Flame

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.

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.

I watched this film for the first time in around 30 years last night and was amazed at how well it stands up today.It is gritty,funny and has a good storyline.The direction by Richard Loncraine is crisp and the acting is pretty good throughout.

As the band Flame,Noddy,Jimmy,Dave and Don do a fair job as actors.Not Oscar winners but not bad at all.Tom Conti does well in his first major role as the oily manager and Johnny Shannon is convincing as their gangster like first manager.The best performance comes from Alan Lake as Jack.He is very good in every scene he is in and should have received more recognition for this role.

The film moves along at a good pace,never drags and will surprise many people with it's edginess and at times grim reality.I have seen quite a few music based films and this is most definitely right up there with the very best.It is now quite respected and this is deserved.It really should reach a much wider audience as it is a very good attempt at showing that it is not all a bed of roses when you achieve success.The soundtrack is great and there are also a couple of scenes that without a doubt influenced the makers of 'Spinal Tap',see if you can spot them.Well done Slade.They took a big risk by making a movie like this and although their career went downhill afterwards,this is a film they can be very proud of.

What a brilliant film! This film is a must to watch, not only if you are a Slade fan, but if you like to take a sneak-peek into the seedy and gritty world of pop/rock 'n' roll. The hard cutting realism of the life of a working band rising to short fame during the 70's. The film encapsulates the lives of the band and individual band members that come from ordinary every day life, working through working mens clubs to concerts and star status. you get a shear sense of being there and what it means to work in those circles, (It's not all, 'Glitter 'n' Glam). It's a cut throat world between band and managers, eat or be eaten. There are some great songs in the film to, which everyone from that era will remember. It's not surreal, the film holds up well along with 'That'll be the day' and 'Stardust' and compliments them. Buy it you will not be disappointed. Well done Nod, Jim, Dave & Don, lets have a revival or a sequel eh! Allan.

The backdrop to this film was so bleak and gritty that one would not have been surprised to have spotted Jack Carter (in his black raincoat) passing by in the background.

With Alan Lake, Tom Conti and Johnny Shannon there to do the real acting, despite the serious nature of the film, Slade's thespian talents were little more important than the Beatles's were in Hard Days Night or the Monkees in Head. Despite that, Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea (who were the brains behind Slade anyway i.e. they wrote all the songs) both aquit themselves extremely well; successfully creating credible, interesting and well rounded characters. Dave Hill simply played himself (not that that was a problem, as he was, to all intents and purposes, cast as himself anyway). I defy anyone to decipher a complete sentence mumbled by drummer Don Powell, but that oddly adds to his character's charm.

This successful hybrid between Get Carter and Stardust is truly a lost gem, that, despite it's rediscovery and favourable reassessment in the 90's, has still not received the popular recognition it deserves.

Who knows, if this had been a major success (as opposed to a major flop) on it's initial release, would it have been that long before we saw The Sweet doing a bullion job in The Sweeny?