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Flexipop’s resident film critic Clare Blake talks to those Hollywood greats Madness about their movie ‘Take It Or Leave It’. This interview comes to you by the miracle of Cinerama.
‘BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN’, ‘Casablanca’, ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Take It Or Leave It’. All films which captured the mood of their decade – and my mission was to find out more about them.
Sadly Eisenstein and Humphrey Bogart turned out to be dead and Julie Andrews was out to lunch. So it was left to Chrissy Boy and Lee ‘Kix’ Thompson of Madness to give the lowdown of the making of a megabuck (well, 500,000 quid) spectacular.
Guitarist Chrissy on the whole wasn’t wildly enthusiastic about the whole celluloid schtik as up and coming filmstars are supposed to be.
“The film industry is worse than the rock biz. Our film was pretty low budget, and I enjoyed it because it was our film, but I don’t think I would do another one.
“I wouldn’t mind having a go at writing one, or directing it, but it would have to be a documentary – maybe about someone being on the dole and the frustration of it.”
Thus spake Chris, utterly destroying my theory about the attraction of Hollywood to someone who has had their first taste of filming.
“No, I can’t see myself in Hollywood, but I wouldn’t mind meeting James Cagney: he was a wonderful guy: he could act, sing and dance. Personally, I’d rather do one thing really well. You know, be a really nice person or something.”
We seemed to be drifting from the point somewhat, but I wondered what sort of films they enjoyed themselves.
“Definitely the Buster Keaton and Marx Brothers films, and the old Sean Connery, James Bond films,” says Chris.
“Out of the recent ones, I would say Airplane is the best.” Lee agreed, adding Laurel and Hardy, “and special mention to ‘Time Bandits’, ‘The Boys in Company C’ and ‘Harvey’. Everyone should see ‘Harvey’ – it’s about this imaginary white rabbit and James Stewart, but it’s got a good message.”
Black comedy, slapstick and rabbits – the message from Madness.
Videos, however, are a different story: “We enjoy making videos much more, as we aren’t so limited with them,” says Chrissy. “Most of the ideas we use are our own. Dave Robinson sort of scripted one for us once, for ‘Embarrassment’, but I think it works a lot better when we use our own ideas – just a lot of nuttiness!
“The last video we did, for ‘Shut Up’, has got hardly anything to do with the song and it’s only got two instruments in it, but it was great fun to do.
“We haven’t had any training for acting, either for the videos or the film. We just act ourselves. Like on stage; it’s difficult when there are 3,000 people watching you, but you can only be yourself.
“Chrissy and I haven’t got a stage persona” says Kix. “We just leap around: nuttiness! That was how Chas Smash joined the band. He used to dance about in front of the stage, and sometimes he’d get onto the stage and dance with us. As the stages got bigger, he spent more time on stage, and eventually he joined the group.”
By the sound of it, they couldn’t keep him out.
Still on the subject of dancing, I wondered how and where the dancing started, and how they developed the Madness style.
“We used to go to the Music Machine in Camden Town quite a lot, wearing crazy, brightly painted Dr Marten boots, and with cropped hair. Chas and his brother started the dancing thing: there was no name for it – it was just jerky, robot-like movements. I think they first got the idea from a track by Roxy Music called ‘For Your Pleasure’. We used to sit back and watch these four peanut-heads doing this crazy dance. No one seemed to copy them though.” (can you blame them?) “It was very unusual, different, and that was what we wanted to be. Before that, we used to go to the Sundown in Charing Cross Road, but we never danced there. We just stood at the back and watched the girls: I thought they looked a lot better dancing than guys.” So, girls, remember: when you are out there dancing your butt off, and all the guys are hanging around watching: it’s not because they’re shy or even drunk. It’s just that it has taken them a painfully long time to realise one very simple thing: we’re much better at it than they are!
Before Chrissy Boy and Lee were whizzed off to entertain the lads of the British Forces Overseas, courtesy of the BBC (well, someone has to do it!) I asked them what they would do if it all finished tomorrow: the money, the music, the success. (This one usually gets quite a good response. Freedom of expression and all that, you know).
Chrissy’s reply was fairly predictable: “I think I’ll always have some kind of band. Whatever incarnation of the band there has been in the past, whoever has left or joined, Mike and I have always been there, I’ll keep playing.”
He did also throw in a mention of a gardening business, but (sadly?) I didn’t get time to pursue that one. Lee was full of surprises. “I would like to be a boot boy down Oxford Street.” What was this? Violence? Wrong again! “No, shoe shine! You know, mending shoes and shining them for people in the streets. We saw them in Japan – if you want your shoes re-soled they just get out their box and do it there and then. Nobody does that here anymore.”
I mentioned the lack of glamour, and the vagaries of the English climate, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll just take the day off.” I suppose Lee will always be just one of life’s little helpers.
So there you have it: MADNESS Infectious or hereditary? A sign of the times or a trend in the stock market? A criminal offence or is it just a social problem? The answers are elusive: in the study of Madness we have only scratched the surface.
- Contributed by Lee "Loobyloo" Buckley
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