Rent Slade: In Flame (1974)

Glam Realism. - Slade: In Flame review by Steve

My pick for the best film project for a rock or pop act, ever! And one of the most effective portraits of the seventies in the run down industrial wastelands. This was made just as Slade were going into decline. Presumably it was conceived as promotion for the band, but it is incredibly gloomy; all raw social realism with a few tales from the road worked in.

Even the two hits from the soundtrack, How Does it Feel and Far Far Away are unusually downbeat and find the boys in reflective mood. It's a rags-to-riches-to-rags story arc set in a Britain of bingo, working man's clubs and the dogs. In classic rock and roll tradition, Flame (Slade) are screwed by the dodgy gangster who is their manager (Johnny Shannon).

When they wriggle free they are taken on by an agent of a multinational corporation (Tom Conti) who treats them like another commodity. Which is worse. The members of Slade are directed thoughtfully, usually paired with with a professional actor. Dave Hill is mostly hidden away, but Jim Lea, Noddy Holder and Don Powell offer a trenchant, fatalistic commentary on their rise and fall.

Everything is shabby and fake and cheap. Flame's brief success doesn't allow their escape but confirms their cynicism. Most of all, it's about that most British of themes, social class. If this had been a conventional rock and roll vehicle, it would be barely remembered. But it has acquired a cult following because its dirty pessimism captures the period, and the country.