‘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. After 12 consecutive top 10 singles – including six No 1s – Slade had finally made their first movie, Slade in Flame. It has just turned 50.

What young Easlea saw in 1975 was not the fun-packed adventures of a happy-go-lucky glam rock foursome, but a dour, downbeat film about being chewed up and spat out by the music industry. Easlea, who would grow up to be Slade’s biographer, didn’t care.