Dance Craze

Essentially a concert film featuring all the major bands on 2-Tone Records ... The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter, Madness, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers. There's a tiny bit of stock footage from British news reels about teenagers and dancing, but essentially the film just switches back and forth between these bands giving each a song or two at a time. That's really a good things since most of these bands put on incredible shows.; This music is firmly in my wheel house and I really loved this film.

This riveting, exciting, melloneous film is about the coming and going of '2-tone ska' in Britain. After the First wave of ska (bob marley, skatalites) ska attacked Europe with the second wave. With live performances from like the Specials, the Selecter, Bad Manners, Madness, the Beat, and the Bodysnatchers, this documentary is amazing. If you are new to ska and want to know where it all came from, or if you are a veteran and you just want to re-live these exciting moments, check out this film. I'm sure you can find it, somewhere.

Is this a documentary? Sort of, it's more of a nonlinear concert film held together with some Pathe news style voiceover. It's still a wonderful window though, into early 80s UK youth music culture, or more succinctly, Ska. As a viewer you're thrown right into the mix, on stage with The Specials as Terry Hall asks if we're having fun. I say we're, he's talking to a crowd over 45 years ago, but it feels like he's talking to you right now. The camera stays loose yet focused as Madness hit the stobes and vanish in a maelstrom of tightly controlled flailing limbs. A very young Buster Bloodvessel sweats over a smartly dressed saxophonist as Bad Manners get bouncy. The Bodysnatchers, The Selecter, The Beat, everyone sounds bloody brilliant. Alan Snelling who mixed this knew what he was doing. We hear the crowd between songs, but the bands are front and centre throughout. They're the perceived stars, but really for me, it's the camera operators, they're fantastic. This must've been an absolute joy to edit. The footage is stunning. It's not all the same venue, I think there's about half a dozen, given away largely by the clothes changing, but it feels like it could all be one absolutely perfect night. Although archive cutaways of a theatre stage during Madness's take on 'Swan Lake' might break the rhythm, it still works. Madness are brilliant. They really don't get the credit they deserve. They go toe to toe with The Specials throughout, although Bad Manners make sure they're not left out. There's an odd interlude where the Pathe guy is back with some footage of stuffy Britain trying to swing with the latest dance crazes and The Shadows. The point being I suppose the conformity of respectable white society and what Ska was trying to break free from. If you don't like Ska, don't bother, but if you think you do like Ska, this will convince you you love it!

Dance Craze was released in February 1981, the idea originally came from American director Joe Massot (who shot the Wonderwall film), when he met Madness during their first US tour. Originally he was going to make a film about the band but when his son informed him of the wonderful world of 2-Tone, Massot expanded his original plans to include the whole movement.

The film was shot during 1980 and followed Madness, The Specials, The Selecter, The Bodysnatchers, The Beat and Bad Manners on tour throughout the UK. Sadly the film sticks to concert footage and there are no backstage interviews with the bands, this was a real opportunity missed as a documentary style film would have been a wonderful document of the 2-Tone movement. The film gives it's audience no time to catch their breath, cutting from one song to the next in the bat of an eye, this is where backstage footage could have vastly improved the movie.

In all there are 27 songs (counting 2 versions of Nite Klub), of which 6 come from Camdens finest, and 5 from the Specials. A soundtrack LP was issued on 2-Tone Records to coincide with the release, although some of the tracks are different recordings than those featured in the film. Half way through the film there is a somewhat odd intermission, black and white footage featuring old dances such as the Locomotion, the Twist and so on appears, maybe fitting in with the films theme, but hardly appealing to the 2-Tone audience who would pay at the door.

The film eventually opened in Sheffield on February the 15th 1981, by which time the initial 2-Tone boom had, inevitably, died down. The soundtrack album spent 15 weeks on the chart reaching a high of number 5, underlining the fact that 2-Tone was not a spent force, a fact that was further verified that troubled summer when the Specials released 'Ghost Town'.

The film was released on home video by Chrysalis in 1988 and, if not as good as it should have been, is still an invaluable document of the bands live performances, which is where most of the Ska-2-Tone bands excelled.

Saw Dance Craze in the cinema and it was a lively atmosphere the BFI have done a wonderful thing with the 4k restoration catching the bands of the time at their peak and it certainly brought back many happy memories for this old chap the performances are still fresh and vibrant and a reminder of when music wasn't by manufactured acts with little talent.

Very few weak songs and it puts across the vibrancy of the concerts and the acts of that time

A must have for 2 tone fans and far better than attending a retro concert today

Documentary/concert whatever your view it's particularly pleasing to have it restored and protected.