Terry Hall, Madness, The Beat + More in Dance Craze (1981) (With Mick Snowden)

Pop Screen

The shocking death of Terry Hall at the end of 2022 sent Pop Screen back to this document of him in his prime: Dance Craze, a relentlessly energetic concert film showcasing all the greats from the first wave of British ska. As well as Hall with The Specials, there are classic performances from Madness, The Beat, The Selecter, The Bodysnatchers and Bad Manners: an unmissable line-up by anyone's standards.
Neglected for decades, Dance Craze is about to get a spiffy BFI Blu-Ray release, but before that Mick and Graham are here to discuss the legacy of Hall and The Specials, as well as this era of ska in general. We also find time to explain why 2-Tone Records was the exact opposite of Apple, imagine a parallel universe version of this film where Rhoda Dakar makes a big alteration to the set list, and explain why The Beat are kind of like a Portuguese Man o' War. Enjoy yourself, it really is later than you think.
We don't have to work, 'cause there's no, no work to do, but we do provide an awful lot of content on our Patreon including a monthly bonus episode of this podcast. The next one, about the lost tATu film You and I, is out in a fortnight - but before that, there'll be a new episode of our movie miscellany podcast Last Night..., more reviews of classic Asian cinema in Unseen Asia and Graham's randomly selected Doctor Who reviews. It's not available anywhere else, and you can find out more by following our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.