Various Artists “Dance Craze”

sfilzen — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:57:04 +0000

Various Artists “Dance Craze” 1981. 2 Tone Records. Soundtrack from the movie Dance Craze, “the best of British ska…live!” and that hype isn’t wrong. The movie, shot in ’80, is a movie about the 2 Tone movement; according to wiki director Joe Massot originally intended the movie to be just about Madness but it evolved into a tour documentary of the bands in the UK. Songs on the LP include a selection of track from the film: Madness of course (though apparently on later album pressings their songs were removed, my guess for copyright issues or similar), plus The Specials, English Beat, The Selecter, Bad Manners and one lone track from The Bodysnatchers. I don’t think I’ve seen the movie (which is a situation that needs to be rectified soon) but this record is great! I adore Madness so their tracks “Razor Blade Alley,” “Night Boat to Cairo” and the forever fave “One Step Beyond” are for sure tops. English Beat is another band that has been a favorite of mine for 40 plus years (and we’ve seen them multiple times live) so I extra appreciate “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Big Shot” and “Ranking Full Stop” which are their featured tracks. The Specials are epic and they have “Concrete Jungle,” “Man at C&A” and “Nite Klub” on the soundtrack. I’m less familiar with The Selector’s catalog – we do have one of their records – but I really like their “Too Much Pressure.” Same with Bad Manners though I know we have or had one of their albums (and their track “Inner London Violence” on here is pretty great), and am also woefully under-informed about The Bodysnatchers who appear here with “Easy Life.”

You can see the movie in its entirety here

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Madness “7”

sfilzen — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 18:40:47 +0000

Madness “7” 1981. Stiff Records. Today, January 13th, is Madness vocalist Suggs’ birthday (b. Graham McPherson, 1961). 7 is Madness’ third album; it went to #5 on the UK album chart. I believe our copy is a UK original as it has all of the intended tracks: the song “Day on the Town” was removed from some markets, replaced by “Never Ask Twice,” the b-side to the single “Shut Up.” Other markets added “It Must Be Love” (originally by Labi Siffre, 1971) which was a UK stand-alone single (#4 UK in 1981, #33 US in 1983) or “In the City” which was the b-side to “Cardiac Arrest.” We do have “Day on the Town” and none of those other songs on our copy of 7. Like all Madness records, it’s a rollicking ska-bopping good time and I’ve enjoyed their Monty Pythonesque videos since the early 80’s. My favorite tracks include the singles “Cardiac Arrest” (#14 UK), “Grey Day” (#4 UK) and “Shut Up” (#7 UK) as well as the non-single “Mrs. Hutchinson.”

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2 tone Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Various Artists “Dance Craze”

Madness “7”