Billy Idol in “New Wave: Dare to Be Different”
The years-in-the-making, crowdfunded documentary “New Wave: Dare to Be Different” — director Ellen Goldfarb’s star-studded account of the hugely influential New York alternative station WLIR 92.7 FM — will debut on the Showtime cable network later this month.
The film premieres 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on March 30. Here’s the network’s description of the doc:
In August 1982, a small group of visionaries at the WLIR radio station knew they couldn’t compete with the mega-stations in NYC. The crew and biggest artists of the era tell the story of how they battled the FCC and the record labels. New Wave: Dare To Be Different documentary will premiere Friday, March 30 at 8pm ET/PT on SHOWTIME.
The 95-minute documentary is co-produced by Goldfarb, who grew up on Long Island “glued to WLIR during the ‘Dare to be Different’ years,” and executive produced Denis McNamara, who was LIR’s program director when it switched to a “new music” format in the early ’80s.
The filmmakers shot interviews with LIR DJs including The Mighty Maxximizer, Larry The Duck, Malibu Sue, Ben Manilla, DJ Bird and Donna Donna, plus some of the many musicians whose music the station helped break, including Billy Idol and members of Tears for Fears, The B-52s, Talking Heads and The Beat — plus Seymour Stein, legendary head of Sire Records.
Check out Showtime’s trailer for “New Wave: Dare to Be Different” below.
Interesting. I think I’ll watch my DVD of Urgh A Music War tonight for the 500th time.
I’m proud to also own that dvd and will watch it instead of reading this article.
Urgh! is on DVD? I still have a “dead format” version of that spectacle- with no way to watch it.
It was available on Amazon as a made on demand DVDr several years ago. Not sure if still available.
Are we sure that isn’t Joaquin Phoenix as Billy Idol?