Dance Craze: The Best of British Ska...Live!

Dance Craze: The Best of British Ska...Live!

1981

Chrysalis/2-Tone Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. The Specials: Concrete Jungle  2. The English Beat: Mirror in the Bathroom  3. Bad Manners: Lip Up Fatty  4. Madness: Razor Blade Alley  5. The Selecter: Three Minute Hero  6. The Bodysnatchers: Easy Life  7. The English Beat: Big Shot  8. Madness: One Step Beyond  9. The English Beat: Ranking Full Stop  10. The Specials: Man At C&A  11. The Selecter: Missing Words  12. Bad Manners: Inner London Violence  13. Madness: Night Boat To Cairo  14. The Selecter: Too Much Pressure  15. The Specials: Nite Klub




I picked this up at Revolver Records awhile back...This is the soundtrack to a 1981 film chronicling the height of the British Two-Tone explosion...

 I paid 10 bucks for it (which I consider to be a lot of money for an album) but looking at that line-up, I couldn't pass it up... It's a compilation of smokin' live tracks from ska heavyweights The Specials, The English Beat, Madness, Bad Manners, the Selecter and some band I hadn't heard of called the Bodysnatchers (turns out they never got around to recording an album...Just a coupla singles...). 

This was done right when most of the bands had just put out their second albums (some of them wouldn't make it to a third and the others largely abandoned the ska style after the second albums), so the timing couldn't have been more perfect...I can't really think of a better overview of the Two-Tone era, really..Unfortunately later versions of this album had to remove the Madness tracks and replace them with additional live Specials recordings, greatly lessening the impact (despite the greatness of the Specials material)...I mean, how can you have a proper "Best of British ska" without Madness?!?!  I bet lawyers are to blame for this...

Boo, lawyers...Hiss...Anyway, if you plan on picking up a copy of the album, keep your eyes open, because there's two version of it out there...I guess either way, it's a good listen...

On a side note, I like all the band's cool logos on the cover, such simple, crisp designs...I can't pick a favorite, but if I had to choose, I'd pick The Specials' classic two-tone man or the English Beat girl, (although I have to give mad credit to that Bodysnatchers mascot)...But why didn't the Selecter get a sweet mascot?  Couldn't they have that miserable-looking bastard from the "Too Much Pressure" album leaning against the big shoe or something?



It's a real shame that the "Dance Craze" film hasn't been released on DVD...I'd buy a copy in a heartbeat! Oh well, there's always youtube...Pop up some popcorn, and have a seat, cos here's the entire movie...Enjoy, while my account gets termed...