Madness
Madness were at the forefront of the UK ska revival at the end of
the 70s. They ultimately shed the 2-Tone image and became one of
the most consistent UK chart groups of the Eighties. They were a
motley crew, composed of stubbly pub-rockers and baby-faced pop
hopefuls, but their cheery pop and slapstick reggae made them a
nation's favourite.
The skinhead menace of their early days soon gave way to an
image of diamond geezerdom, made believable by videos as witty as
the hit singles they accompanied. If you think of Britpop in the
longer term, then Madness were its early-80s standard-bearers,
with their roots in music hall rather than Jamaica.
In 1976 in Kentish Town, north London, Lee Thompson, Mike
Barson and Chris Foreman formed a trio called The Invaders to play
the Bluebeat music they grew up listening to. Over the next couple
of years, the line-up would expand to include Suggs McPherson,
Carl Smyth, Mark Bedford and Daniel Woodgate, undergoing an
osmosis into Madness.
Kicking off their recording career with the 2-Tone skank of The
Prince in the autumn of 1979, they went on to produce 21 Top
30 hits that grew steadily in sophistication whilst retaining the
sometimes silly, sometimes sad, always humorous English-ness.
Madness made the classic transition from fizzy funsters to
socially concerned grown-ups. Where once they wrote about Baggy
Trousers, they moved to heart attacks and the situation in
South Africa. They became more complex, but less energetic.
By the time of House Of Fun and Our House the
group really had no peers - They beautifully portrayed the English
way of muddling through in memorable three-minute pop songs that
owed as much to music hall traditions as anything else and which
seemed to appeal to absolutely everybody.
But like all good things it couldn't last, and the band began
to show signs that it had grown weary of being the music hall
clowns, and of a public who were game for a laugh and a knees-up
but less ready to a accept the sombre mood of songs like
(Waiting For) The Ghost Train or Yesterday's Men. A
half-hearted return as The Madness proved as brief as it was
ill-advised.
Madness were the most prolifically successful British singles
band of the 1980s, chalking up 21 Top Twenty hits between 1979 and
1986.
When Madness performed in Finsbury Park, London, in 1992, the
dancing fans created a tremor that registered 4.2 on the Richter
scale and local residents feared they were experiencing an
earthquake.
Suggs (Graham McPherson) Vocals; Chas
Smash (Cathal Smyth) Dancing, vocals; Lee
Thompson Saxophone; Mike "Barso"
Barson Keyboards, vocals; Chris Foreman Guitar; Mark
"Bedders" Bedford Bass; Daniel
"Woody" Woodgate Dums
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