The British Film Institute has released a trailer for its dazzling new 4K restoration of the classic 2 Tone-era document “Dance Craze: The Best of British Ska… Live!”

For this latest installment of our Vintage Video series, we honor the life and music of The Beat’s Ranking Roger — who died Monday — with the single best document of the 2 Tone era, the criminally out-of-print concert film “Dance Craze: The Best of British Ska… Live!” Watch the whole film right here.

Ranking Roger, the beloved vocalist and toaster for 2 Tone-era ska legends The Beat and spin-off group General Public, died on Monday, just two months after he publicly revealed he’d been diagnosed with two brain tumors and lung cancer. He was 56. Read more about his life and music.

Just days before he’s set to release a new album recorded with his version of legendary 2 Tone-era ska act The Beat, frontman Ranking Roger on Monday revealed that, after suffering a stroke last summer, he was diagnosed with two brain tumors and lung cancer. Roger disclosed his medical issues via a nearly 9-minute video.

Nearly four years after launching a campaign to fund the project, Dave Wakeling’s oft-touring incarnation of The English Beat is preparing to release a brand-new studio album — the first from Wakeling under the Beat imprint since 1982’s Special Beat Service. The album is now available for pre-order.

Lionel Augustus Martin, the Jamaican-born saxophone player better known as Saxa, who played with ska legends Prince Buster and Desmond Dekker before helping lead the second wave with The Beat, died on Wednesday at the age of 87, his former band announced.

This week’s new releases include a brand-new live album from New Order, recorded last year at the UK’s Bestival, a new studio album from Front Line Assembly (‘Echogenetic’), plus a rarities collection from Devo (‘Hardcore’) and vinyl reissues from Nirvana and The Beat.

Parents of young children or fans of cartoons in general may want to tune in to this afternoon’s installment of “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated” on the Cartoon Network: Today’s episode, “Dance of the Undead,” celebrates 2 Tone-era ska music and features two songs recorded just for the show by Dave Wakeling.

The two albums from short-lived chart toppers Fine Young Cannibals — comprised of singer Roland Gift and former English Beat members Andy Cox and David Steele — will be reissued later this month by Demon Music Group’s Edsel imprint as expanded 2CD sets featuring bonus B-sides, remixes and non-album tracks.

Beacon Audio recently launched a new video interview series and one of their latest installments features Dave Wakeling of The English Beat, who, in this five-minute clip, discusses the longevity of the Beat, how he learned to play guitar completely wrong (he’s right-handed, but plays as a lefty) and his favorite part of a concert.

First announced as a bonus for pre-ordering the ‘Complete Bea’t box set, a package documenting The English Beat’s appearances at the two massive US Festivals in 1982 and 1983 — with both sets in full on DVD, and a CD featuring highlights from each appearance — will be released separately this September.

This week’s new releases include expanded reissues of all three of The Beat’s original albums, plus a new CD of Duke Ellington interpretations from Joe Jackson (‘The Duke’), an alleged expanded reissue of Ministry’s 1983 synthpop debut ‘With Sympathy’ and the CD and digital releases of ‘The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.’

In this week’s link round-up we find Lloyd Cole writing about David Bowie’s ‘Low,’ plus interviews with Jim Reid of the recently reunited Jesus and Mary Chain, Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of The Beat (aka The English Beat) and New Wave piano man Joe Jackson.