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MADNESS - One Step Beyond
HOT on the tail of fellow ska men The Specials, Madness release their debut album and prove that they have a style and distinctiveness of their own.
Like The Specials, Madness had a lot to live up to. With a reputation as one of the liveliest, craziest live acts around, playing infectious dance music "to the heat and the beat", compered by cartoon character/funny man Chas Smith, who introduces, demonstrates and entertains with his lightning footwork and cheerleader vocals, they had to prove that such spontaneous and natural communication could successfully be transferred onto inflexible, permanent vinyl.
But from Chas's familiar intro, "Hey you! Don't watch that, watch this ..." and the surge of jostling saxophones, keyboards, guitars and percussion, you know that everything is going to be alright - because that is, and this is, "the nutty sound", defying you to resist its magnetic, charismatic beat.
Their most compulsive live numbers are also the most compulsive on record: 'Land of Hope And Glory' with all its genial Bank holiday-in-the-pub feel, the alternative dance instrumental 'Swan Lake', their cap-doffing single to names and inspirer 'The Prince' (Buster), and 'Rockin' In A' with its sharp kid growing up, youth club, discos, birds, bikes and bands, cramming all the fun into one moment until it sounds about to burst with exhilaration and energy.
The songs are short, sharp and snappy, seven tracks a side with slower numbers such as 'My Girl', 'Believe Me' and 'In The Middle Of The Night' offering breathers as Suggs (Graham McPherson) tells assuming local tales with chirpy, colloquial humour.
Here Madness sound like any good singalong pub band, but the tugging chords and sawing rhythms still nudge insistently, tickling the feet and bluntly demanding to be accommodated. There is a warm, easy familiarity about Madness, and none of the underlying cynicism of social comment of The Specials.
And the audience are just as much part of the album as the live show, their photographs, requested by the band, making a collage on the album's inner sleeve fronted by Madness's chosen four, gap-toothed, cloth-capped 'Prince Nutty' punter. Here is proof of the numbers and the varieties attracted - and affected - by Madness.
Prototype Madman Chas (backing vocals, assorted snouts and fancy footwork) does his best, as he does onstage, to disrupt any attempts at organisation, and fulfils that last contractual obligation on the back of the album cover, where he dances a series of snapshot pix of a ska Fred Astaire in action, clearly demonstrating each major dance movement, and its all important facial expression.
Essentially live, essentially active, Madness go 'One Step Beyond ....' and bring you the first audio-visual aid to ska.
- Contributed by Graeme Sharpe
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