william k
Basically a compilation film of individual rock concert performances, this movie does present some of the most interesting and compelling artists of its time and lots of great music; now it's a fascinating historical document and a great music film.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Memorable performances from 80s punk and new wave acts.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
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Audience Member
Perfect concert movie in every way! Yes... it is the best concert movie ever filmed! Perfect 80s time capsule
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
05/01/20
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delysid d
what a great movie, i wish all concert films were this great
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/03/19
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Audience Member
I frequently get teased about my so-called "weird" tastes in music. "Where did you hear of all these strange bands?" is a Miss Grant FAQ. Like I tell my students, there is rarely a 1:1 correlation between cause and effect, and my musical taste is no exception. My influences are multifold: early MTV, the college radio/alternative radio stations from Rochester, Canadian radio from both my summers spent in Buffalo (and good reception on some nights in Rochester, especially CHUM), my years DJing at my college radio station at the University of South Carolina, and the one I look upon with the most nostalgia, USA Network's weekend show, Night Flight.
What was Night Flight? Well, it's impossible to describe in a sentence or two, but Night Flight, broadcast from 1981-1988, was this alternative melange on every Friday and Saturday night, from 11:00pm to the early morning, and they would show music videos (even cooler than MTV), cult TV shows (New Wave Theater), and cult movies (Smithereens, Eraserhead, Reefer Madness), short films (Bambi meets Godzilla).
From the music videos, I discovered Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Kate Bush, Thrashing Doves, Big Audio Dynamite, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Residents (and their giant eyeballs), among many others. And my all-time favorite Night Flight movie was one they showed with regularity: the 1981 music documentary, [b]Urgh! A Music War[/b].
Like show on which it was broadcast, Urgh! is hard to describe succinctly. It's a little punk, a little rock and roll, a little New Wave, a little ska, a little Klaus Nomi (more on him later)...a collection of live performances from a truly disparate list of performers.
Here are some of my favorites:
The Au Pairs - "Come Again". Great forgotten English post-punk band with an incredible female vocalist, Lesley Woods. Their two CDs were finally reissued a few years back.
The Cramps - "Tear It Up". Lux Interior's pants keep falling down and he's doing some, errr, sexual things with the microphone.
Gang of Four - "He'd Send In The Army" - my first exposure to the band, I would end up buying their incredible LP, Entertainment!.
Oingo Boingo - "Ain't This The Life" - pre-movie score Danny Elfman, great song...
XTC - "Respectable Street" - now this is the most significant performance of the bunch--Andy Partridge had a nervous breakdown during the tour from which this performance clip was taken, and the band never toured again. Again, great song.
Klaus Nomi - "Total Eclipse" - Picture time.
[img]http://www.michaelhalsband.com/photo/images/bw/big_knomi.jpg[/img]
One of the first entertainers to die of AIDS, Klaus just needs to be heard to be believed. New Wave opera is the best I can do for a description. The true "What the ****?" moment.
This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg: other bands include The Police (the one big name of the bunch), OMD (before Pretty in Pink), Echo and the Bunnymen, Gary Numan, Dead Kennedys, The Go-Gos (when they were LA punks), X, Wall of Voodoo, Toyah Wilcox, Magazine (24 Hour Party People fans, this was Howard Devoto's band, post-Buzzcocks), Skafish (with one of the scariest men I've ever seen on lead vocals), and some truly obscure bands: The Alley Cats, Invisible Sex (!), Athletico Spizz 80, etc.
One last Urgh! story: when I was on break from college, I stopped by the Blockbuster in the sleepy little town in which my folks live, and where I attended the last two years of high school. What did I find in the videos-for-sale bin? Urgh! Well, I didn't have cash on me--I remember that it was $5.00--so I said to myself that I would stop by the next day. Well, I did, and guess what? Someone had bought it!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! I still think it was my ex-boyfriend Lee, who was the world's biggest Wall of Voodoo fan, but he swears up and down that it wasn't him.
Regardless, Urgh! is very hard to find...I don't know, maybe because of the lack of a potential audience, copyrights, but this one isn't available on DVD.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
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