The Music Machine — The Music Machine( Blu Ray)

From the late 1970’s The Music Machine is an entertaining and rather charming slice of British disco-exploitation. It’s set around a north London disco competition, and focuses on Gerry, a wide-eyed, strawberry-blond twenties-something, who wants to break out of unemployment drudgery. The film features a likeable cast, lots of pulsing lights, sparking suits, disco ball spinning tunes, and groovy dance moves, plus some very British touches. Here from Severin is a recent Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a sparkling new 4k scan and a good selection of all-new extras.

The Music Machine is from the year 1979- it’s shot around Camden, moving from the old theatre/ turned disco dance hall of the title. Onto the streets and lock side market of the area, through to the lifts-often broken-tower block where our lead character lives.

The movie was helmed by Clitheroe, Lancashire, Ian Sharp, who directed and co-wrote the film's script. He has a total of twenty-two credits to his name, taking in five features, as well as TV credits for the likes of The Professionals & Robin Of Sherwood, as well as TV movies. His other four features were SAS thriller The Final Option (1982),car thief action film RPM (1997), comedy Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War (2002), and New Zealand-set western Tracker (2010)

When we’re first introduced to Gerry (Gerry Sundquist), he’s living with his mother, father, and younger brother in a tower block flat/ apartment. He’s unemployed, but is keen to do something. He spends his nights dancing at The Music Machine- a disco club, set in an old theatre- hanging out with his group of four friends. One night it’s announced there’s going to be a dance competition- with the winning couple getting to be in a film.

Gerry is big friends with the club's moustached black American DJ Laurie ( Clarke Peters)- he agrees to polish up/ prefect the twentysomething dance moves, who has initially partnered up with the girlfriends of one of his mates' girlfriends.

As the film unfolds, Gerry and his dance partner go through a few heats in the competition, with one of his rivals very much being for a spit of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever- with his white suit, quaffed hair, etc.

Also, Gerry gets a day job- working on Laurie’s market music store, and hanging out & hoping in his bedroom he’ll be a big dance star. Sundquist is a likeable lead- rather reminding as a more gaunt version of Antony Booth ( Till Death Do Us Part, The Confessions films). The support cast are fine, though none of the characters was particularly well drawn.

The film largely has a positive/ upbeat drama flow- the disco scenes are well enough shot, with a soundtrack featuring a passable enough selection of tunes. I’d say some of the most memorable moments come in the form of two daydream sequences- one takes place as Gerry stares out of his tower block bedroom window, seeing him dancing with a faceless partner against a backdrop of shifting colour spotlights. And the other occurs after he gets set to on a nighttime street; we have a surreal/ nightmarish montage of him dancing with various people from his life, faces wrapped in plastic bags, people hanging themselves with clothes ties, etc. The steps in the tower block are used to great effect in a few scenes, and we get a few very British situations- going down the pub/ getting drunk, going to the job centre, car boasting. Oh, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Ester Ransen ( This Is Your Life, Childline) as one of the judges.

Yes, like most of the disco-exploitation genre, The Music Machine is very indebted to Saturday Night Fever. But it manages to add its charming touches with a likeable cast, groovy dances/ tunes, and a general entertaining/ pacy flow.

The region-free Blu-ray features a new 4k scan taken from the CRI and original camera negative. Its picture looks good and balanced throughout, with an even mix between the dialogue and score.

On the extras side, we certainly get a good selection of all-new things. The Dance Partner - Interview with actress Patti Boulaye (17.49). She moves from talking about how she grew up in Nigeria during the civil war- her father wanted her to be a lawyer, but it’s the last thing she wanted. So initially she went to train as a nun, then went to spend a year in London finding herself- here she got a part in Hair, before later getting the lead in The Black Mikado- which launched her career, and got interest from the film producers. She talks about how neither she nor Gerry were great dancers, but director Ian Sharp was a nice man. We find out there were no rehearsals, she wore her own clothes, and used her own car even though she couldn’t drive, and she shot for two weeks on the project.

Howard & Candy: The Music Machine Dance Rivals – Interviews with actors David Easter and Mandy Perryment ( 14.47) The pair talk about how they thought the film was going to be bigger than Saturday Night Fever. We find out Mandy came from a dance background, and David from a acting/ dance background- he later appeared in Brookside. They talk about how the film was shot in three weeks, and got decidedly mixed reviews.

The Music Machine Mentor – Interview with Actor Clarke Peters ( 18.11) The American actor talks about being twenty-five when he appeared in the film- he had been a DJ in the past, as well as a stage actor. He talks about how he and Gerry got on well, and we shockingly find out he committed suicide at the age of thirty-eight, jumping in front of a train.

The Dance Machine – interview with Choreographer Anthony Van Laast ( 11.16). He talks about when he got the job; he was primarily a modern dancer, and this was his first film role- though he’s gone on to do more film work such as Mamma Mia! (2008), its sequels, and Beauty and the Beast (2017). He once again talks about how Gerry really couldn’t dance, and how the whole project felt like it was shot on the day. He remembers how the main building was dark, with dirty carpets that stank of beer & smoke.

The Music Of The Machine – Interview with musician/Songwriter Les Hurdle ( 11.00). We found out he had a grounding in sessions for early disco music, as well as recording library music- this is where he met Ian Sharp. We find out that he and his band were tasked initially with writing cues for the score, but when they were completed, they had to pen lyrics, which was quite difficult to do.

Disco Maniacs – Interview With Mark Moore Of S'Express And Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania (37.10) this is a general chat about disco- its subgenres, the clubs in London & New York, their favourite tracks, and towards the end disco films- where the film to hand gets a mention.

The Camden Locations Of The Music Machine– Locations tour with Alan Jones ( 4.21) where he largely looks at the market location, and the venue.

And lastly, we get an original trailer- so all in all a good selection of things, which are all interesting/ worthy watches.

It’s great to see The Music Machine getting the Severin treatment- as it’s both entertaining, an important part of British disco culture, and a wonderful-looking class back to the end of 1970’s London.