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‘The Citizen Kane of rock movies’: glam rockers Slade and their bid for cinema greatness

Fifty years ago, the Black Country legends made Slade in Flame, about a band screwed by the music business. It tanked and almost finished them. Now, as it’s re-released, the film is being seen as a prescient gem

Daryl Easlea was eight years old when he got the 4A bus with his mate Graham down to the Odeon in Southend-on-Sea to see his favourite rock band make the leap from vinyl to celluloid. We want to show the gritty side of the business In the process of making it, though, band and film-makers created a Black Country version of Head, the film credited with destroying the Monkees’ career, albeit one more redolent of pints of mild than tabs of acid. Robert Plant would be there, John Bonham, Jeff Lynne, Justin Hayward – all with our cups of tea talking about where we’d just played.” At least one character bears a close resemblance to a real life counterpart: the agent Ron Harding even has a name notably similar to Don Arden, one of the most feared music business impresarios of the 60s and 70s.

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