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Madness Central YouTube
Welcome to the official Madness Central YouTube page. This is where you will find links to our account on YouTube and also to each and every video that we host on there.
If you've ever taken a look at the Tour Madness section of Madness Central, particularly under the TV heading you will see 30 years' worth of appearances by the band. Within the last five years or so, many of the UK and European TV performances have started to surface on YouTube by fans who have gradually begun to upload clips from their own personal collections. What you don't tend to see very often however are the American TV appearances, which have become somewhat of a rarity amongst the Madness fanbase.
Over the next few weeks, courtesy of our main man in LA, musician, record producer and Madness fan, Andrew Sandoval and our very own Jonathan Young we can bring you some of this exclusive American footage here on Madness Central. From the band's hilarious appearance on American Bandstand in 1980 right up to the fantastic live 2-song set on Saturday Night Live in 1984. That's all to come in the near future, look out for announcements on the forum, news blog, newsletter and our Facebook site.
YouTube account holders can subscribe to the Madness Central channel by clicking the option on the page. Subscribers will be notified of any new video uploads to the channel via their YouTube account settings. You can also leave comments and ratings on our videos.
Here is the link to our channel......
1. MTV - The Madness Story 1983
To start us off in style then, we bring you a 40-minute documentary that was screened on MTV in 1983. Not only does this programme feature some wonderful interview footage with Carl, Suggs, Lee and Chris by the 'Professor of Pop' Paul Gambaccini, intertwined with it is rare live footage that was recorded on the 'Rise and Fall' tour, mainly at the Brighton Conference Centre gig on March 5th, 1983.
The documentary has been split into four parts over on our YouTube account.
See the corresponding Tour Madness entry here.
And the associated press articles here ........
2. Rock Palace - Live TV Performance - 29 February 1984
Our season of USA Madness television continues by finally landing on Uncle Sam's soil with live concert footage from 80's LA. Rock Palace was a short-lived television show hosted by a comedian guest who presented footage from concerts filmed at the local Palace venue.
This performance was recorded on Leap Year Day, 29 February, 1984 which also happened to be the very same day that Lee Thompson married Debbie Fordham at the Hard Rock Cafe. A honeymoon gig of sorts.
Note also that Paul Carrack joins the band on keyboards, you'll see him again in some of the forthcoming TV appearances, but he is playing live here with the band. After Mike Barson departed, Madness turned to Paul to step in for these US dates. A one-time Roxy Music keyboard session player who took over Jools Holland's role in Squeeze was exactly the kind of pedigree musician that Madness were looking for on their West Coast tour.
The tracks performed are 'The Sun And The Rain', 'Keep Moving' the American smash hit 'Our House', and finally Michael Caine.
Here is the corresponding Tour Madness entry for this particular tour......
And associated press articles......
3. American Bandstand - TV Performance - March 1980
After only a handful of TV appearances in the UK on Top of The Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Swap Shop, Madness appear on American TV for the first time. American Bandstand, the long running mainstream music show, seems a little akin to the style of 60's music shows such as Oh Boy, 65 Special or Ready Steady Go. It must have been like landing in another world for our band of pub rock heroes who'd only recently gravitated to larger venues with rather rough punk crowds to be surrounded by civilised people dancing casually, showing the difference in diverse styles across the Atlantic.
The show opens with the studio audience dancing away on a TV stage making it look like a party atmosphere is happening. A disco era black couple are shown dancing up on a tower boogieing like it's the set of Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock. Just when you're thinking this ancient footage has to be from the 60's or early 70's, particularly upon hearing the rock song 'Women All Around The World' that plays in the background, BOOM! Up pop Suggs, Chrissy Boy, Chas and Mike 'Nutty Train-ing' in time to the music right through the middle of the unsuspecting dancers. Lee is seen 'going solo' rocking at the back of the audience. The punks have come to take over the party. It's certainly unreal and definitely a little surreal, and equally it's the oldest clip of Madness TV that isn't already known to the masses of Youtube watching fans, until now that is.
They begin by miming to One Step Beyond with gusto, even more so than in the early UK The Prince clips. They look so young and have boundless energy. Dick Clark, the poor Des O'Connor like naff presenter, unfortunately has to come in for the kind of stick that Dave Lee Travis had to endure when introducing the boys on Top of The Pops. Lee playfully pinches Dick Clark and then pulls a face when Dick tries to shake his hand. He asks Suggs to introduce him to this 'band of fools'. Suggs on the other hand, behaves politely and respectfully despite being asked to explain Ska. Dick asks Suggs if the boys always 'act like that' and Suggs replies 'yes you have to lock them up at night'.
The boys then proceed to mime a performance of Madness and suddenly take it upon themselves to move Mike and his keyboard halfway through the song.
4. American Bandstand - TV Performance - March 1984
Moving on and it's virtually four years to the day when Madness return to American Bandstand and a slightly more subdued TV audience. Dick Clark describes their music as 'fantastic'. The first track is a playback version of The Sun and The Rain and begins with the whole band striking a pose including trumpet player Dick Cuthell. Paul Carrack joins the band on keyboards. Lee has decided to dress up for the occasion sporting a very fetching pair of long-johns complete with cowboy hat. He attempts to pinch Dick Clark again but fails this time and Dick asks if they could bring him with his muzzle or his straitjacket on next time.
With the re-issue of their current album of the time Keep Moving scheduled for next week, these clips are especially apt particularly with the inclusion of The Sun and The Rain on the re-issued album (it originally appeared on the American version but not on the UK version).
Hope you enjoy and don't forget to keep checking back on the site as there is still more to come!