymour with more violence unless his contract turns up. Seymour returns the group to Harding on the same night that Paul walks out on the group. harding goes to the groups hotel room where Stoker informs him "We've all had enough Ron", and the film finishes to the strains of "How does it feel?". Great concert scenes filmed at the Marquee club in 1974 featuring members from the Slade Fan Club. An Album 'Slade in Flame' was released to tie in with the film, and an accompanying book by Andrew Birkin are available. See it just to relive the Glam days of flares and glitz of the early 1970's. Keep On Rockin'

This is a real slice of 70's. (Slade in) Flame tells the story of a semi mythical band that crawls out of the midlands of England and makes it into the myth of Rock and Roll. I found the album back in my salad days, and finally found the movie on DVD in my washed up years. There are pluses and minuses, as with any real slice of life film. On the plus side, the story of a band that makes it and self destructs really summarizes the mythos of the era, and realistically and sympathetically portrays the pressures and glories of fame. On the negative side, the accents are so thick you really wish there were subtitles. Notionally in English, it's in REAL English, and as an American, it might as well be Swahili.

The flick is full of authentic and believable characters. The small time manager, the pirate DJ, and the hippy dippy groupies all make the film seem as real as your own life. If you've seen Spinal Tap, you'll see more than a handful of scenes - a singer trapped in a coffin, high class and moneyed fops dealing with the low class entertainers, and the horrors of ridiculous costumes and friends knifing friends. If you like Uriah Heep, UFO, or any band who played a festival at Wolverhampton, this id worth the accents. If you think rock and roll is too loud, pass. But this is rock at its most basic. Loud, dirty, and important for the most unimportant reasons possible.

Forming in Wolverhampton, England, in the late sixties and coming from working class background's they originally called themselves The Vendors, after a while changing to Ambrose Slade, and finally to Slade.

The four-piece line up was to be Noddy Holder - Singer, Jim Lea - Bass, Dave Hill - Lead Guitarist and Don Powell - Drums.

Being managed and produced at the height of their career during the early 1970's by Chas Chandler, bass player to the Animals, and founder of Jimi Hendrix. After having several number one hits in England, their next phase in their career were to be the Movies.

For greater realism and to better their research, the band took the writer Andrew Birkin and the films director Richard Loncraine on tour with them to America. During Messer's Loncraine and Birkins tour of duty, they had gathered enough material to help them with their story. In fact, the vast majority of this movie is based on actual incidents that have happened to other Rock 'n Roll band's in their careers.

Released in the English Cinema's in January 1975, this is a dark and truthful translation of the Rock 'n Roll lifestyle. Deliberately shown this way to dispel the myth of the hype and glamour that the Business would want us to believe. Reselling the image as dishonest, disloyal, dirty and dangerous. Flame does a very good job here of testing your own loyalties, to be confronted with home truths that we would rather ignore, show business propaganda confronts a rude awakening.

We have it all here, a band heading from rags to riches, the double-dealing, well-heeled, and well-connected Manager, in the form of Tom Conti, his first movie. The greedy and highly psychotic back street agent, the hard tour that eats away at the bands heart and soul, which has them turning inside out and finally imploding into bitterness and resentment. Saving the best till last, we have the music, this movie has a great soundtrack that do Slade justice, having to write a completely new album to go along with Flame. It contains one of their finest songs to date: Far Far Away, reaching number two in the British charts in 1974.

There is a wonderful bit part by the late British D.J. Tommy Vance (1940 - 2005) as Ricky Storm.

Slade in Flame is not so much a parody but more of a Rock 'n Roll History lesson; it brings home the hardcore realities of the ivory-tower elite and the exploitations of what is Big Business. Showing the naivety of a Rock 'n Roll Band that want fortune and fame, but in the end pay the highest price, themselves.