I can remember well saying up late on a school to watch Urgh! A Music War. It was awesome. I was barely awake. I think I even failed an algebra test over it. I eventually got it on tape.

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, Wall of Voodoo 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.

If you think that lineup sounds like the cats meow,, then take a look at the whole thing….

1. Opening credits
2. The Police – “Driven to Tears”
3. Wall of Voodoo – “Back in Flesh”
4. Toyah Willcox – “Danced”
5. John Cooper Clarke – “Health Fanatic”
6. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Enola Gay”
7. Chelsea – “I’m on Fire”
8. Oingo Boingo – “Ain’t This the Life”
9. Echo & the Bunnymen – “The Puppet”
10. Jools Holland – “Foolish I Know”
11. XTC – “Respectable Street”
12. Klaus Nomi – “Total Eclipse”
13. Athletico Spizz 80 – “Where’s Captain Kirk?”
14. The Go-Go’s – “We Got the Beat”
15. Dead Kennedys – “Bleed for Me”
16. Steel Pulse – “Ku Klux Klan”
17. Gary Numan – “Down in the Park”
18. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – “Bad Reputation”
19. Magazine – “Model Worker”
20. Surf Punks – “My Beach”
21. The Members – “Offshore Banking Business”
22. Au Pairs – “Come Again”
23. The Cramps – “Tear It Up”
24. Invisible Sex – “Valium”
25. Pere Ubu – “Birdies”
26. Devo – “Uncontrollable Urge”
27. The Alley Cats – “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore”
28. John Otway – “Cheryl’s Going Home”
29. Gang of Four – “He’d Send in the Army”
30. 999 – “Homicide”
31. The Fleshtones – “Shadowline”
32. X – “Beyond and Back”
33. Skafish – “Sign of the Cross”
34. Splodgenessabounds – “Two Little Boys“
35. UB40 – “Madame Medusa”
36. The Police – “Roxanne“
37. The Police – “So Lonely”

I think I wore out the fast forward button on the remote going back and forth between the Wall of Voodoo clip and the Dead Kennedys clip. I saw the soundtrack once or twice on vinyl. I could swear I remember seeing it on CD as well, but well….beer will do that to you sometimes. Been drunk before? I have….

Technorati Tags: 80′s, concert, eighties, music, newwave, urgh

Continue reading →