Urgh! A Music War (1982)

The first time I saw this movie, I could not believe that someone was actually cool enough to go to the trouble of filming all of these mostly unheard of bands. The result is a wonderfully eclectic collection of live music that is a treat. All of the bands represented, with the notable exception of The Police and Gary Numan, were at the time of it's filming, known only to a relative few. The music covers the spectrum from all out thrash punk to fringe new wave. There are bands who went on to becoming "known" such as The Go-Go's and X as well as many who were never heard of again but make no mistake about it, this film is a must-see for anyone who is a fan of music. Living in Oklahoma and being in my late teens when this film was released, I was not familiar with most of the bands but I became an instant fan of X, The Dead Kenedys, The Alley Cats, and John Cooper Clark after seeing them in this movie. As is the case with any compilation of this scope, there are going to be bands that make you wonder why they are there, but on the whole, it is a great film. I cherish my original VHS copy of the film that I found at a video store bargain bin and every once in a while when I need to get my blood pumping to "come on bleed" or laugh at the ingenious absurdity of The Cramps, I walk away smiling every time.

Quite possibly the best concert movie of all time! I was able to copy this off TV a few years ago, after watching this NUMEROUS times during the 1980's and wearing out a VHS tape. (it may have been Betamax!) The Police are the biggest name of the 36 acts that appear, but there are SO many different bands that perform. I could list them all, but that would be redundant. However, there are some performances that are very good.If it wasn't for this movie, I probably wouldn't own any CD's by XTC or many of the featured bands. It's too bad that the video was licensed for a type of system that is no longer made, or we might have seen the DVD sooner, than later.For some of these bands, it was their 15 minutes in the spotlight, so to speak. Some never made it past 1985 and very few are still performing today. Some have reformed, but it was this concert movie that put them on the map in the first place.If you can find the DVD of this for a reasonable price, buy it, because the chances of this showing up on DVD in the near future is the same as a snowstorm in July.

Derek Burbidge helmed this document on various music groups of the early 1980s, many of whom (coincidentally or not) had a direct connection to the I.R.S. record label. Some of these acts went on to bigger and better things (Police, Joan Jett, Go-Go's), but most languished in obscurity (Wall of Voodoo, The Fleshtones, The Cramps, Gary Numan). This mixture of heavy-hitters, one-hit-wonders and underground stars should have resulted in a much edgier cinematic experience; instead, the film is far too long and full of peaks and valleys. Shot in a raw, muddy style, the movie was eclipsed visually by the slick music videos of MTV which exploded on the tube around this very same time. Still, it's a time-capsule relic worth revisiting for music buffs and aficionados of the bizarre. Fitfully interesting. **1/2 from ****

Update (written on 1st Oct '16): In late 2009 Warner Archives in the USA released a very high quality 16:9 (transferred from almost pristine film), glorious stereo, "burn on demand" single layer DVD edition of Urgh! The DVD is not quite perfect - there are just a few very minor split second, but noticeable, audio glitches. It would have been improved greatly if there were chapter marks at the start of each artist's performance (rather than every 10 minutes) and if a running order playlist was printed on the cover. The big advantage over all previous tape and LaserDisc editions is that the synch of video and audio is precise throughout (other editions had severe synch errors especially in both Pere Ubu and Devo - with the audio a full third of a second in advance of the video). The only artist missing from the Warner Archives DVD is Splodgeness Abounds, with their punk version of the Rolf Harris ditty "Two Little Boys" (no great loss). This is likely to be the only version ever released on digital and it is 99% of everything I could have hoped for. NB: because this is a 16:9 transfer from original film we get more information left and right than was shown in any of the 4:3 versions (tape or LaserDisc), and what is cropped slightly from the top and bottom of the film frame is worth the sacrifice.My original 2003 review. comment was:Urgh! is the finest ever collection of alternative music performance, by artists at the prime of their stage careers. An important and lasting legacy of Urgh! was that it brought some previously unknown bands to the attention of a much broader audience than would ever have been possible otherwise. I'm referring here to acts such as Skafish, (the late) Klaus Nomi, The Alley Cats, Gang Of Four, Pere Ubu, X and The Cramps. No-one could fail to want more of The Cramps after seeing Lux Interior deepthroat his hi-ball mic, while barely staying in his pants. Jim Skafish's "Sign Of The Cross" is another highlight - as a blasphemous anthem of epic proportions.There are only a few performances that I really thought were so-so (Chelsea, 999, John Otway, Invisible Sex); a few more were "good", but the vast majority were amazingly good.Even on the poor quality transfer to LaserDisc you can appreciate that Urgh! was filmed with care and with genuine respect for the performers and the viewer really feels like part of the audience. The bands all sound great - but strangely it's in mono on the LaserDisc & VHS, while the double album on vinyl is in extremely good stereo. So when someone finally gets around to doing it, surely there's a state-of-the-art DVD just begging to be mastered and released? And if a DVD does eventuate, let's hope they make up for the major failing of the LaserDisc, and include Wall Of Voodoo's "Back In Flesh".