Grim all over

Just how bleak were the 1970s in England? Well, we had a miner's strike that brought down the government, power cuts that plunged homes into cold darkness, a 3-day work week, bombs going off in pubs, the Winter of Discontent, the National Front, a bankrupt treasury, and "Love Thy Neighbour" on television. No wonder brown was the dominant color for home decoration back then, very appropriate for a country totally in the shit.

Things were so grim that even our shiny pop stars were making depressing movies. First there was pretty boy David Essex dying of a drug OD at the end of "Stardust" and then Slade came up with "Slade In Flame" in 1975. Given their image as fun-lovin' glam bovver boys who wrote simple, dyslexic songs, you'd expect a colourful "Help!"-style romp but what you got was a gritty, cynical kitchen-sink drama about the rise and bitter break up of a Northern rock band. Though it had it's funny moments it was generally as dour as an old Yorkshireman at closing time. If Ken Loach made a rock and roll movie it would have been like this. I only saw it once and remember liking it but my best friend at school was a Slade fanatic and claimed to have seen it 13 times.

The movie's theme "How Does It Feel?" was another bitter pill and is probably the only time you could ever use the word "plaintive" about a Slade record. I think this is one of the best singles of the 70s, a reflective, melancholy ballad built around some very non-Slade things like piano and flute and a massive wall of brass. There's something about that brass sound that reeks of leather coats and dirty pavements, I can't really explain why. Much as I love their mindless headbanging numbers this gem shows that Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea could write proper songs – with proper spelling too!

The British public didn't warm to Slade as serious artistes, the movie wasn't a big smash and "How Does It Feel?" was their first single in three and half years that failed to make the Top 10, so they reverted back to being cartoon characters and stayed that way ever since. Shame. a few more songs like this and their reputation could have been very different.

Download: How Does It Feel? - Slade (mp3)
Buy: "Get Yer Boots On: The Best of Slade" (album)