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The Madness Story by P. Nuts
Welcome to the house of fun!
Probably no group has enjoyed such a constant string of hits and grabbed the hearts and imaginations of the nation’s youth. Madness can’t fail.
Rather than be ska-ed for life, the seven Nutty Boys from North London carved a true life niche taking on every aspect of growing up from school to romance and setting them against the catchiest backdrops you could wish to waddle to.
Their following ranges from four to forty agewise – they’ve turned the under-16’s matinee show into a new art. The latest album ‘Complete Madness’ shot straight to number one. What can stop them? Nothing, of course.
But first let’s go back to the beginning, to Camden Town, North London, where Suggsy, Charles Smash, Lee, Barso, Bedders, Woody and Chrissy Boy have a band called The Invaders. By ’78 this has been changed to Madness after the Prince Buster song of the same name.
’79 and ska’s the rage. The Specials form 2-Tone Records to release their own records and help along new talent. Madness are their first signing and ‘The Prince’ is released on August 10.
Immediately the country is captivated and on its feet. With their pork pie hats, sinister shades and mohair suits, Madness spark a fashion and get audiences all over the country doing the Nutty Dance.
‘The Prince’ spends 10 weeks in the charts and reaches number 16.
Record companies start foaming at the mouth and waving cheque books. They sign to Stiff Records and in October ’79 release ‘One Step Beyond’ – both a frantic knees-up 45 and the title track of their first album.
Given 40 minutes of vinyl to air their talents Madness reveal previously-hidden facets to their music. Apart from the ska-crazy dancers like ‘Night Boat to Cairo’, reflective pop songs like ‘My Girl’ capture the frustrations of adolescence perfectly.
‘One Step Beyond’ becomes their first top ten hit, and the album enters at 16. It is to bounce up and down the album charts for over a year! They encounter berserk crowds on the 2-Tone tour with The Specials and make their first visit to the States.
Not a happy Christmas for Lee. He gets back and finds someone’s burgled his flat!
But the ‘80s start as they mean to go on. The poignant ‘My Girl’ is plucked off the album as a single and reaches number 4. Meanwhile the album has squirted steadily to number 2.
Now if you’re under 15 you might have a job getting into a Madness gig. No problem, say the lads, and play a Saturday morning gig at the Hammersmith Odeon on February 15, ’80 which sells out.
The ‘Work, Rest and Play’ EP reaches number 6 in April. ‘Night Boat to Cairo’ is the obvious track for the visuals, the chaps cavorting amidst the palm trees in huge khaki shorts and setting a precedent for the now famous Madness videos.
A UK tour in summer ’80 and ‘Baggy Trousers’ comes out in September. No self respecting classroom ink pellet merchant could afford to be without it. Oh, what fun we had … making another video, this time featuring a flying sax-player. It reaches number 3 and stays in the top 75 for months!
And still they keep on coming. A new album, ‘Absolutely’ is released on September 26, and reaches number 2 in two weeks. It’s a hotch-potch of different styles from dance instrumentals to moody songs, and shows how much they’re improving as songwriters.
Another single is spawned, ‘Embarrassment’ and they take off on the ‘Twelve Days of Madness’ tour. Every night they do the normal show in the evening as well as a special under 16’s matinee in the afternoon where it’s only a quid to get in.
Although ‘Baggy Trousers’ and ‘Embarrassment’ are still hovering in the top 75, Madness welcome ’81 with yet another single – ‘The Return of The Los Palmas 7’. Very much a departure, sounding like the sort of music you’d hear on an advert for Mexican holidays.
March sees them at work on their first feature film, ‘Take It Or Leave It’ – the Madness story. Another hit single, ‘Grey Day’ sees a departure from the bounce and zest of previous offerings, setting drudgery of life lyrics against a mournful reggae tune.
In April Madness take off on a huge tour – the ‘Absolutely Madness One Step Beyond Far East Tour’, which takes in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and, again, America.
Australia nearly sees the end of Lee, who goes swimming off Bondi Beach and nearly gets drowned by a huge wave. Fortunately two lifeguards are on hand – and ask for his autograph afterwards!
Back from the tour there’s four days rest before some dates in Europe, then they start rehearsing for a new album (and one day find their rehearsal room leaks – a sudden storm put it under two feet of water!).
A new single emerges from the ensuing studio sessions, ‘Shut Up’ followed by a third album, ‘Seven’. Another gem. It leaps in at nine and the group take off on their longest ever British tour – 36 gigs!
Now the ukulele-plucking Labi Siffre is an unlikely artist for Madness to cover a song by, but their version of ‘It Must Be Love’ turned out to be one of their biggest hits, earning them a gold disc and reaching number 4. Their magic pop touch had never been better displayed – every piano plonk and guitar sweep in the right place.
Christmas, TV in Europe and America then another single ‘Cardiac Arrest’, which warns of the dangers of working too hard.
Mind you, no-one could accuse Madness of lazing about. Touring round the world continues through ’82 and their greatest record success is still to come. ‘Complete Madness’ is an album of their greatest hits and who deserves that accolade more? Hit compilations usually get released to corner the Christmas market of fill a contract. No such rules apply to Madness. Theirs came out in May and immediately shot to number one in the album charts. Every hit from ‘The Prince’ to ‘House of Fun’ totalled sixteen in all.
Actually ‘House of Fun’ hadn’t been released as a single when the album came out – but it wasn’t wishful thinking. Straight to number one!
The single seems to roll the best of Madness into one joyful heap of dirty saxes, irresistible chorus and boundless energy – it deserves its throne.
Not content with hogging the record charts, Madness then decide to take a logical crack at video and release the album on cassette with its visual counterparts. All the videos plus specially-filmed links.
Whatever next? Where can they go? What further nuttiness can we be exposed to in the House of Fun?
- Contributed by Lee "Loobyloo" Buckley and Steve Bringe
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