Dance Craze (DVD + Blu-ray)

Product Information

As per the booklet, the BFI's release has been "scanned and remastered at 4K resolution using the only surviving 70mm print, held in the personal collection of Joe Dunton". The concert film Dance Craze is a high-energy record of a series of concerts performed from Portsmouth to London and from Coventry to Liverpool, as well as in the US. It was filmedin 1980 and released in cinemas for fans of The Specials, Madness, Bad Manners, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers.

Often topping the wants list of many people, a Dance Craze movie Blu-ray release has now been confirmed by the BFI. Because 2 Tone was massive. For a short period of time at the turn of the 1980s, it seemed like the biggest thing on the planet. Or at least, on the schoolyard. While the gigs might have been lively, for many kids, they weren’t exactly on the doorstep, and Dance Craze was the ideal substitute. Shot on Super 35 with Steadycam allowing total mobility, it enables us to experience the concerts from the stage. We are up there with the performers rather than watching them from the perspective of static cameras safely anchored in the stalls. ABOUT USLouder Than War is a music, culture and media publication headed by The Membranes & Goldblade frontman John Robb. Online since 2010 it is one of the fastest-growing and most respected music-related publications on the net. Highlights include The Specials’ Concrete Jungle, a slice of terrace chant ska with social realist lyrics about streets that are no longer safe and only walking at night where there’s lots of lights.

The movie doesn’t get many screenings, and it hasn’t had a release on either DVD or Blu-ray. Until now. The BFI has produced a dual-format edition that works as both a DVD and Blu-ray.

The layers of archival treats on this DVD/Blu-ray release include a BBC Arenathat sent NME "cub reporter" Adrian Thrills to the chaotic offices of the record label in Coventry, where Jerry Dammers, the founder of The Specials, and the rest of the band were in fine form. The Specials’ Too Much Too Young is as thrilling as ever, and as ambiguously angry and contemptuous: “You’re married with a KID/When you could be having FUN WITH ME,” they snarl, adding the despairing Alf Garnett insult: “I’d hate to have the same name as you/You silly moo.” Rhoda Dakar of the Bodysnatchers is a live wire; Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners is a genuine English eccentric, doing that odd thing with his tongue; Madness’s cover version of the Swan theme from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is very weird, and the Beat’s Twist and Crawl and Mirror in the Bathroom are still compelling. A must. The DANCE CRAZE film, shot throughout 1980 and released in cinemas in 1981, brilliantly captures the cultural phenomenon that was the 2Tone movement and represents an important social document of the times. Directed by Joe Massot ( The Song Remains the Same) and filmed by Bafta award-winning cinematographer Joe Dunton, it showcases the very best of the British Ska phenomenon, with exclusive live performances from The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers.

Brilliantly capturing the vibrancy of the genre, Dance Craze offers a vivid, immersive snapshot of the 2 Tone era, through kinetic concert performances by The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Body Snatchers. Outtakes (1980, 17 mins): a selection of rare clips, many previously unseen, featuring the bands from the film

Drench yourself in the high-energy, sweatbox world of British 2 Tone in the late-1970s and early 1980s with this legendary concert film. It was blown up to 70mm because at the time that was the best way of achieving true multichannel sound in a widely compatible format, as opposed to the comparative fudge of Dolby Stereo. Shot in 1980 by Joe Massot, who directed the psychedelic and absurdist Wonderwall in 1968, Dance Craze is a concert footage film rather than a documentary although, around the halfway mark, it’s broken up with some old Pathé news reports on dance crazes such as the Locomotion and the Madison, and a man from Harrogate attempting a world record for playing the piano longer than anybody before had managed (a marathon endeavour aided by ‘eggs, glucose, tea and brandy’ together with a hundred cigarettes a day. Don’t try this at home, folks). The movie was directed by Joe Massot, who is perhaps best known these days for the 1960s cult classic Wonderwall ( available as a cheapie on Blu-ray if you haven’t got it). He also directed the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains The Same a few years earlier, and following that, he planned to do a concert movie featuring Madness. First pressing only*** illustrated booklet with a new essay by Johnny Mains, the original 1981 press release and original 1981 band biographies, credits and notes on the special featuresThe disc will feature outtakes, a booklet featuring new writing on the film, plus other extras to be confirmed. It was thought lost for decades, but a 70mm print from 1981 belonging to cinematographer Joe Dunton has been given the 4K restoration treatment by the BFI and Chrysalis Records. Espousing the message of racial unity, the sharp suited band combined choppy Jamaican rhythms with the rawness and high-voltage energy of punk. With help from Chrysalis, they set up 2 Tone Records and just as, say, Glasgow’s Postcard label would worship at the altar of The Velvet Underground, the Coventry imprint adopted Jamaica’s Prince Buster as their patron saint.

It was shot in Super 35, one of the first films to use that process, if not the very first. As per the booklet, the BFI's release has been "scanned and remastered at 4K resolution using the only surviving 70mm print, held in the personal collection of Joe Dunton". It’s 1980 and the policies implemented by Margaret Thatcher, elected British Prime Minister a year earlier, are already making an impact. That spring, riots broke out in the St Pauls district of Bristol. Inflation rose to over 20%. Unemployment stood at around 1.5 million and by the end of that summer it had risen to 2 million, with young people hit particularly hard. An inquest into the death of Blair Peach, killed as he took part in an anti-National Front protest, returned a much disputed verdict of misadventure, and the man dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper was engaged in a grotesque murdering spree. I could go on but you get the picture. But seeing the potential for the whole 2 Tone movement rather than just the one band, he decided to cover the whole scene. So live footage was shot in 1980 featuring Madness, The Specials, The Selecter, The Bodysnatchers, the Beat and Bad Manners. There’s live performances by The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers and Bad Manners (the latter being the only featured band never to have signed to 2 Tone) and the film flits between these six acts for a song or two at a time. Massot and his cinematographer Joe Dunton capture the kinetic energy on display inventively, with Dunton even sharing space with the musicians onstage as they play. Madness took their name from one of Buster’s biggest hits, while their one and only 2 Tone release was a tribute to him called The Prince, with the B-side an infectious cover of his single Madness. Their second single, One Step Beyond, was another cover. The Specials themselves naughtily stole the tune of his Al Capone for their debut single Gangsters. Too Hot was a direct cover of another of his songs, while Stupid Marriage borrowed its premise from Buster’s Judge Dread. 2 Tone owed a huge debt to the singer born Cecil Bustamente Campbell.Newly remastered in 4K from original film materials, DANCE CRAZE is presented here by the BFI and Chrysalis Records on Blu-ray and DVD (Dual Format Edition) for the first time, more than 40 years on from its theatrical release. Available on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time ever, the film is presented in a new 4K restoration (from original film materials) and features brand new sound mixes by Chrysalis Records. Dance Craze is a 1981 concert film recorded at various venues throughout 1980 at the height of the 2Tone movement. It features exclusive live recordings by The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers. US director Joe Massot, known for the psychedelic 60s curiosity Wonderwall and Led Zeppelin concert movie The Song Remains the Same, directed this tremendously vivid 1981 documentary about the British 2 Tone movement, this vital music being a kind of evolutionary product of reggae’s coexistence with punk the decade before. The material has been newly restored by the BFI from original film materials. The release will feature a brand new Dolby Atmos sound mix supervised by Jerry Dammers and Dermot James (Chrysalis Records).