I got this DVD because I read Casanova Frankenstein’s fantastic autobio book (with Glenn Pearce). He described how seeing this movie randomly on TV in the early 80s was a real eye opener and kinda changed his life? So I had to see this.
Oh, I guess the Police were the biggest name here…
I don’t think that this was originally in 16:9? Oh, it was! I mean, 1.78:1. That’s unusual.
What I understood from the book was that this would be a compilation of concert footage bits? And it is! Did they have one big show where all these people played or is it cut together from many different dates?
Punk, New Wave, Reggae and Techno bands from Europe and the US recorded live in several locations in 1980.
Looks great, anyway.
What’s Jools doing here!?
I bought Klaus Nomi’s album just the other year… and while I admire his schtick, the music is kinda naff? “HUMOUR OUT OF MUSIC” is a slogan I could almost sign off on, but there’s plenty of bands that take funny concepts (like Matmos) and make something awesome out of it, and… other’s don’t.
This movie is 99% just shots of people playing on stage. One song per band. No talking heads. Nobody talking about how radical this music is or whatever. No explanations. No pauses between acts. I love it! But I also like these occasional shots of the audience.
Very realistic shot of what it’s like to be in the audience.
Rare non-stage shot…
… but it leads into these comedy punks so it makes sense.
I love The Au-Pairs. So many fantastic bands on this thing. Those Police guys have good taste!
All the acts are really sweaty, too, so these shows aren’t just the band doing one song each or something. Did they like put on a huge festival spanning weeks with a couple bands per day?
OK, not all these bands are as well-remembered these days.
Is that Pere Ubu? I just bought a complete box set of their stuff, but I’m not familiar with what they’re playing…
Man, that was awesome. I saw them live a couple years ago, but the performance here was so precise… just amazing.
Most of these are shot in pretty big venues, but here’s one from a small one.
Hey! The Police started the movie, and here’s another Police song? They’re the only band that gets more than one song? SUCH NEPOTISM¹.
Such edgy drum kit. Not a jazz at all.
What!? Another Police song? But with Jools!?
Oh, it’s while they run the end credits. Well, that’s OK then — the first one while the opening credits were running, so while they did three tracks, only one of them on their own, like.
Now there’s like two dozen people on stage, so I guess at least some of these bands played the same night to do this movie.
Well, that was kinda awesome? I don’t have any negative things to say about this. The sound is great, it’s filmed perfectly, the selection of bands is almost impeccable, and there’s nothing annoying at all. That doesn’t really happen. So it’s top grades from me.
I do wonder what the story behind this is, though. How did they get financing? 34 bands? So much film filmed? Who financed this? And did MTV help or hurt the movie?
Urgh! A Music War. Derek Burbidge. 1981. ⚅
¹For wrong values of.
