My friend Mark gave me the coolest DVD I have ever received in years because it finally exists in legitimate form…Urgh! A Music War. Don’t let the goofy title fool you. This concert film is an amazing time capsule containing numerous bands from the beginning of the Eighties who went on to become New Wave/Power Pop staples. Many influenced future, more popular acts into the next decades. Some are still around in some shape or from.
Like whom? Just core elements of my personal collection: XTC, Oingo Boingo, Wall of Voodoo, Go Go’s, Gary Numan, Devo, Fleshtones, Jools Holland and the Police. It’s comical to see how much younger they were 30 years ago. The crowds are even funnier. Whenever this is shown at the Alamo Drafthouse for Music Mondays, several segments draw howls from the audience, myself included.
Urgh! Has another special place in my heart. When the movie original appeared in 1981, I was 12-13 years old and obviously not as interested in music, especially New Wave stuff. I highly doubt my parents would’ve let me go nor did it play in Springfield, IL (to the best of my recollection). Instead, I was introduced to it through cable TV four years later. When I lived in Beulah, ND, the place’s cable selection was rather weak. It was 1985 and up there the choices only filled the VHF channels (2-13 for those too young to know what I’m writing about). To add insult to injury, MTV wasn’t available neither! There was the USA Network. During the day and weeknights, USA wasn’t terribly interesting. It didn’t carry anything terribly original in the Eighties but on Friday and Saturday nights, the station became a decent surrogate for MTV by showing music-themed movies: Breaking Glass or Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains; and the odd cartoon JacMac & Radboy – Go! (a precursor to Beavis & Butt-Head by Wes Archer, a major director for the Simpsons). Urgh! was the coolest of the bunch because it contained bands I had discovered over the last several years.
Thanks again Mark! I will be ripping this to watch on my iPod Touch/iPhone while flying out to Vegas next week. Somara will probably hope it will keep my calm for 90 minutes.
Great post! I remember watching Urgh! on Showtime back in the day and always struggling to stay awake for Night Flight on the weekends. I loved the show’s “Take Off” series, one in particular I remember was “Take Off on Sex and Violence,” containing great music videos like “When The Lady Smiles” by Golden Earring and Barnes & Barnes hilarioius “Love Tap,” which starred a young Bill Paxton. It’s a shame this show hasn’t made it to DVD, been re-broadcasted, or has a spin-off on some network out there. I’m sure a lot of people would tune in and watch, especially us old timers who remember the Eighties. Ah the Eighties…what a great time for music. Keep the memories comin’ Steve!