It's Slade

It's Slade is a 50 minutes documentary made by BBC1 in 1999. It's actually one of the best documentaries I've ever seen on the guys as it gets into all aspects of the band and their career. The documentary features solo interviews with all of the four original band members as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Suzi Quatro, Noel Gallagher, Toyah Wilcox, Parfitt & Rossi from Status Quo, Chris Charlesworth, Graham (Swin) Swinnerton, Frank Lea, Keith Altham and Dylan White.
There are loads of clips from TV-performances and live concerts, from Flame and a bit from back stage at the K.B.-Hallen in Copenhagen 1974. The clips are edited a bit strange, though, so the back stage footage from Copenhagen illustrates Slade's USA concerts as well as their concert in the London Palladium. In much the same way Lochem footage is shown when the guys are talking about Reading.
Never mind, the clips are great, anyway! Especially the ones from Slade's skinhead days. I remember Don telling me about that footage last September, and his comment was, "There is some old footage of us, we haven't got hair any of us, playing on some TV-shows without any hair and Jim on violin, it seemed so…ABSTRACT!" I sure see what he meant, especially as the guys were doing "Martha My Dear"!
But back to the documentary. The guys are really high spirited in the interviews and very, very frank and detailed. There are some funny stories about Dave looking at maps and of Don buying Dave a parrot when he broke his leg. Touching moments as well regarding Don's accident. Mostly the interviews are on the fun side though, loaded with anecdotes and "behind the scene"-stories. For instance Jim telling about his audition in 1966, "Don said, so I see you play the violin. Do you play any other instrument? I said, I had a go at cello but I didn't really get on too well with that. He said, Oh, did the spike keep sticking in your neck?"
It's not only their career that the Slade-members talk about. They also give you their comments on looks & females, Black Country-roots, clothes, Dave's former house next to a girl school, his wedding car business and Reeves & Mortimer's parodies. All accompanied with great clips.
Only once the documentary gets unintentionally funny and that's when the narrator (Mark Radcliffe) says that the song writing of Noddy and Jim would prove to be the foundation of Slade, while on the visual side you see the single "Look Wot You Dun" - penned by Jim and Don!
Anyway, this is a great documentary and I'm really happy that I got to see it.