Essentially a concert film featuring all the major bands on 2-Tone Records ... The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter, Madness, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers. There's a tiny bit of stock footage from British news reels about teenagers and dancing, but essentially the film just switches back and forth between these bands giving each a song or two at a time. That's really a good things since most of these bands put on incredible shows.; This music is firmly in my wheel house and I really loved this film.

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. 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.The film was shot during 1980 and followed Madness, The Specials, The Selecter, The Bodysnatchers, The Beat and Bad Manners on tour throughout the UK. Sadly the film sticks to concert footage and there are no backstage interviews with the bands, this was a real opportunity missed as a documentary style film would have been a wonderful document of the 2-Tone movement. The film gives it's audience no time to catch their breath, cutting from one song to the next in the bat of an eye, this is where backstage footage could have vastly improved the movie.In all there are 27 songs (counting 2 versions of Nite Klub), of which 6 come from Camdens finest, and 5 from the Specials. A soundtrack LP was issued on 2-Tone Records to coincide with the release, although some of the tracks are different recordings than those featured in the film. Half way through the film there is a somewhat odd intermission, black and white footage featuring old dances such as the Locomotion, the Twist and so on appears, maybe fitting in with the films theme, but hardly appealing to the 2-Tone audience who would pay at the door.The film eventually opened in Sheffield on February the 15th 1981, by which time the initial 2-Tone boom had, inevitably, died down. The soundtrack album spent 15 weeks on the chart reaching a high of number 5, underlining the fact that 2-Tone was not a spent force, a fact that was further verified that troubled summer when the Specials released 'Ghost Town'.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.

This riveting, exciting, melloneous film is about the coming and going of '2-tone ska' in Britain. After the First wave of ska (bob marley, skatalites) ska attacked Europe with the second wave. With live performances from like the Specials, the Selecter, Bad Manners, Madness, the Beat, and the Bodysnatchers, this documentary is amazing. If you are new to ska and want to know where it all came from, or if you are a veteran and you just want to re-live these exciting moments, check out this film. I'm sure you can find it, somewhere.