Urgh! A Music War is a 1982 British concert film featuring performances by punk rock, new wave, and post-punk bands and artists. Filmed in August to September 1980 it was directed by Derek Burbidge and produced by Michael White and Lyndall Hobbs. Among the acts featured in the film are Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Magazine, the Go-Go's, Toyah Willcox, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, X, XTC, Devo, the Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Wall of Voodoo, Pere Ubu, Skafish, Steel Pulse, Surf Punks, 999, UB40, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Police. These were many of the most popular groups on the New Wave scene; in keeping with the spirit of the scene, the film also features several less famous acts. Original release Urgh! A Music War consists of a series of performances, without narration or explanatory text. All performances are live, recorded around 1980, mainly in London, Portsmouth, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and New York. Clips were also taken from a concert in Fréjus, Var, France with the Police, XTC, Skafish, UB40 and Jools Holland. In 1981, a year before release of the film, A&M Records released a double-album soundtrack. The selection of songs was almost the same as the film, but there were a few minor changes and several acts featured in the film did not make it to the album (Dead Kennedys, John Cooper Clarke, Chelsea, Surf Punks, Invisible Sex, Splodgenessabounds, UB40). Subsequent distribution Urgh! A Music War was briefly released to theatres by Filmways Pictures, but acquired a cult following in the United States in the 1980s due to its frequent showings on the USA Network. It aired on VH1 Classic on 30 October 2006 as part of its Rock and Roll Picture series. The film has been released on videocassette, CED, LaserDisc, and DVD. The film rights are owned by both its original producer, Miles Copeland III (founder of IRS Records), and Warner Bros. Pictures (successor-in-interest to production company Lorimar). However, the rights to distribute the film on electronic media have been, until recently, mired in contractual disputes. A popular theory was that the rights were "lost" as a result of the collapse of the failed CED or SelectaVision videodisc format – to promote the adoption of the format, RCA reportedly purchased exclusive rights to Urgh! such that it could not appear on any other media without