Slade singer Noddy Holder rates the movie ‘Slade In Flame’ at 9 out of 10.
Slade’s 1975 ‘Slade In Flame’ wasn’t a big movie in its day. Two of the band members didn’t like it at all but Noddy did.
Noddy told Noise11.com, “I can distance myself now. I always loved the movie. Some of the band didn’t like it at all when we first did it. Now in retrospect, I’m going to be big-headed and I’m going to show-off and I’m going to give it 9/10.”
“Way back then I think it was only me and Jim (Lea) who liked it,” Noddy said. “Dave Hill, the guitar player, he never liked it. He was put off liking it by what people were saying to him. ‘It will kill your career’, ‘This not what Slade are all about’. It was a serious, dark movie about what went on behind the scenes in the rock and roll business. So Dave didn’t like it, particularly when people outside were saying it to him”.
Watch the Noise11 interview with Noddy Holder:
Now coming up to 50 years since its release, Slade In Flame has been given a High Definition update for DVD and Blu-Ray and is back in print. Fans like it now but critics were much harsher in the day.
“Fans didn’t know what to make it at the time,” Noddy said. “But now, we are talking 45 years on from the movie, the biggest film critic in the UK is a guy called Mark Kermode. He rates Slade In Flame as the best rock movie ever made. He calls it the Citizen Kane of rock movies and has done for years. He really rates the movie. The general consensus of opinion now is that it is a great movie”.
The music from the movie didn’t impact the charts like previous Slade records. “Now even the music in it people are rating as great music,” Noddy says. “Way back in the 70s, particularly the theme tune, even though Far Far Away is in the movie which was a big hit record for us, but the theme tune, How Does It Feel, we brought that out and it was our first record that hadn’t made the Top 5 in the UK in our string of hits days.
“Me and Jim, who wrote it, we wanted to record it as the theme for the movie, nobody wanted to do it because it was such a different sort of song for Slade. We did it. It came out really good in mine and Jim eyes. It didn’t sell any great quantities like we were used to. It didn’t get any great reviews but it fitted great into the movie. Now, 45 years on, people are saying probably one of the best records we ever made. But it wasn’t like that at the time. We had people’s perceptions change over a period of time. They didn’t think of it as a Slade classic at that period but now they do”.
Noddy Holder on #Slade being back in the charts 😜 #sladeinflame Blu-ray DVD @BFI remastered and reissued pic.twitter.com/4eGs4A351w
— Suzan Holder (@HolderSuzan) May 26, 2025
Also watch the Noise11 interview with Slade’s Don Powell:
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