Slade - Slade In Flame (+CD) (DVD)

.../> It was time for Slade to follow other pop stars into film, in an attempt to broaden their appeal while they were still riding high. The same way that the Beatles had made "A Hard Days' Night".

Turning down a silly comedy entitled "The Quite A Mess Experiment", they opted instead for a darker, grittier piece, "Flame".
Although quite well received by critics, fans were not so sure, and it left ...
...and type of audiences that Slade themselves were attracting.

Seeing that the band are now worth something, Ron Harding also wants back in, and produces the contract that the band signed when under his management. Legal action and gangland tactics between the two managements are played out in some quite nasty, but never overtly violent scenes.

Meanwhile the band themselves are suffering from "artistic differences" ... more

Setting the Scene

1975. Glam rock had faded, and Disco had started to establish its stranglehold on the charts. Bowie was moving into soul and punk's snarling, rabid dog was still a few years away.

Pop stars were turning into movie stars.

David Essex had done "That'll be the Day". Its follow up "Stardust", was a year away. Bolan had made "Born to Boogie" in 1972. Earlier in 1974, Gary Glitter had made "Remember Me This Way" (not really a drama, just a film of concert footage).

It was time for Slade to follow other pop stars into film, in an attempt to broaden their appeal while they were still riding high. The same way that the Beatles had made "A Hard Days' Night".

Turning down a silly comedy entitled "The Quite A Mess Experiment", they opted instead for a darker, grittier piece, "Flame".
Although quite well received by critics, fans were not so sure, and it left Slade to deal with falling record sales and slow to sell out concert tours.

The Plot (contains a spoiler)

It is set in the '60's and tells the story of the rise and inevitable fall of a working class band.

It starts at a wedding where Barry (Dave Hill) and Paul (Jim Lea) are in the backing band to Alan Lake's character, Jack Daniels. After a fight starts between wedding guests and the band, the drummer's kit is smashed.
Needing a new drummer, they hold an audition and that's where Charlie (Don Powell) comes in.

They play support to a rival band, The Undertakers, whose singer is Stoker (Noddy Holder). As a prank, they padlock Stoker in the coffin from which he is to make his entrance.
The understandably upset Stoker and his band chase their fellow musicians through the dark streets in their hearse. It results in a car crash and all the members are hauled off for a night in the cells.
Paul and Stoker are sharing a cell and decide to form a band together.

In the morning, some of the band members are bailed out by Russell (Anthony Allen ), the brother of Barry's girlfriend. And so Flame is formed.
They play a gig in a local club to huge applause. In the audience are Jack Daniels, now ex-singer, and their current agent Ron Harding (Johnny Shannon). Both are sneering about the performance, but also watching is an agent (Kenneth Colley) for a corporate businessman, Seymour (Tom Conti) who is hoping to enlarge his portfolio of businesses by owning a pop band.

Harding does not rate the band and tells them that he is no longer their agent.
Seymour approaches the band with a view to being their manager. Half heartedly they accept.

From here, with huge sponsorship from Seymour, the band move from strength to strength attracting the size and type of audiences that Slade themselves were attracting.

Seeing that the band are now worth something, Ron Harding also wants back in, and produces the contract that the band signed when under his management. Legal action and gangland tactics between the two managements are played out in some quite nasty, but never overtly violent scenes.

Meanwhile the band themselves are suffering from "artistic differences" between various members.

The whole thing ends when Seymour decides that, after an attack on his family's home by Harding's thugs, enough is enough. Basking in his triumph Harding meets Stoker only to be told that the band have had enough too.

And that, in a nutshell, is it.

My opinion

This is not some long forgotten gem from the 70's, but some thirty odd years later it still stands up.
The acting by the band is passable. Admittedly they are only playing versions of themselves, but that does not detract from the fact that Slade had to explain to their audiences at gigs that they hadn't really split up and were really good friends after all.
This is also Tom Conti's first major screen appearance. He plays it straight, and is totally believable as a cold businessman.
Johnny Shannon gives the role which he played in "Performance", i.e. that of a pop star's manager.

Alan Lake is brilliant as the cringe worthy deluded club singer.
It is also Richard Loncraine's directorial debut.

Overall it is enjoyable. There are scenes of gigs with lots of screaming teeny bopper fans with scarves and the like. Recording studio bits, interviews on radio shows (with Tommy Vance) and all the minutiae of a hard working band.

It is supposed to be set over a period of about four years, but that doesn't come over well in the film. It is fairly fast paced and only feels like a couple of months. The only visual clue as to time's passing is the differing hair styles and clothing.
Slade were from Wolverhampton, but the film is actually filmed in Nottingham, Sheffield and London.

There are funny moments and odd ones too. Stoker in the coffin has a third hand in there with him but that is never explained.

The soundtrack is obviously Slade themselves and features "Far, Far Away" and "How Does it Feel?", two of the band's more ambitious outings, along with the usual Slade fare.

The Package

This DVD is a retouched version of the film and comes with a featurette of interviews with the band members themselves, talking about the film and the effect it had on their subsequent career.

Also included is "Slade in Flame" soundtrack CD. This has all the songs from the film, as you might expect. The version of "This Girl" has different lyrics from the film version though (performed by The Undertakers).

For a bit of nostalgia this hits all the right spots. As a piece of cinema it is hardly a classic. But then, you don't expect classics from pop stars do you?

Surprisingly this is not available from Amazon, but you can obtain it from HMV.com. although they will make you wait.
Cost ranges from £15.00 - £20.00 

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