Dance Craze (DVD + Blu-ray)

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And no, it's not a mistake - "original 70mm materials" were indeed used as the basis of the restoration. My bad, I was misremembering what Dunton actually said at the screening I attended in Bradford back in 2011. Joe Massot's acclaimed concert film featuring the best of British 2 Tone, newly remastered and available on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time. The concert film Dance Craze is a high-energy record of a series of concerts performed from Portsmouth to London and from Coventry to Liverpool, as well as in the US.

Showcasing live performances from The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers, it’s a valuable time-capsule of the British genre that merged Jamaican ska with punk and new wave music. There’s a special launch screening at the BFI IMAX cinema in London on 22 March, although it has already sold out. Pauline Black - The Selecter: [to the crowd] Right, who here gets up at seven o'clock in the morning? Rudies Come Back (1980, 34 mins): in this episode of the long-running BBC series Arena, music journalist Adrian Thrills explores the rise of 2Tone.

Attached to the operator on a Steadicam rig, the camera could glide around the performers with ease, fully immersing the viewer in the performances.

In all there are 27 songs (counting 2 versions of Nite Klub), of which 6 come from Camdens finest, and 5 from the Specials.

Many pop promos and concert films before Dance Craze’s release in cinemas in 1981 were shot on 16mm or early video formats, with occasional expensive exceptions, such as Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz (1978). This makes me wonder this general question : how would fare a 70mm blowup of a 35mm OCN as an element for a restoration vs the 35mm OCN itself ?

Rhoda Dakar of the Bodysnatchers is a live wire; Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners is a genuine English eccentric, doing that odd thing with his tongue; Madness’s cover version of the Swan theme from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is very weird, and the Beat’s Twist and Crawl and Mirror in the Bathroom are still compelling. There are differences to the ‘film’ mixes and in the cases of The Selecter and Bad Manners, the recordings are from different concerts.Drench yourself in the high-energy, sweatbox world of British 2 Tone in the late-1970s and early 1980s with this legendary concert film. Newly remastered in 4K from original film materials, DANCE CRAZE is presented here by the BFI and Chrysalis Records on Blu-ray and DVD (Dual Format Edition) for the first time, more than 40 years on from its theatrical release. Dunton wanted the camera to be a part of the performance; to be dancing, so to speak, with the members of the band.