There was a time a couple of decades ago, when my musical tastes learned towards the more low-brow and were less expansive than I hope they are today. I definitely no longer use as a yardstick how much a particular track “rawks”. And yet, it is only relatively recently I have allowed myself to like Black Sabbath, albeit I only really enjoy their first six albums. To my greater surprise, I have discovered I absolutely love 70’s glam rockers Slade.
In the course of exploring their catalog, I was excited to learn they had done a feature film, 1975’s Slade in Flame. That is a curious title, and the plot isn’t what I initially thought it would be, and that is the band goes to Hell. Instead, they play a similar, but fictitious group called Flame. Similar to the Spinal Tap, this fake band is a composite of different groups and assorted anecdotes about them. Unlike Tap, this is wrapped in a somber plot about the darker elements of the music industry. So, it also wasn’t what Slade’s fans were expecting, either.
The group is vocalist Noddy Holder, bassist Jim Lea, lead guitarist Dave Hill and drummer Don Powell. All four have a decent screen presence, with the first two rightly getting the majority of the dialogue and screen time. I wonder if it isn’t just coincidence they were also the chief songwriters for Slade. The script was wisely built around the strengths and weaknesses of each member, to utilize them as best as possible.
Holder is initially with a different band, one with a hilarious bad stage show which foretells Alice Cooper and, more so, Spinal Tap again, as the singer finds himself singing in a coffin on stage which he does not know has been secured by a padlock. This instigates a car chase and melee, with one car shattered and Holder’s band splintering shortly thereafter. Lea offers an invitation to replace his band’s current singer, Alan Lake, and the new combo is off and running.
Lake is interesting and I wish we had seen a bit more of his character. Alas, this simply is not his story. His most impressive moment is at a tented wedding reception the band is playing, which becomes a free-for-all when a drunken guest ends up in the drums onstage. I was curious if Lake actually landed any blows on anybody else, as a fascinating compendium of interviews accompanying the feature on the BFI blu-ray tells of him being a rough character, and one who had just been released from prison.
Once he is deemed as surplus goods and Holder joins the fold, they find themselves at odds with their current manager. Played by Johnny Shannon, this is a wannabe gangster whose other business ventures are slot machines, jukeboxes and pinball machines. While waiting for an appointment with him, Powell wins on a slot machine in the lobby and Lake frantically begs him to put the money back, as that belongs to Shannon.
The band is confused by a management offer from Tom Conti’s wealthy executive. “Why us?” asks band friend and roadie Anthony Allen. Conti fixes him with a stare, correcting Lake by telling him he should have said, “Why them?”, as this exec does not see Allen as part of the equation. This reveals everything you need to know about Conti. He believes he can market the band to the public like any other commodity. “I don’t want to be a fish finger”, protests Powell in a manner quite reminiscent of that one chicken in Chicken Run saying, “I don’t want to be a pie!”.
Still, the group accepts the offer and soon find themselves doing things like an on-air interview at an off-shore pirate radio station. The DJ is provided a list of questions to ask them and reacts thusly: “You don’t really want me to ask all these, don’t you? It’s the same old crap.” And the answers the band members provide are equally uninspired. As if we didn’t know already, this isn’t A Hard Day’s Night, which had The Beatles being incredibly witty on every occasion they are interviewed. This interview ends abruptly when the facility is fired upon by unknown entities which are presumably fellow illegal radio station operators.
As for myself, I suspect this was somehow arranged by Conti and company. He definitely doesn’t mind the free publicity this brings the band. We will also see a couple of other publicity attempts. One appears to be abandoned before use, and that is a microphone which shoots out a long flame at the press of a button. Another really happens, and that is the group holding a fire hose going full blast. As ridiculous as that sounds, the real group Slade was taken to the premiere of their movie riding atop a fire truck, the result of an oblivious film studio not realizing the similar moment in the picture was meant to be farcical.
Unlike the music biopics which have proven to be big business in this century, here is a picture which takes the interesting tact of not wallowing in the excesses of the trade. For example, I can’t recall a single moment of drug use. But it also isn’t a montage of high points in a musical career. Instead, what we get is something unexpectedly reflective and sober but never somber.
Really, the happiest moment in the film is the first gig we see the group play together in a small club. The song they play is “Them Kinda Monkeys Can’t Swing”, and it shows all their best attributes in one go. And each performance in the film, even when the band is wracked by interpersonal tensions, is stellar. Given the drama between these numbers, it is a relief to see a rock movie that actually “rawks”.
I also noticed in that first club performance an interesting tracking shot that passes several mirrored columns without revealing any camera equipment reflected in them. It is a shot which isn’t showing off, but does reveal that Slade in Flame is, above all, an exceptionally well-made film. A similarly complex shot in the very first minute of the picture, where a crane-mounted camera does a long and fairly complex move across a lawn as guests enter the tent at that wedding where the punch-up occurs. That shot, and the very first frames, are outside a window of a second-story bathroom where a guy is taking a leak. An unconventional opening for an unconventional film, having somebody taking a piss. The movie, fortunately, is a marvel and is not taking the piss.
Dir: Richard Loncraine
Starring Slade, Tom Conti, Alan Lake, Johnny Shannon
Watched on BFI UK blu-ray (region B)