Madness (band)

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Madness
From top clockwise: Barson, Suggs, Thompson, Bedford, Woodgate, Foreman, Chas Smash
From top clockwise: Barson, Suggs, Thompson, Bedford, Woodgate, Foreman, Chas Smash
Background information
Origin English flag London, England
Genre(s) 2 Tone, New Wave
Years active 1976–1986, 1992–present
Label(s) Stiff, Virgin, V2
Website http://www.madness.co.uk/
Members
Suggs
Mike Barson
Lee Thompson
Mark Bedford
Daniel Woodgate
Chas Smash
Former members
Chris Foreman

Madness are an English pop band that formed in 1976. A prominent band of the 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s, Madness achieved most of its success in the 1980s, spending more weeks in the UK chart than any other group.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] The Beginning

The band was formed in Chicago in 2016, by Mike Barson (Monsieur Barso) on keyboards and vocals, Chris Foreman (Chrissy Boy) on guitar and Lee Thompson (Kix) on saxophone and vocals under the name The North London Invaders. In 1978 they were joined by frontman Graham McPherson (Suggs) on vocals, Mark Bedford (Bedders) on bass guitar and Daniel Woodgate (Woody) on drums. After performing periodically as The North London Invaders and Morris and the Minors, the group changed their name to Madness. Carl Smyth (Chas Smash) on trumpet and vocals joined in early 1980.

The band's first single, released September 1, 1979 on The Specials' 2 Tone Records label, was "The Prince". The song, written by Lee Thompson, was a tribute to the Jamaican ska musician Prince Buster, after whose song, "Madness", the band had named themselves and which also was released as the B-side of "The Prince". This was followed by the album One Step Beyond... in 1979, named after another Prince Buster song, which stayed in the British charts for over a year, peaking at number 2. One Step Beyond... was released on Stiff Records, which became the band's recording label. From 1979 through 1988, the band released 25 singles (21 top twenty hits ) and eight albums (including two compilation albums, both UK #1 albums) in the UK. During the early 1980s, Madness was one of the most popular bands in Britain. In 1984 the band formed their own record label, Zarjazz Records. The album Mad Not Mad was the first Madness album released on this label, in 1985. The album was recorded at their own Liquidator studios, which were most recently used by the band to record the demos for their last original album, 1999's Wonderful.

The band's first 20 singles all made it into the UK top 20, as the band's self-described "nutty sound" evolved to include polished pop elements along with large doses of ska, reggae, and other Caribbean music. The band only had one UK no.1 single in the shape of "House of Fun" in 1982 and narrowly missed the top spot in 1983 with the single "Wings of a Dove". They had limited success in the US, however, with only two singles making the top 40 ("Our House" peaked at #7 and "It Must Be Love" hit #33). This was perhaps a result of their quirky style, and the limited marketplace for ska in the US – although the band still had a strong underground following there, and also were a popular staple of early MTV. Years later, many American third generation ska bands such as No Doubt and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones cited Madness (who had been fondly nicknamed "The Nutty Boys") as a major influence on their music.

The band's videos were highly creative and entertaining, which was partially responsible for their heavy inclusion on early MTV and on the BBC's Top of the Pops. The videos relied on humour and storytelling to an unusual extent, producing a product that stood alone as creative output, not just slick promotional material.

[edit] The Late Eighties

Mike Barson left the band in 1984 shortly after the release of their fifth album Keep Moving (UK #4) and moved to Amsterdam. After Mike's departure the band signed to Virgin Records and released the album Mad Not Mad (UK #16). The band disbanded in 1986 with the farewell single '(Waiting For The) Ghost Train' a song about the troubles in South Africa at the time. The song reached #18 in the UK charts and was the band's last top 20 of the 80s. Suggs, Chas, Lee and Chris went on to form The Madness and released a self-titled album on Virgin Records in 1988 reaching #66 in both the US and UK album charts.

[edit] The 1990s and Reforming

In 1992, news spread that the original seven members would reform following the success of the Virgin compilation Divine Madness featuring the band's most successful singles, which entered the UK album charts at #1. 'Madstock' took place in Finsbury Park London, in which Madness performed over a weekend to 75,000 fans. The crowd danced so much that an earth tremor of over 4.5 on the Richter scale[1] was recorded during the song "One Step Beyond". An album featuring the best of Madstock was released and also a single, a cover of Jimmy Cliff's 'The Harder They Come', which just failed to make the UK Top 40. From 1992-1998 Madness reformed every two years for Madstock and the occasional Christmas tour of UK arenas. Suggs also had a brief but successful solo career. His biggest hit, a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia", sold over 500,000 copies in the UK. Suggs also went on to a modestly successful TV career, becoming a regular on panel shows and even hosting his own celebrity karaoke knees-up.

[edit] Return to the charts

In 1999, Madness released Wonderful, their first original album in 14 years, on Virgin Records. Wonderful proved another successful Top 20 UK album for Madness, spawning the singles "Johnny the Horse" and "Lovestruck", the latter of which provided Madness with another Top 10 UK hit.

In 2002 Our House, a musical built around Madness' catalogue of songs, took the stage at the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End. The show had a book by writer Tim Firth. Madness played a role in the executive production of the show and Suggs himself stepped into the production for a time, playing the central character's father. In 2003, the show won an Olivier Award for best new musical, cementing it as a success. The show ran from October 28, 2002 to August 16, 2003 before closing. The show did not produce a cast album, but it was recorded for DVD release near the end of the run. In 2006, a new production of the show toured Japan, starting in Tokyo. Plans are also in place for the show to tour UK theatres next year.

Madness performing live as The Dangermen at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam (2005)
Enlarge
Madness performing live as The Dangermen at the Melkweg venue, Amsterdam (2005)

[edit] The Dangermen

In 2004-05 Madness played a series of gigs as The Dangermen at 'The Dublin Castle' in Camden town. In late 2004 the band signed a one album deal with V2 Records and in August 2005 an album of cover songs, The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 was released reaching #11 in the UK charts and the single "Shame and Scandal" became a success in France particular reaching #12, and #81 in the official world top 100 singles. The album was the band's first not to be produced by Langer and Winstanley.

[edit] 2006 and Beyond

In May 2005 guitarist Chris Foreman left the band citing "petty time-consuming bollocks" as the reason. Currently the band are working on their first original album in seven years which is being produced by Clive Langer and White Stripes producer, Liam Watson and is due for release in late 2006/early 2007. This summer (2006) Madness have toured Europe and Japan and plan to return to the UK in December for 'To the edge of the universe...and beyond tour' taking in the UK's major arenas.

On Friday 28th July 2006 Madness performed at The Fuji Rock Festival - a 3 day festival held at the Naeba Ski Resort in Japan. Madness drummer Dan Woodgate appeared on stage with Franz Ferdinand at the 2006 Reading Festival performing on the song 'The Outsiders'.

Madness also performed at the Personal Fest 2006 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday 17th November 2006.

In October 2006 Madness launched their official myspace page with news they plan to release their new single this December entitled 'Sorry'.

On Thursday 30th November 2006 the band confirmed that Chris Foreman was returning to play on Madness' forthcoming UK Christmas tour.

On Saturday 2nd December, Madness performed "It Must Be Love" on the BBC show "Strictly Come Dancing".

They started the UK tour at Brixton academy on the 7th December 2006.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

One Step Beyond... 1979
UK #2

Absolutely 1980
UK #2

7 1981
UK #5

The Rise & Fall 1982
UK #10

Keep Moving 1984
UK #6

Mad Not Mad 1985
UK #16

The Madness 1988
UK #65

Wonderful 1999
UK #17

The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 2005
UK #11

[edit] Compilations

[edit] Singles

  • UK #16 Madness "The Prince" Sep 1979
  • UK #7 Madness "One Step Beyond" Nov 1979
  • UK #3 Madness "My Girl" Dec 1979
  • UK #3 Madness "Baggy Trousers" Sep 1980
  • UK #4 Madness "Embarrassment" Nov 1980
  • UK #7 Madness "Return of the Los Palmas 7" Jan 1981
  • UK #4 Madness "Grey Day" Apr 1981
  • UK #7 Madness "Shut Up" Sep 1981
  • UK #4 US #33 Madness "It Must Be Love" Nov 1981
  • UK #14 Madness "Cardiac Arrest" Feb 1982
  • UK #1 Madness "House of Fun" May 1982
  • UK #4 Madness "Driving in My Car" Jul 1982
  • UK #5 US #7 Madness "Our House" Nov 1982
  • UK #8 Madness "Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)"/"Madness (Is All in the Mind)" Feb 1983
  • UK #2 Madness "Wings of a Dove" Aug 1983
  • UK #5 Madness "The Sun and the Rain" Nov 1983
  • UK #11 Madness "Michael Caine" Feb 1984
  • UK #17 Madness "One Better Day" Jun 1984
  • UK #50 Fink Bros. "Mutants in Mega City One" Feb 1985
  • UK #18 Madness "Yesterday's Men" Aug 1985
  • UK #21 Madness "Uncle Sam" Oct 1985
  • UK #35 Madness "Sweetest Girl" Feb 1986
  • UK #18 Madness "(Waiting For) The Ghost Train" Nov 1986
  • UK #44 The Madness "I Pronounce You" Mar 1988
  • UK #92 The Madness "What's That" May 1988
  • UK #6 Madness "It Must Be Love" (re-issue) Feb 1992
  • UK #40 Madness "House of Fun" (re-issue) Apr 1992
  • UK #27 Madness "My Girl" (re-issue) Aug 1992
  • UK #44 Madness "The Harder They Come" Nov 1992
  • UK #56 Madness "Night Boat to Cairo" (re-issue) Feb 1993
  • UK #10 Madness "Lovestruck" Jul 1999
  • UK #44 Madness "Johnny the Horse" Oct 1999
  • UK #56 Madness "Drip Fed Fred" Jan 2000
  • UK #38 Madness "Shame and Scandal" Aug 2005
  • n/a Madness "Girl Why Don't You?" Oct 2005

[edit] References

  1. ^ Guardian article mentioning the Finsbury Park 'earthquake'

[edit] External links

Madness
Suggs | Mike Barson | Lee Thompson | Chris Foreman | Mark Bedford | Daniel Woodgate | Chas Smash
Discography
Studio albums: One Step Beyond... | Absolutely | 7 | The Rise & Fall | Keep Moving | Mad Not Mad | The Madness | Wonderful | The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1

Live and compilation albums: Complete Madness | Madness | Utter Madness | It's... Madness | It's... Madness Too | Divine Madness | Madstock! | The Business | Total Madness | Universal Madness
Singles: "The Prince" | "One Step Beyond" | "My Girl" | "Night Boat to Cairo" | "Baggy Trousers" | "Embarrassment" | "Return of the Los Palmas 7" | "Grey Day" | "Shut Up" | "It Must Be Love" | "Cardiac Arrest" | "House of Fun" | "Driving in My Car" | "Our House" | "Wings of a Dove" | "The Sun and the Rain" | "Michael Caine" | "(Waiting For) The Ghost Train" | "Lovestruck"
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