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WE hope you like our fantastic free single!
With Chas Smash and Suggs talking and the rest singing, playing and generally making nuisances of themselves you couldn't really go wrong!
Madness, who were once described as the world's only six-and-a-half-piece band, play their own brand of ska and reggae-influenced music, which they call the "nutty" sound.
They've been around since 1976, when keyboards player, Mike Barson, invited guitarist, Chris "Chrissy Boy" Foreman and Lee "Thommo" Thompson to join him round his piano. Chas Smash started off on drumming and then put on bass, but this didn't work out too well, so he began introducing the band and developed his "nutty dancing".
Graham "Suggs" McPherson came along at the end of '77 and took over vocals. Daniel "Woody" Woodgate and Mark "Bedders" Bedford were asked to join the band on drums and bass in September '77 - and so Madness was born!
You'd think that working for Madness would send anyone batty, but here's someone who's survived to tell the tale - Spike! (She's Madness's public relations girl.)
"Madness to me means nutty trains, Chas Smash dancing, jokey lyrics, foot-tapping rhythms - in fact, all the ingredients that combine to make this band produce 'the rockingest sound around!'"
"I'm very lucky because I get to see them play more than most people. That's because I work for Madness, and although I don't go all round the world, I do travel with them on the road in Britain.
"Because there are so many of them in the band, I always compare travelling with them to being with the Bash Street Kids from 'The Beano'. Wherever we are, chaos isn't too far behind!
"Take the last time we travelled by train, which was up to Nottingham to film a TV special. The train was due to leave at 9:02am, and I arrived at St Pancras Station in London at 8:30 with the tickets in plenty of time to clear the magazine stand of all its comics and music papers. Everyone in the band loves comics so we always take stacks of them with us on our travels. I even had time for a cup of coffee while I waited for the boys to arrive!
"As usual, things didn't go to plan, and at 9:01 I was still waiting for Chrissy Boy, Thommo and Suggs. I'd more or less decided that we'd have to sit and look at each other in the buffet until the next train arrived, when they all came tearing into the station. There is nothing like a quick sprint along the platform first thing in the morning - it took me half the journey to recover!
"Suggs is actually a pretty fast sprinter. He has to be really, because he always gets recognised. We were walking back to the hotel after playing at the Glasgow Apollo at the beginning of the year, when he was spotted by a band of marauding fans who got to grips with him as fast as they could! (Well, almost - they got to grips with his new Fred Perry shirt and left poor old Suggs to disappear round the nearest corner!)
"One night after a show in Nottingham, Bedders and I went across the road from the hotel to a hamburger bar. We were sitting quietly enjoying the music and watching the world go by, when we were spotted by Suggs who came in to join us. No sooner had his meal arrived on the table than the taped music went off and "One Step Beyond" came blaring out at us. However, it wasn't the single, it was the album! After listening to half the first side, Suggs was beginning to lose his appetite, so I asked the waitress if she wouldn't mind changing the tape. She looked puzzled and asked me why - I told her that we didn't like it and she refused to believe us and wouldn't change the tape. So we left! Sometimes it's very difficult for people to understand that just because you're in a band, it doesn't mean you listen to yourselves all the time. That gets a bit boring after a while!
"By the time you read this, Madness will have an album called "Absolutely" released and, hopefully, zooming up the charts. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see Madness live, until nearer Christmas. That's because they'll be out of the country on tour from the end of September to the beginning of December (and leaving me at home!).
"However, I know they'll be thinking about this country a lot as they all get a bit homesick and never like to be away for too long. Some of the band don't like flying at all, although they've had to get used to it during the last year with all the travelling they've done. Even so, I'm sure that by the time their touring has finished, they'll be looking forward to coming back to North London where they live.
"In the meantime, get a bit of Madness into your life and start ticking off the days to Christmas in your diaries!"
Enjoy your record, kids!
- Contributed by Graeme Sharpe
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