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Urgh! A Music War

1981

Stand up & dance!

Urgh! A Music War is a British film released in 1982 featuring performances by punk rock, new wave, and post-punk acts, filmed in 1980. Among the artists featured in the movie are Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Magazine, The Go-Go's, Toyah Willcox, The Fleshtones, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, X, XTC, Devo, The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Wall of Voodoo, Pere Ubu, Steel Pulse, Surf Punks, 999, UB40, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Police. These were many of the most popular groups on the New Wave scene; in keeping with the spirit of the scene, the film also features several less famous acts, and one completely obscure group, Invisible Sex, in what appears to be their only public performance.

Sting Stewart Copeland Andy Summers Wall of Voodoo Chelsea Oingo Boingo Devo Dead Kennedys Danny Elfman Jello Biafra Toyah Willcox Stan Ridgway John Cooper Clarke Pere Ubu Jools Holland Klaus Nomi Belinda Carlisle Joan Jett Poison Ivy Lux Interior Gary Numan

Premiere

13 Nov 1981

USA US Premiere (Lefont Tara, Atlanta GA)

Theatrical

07 Nov 1981

Denmark

19 Nov 1981

Australia

01 May 1982

USAR

Australia

19 Nov 1981

Theatrical

Denmark

07 Nov 1981

Theatrical

USA

13 Nov 1981

Premiere US Premiere (Lefont Tara, Atlanta GA)

01 May 1982

TheatricalR

121 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★★ 4

Cinematic Time Capsule
1981 Marathon - Film #112
🎶 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah! 🎶
Devo
OMD
The Police
Surf Punks
The Cramps
The Go-Go’s
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
& Oingo Boingo (with Danny ‘Elsman’ according to the credits) 🤣👍
Along with a bevy of other great new wave bands doing what they do best and making me miss those days of pre-COVID live performances even more than I already was.
BONUS POINTS for The Cramps ability to showcase the lowest low-cut pants you’ve ever seen while constantly teetering on the edge of a massive wardrobe malfunction.
🎶 ”Well, come on little mama,
let's tear this damn place up!" 🎶

Cinematic Time Capsule - 1981 Ranked
Cinematic Playlist – Musicology
Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 1

A lesser known, pre-Stop Making Sense post-punk/new wave concert doc—that Demme apparently almost directed, and thus receives special thanks in the credits—featuring some of the biggest acts of the genre alongside a few delightfully obscure ones, and that feels ripe for a nice Blu-ray and rediscovery. This is exactly the kind of movie that I will move my entire week around in order to see projected on film with a sold-out crowd just to soak up the energy that this raw, sweaty, colorful era was able to generate, so thanks to Brendan at the Revue for programming it. Because this is not a one-night show experience but a whiplash compilation edit suddenly changing bands (and venues/cities) between every song this…
Review by MichaelEternity ★★★★ 6

Concert film of early '80s New Wave adventurers, culled from many different shows, intended to highlight an array of musicians in this movement at that time rather than capture a single night's performance somewhere, like most concert films do. 36 bands are featured in all, across 2 full hours, and it's like being at a music festival. The anthological New Wave Woodstock. Because of how tightly cut together it all is (with still a couple non-venue interludes just for quick fun) and both the fervor and diversity on display, a carnivalesque energy pulses heavily through this time capsule of when pop, rock, punk, reggae, and ska collided and spawned a generation of unique hybrid styles and weird delights.
It's a…
Review by Patrick Pryor ★★★★

The most appropriate time for a bathroom break during a screening of this jammer? The UB40 white boy reggae segment.
Things I loved: Devo jumping in robotic unison to the beat of "Uncontrollable Urge," the back and forth Au Pairs vocals, a longhair crowdsurfing to The Go-Gos playing heavier than any recording, sweaty Lux interior fellating a microphone while Poison Ivy chews gum and shreds. And (of course) Gary Numan pulling off icy while he sings "Are Friends Electric?" in a l'il buggy puttering around the stage.
Lowest of the lows: The Police slow their groove to freestyle on Roxanne (kill me), Surf Punks play "My Beach" complete with a surf board guitar and sexy time lifeguard stand props, and the entirety of UB40 (duh).
This era also had a lot of strong female musicians. Good to see 'em.
Review by Joe ★★★★

Upgrading this half a star after seeing the theatrical version (in an actual theater, no less) last night. There's some good stuff missing compared to the extended cut but the overall experience flows a lot better.
I like The Police OK but I'm not sure we needed 8 minutes of "Roxanne" crammed into the end of this.
Review by brendanross ★★★★★ 1

How the hell do Lux's pants even stay up?
Shoutout to the bored roadie in the bathing suit. The real star of the film.
Blessed to have been able to screen and watch the much tighter theatrical cut (if I was in charge I would have cut UB40 in favor of the Pere Ubu or Chelsea performance, but hey the pee break was welcome) on a perfect 35mm print.
"GA-RY! GA-RY! GA-RY!"
Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★½ 2

35mm print of the theatrical version
Made me want to put on a Dead Kennedys album again so I can dance along to it. But I think maybe the best thing one can say about any concert film is that if it can make you dance along with your favourite artists, that's how you know it's a good time.
Just absolutely wonderful.
Review by Lester ★★★★

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN GANG OF FOUR CRAMPS XTC THE GO-GOS AU PAIRS PERE UBU GARY NUMAN DEVO DEAD KENNEDYS MAGAZINE FLESHTONES X KLAUS NOMI OMD
If I was teenager in 1981 you would probably see these names scrawled all over my school binder--and they're all in this movie! I remember watching this on (EDIT: it was VH1 Classic! Thanks Wikipedia) back in the mid-2000's and I'm glad to report it's as great as I remember it. All of the performances are at the very least decent and some of them are straight up definitive/iconic; this has an awesome scruffy take of "We Got the Beat" that sounds closer to The Go-Go's Punk roots, a sweaty Lux Interior spazzing out…
Review by Evan “Kaizō Haya-shill” Pincus ★★★

In a movie with access to live footage of incredible acts like Wall of Voodoo ("telephone call for Wall of Voodoo!"), Pere Ubu, Devo, OMD, Dead Kennedies, Toyah Wilcox, Klaus Nomi and XTC, using The fucking Police to both open and close the film is the most questionable, nay, irresponsible decision I can imagine. When I say "all cops are bastards," I mostly mean Sting (Dune is the only forgivable thing he's done). Their encore performance of Roxanne (even more insufferable here in a jammier incarnation) being instantly followed by them welcoming Jools Holland to the stage is the biggest bruh moment I've ever seen, and narrowly edges out American Pop's use of Night Moves for "most goodwill lost in…
Review by Timcop ★★★★½

Pretty compelling concert film of several of the major artists in the post-punk and new wave era of the late 70's and early 80's. Played pretty lean with one band immediately following another band, jet-setting between cities and countries. Part of the fun of viewing it this way was having no clue who would come next or where they would be. There are some strange "wrap-around" skits in between a few of the songs that could have been left out as they aren't funny and don't really add anything to the music, but there are so few of them and they're over so quickly that it's a pretty small offense to overlook.
The only major problematic part for me was…
Review by VIVE_le_FILTH ★★★★★

This gets five stars just for Gary Numan driving around stage on a Mad Maxed Sinclair C5 ... absolute piss funny!
Review by Joe Rumrill ★★★★★ 1

Look, I’m as befuddled as anyone that one of the finest concert films in existence features three (3) times more Police than Devo, but here we freakin’ are!

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Where to watch

Urgh! A Music War

Synopsis

Stand up & dance!

Cast

Director

Producers

Editor

Studio

Countries

Language

Genres

Releases by Date

Premiere

13 Nov 1981

Theatrical

07 Nov 1981

19 Nov 1981

01 May 1982

Releases by Country

Australia

19 Nov 1981

Denmark

07 Nov 1981

USA

13 Nov 1981

01 May 1982

Popular reviews

Where to watch

Urgh! A Music War

Synopsis

Stand up & dance!

Cast

Director Director

Producers Producers

Editor Editor

Studio

Countries

Language

Genres

Premiere

13 Nov 1981

Theatrical

07 Nov 1981

19 Nov 1981

01 May 1982

Australia

19 Nov 1981

Denmark

07 Nov 1981

USA

13 Nov 1981

01 May 1982

Popular reviews

Director

Producers

Editor