Slade In Flame - The DVD Collectors Edition [Region 0]

There are mixed thoughts from various camps about this film. Did Flame really kill Slade's career? Dave Hill seemed to think so. However, Noddy Holder and Jim Lea both love it. Don Powell is rightfully proud of it. There is no bad acting at all, so it couldn't have been that... So what could it have been that had people worrying about this film?

The theory that Dave Hill frequently posits is that Flame confused Slade fans and that they believed that the four members of Slade all hated each other, which very notion was indeed, stark bilge. Dave Hill is not so sure about the wisdom of doing a dark, realistic film instead of a jolly happy film. Slade fans were not quite dim enough to confuse the film as being a Slade documentary. Despite that, the band did their best to dispel that notion on the UK tour to promote the Flame album. Nod gave Jim a quick kiss on the cheek and said that they loved each other really, before leading the band on to the next level of pandemonium with their next song..

Flame is a most creditable film that critics only appreciated with an unfortunate degree of hindsight. They could have given it the praise it gets now at the time it was released. It stands the test of time, but a bit more praise at the time would have been good. There is a lot of dark subject matter and a bit of violence, but there is also a quite a fair degree of humour too. Don is comic without much effort (but see Holder's comments in the featurette).

The reissue DVD of Flame comes with much improved (pristine) picture and sound quality from previous versions - all of the picture is on screen at last - and an hour long featurette section that contains interviews with all the principal players in the film (including Tom Conti and Director Richard Loncraine). You probably know about the quality of the songs featured in the film, including How does it feel and Far far away.

The interviews are quite revealing. Jim Lea again relates how he basically played himself in the film and the group still easily spot themselves written large in the characters that they played.

Jim; the musical and seriously moody one.

Nod; the loud brash singer and showman.

Don; the one at the back who didn't have lots to say, but held the band together with a down to earth attitude and an earth-shaking, solid beat. His conversational scene by the canal is one of the most mentioned and best written parts of the film and it excellently illustrates in just a few moments how the band were seriously not coping with their new found success.

Dave; is Dave with a newly bought fringe. Extrovert on stage, a bit silly in the dress department and a great guitarist with a developed sense of flashness that lifted the band to the top flight.

The surrounding characters in the film are written from the band and Chas Chandler's observations and tales of clubland and the music business. Ron Harding and his henchmen are a stereotypical agent and his stooges from the time, far more interested in the performance of their dog at the track and the payout from the fruit machines than any of the bands they happen to handle. Slade were luckily far more fortunate with their own real life agency.

Tom Conti plays a manager who gets someone to go find him a pop group to sell. He can sell anything that he is given to sell and pop groups can be sold as product too. He takes the group on as a challenge and a marketing exercise, much to the disapproval of his company's executive board. He plays himself too, a vague and slightly charming wimp who cuts out when he has proved his point and the going gets exceedingly bad, dropping the band like an old newspaper.

Alan Lake gave an outstanding performance as a stereotypical club singer, who wished he was Elvis, with a degree in singing dated, corny songs in hundreds of smoky bars and at weddings. Russell the roadie has a few choice lines as do the ladies attached to the band.

So why does this film actually matter all these years on?

So very few rock films have dealt so well with the darker side of the business. 'That'll be the day' and (to a lesser degree) 'Stardust' came close to what 'Flame' achieved - they told the story of a band, their rise to success and what it gained them and cost them personally. Even Led Zeppelin, with all their gravitas, massive success and heavyweight pretentiousness brought out a tour film 'The song remains the same' which was excellent from a performance point of view, but which had had no actual plot to speak of - apart from band lounge round at home then go on tour, have odd fantasy sequences and get applauded - and the 'acting' was particularly lame. 'Flame' was a superior piece of writing and Slade were the right band to inspire it and to act it out. If Slade had made a jolly romp a la 'Hard days Night', we may not have been talking about them now...

Cast aside the fashion crimes that occur at intervals and this is an eminently watchable film. The soundtrack (a CD of the remastered Flame soundtrack accompanies the special edition) is truly superb and is one of Slade's career highpoints. Well worth buying - even if you have the film already. The featurette is well edited and all of the band and Loncraine and Conti answer honestly and engagingly. The booklet includes a set of photos from the period with interesting and engaging comments from Jim Lea.

It has to be said that the picture quality on this DVD edition makes every other edition that has been out previously look dreadful. The restoration is a total masterpiece.

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