Latest news with #Flame
Reuters
15-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Weak EU gas prices, Chinese demand to encourage storage refill, Uniper executive says
AMSTERDAM, May 15 (Reuters) - Current low European gas prices, supported by weak Chinese demand, will encourage the refilling of EU gas storage sites this summer, a senior executive at German utility Uniper ( opens new tab told Reuters. EU inventories were left two-thirds empty by the end of the winter season and the continent is estimated to need around 30 billion cubic metres (bcm) more gas than last year to meet storage targets. The EU parliament voted earlier this month in favour of loosening filling gas storage rules, over concerns the requirement to fill storage to 90% capacity by November 1 inflates prices. "In Europe, the summer-winter spreads that we see now do incentivise storage filling," Carsten Poppinga, Uniper's chief commercial officer said in an interview on the sidelines of Flame gas conference in Amsterdam. Gas prices rose in February to two-year high of 58 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), but they have since fallen and are now at around 34 euros/Mwh, according to LSEG data. Analysts estimate summer-winter spread has gone down from a high of around 7 euros/MWh earlier this year to 1.3 euros/MWh currently. The EU faces competition for LNG on the global market from Asia. But China, the world's largest LNG buyer, in April recorded its lowest LNG demand since October 2022, and has been reselling U.S.-sourced LNG cargoes to Europe amid a tariff war with the United States. If this continues, it would help Europe replenish stocks. A temporary truce agreed by Washington and Beijing earlier this week could unblock some of the two-way trade brought to a standstill by the conflict between the world's two biggest economies. If a final deal between the two powers is agreed, it might spur economic activity in China and support a pick up in gas demand. "If China takes a lot more of the LNG that is currently coming to Europe, then, of course, it's a different ball game, and then we would see higher prices," Poppinga said Poppinga said that Europe will continue to need LNG even if demand goes down, adding that while trying to diversify supply sources, the continent is still expected to get a large portion of its supplies from the United States. "U.S. LNG remains the most economic way to bring gas into the European Union," he said. In 2022, the German government bailed out Uniper ( opens new tab, once Gazprom's ( opens new tab biggest European customer. The German group has since replaced Russian gas volumes entirely via other suppliers including from the United States, Australia and the Middle East.
Scottish Sun
10-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Scottish Sun
Home Bargains shoppers race to snap up £5 solar lights that will transform your garden into a ‘cosy haven' for summer
All recommendations within this article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click on a link in this story we may earn affiliate revenue. Home Bargains is providing the perfect affordable lighting for a peaceful summer garden. TURN IT UP Home Bargains shoppers race to snap up £5 solar lights that will transform your garden into a 'cosy haven' for summer HOME Bargains is selling a set of garden lights perfect for summer evenings, available to buy for just £5. As the weather continues to improve and the evenings keep getting lighter, now is the best time to buy a new set of lights from Home Bargains. 3 This set of solar-powered lights is available at Home Bargains for an affordable £4.99 Credit: Home Bargains For just £4.99, Home Bargains are selling a set of solar-powered lights which are sure to turn any garden into a cosy haven. It includes a string of 10 lights which would work well strung up to light up a patio, or as a scenic feature hanging from trees and bushes. The warm lighting will help provide a welcoming backdrop as summer approaches to make sure you can spend as much time in the garden as possible. Not only are they visually pleasing, but they are also solar powered making them easy to set up and good for the environment. Charging up with sunlight during the day, the lights will automatically turn on in the evening, helping to set a calming mood without breaking the bank. This set is part of Home Bargain's extensive lighting range, providing an affordable alternative to garden lighting. They also sell more unique and colourful designs, like this strawberry set, or this wisteria lighting. With such varied designs available at different price points, there is something for everyone to make sure their garden is thriving in time for the warmer months. Shoppers can combine hanging lights with these pathway decorations for the ultimate relaxing outdoor area. A description on the website reads: "Introducing our 10 Solar Flame String Solar Lights - the perfect combination of eco-friendly illumination and enchanting aesthetics. Five Lidl rosés you need this summer, according to a wine expert - a £6.99 buy is as light & crispy as £22 Whispering Angel "Transform your outdoor space into a warm and inviting haven with the mesmerising glow of these flame-inspired lights." Similar sets of outdoor lighting at other leading retailers cost around double the price. 3 Home Bargains are selling a variety of lights perfect for creating a cosy garden Credit: Alamy 3 These lights provide the perfect backdrop for warm evenings in the garden Credit: Alamy A butterfly-shaped set at Asda retails for £9, almost double the price of the Home Bargains' set, while this set of 10 lights at B&Q costs £32 with a rating of 1.5 online. Complaining about the quality of the B&Q set, customers said they experienced problems with wiring that meant the product quickly broke in poor weather conditions. Instead, why not try the set from Home Bargains for a more affordable alternative.
Telegraph
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Noddy Holder on the ‘heavy' box-office bomb that blew up Slade
It's July 29 1974, the first day of production on the film that will surely take Britain's biggest singles band to the next level. In The Revolution club in Mayfair, central London, the cast and crew of Slade in Flame are embarking on the six-week shoot that will take this other northern four-piece to Beatles -adjacent success. That, at least, is the plan of band handler Chas Chandler, the ambitious tough-nut ex- Animals bassist and former manager of Jimi Hendrix. 'When we [signed with] Chas, it took two years before we had a hit,' recalls Slade frontman Noddy Holder of the early years of the glam-pop phenomenon who formed as a Mod-like rock band in Wolverhampton in 1966. The 79-year-old and I are talking on the occasion of the 50 th -anniversary of Slade in Flame, which means a spruced-up print, cinema re-release and DVD reissue courtesy of the BFI. 'Everybody was saying to him: 'You got to give it up with Slade, they're not going to make it,'' continues the singer, those mutton-chop whiskers are still present and correct, albeit greyer and wispier and half concealed by a dandy-ish purple fedora. But the fearsome Chandler 'stuck with us because he'd had Hendrix, and the next project he wanted was a four-man band. He followed the blueprint of the Beatles: get to number one, get another number one, get to number one the first day of release. We did that three, four times. 'Course, the next thing the Beatles did was make a movie. So Chas, of course, said: 'I want to make a movie with Slade.'' That, after some script back and forth, meant a dark rock'n'roll fable written by Andrew Birkin (brother of Jane) and directed by 27-year-old first-time film-maker Richard Loncraine. Set in the late 1960s, it was about a band, Flame (portrayed by Slade), and their rise to fame, co-option by a dodgy manager (played, in his first significant screen role, by Tom Conti) and bitter demise. Good times. In The Revolution, the scene being shot involves Flame's first singer, the man who will ultimately be ejected in favour of Holder's Stoker ('a more exaggerated version of me,' Holder tells me. 'Or I'm a more exaggerated version of Stoker!'). He's a theatrically ridiculous warbler – a Midlands Jacques Brel – called Jack Daniels, and he's played by the actor Alan Lake. Even on the first day of shooting, there was some dissension within the ranks of Slade over the film's merits. Mercurial guitarist Dave Hill was already less than impressed. 'Dave was Dave,' Holder says, of a musician who still tours with a version of Slade (Holder hasn't since 1992). 'Dave has said himself that he hadn't got a f------- clue what the film was about. He didn't read the script! He only read the scenes he was in! And when he saw the end-product, he thought it was way too heavy for Slade.' Which brings us back to Alan Lake. Holder gives a high-pitched tee-hee at mention of the actor, who wasn't long out of prison when he landed the part in Slade in Flame. 'He was mates with the Krays and all sorts of people. And he had been in a pub in [Sunningdale, Berkshire] and got into a fight – him and a pop star called Leapy Lee, he had one hit called Little Arrows. Some of the locals in the pub were slagging off Diana Dors – who Alan was married to! So, of course, a fight broke out and Alan stabbed someone. Him and Leapy Lee got jailed.' The extracurricular activities of their co-star, though, didn't deter Slade. 'We got on great, he was just our sort of bloke. We're sitting around waiting for lights and cameras to be reset, he was telling stories about the clink, the East End, all these hard nuts. But: you wouldn't cross Alan. His fatal flaw was, when he was pissed, he got out of control.' Which Lake duly did on that first day of shooting. Sloshed after his lunch break, when the manager of The Revolution wouldn't open the bar for him, 'Alan lost his rag and beat the s--- out of him.' Chandler and producer Gavrik Losey (son of blacklisted Hollywood director Joseph Losey) fired Lake on the spot. But the next day he was back, cap in hand and wife on arm. 'Diana Dors pleaded with them to give him more chance. She guaranteed he would not drink the whole of the rest of the movie. And they gave him a chance. And as far as we know, he never touched another drop the whole of the movie.' That, Holder adds, was indicative of Lake: for all his demons and toughness, 'he was totally reliant on Diana'. That was proved terribly true 10 years later. Dors died from ovarian cancer in May 1984. That October, Lake dropped off their 16-year-old at Sunningdale railway station, returned to the nearby family home and shot himself in the son's bedroom. In summer 1974, Slade have already had an intense 12 months. The previous July, with Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me, their fifth number one single at the top of the charts, they headlined London's Earls Court, a legendary show that was – and would remain – their largest indoor show in the UK. Two nights later, drummer Don Powell picked up his girlfriend Angela Morris from Wolverhampton's Dix nightclub in his white Bentley. In the wee hours of July 4 1973 the car left the road and hit a brick wall. Both were flung from the car. Morris died and Powell suffered catastrophic brain injuries and multiple fractures. He spent five days in a coma in Wolverhampton Royal Hospital. But even for the critically injured drummer, the Slade train didn't stop. Within a few weeks the band were in America, touring the East Coast and recording, in New York's Record Plant, their next single: Merry Xmas Everybody. 'We didn't know whether Don was going to survive – they only give him 24 hours to live when he had the crash,' remembers Holder. 'When he come out of hospital six weeks later, we took him to America, just to see if he could play again. But he had no memory. Couldn't remember the hits. Couldn't remember nothing about his life. Couldn't taste or smell.' Unsurprisingly, a newly written song, no matter how catchy, was beyond Powell. 'We had to talk him through it all. So Merry Xmas was probably the hardest record we ever recorded. We built it up like a jigsaw puzzle. I'd be singing in the booth and with the guitar, and I'd be shouting to Don through his headphones: 'There's a [drum] roll coming now, it's gonna go 'bada-bada-bada'', and he'd go 'bada-bada-bada'! That's how we had to record for two or three years. The same [with playing] on stage.' Learning his lines for the film, then, would also be a challenge. 'That's why mainly in the film Don's got comedy one-liners,' says Holder, who says that he 'loved' acting and went on to star in three series of the sitcom The Grimleys (1999-2001), created by future Line of Duty showrunner Jed Mercurio. 'But Don was a one-liner merchant anyway – he was a drummer, and they're one-liner-type people.' In the summer of 1974, his newbie actors' rusty skills were the least of the problems facing Loncraine, a debutant director who'd later make multiple films and TV dramas including The Missionary with Michael Palin and Dennis Potter adaptation Brimstone and Treacle with Sting. 'Chas was not easy,' says the director of a manager fiercely protective of his 'boys'. Having ponied up the budget from David Puttnam's Goodtime Enterprises and from Slade's record label Polydor, Chandler ruled the film set with a rod of iron. Loncraine remembers shooting a night sequence: Flame are in a car chase with a rival band and police, and their vehicle flips over and catches fire. 'We only had one night to do a lot of work, and I was working at a garage location up the road from the other unit. We were shooting on Panavision's latest camera, which we managed to get it by hook or by crook – I was holding about a quarter of a million quid's worth of camera. 'Suddenly it was grabbed out of my hand, and Chas said to me, 'I want more close-up of my boys, you young c---', and threw the camera in a puddle. He was quite blunt to say the least.' For his part, future Oppenheimer star Conti – 33 at the time and with a largely theatrical background – confesses to blithe ignorance all round. The storied actor, now 83 and deep in the final stages of writing his memoir, admits he had no idea what he was getting into. 'I hadn't heard of Slade, I'm afraid!' the Scotsman says with a laugh. 'It's ridiculous but I was brought up on Mozart and that lot. Popular culture, I really didn't know much about. I knew The Beatles of course. But I didn't know anything about the rock world at all, really. So it was quite fun to be involved with that a bit.' His character, a shady businessman turned manager, was of particular interest to Chandler. As recounted in 1999 by Ken Colley, the character actor who played a talent scout in the film, he'd been told by Chandler that 'when The Animals ended, he had been left in Los Angeles with a broken marriage, bad health and $5,000 in his pocket, and he swore he was never going to let anything like that ever happen to him again. That's why a film showing the contractual scheming and the underhanded side of the music business appealed to him.' Certainly it was more appealing than an earlier script: a spoof of 1950s TV series The Quatermass Experiment, it was called The Quite-a-mess Experiment. Holder was going to be Professor Quite-a-mess, 'and the triffid would eat Dave Hill in the first half hour of the movie,' says Holder. 'And all you'd have through the rest of the movie was Dave's fringe hanging out the triffid's mouth!' All of that is news to Conti. Although he did have his own run-in when he met Chandler for the first time, after the film's premiere, at The Metropole theatre in London's Victoria on February 13 1975. 'There was a slightly embarrassing moment,' the veteran actor begins. 'There was a very pretty girl getting some food [at the after-party] at Morton's, which was a club in Berkely Square. I got chatting to her. Her name was Lynsey de Paul, but I didn't know her or to whom I was chatting. But we took our plates of food and drinks and sat on the staircase and chatted. And somebody said to me later: 'You were taking a bit of chance weren't you, talking to Lynsey?' 'What do you mean?' 'She's just broken up with Chas Chandler.' But there were no repercussions!' Alas, there were repercussions aplenty for the musicians at the heart of it all: Slade in Flame bombed. It turned out that a dark rock'n'roll fable about a pub band being shafted by the music biz – with a moody, only-occasionally-rocking, period-specific soundtrack that was less Cum on Feel the Noize than Cum on Feel the Angst – wasn't a must-watch for Slade's core, teenage, significantly female fanbase. At least the critics were kinder. 'Barry Norman, the big guy at the time, he loved it,' says the puckishly cheerful Holder, still chuffed. 'Which we never expected. But in terms of bums on seats, it didn't hit, because of the seriousness of the subject.' How disappointing was that to Slade? 'Oh, very! Particularly in the situation we were as a band – we were used to number one records. We expected to have a number one film! It definitely harmed our career.' Holder remembers an appearance on Top of the Pops 'straight after the premiere'. The director of the show turned up at the afternoon's rehearsal, 'went up to Dave and said: 'It's a fantastic movie, but you've made a hell of a mistake for your career.' Because it was not what the fans wanted. The fans didn't want to see behind the glamour. They only wanted to see what we were all about, the happy-go-lucky, cheeky chappies. The fans couldn't split the Slade reality from the Flame characters.' Musically, Holder took some consolation from the fact that he and bassist Jim Lea, his co-writer, stretched themselves with How Does It Feel, the film's epic, rock opera-like, six-minute theme song. But that only went so far. 'Fans didn't like it. Chas didn't like it. Dave and Don in the band didn't like it. Polydor didn't like it. Only me and Jim liked it. But we had to bring it out as a single because it was the theme to the movie. We'd already had Far Far Away out [from the soundtrack], which got to number two. But How Does It Feel was the first time we'd missed out on the Top Three since 1971.' That Number 15-with-an-anchor single was the final straw. Drastic action was called for. America was one of the few international markets remaining impervious to Slade's charms. 'So after the movie came out in the spring of '75, we decided to go to the States and make a concerted effort. We'd been many times. But in them days, you had to be there for a year, two years. Zeppelin did it, Sabbath did it, Fleetwood Mac did it. 'So we had to get slogging on the road, and we decided to go for two years. And that's what we did. 'Course, when we came back after two years, the punk thing was happening. We were boring old farts then. So we were way out of favour with the media, weren't getting records played on the radio, nothing. In Europe we were doing fine. But in the UK, dead in the water.' It would take a last-minute and acclaimed appearance at the Reading Festival in 1980, when they replaced Ozzy Osbourne, 'to revamp' Slade and kickstart a new phase of their career. And now? Bizarre but entertaining, Slade in Flame stands up as a curio, a gritty kitchen-sink drama grafted onto the giddy, gleeful world of one of the biggest pop bands of the era. And it's a period piece, albeit of two different periods: the hardscrabble late '60s in the music business, when the deals were shady and the managers shadier still; and the mid-'70s, when cinematic rock fantasias like The Who's Tommy and David Essex's That'll Be the Day were natural, you might say vainglorious, extensions of musicians' activities. For his part, Noddy Holder remains proud of the film, pleased that 'we stuck to our guns and did it how we wanted. I'm not saying the whole band agreed with that. They do now. I think [even] Dave probably does now.' At the time of our meeting in April, Holder said he was unsure whether all four members would convene for a special London anniversary screening in London on May 1. It's been 'a long, long time' since all four did anything together – perhaps, even, 1996, when they got together for Holder's edition of This Is Your Life and Chandler's funeral (those events were unrelated). 'And Dave and Don had a big fall out two, three years ago. I see Dave most out of any of them. If I'm in Wolverhampton, I might call him up and go for a cup of tea. But Jim and Don, I never see 'em.' He mentions a 'f------- great' quote he just read by Liam Gallagher. 'He just makes me laugh. He said: 'You have to have a messiah complex to be the frontman in a band. But once the drummer and the roadie get a messiah complex, you're f-----.' Just genius!' the singer cackles. On that point: Noddy Holder has always said that a band splits up for a combination of five reasons. 'Ego. Next thing is money. Then drink and drugs. Next thing is women. And the last thing is musical differences. And in Slade's case it was all five!'
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Slade in Flame review – Midlands glam rockers offer A Hard Day's Night meets Get Carter
Here is Slade's movie musical satire from 1975, a film with all the pungent historical presence of a pub ashtray, about an imaginary band called Flame which looked and sounded a lot like Slade, fronted by Stoker, played by Noddy Holder. It came out a year after the film's soundtrack album was released, and now gets a rerelease for its 50-year anniversary. Slade in Flame – which is to say, Flame, starring Slade – is regarded by fans and non-fans alike with enormous affection and regard, and it certainly has a weird, goofy energy: the audio mix sometimes surreally privileging ambient sounds such as doors closing and glasses chinking, with the dialogue way in the background. It's about an innocent working-class Midlands band getting taken up by creepy adman-type smoothie Robert Seymour, played by Tom Conti, who exploits their raw talent for cash and takes them on a rollercoaster ride of fame, the action regularly suspended while the band sing their various tracks. But then their former manager, dodgy cockney mobster Mr Harding (Johnny Shannon) reappears – a man who never gave a hoot about them in their early days and contributed nothing to their career – demanding his share of the action. So it bizarrely mixes the madcap comedy of A Hard Day's Night – or a late-period Carry On – with the brutal nastiness of a crime thriller like Get Carter. The effect is striking, in its way, but finally somehow depressing in a way that isn't entirely intentional, and depressing in a way that actually listening to Slade is not. It also shows the unexpected influence of a particular kind of Brit social realism with a generic loyalty to unhappiness. Flame is the amalgam of two sparring local bands, one fronted by tricky geezer Jack Daniels, played by Alan Lake, always conning his fellow band members out of their share of the fee, and the other a comedy combo called Roy Priest And the Undertakers, the lead singer being Holder's irrepressible Stoker. They have a monumental fight which lands them all in the cells, where a grim-faced custody sergeant is shown walking down the corridor, flushing each of their lavatories in turn with a chain that dangles outside. (It's this kind of brutal touch which makes the film a vivid guide to the tough 70s.) They join forces and Daniels is dispensed with. Flame then enjoy the fruits of the Faustian bargain that they don't remember making: packed crowds, screaming girls, lots of money. There's a thoroughly bizarre interview aboard a pirate radio ship in the Thames estuary which is interrupted by gunshots which Seymour may or may not have staged for publicity purposes. But there's a creeping sense that it's all going to come crashing down. The best bits are always the band performing, with Holder's compelling rock'n'roll growl. Slade in Flame is in UK and Irish cinemas from 2 May, and on Blu-ray and DVD from 19 May.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
SPONSORED POST: Le Creuset Just Launched a Fiery New Color for Their 100th (!) Anniversary
From the rainbow of glossy hues to the elegant designs, Le Creuset cookware is iconic — and icons aren't made overnight. This year, the French brand is celebrating 100 years of feeding our taste buds and our aesthetics with Dutch ovens, casseroles, and other pieces that work just as well as decor as they do as cookware. Over those 100 years, Le Creuset has become known for constantly adding bold, rich colors to its collection. From the striking royal blue of Marseille to the pale lavender of Shallot, there is a Le Creuset for every design style. And now, to honor their 100-year milestone, there's one more: Flamme Dorée. Vivid and fiery, Flamme Dorée — which translates to Golden Flame — reimagines and pays homage to the original Le Creuset color, Flame. Like a smoldering fire, Flamme Dorée features a mesmerizing combination of warm orange and ripe red hues, with a glistening glaze that guarantees permanent stovetop status. And, in honor of the brand's birthday, the lid features a new crucible knob crafted from stainless steel with a celebratory light gold finish. This milestone design is an artful balance of rich tradition and modern innovation — exactly like Le Creuset itself. The new hue took three years to develop and includes an innovative third layer of enamel to produce the shimmering finish. And if you want to snag Flamme Dorée for your collection, you can choose from several classic Le Creuset designs: Round Dutch Oven, Oval Dutch Oven, Braiser, and Saucepan. Each would be a stunning addition to any kitchen. And if you bought them all, we couldn't blame you! Of course, color is only part of what makes Le Creuset beloved enough to last for a whole century. There's also the exceptional craftsmanship and superior quality we've all come to trust. For 100 years, Le Creuset has been handcrafting cookware that performs beautifully enough to trust with our favorite family recipes, plus ages beautifully enough to pass down through generations. Crafted in Fresnoy-le-Grand, France, each cast iron piece passes through 15 artisans before arriving at your table. Voilà: an heirloom in the making. To celebrate that time-honored process, Le Creuset is also marking 100 years with a gorgeous coffee table book exploring its history. Le Creuset: A Century of Colorful Cookware by Assouline Books offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this iconic cookware and its legendary hues. Plus, it shares recipes from traditions across the globe that are united by Le Creuset, from crème brûlée to bolognese, so you can bring the inspiration home. And we're not done celebrating: Check out our interactive feature and discover more reasons to fall in love with this iconic cookware! Shop the 100th birthday Flamme Dorée collection here. We Asked 3 Chefs to Name the Best Ice Cream, and They All Said the Same Thing Reese's Just Launched a Limited-Edition Peanut Butter Cup, and It Tastes 4x Better than the Original Ball Just Dropped the Most Beautiful Mason Jars for Its 140th Anniversary ("So Iconic!")
