The Good, the Bad and the Nomi

Fans of Urgh! A Music War have been waiting patiently for a DVD re-release of the 1981 music documentary to replace a shrinking population of deteriorating VHS tapes. However, the word on the net is that the film is “un-re-releasable” due to insurmountable contract problems.

Thankfully, footage from the film has been preserved on YouTube, featuring some of the best (and worst) of the British and American new wave bands from the early 80s. For instance, check out The Cramps contribution in this ass-kickingly hilarious version of “Tear It Up.”



I first saw Urgh! back in high school when my friend Aaron and I rented the VHS for its promised footage of The Dead Kennedys and X. And interspersed among horrifying white-boy reggae acts were some pretty good bands that I had never heard of before (Au Pairs, Fleshtones and, surprisingly, Gary Numan).

And then there was Klaus Nomi.

Sporting some sort of solid plastic faux tuxedo, kabuki-white face and oddly-coiffed receding hairline, Nomi epitomized all the misdirection that 80s new wave had to offer. Watch this if you can.



Trying to watch Urgh!’s wall-to-wall antics on the family TV after school required a bit of finesse in order to avoid the gratuitous critiques of my tired and cranky father coming home from work. So when I spied him trudging up the walk right when Klaus’s hit his first high C in “Total Eclipse of the Sun,” I immediately called on the assistance of Aaron who held the remote.

“Dude! Dude! Turn it off!”

Aaron sized up the situation and in his best Charlie Manson imitation stated “Uh-Uh! Ahm the Day-vul!!” while turning up the volume, and poor pop, after a grueling day in the salt mines, was greeted home by the soothing sounds of arguably the gayest thing that ever sashayed out of Berlin since Ernst Röhm.

- Matt Squire, Senior Contributing Editor and Good Son.

Sound & Vision Editorial Note: VH-1 Classic very occasionally plays Urgh! Look for it late night and set your Tivos. Also, key highlights include Echo & The Bunnymen playing "The Puppet" and XTC doing "Respectable Street."