"URGH! A Music War" 1981

Performers like Lux Interior and Jello Biafra seem to be dripping sweat right onto you. The effect is to take you into the front row. Urgh! doesn't (and can't possibly) have the cohesive brilliance or musical momentum of Stop Making Sense -- the styles are simply too varied, throwing you from catatonic New Wave to thrashing punk in an eyeblink. Still, as a record of a moment and a sound, it ranks up there with the best you've seen and heard. (more informations at: http://www.angelfire.com/movies/oc/urgh.html)
Urgh! A Music War is a British film released in 1981 featuring performances of punk and New Wave music, filmed in 1980. Among the artists featured in the movie are The Go-Go's, The Fleshtones, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, XTC, Devo, Oingo Boingo, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, and The Police. These are many of the most popular groups on the new wave scene; in keeping with the spirit of the scene, the film also features several less famous acts, and one completely obscure group, Invisible Sex, in what appears to be their single public outing. Urgh! A Music War acquired a cult following in the United States in the 1980s due to its frequent showings on USA Network. The film has been released on videocassette but is currently out of print. Because of an exclusive contract to publish this movie on a now dead format (CED), the contracts for the individual artists are missing. Because you can't renegotiate a contract without the original to amend, no one can touch this. It is currently owned by its original producer, Miles Copeland (founder of IRS Records), and he has the film of three songs from each band in storage, but because of the legal landlock he cannot release it. If he does some day, there's potential for a 6 hour 2 dvd special edition. This movie consisted of a series of punk and new wave songs, without narration or explanatory text. All clips were live, recorded around 1980, mainly in England and the USA. Clips were also taken from a concert in Fréjus, Var, France with the Police, XTC, Skafish and UB40 among others. - film review: wikipedia
traxfromwax:
1. Driven To Tears - The Police 2. Back In Flesh - Wall Of Voodoo 3. Danced - Toyah Wilcox 4. Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark 5. Ain't This The Life - Oingo Boingo 6. Respectable Street - XTC 7. Offshore Banking Buisness - The Members 8. We Got The Beat - The Go-Go's 9. Total Eclipse - Klaus Nomi 10. Where's Captain Kirk? - Athletico Spizz 80 11. Nothing Means Nothing Anymore - The Alley Cats 12. Foolish I Know - Jools Holland 13. Ku Klux Klan - Steel Pulse 14. Uncontrollable Urge - Devo 15. The Puppet - Echo & the Bunnymen 16. Come Again - Au Pairs 17. Tear It Up - The Cramps 18. Bad Reputation - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts 19. Birdies - Pere Ubu 20. Down in the Park - Gary Numan 21. Shadowline - The Fleshtones 22. He’d Send in the Army - Gang of Four 23. Cheryl’s Going Home - John Otway 24. Homicide - 999 25. Beyond and Back - X 26. Model Worker - Magazine 27. Sign of the Cross - Skafish