Dance Craze (DVD + Blu-ray)

Product Information

For a short period of time at the turn of the 1980s, it seemed like the biggest thing on the planet. 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. Dance Craze is a 1981 concert film recorded at various venues throughout 1980 at the height of the 2Tone movement. And there is another lost musical component, the instrument that pop forgot: the saxophone, honking, barking and wailing through almost every track. The movie is a madeleine for people of my generation: summoning up the sweat of venues such as London’s Lyceum Ballroom in the Strand, it shudders with the bands’ inexhaustible jogging-on-the-spot energy, the kind of live show where the singer lets rip directly into the ecstatic faces of the people at the front, virtually snogging them.

The remastered audio will be released by Chrysalis on the 2 Tone label, as an expanded vinyl triple album and as a 3CD box set.Presumably Joe Dunton felt that his personal copy was the best-quality source for a film that's had a rather chequered release history (and was famously/notoriously unavailable legally anywhere for decades). 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. The film now features remastered originalstereo and surroundmixes by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, as well as a new Dolby Atmos Mix. There’s a special launch screening at the BFI IMAX cinema in London on 22 March, although it has already sold out. While the gigs might have been lively, for many kids, they weren’t exactly on the doorstep, and Dance Craze was the ideal substitute.

It didn’t seem quite so high-brow when I was watching this on a Saturday afternoon at Bolton Odeon all those years ago. Dance Craze Update** Due to big demand, we've increased the initial run of this release to 7,000 units.The deluxe edition of Dance Craze comes complete with a 27-track film soundtrack with different mixes for the superfans. Alongside the Blu-ray/DVD release, Chrysalis Records are releasing the soundtrack in a remastered audio 3LP and 3CD set on 24 March. 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. And no, it's not a mistake - "original 70mm materials" were indeed used as the basis of the restoration.

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". These rude girls, led by Rhoda Dakar, owned their right to perform with the same joyful authority as their male counterparts. But best of all, I not only got to see The Specials and the Beat play a charity double-header, but got backstage for autographs afterwards. The Dance Craze film, shot throughout 1980 and released in cinemas the following year, brilliantly captures the cultural phenomenon that was the 2Tone movement and represents an important social document of the times.These bands – the Specials, Madness, the Beat, the Selecter, the Bodysnatchers and Bad Manners – had a unique biracial style and were a thrilling rebuke to racism. It was filmedin 1980 and released in cinemas for fans of The Specials, Madness, Bad Manners, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers. 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. Special features include a rare episode of the BBC series Arena exploring the rise of 2Tone and a selection of rare clips from the film, many previously unseen. In an era when the National Front stirred up racial hatred, the 2-Tone philosophy was all about mixing up young people with a multicultural agenda – two-tone in every way.