Tidy Tunes 2019 #17/28 Tomorrow's Just Another Day - Madness

Tomorrow's Just Another Day - Madness
Stiff Records
Released February 1983
UK Chart #8

Tomorrow's Just Another Day - Madness with Elvis Costello on Vocals

B-Side of the 12" Single

'Tomorrow's Just Another Day' was the second single to be released from what many say is the band's best album, 'The Rise and Fall', that was issued in October 1982. It was written by Cathal Smyth (Chas Smash) and was actually the only single of theirs to be released as a Double A-Side, the Chris Foreman song 'Madness (Is All in the Mind)' was the flip side.

Madness always had that uncanny ability to take a bit of a dark subject lyrically and add a little sweetness to it musically to kind of soften the blow of what was being sung and sometimes it's actually a good thing that a song can make you sit and think about your own circumstances.

I'm not totally certain what the situation Cathal was writing about but John Reed in the excellent book 'House of Fun - The Story of Madness' (Omnibus Press) speaks of it as a "contemplative ode of personal regret" (p216), and in the same book the only light Smyth shines upon it was to say, "It represented how I felt, some friendships I was in...How your actions were misinterpreted" (also p216).

It almost comes across as if he is trying to make an effort at fixing a relationship but seems to be getting nowhere ("Trying hard, I thought I'd done my best/All my life, I can't get no rest") and whoever it is that he's talking about seems to have given up on him ("Some who've closed the door before/Say I can't carry on no more").

All of this struggle can often bring confusion and depression and you can well understand the response:

"Listened long, tried to take it in
All these facts leave me in the swim
It's down and down there is no up

 I think that I've run out of luck".

and:

 "I need a moment to reflect

 On the friendships I have wrecked".

"I hear them say
And it gets better every day
I hear them say
Tomorrow's just another day".

But the issue is that it doesn't get "better every day" because clearly he is trying to mend fences ("don't I always try?") and yet the very people who seem to have written him off are the ones not making an effort to allow those fences to be mended.

I know for myself that (especially when I was heavy drinker) I alienated friends and wrecked a few friendships along the way. A few of those relationships were restored but others did not survive.

I don't know if I'm reading too much into the song with that but I'll put it out there for your consideration.

Rewind: Madness and Specials Unleash Debut Albums On This Day in 1979

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One Step Beyond - Madness
Stiff Records
Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley
Released 19th October 1979
UK Chart #2

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Specials - Specials
2 Tone
Produced by Elvis Costello
Released 19th October 1979
UK Chart #4

Two of the bands at the forefront of the 2 Tone Ska Revival released their Debut Albums on this day in 1979. Madness of course had moved on from the 2 Tone label to the "Most Flexible Label in the World", Stiff Records and The Special A.K.A. had been dropped in favour of the more simple Specials.

Out of the two I preferred One Step Beyond, mainly because I didn't think that Elvis Costello had properly captured the urgency and frenetic nature of the Specials that they displayed when playing live, whilst with Madness, Langer and Winstanley did manage to capture the energy of the band.

It was One Step Beyond that had the upper hand when it came to the Charts peaking at #2 whilst Specials made it to #4.

Both bands are still out and about playing live (with newer personnel) and I think I read somewhere that the Specials are hoping to record a new album soon. Can't Touch Us Now in 2016 is the latest studio album from Madness (their 11th) and the first not to feature Cathal Symth (Chas Smash) who had left the band to focus on a Solo Career.

A Few Favourite Albums: The Liberty of Norton Folgate - Madness (May 2009)

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The Liberty of Noltom Folgate - Madness
Lucky Seven
Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley
Released 18th May 2009

UK Chart #5

UK Independent Chart #1

CD Tracklist
1 Overture    
2 We Are London    
3 Sugar And Spice    
4 Forever Young    
5 Dust Devil    
6 Rainbows    
7 That Close    
8 MkII    
9 On The Town    
10 Bingo    
11 Idiot Child    
12 Africa    
13 NW5    
14 Clerkenwell Polka    
15 The Liberty Of Norton Folgate 

Silver Edition came with CD of the album and a DVD of the Julian Temple film The Liberty Of Norton Folgate.

Vinyl Edition
A1 We Are London    
A2 Forever Young    
A3 Dust Devil    
A4 Sugar And Spice    
A5 Norton Folgate
    
B1 Clerkenwell Polka    
B2 Bingo    
B3 Rainbows    
B4 That Close    
B5 MK2    
B6 Idiot Child    
B7 On The Town

  

 The Liberty Of Norton Folgate Special Edition Box Set
This edition was made available for pre-order in late 2008 and was released on 23 March 2009.

Click on the links for tracks that are exclusive to this Edition of the album.

Vinyl Edition
A1 We Are London    
A2 Forever Young    
A3 Dust Devil    
A4 Sugar And Spice    
A5 Norton Folgate
    
B1 Clerkenwell Polka    
B2 Bingo    
B3 Rainbows    
B4 That Close    
B5 MK2    
B6 Idiot Child    
B7 On The Town

CD Edition 

CD1-1     Overture    
CD1-2     We Are London    
CD1-3     Sugar And Spice    
CD1-4     Forever Young    
CD1-5     Dust Devil    
CD1-6     Rainbows    
CD1-7     That Close    
CD1-8     MK II    
CD1-9     On The Town    
CD1-10     Clerkenwell Polka    
CD1-11     The Liberty Of Norton Folgate    
CD2-1     Let's Go*    
CD2-2     Idiot Child    
CD2-3     Mission From Hell*    
CD2-4     Seven Dials*    
CD2-5     Hunchback Of Torriano*    
CD2-6     Fish & Chips*    
CD2-7     Bingo    
CD2-8     NW5    
CD2-9     One Fine Day*    
CD2-10     The Kiss*    
CD2-11     Africa
 

  
CD3 is rehearsal recordings, demos and live recordings.

    "Practice Makes Perfect"
CD3-1     Dust Devil I    
CD3-2     Let's Go    
CD3-3     Clerkenwell Polka    
CD3-4     Forever Young    
CD3-5     7 Dials    
CD3-6     On The Town    
CD3-7     Fish & Chips Parade    
CD3-8     Idiot Child    
CD3-9     We Are London - Chas Demo    
    "Hackney Live & Correct"
CD3-10     We Are London    
CD3-11     Idiot Child    
CD3-12     Bingo    
CD3-13     NW5    
CD3-14     On The Town    
CD3-15     MK II    
CD3-16     Sugar & Spice    
CD3-17     Dust Devil    
CD3-18     Clerkenwell Polka    
CD3-19     Forever Young    
CD3-20     The Liberty Of Norton Folgate

All of disc 3 contains material exclusive to this release. The seven tracks marked with a (*) on disc 2 are also exclusive to this release.

 Personnel
    Suggs (Graham McPherson) – vocals
    Chas Smash (Cathal Smyth) – vocals
    Mike Barson – piano
    Chris Foreman – guitar
    Mark Bedford – bass
    Lee Thompson – saxophone
    Daniel Woodgate – drums

Additional personnel
    Graham Bush – additional bass
    Rhoda Dakar – vocals on "On the Town"
    Jim Parmley – percussion
    Amber Jolene – backing vocals
    Sasha Paul – backing vocals
    Joe Auckland – trumpet
    Steve Turner – saxophone
    Michael Kearsey – trombone
    Mark Brown – clarinet
    Dave Powell – tuba
    Sirishkumar – tabla
    Andy Findon – Turkish clarinet, zorna, duduk
    Simon Hale – string arrangements, conductor, additional piano on "MKII"
    Julian Leaper – violin
    Emil Chakalov – violin
    Martin Burgess – violin
    Sue Briscoe – violin
    Chris Pitsilledes – viola
    Nick Holland – cello
    Millennia Strings – strings
    The London Session Orchestra led by Gavyn Wright – strings

Singles On The Liberty of Norton Folgate

7"

NW5 / Bittersweet

CD Single

1 NW5 (Radio Edit)
2 NW5 (Full Length Version)
3 Bittersweet
4 NW5 (Man Like Me Remix)

 Released 21st January 2008

UK Chart #24

7"

Dust Devil / The Roadette Song

 CD Single

1. Dust Devil (Radio Edit)
2. Dust Devil (Ashley Beedle Warbox Remix)
3. The Roadette Song
4. Dust Devil (Practice Makes Perfect Reggae Style)

 Released 11th May 2009

UK Chart #64

 7"

Forever Young / Forever Young (J Star Mr Wallace Dub)

CD Single

 1 Forever Young (Melt Music Radio Edit)
2 Forever Young (Future Cut Remix)    
3 Forever Young (J Star Mr Wallace Dub)    
4 Forever Young (Live From Later With Jools At BBC)
5 Love Really Hurts (Billy Ocean Cover)

Released 18th January 2010

UK Chart #199

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Recorded over the space of two years (2006-2008), The Liberty of Norton Folgate would be the ninth studio album from Madness and their first of original material for a decade! Suggs would say, "I've realised that there's normal time and there's Madness time. What seems like seconds to us turns into decades for everyone else. There's a whole different time-space continuum!"

 

Suggs had spoken in 2005 of his hope to do an album of new material with Madness but it was a case of trying to get everyone on board to do it. "My idea is to do a concept album about London, the fabulous nature of the ever-changing city and our experiences there. Madness moves very slowly. There are seven of us all going around in circles and different directions. When we're working and playing music together, it just clicks. It's when we're not playing music that we start squabbling!"

 

Eventually they did all get on the same page (even Chris Foreman returned after departing during The Dangerman Sessions) and ended up releasing not only one of their highest charting albums since the 7 album back in 1981 but they even managed to replace The Rise and Fall as their Magnum Opus (well, I think they did!). The critics (yep them again!) amazingly got it right with many declaring it to be the best album of the band's career! The Word Magazine describes it as "Peter Ackroyd writing for The Kinks, it's Sherlock Holmes in Albert Square, it's a Mike Leigh movie of Parklife, it's Passport To Pimlico meets Brick Lane, and it is Madness's masterpiece."

 

All the music and lyrics were contributed by the band, with the exception of bassist Mark Bedford  (although not a major songwriter in Madness, Bedford co-wrote one of the band's more emotive songs "One Better Day" with Suggs. He was also responsible for co-writing "Not Home Today", "Disappear", "Return of the Los Palmas 7", "Deceives the Eye", "Stepping into Line" and "Maybe in Another Life". The only song he wrote entirely on his own was "Mummy's Boy", which appeared on the band's debut album One Step Beyond). Bedford would leave the band in 2009, only to return again in 2012 and then rejoined for good in 2013 (Suggs says, "It’s like the Eagles song 'Hotel California'. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...There’s a lot of flexibility, allowing people to be what they want to be, and do what they want.")

The Special Edition Boxset had only been available from the band website and along with a pre-order a 12 track Download was made available to purchasers in December 2008 with the physical album (on LP and a 15 track CD) to be released in May 2009. From the opening track We Are London you just knew that this was Madness doing what they do best. 

 

"The way I describe our sound is to say we are continuing the folk music tradition of the real London. Tommy Cooper was a big factor. Benny Hill - those speeded up bits - used to tickle us. You knew it was naff but it was also deliberately anti-intellectual. Then in later life you get interested in Samuel Beckett and get this inante feeling that there's a parallel. Beckett was really interested in music hall and Tommy Cooper and Max Wall - that thin line between abstraction and just being an idiot. Pathos was a word I learnt from Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys)...it sums up what we were doing unconciously all those years, a mixture of happiness and sadness. Sometimes it's jolly music with sad words and other times it's sad words with jolly music but the most interesting is mixing the two." (Suggs quoted in House of Fun: The Story of Madness - John Reed).

 

Nine years on from it's release, with a further two studio albums under their belt - Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da (2012) and Can't Touch Us Now (2016) - The Liberty of Norton Folgate still stands tall as a monument to their greatness. 

 

Full House (The Very Best of Madness) - Madness (November 2017)

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Full House (The Very Best of Madness) - Madness
Union Square Music
Format: 4LP set or a 2CD set
Released 17th November 2017

(CD Back Cover)

Tracklist for 4LP Edition
A1 The Prince    
A2 One Step Beyond    
A3 My Girl    
A4 Bed And Breakfast Man    
A5 Night Boat To Cairo    
A6 Madness

    
B1 Baggy Trousers    
B2 Embarrassment    
B3 The Return Of The Last Palmas 7    
B4 Grey Day    
B5 Shut Up

    
C1 It Must Be Love    
C2 Cardiac Arrest    
C3 House Of Fun    
C4 Driving My Car    
C5 Our House 

   
D1 Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)    
D2 Wings Of A Dove    
D3 The Sun And The Rain    
D4 Michael Caine    
D5 One Better Day

    
E1 Uncle Sam    
E2 Yesterday's Men    
E3 (Waiting For) The Ghost Train    
E4 Sarah's Song (From the Musical Our House)   
E5 Lovestruck

    
F1 Johnny The Horse    
F2 Drip Fed Fred    
F3 Simple Equation (From the Musical Our House)    
F4 Girl Why Don't You (From The Dangerman Sessions Vol. 1)

    
G1 NW5    
G2 Dust Devil    
G3 Forever Young    
G4 Sugar And Spice    
G5 My Girl 2    
G6 Never Knew Your Name

    
H1 How Can I Tell You?    
H2 Misery    
H3 La Luna    
H4 Mr. Apples    
H5 Can't Touch Us Now    
H6 Another Version Of Me

On the first day of the New Year I wanted to kick off the blog with some bouncy, happy and snappy pop tunes and have turned toward an album that was released in November 2017 and is basically a compilation of the Singles, a couple of B-sides, and some additional tunes from the songbook of that Great British Institution known as Madness.

It seems customary that every couple of years or so that yet another Compilation from Madness appears on the scene. Full House (The Very Best of Madness) released in November was actually the sixth Compilation released by Union Square since 2009!

I usually frown upon bands/artists who seem to continually rehash their back catalogue for an endless stream of Greatest Hits albums but Madness are such loveable rogues that I can't bring myself to do that as everytime I hear a song of theirs it turns that frown upside down! 😀 

Tracks are taken from all parts of their history including the latest Studio Album that was released in 2016, Can't Touch Us Now.

May I take this opportunity to wish one and all a Happy New Year ahead. I trust that for those who had a bad one last year that better days will come your way. For those dealing with health issues that some healing might come your way. For those dealing with loss may comfort come.

So, I hope you enjoy this post, it is indeed the "Nuttiest Sound Around".

Previous Compilations are:

 Complete Madness (Stiff 1982)
Madness (Geffen 1983 US and Canada)
Utter Madness (Zarjazz/Virgin 1986)
Its...Madness (Virgin 1990)
It's Madness Too (Virgin 1991)
Divine Madness (Virgin 1992)
Total Madness (The Very Best of Madness) (Geffen 1997 US and Canada)
The Heavy Heavy Hits (Virgin 1998)
Complete Madness (Union Square 2009 Reissue)
Total Madness (Union Square 2009 not the same as the US album from 1997)
Ultimate Madness (Union Square 2010)
Forever Young: The Ska Collection Union Square 2012)
The Very Best of Madness (Union Square 2014)

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 270 - Madness

Absolutely - Madness

Stiff Records

Produced by Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley 

Released 26th September 1980

UK Chart #2

US Chart #146

A1 Baggy Trousers
A2 Embarrassment    
A3 E.R.N.I.E.    
A4 Close Escape    
A5 Not Home Today    
A6 On The Beat Pete    
A7 Solid Gone    
B1 Take It Or Leave It    
B2 Shadow Of Fear    
B3 Disappear    
B4 Overdone    
B5 In The Rain    
B6 You Said    
B7 Return Of The Los Palmas 7

Personnel
Madness
    Graham McPherson (Suggs) – lead vocals; percussion
    Mike Barson (Monsieur Barso) – piano; organ; vibraphone; marimba; harmonica
    Chris Foreman (Chrissy Boy) – guitars; sitar; slide guitar
    Lee Thompson (Kix) – tenor; baritone saxophones
    Daniel Woodgate (Woody) – drums; fire extinguisher
    Mark Bedford (Bedders) – bass guitars
    Cathal Smyth (Chas Smash) – backing vocals; trumpet; lead vocals on "Solid Gone"

Singles on Absolutely

Baggy Trousers / The Business

September 1980

UK Chart #3

The Business was the instrumental version of Take It or Leave It. 

In 1981 Madness released a film called Take It or Leave It. In October 2013 it was reissued as a CD/DVD package.

Embarrassment / Crying Shame

November 1980
UK Chart #4

The Return Of The Los Palmas 7 / That's The Way To Do It

January 1981

UK Chart #7

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Almost a year after the successful Debut Album One Step Beyond had smashed its way to the number 2 spot on the charts Madness released their second album Absolutely that would contain a further three Top Ten Singles.

Hard to believe but where there had been a lot of enthusiasm for the Debut Absolutely was not a hit among all critics (as I've said often, "what on earth do they know?") but to the people that mattered, ie The Record Buying Public, they bought enough of it to also take it to #2 on the UK album chart.

I had to giggle a little at the ignorance of Rolling Stone magazine, who were not huge fans of the ska revival and infact were quite scathing ("The Specials wasn't very good") , and only awarded the album 1 out 5 stars.  They declared that Madness were simply "the Blues Brothers with English accents". I was particularly grieved to discover that the words had been penned by a writer that I'd actually enjoyed a lot, Greil Marcus! I guess there's just an Englishness about the album that cannot be comprehended even by the great Mr Marcus!

(Original Artwork)

The front cover sees the band standing in front of Chalk Farm tube station in Camden. When the original vinyl was released the first, more sombre, cover photograph was changed to a more animated pose after around 10,000 albums were pressed. The two sleeves can be distinguished by Mike Barson's holding of the umbrella: in the earlier pressing he holds it up to his chin while in the later, and subsequently used, releases the umbrella is on the ground. I don't think the album is worth a whole lot of money with the original cover though so you can't go planning that Caribbean Cruise!

As I said above there's a real Englishness about the songwriting of Madness that really came out on their first few albums. Baggy Trousers was a wee gem about schooldays. Suggs said, "I was very specifically trying to write a song in the style of Ian Dury, especially the songs he was writing then, which [were] often sort of catalogues of phrases in a constant stream". He contrasted "Baggy Trousers" with Pink Floyd's hit Another Brick in the Wall: "I was writing about my time at school. Pink Floyd had that big hit with 'teacher, leave those kids alone'. It didn't really relate to me, because I hadn't been to a public school where I was bossed about and told to sing 'Rule Britannia!' and all that".

John Reed in his magnificent book House of Fun: The Story of Madness says of Baggy Trousers that it was "three minutes of unbridled pop ebullience which still resisdes to this day...From the opening sound of a school bell, the song tapped into the timesless images of schooldays in a long-standing tradition from the Jennings novels to the on-screen mishaps of St. Trinians and Will Hay, the Bash Street Kids' capers in the Beano or the BBC's latest hit TV series Grange Hill".

Embarrassment was written by Lee Thompson and the music by Mike Barson. Racism is not the type of thing you often hear being sung about in a pop song and for some people it was a reality they experienced daily. I often think of my own Sister when I hear the song because there were elements of it that were a part of her experience as well. The plot of the song reflected the unfolding turmoil following the news that his teenage sister, Tracy Thompson, had become pregnant and was carrying a black man's child. The subsequent rejection by her family, and the shame felt, was reflected in the song.

It was a brave choice of single for a band who had been seen as a mere novelty band and it paid off by giving the band their third Top 5 hit!

E.R.N.I.E. (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) was not a cover of that novelty hit by Benny Hill Ernie The Fastest Mikman in the West, but was an ode to the Premium Bond! If you don't know what that is you can read a little bit of the history of it here.

Madness were keen to not make a One Step Beyond MKII. "We were concious of not making a carbon copy of the debut. Like The Specials, we were always aware we needed to move on with each album" (Suggs).

There was some carry over from the Debut with Close Escape which picked up where In The Middle of the Night left off with the character now seen as a phone call pest.

Shadow of Fear spoke about the paranoia of life in London; Not Home Today dealt with the issue of families who make up excuses to cover up the fact that one of their children is has been sent to Borstal or Prison; On The Beat Pete was a spotlight into the world of a local Bobby (Policeman).

A quality little album and one that is guaranteed to but a smile on your face whilst listening to it...and if you can only sit still whilst listening to it then I'd ask someone to check your pulse to see in fact if you are alive or not!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

New Video: Mr Apples - Madness (September 2016)

Mr Apples is the lead single from the forthcoming new album by Madness entitled Can't Touch Us Now. The album is set for release on 28th October.

Mr Apples

Album Annoucement

Happy Birthday Mike Barson

Born on this day in 1958

Mike Barson is one of the co-founding members of Madness and has served as songwriter, musical director etc for the band right from the start until he played live with them for the last time in December 1983 but officially left in 1984 after completing work on Keep Moving and the videos for Michael Caine and One Better Day.

He returned of course, along with the rest of the band in 1992 (who had called it a day in 1986) after the success of the Divine Madness compilation and played together live at Madstock! (see below)

Live in Hamburg 1981

Madstock!

Finsbury Park, London

August 1992

Live at The Roundhouse

September 2012

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 55 - Divine Madness!

In 1992, six years after Madness broke up, Virgin Records released a Compilation of the Hit Singles by the band entitled Divine Madness. Virgin had tried this before with varying results: Utter Madness (UK Chart #29), It's...Madness (1990 did not chart) and It's...Madness Too (1991 did not chart).

This time around though it would be different. Virgin had managed to get the band together to agree on the release of this new compilation. Cathal (Chas Smash to the uninitiated) was the first one on board and he had a desire to get the band back together again to play live, not just the old hits but new music as well.

It Must Be Love was reissued in time for Valentine's Day and surprisingly made it to #6 on the UK Singles Chart.

The album was released and also a VHS Video alongside it. The numbers for the album are quite outstanding: More than 900,000 copies of the album were sold as the album hit the top spot (their second #1 album, the other also a Compilation - Complete Madness back in 1982 on Stiff). The album spent three weeks at #1. Another remarkable fact about the album was that it stayed on the charts for 96 weeks and a last fact about Divine Madness is that it has gone Platinum three times here in the UK. The Video sold more than 100,000 copies.

The success of the album led to the first Madness live concert for six years...Madstock!

Divine Madness - Madness

Virgin

Released 24th February 1992

UK Chart #1

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

S4L Presents: The Best Debut Albums #24 - Madness (1979)

Two months prior to the release of their debut album Madness had released their debut single The Prince / Madness on 2Tone. They had a Top 20 hit to kick off with and then they signed to Stiff. Both tracks would be re-recorded for the album (though Madness was not credited on the tracklist or on the label and is sandwiched between Mummy's Boy and Chipmunks Are Go!) and are slightly different from the 2Tone version.

The album has been reissued a couple of times now, firstly in 2009 as part of the reissue programme by Madness (and released by Union Square). A bonus disc included their 1979 John Peel Session, B-Sides, Italian and Spanish versions of One Step Beyond, a demo of My Girl with Barson on vocal and a ballad version of My Girl done for Flexipop magazine, the remaining tracks from the Work Rest and Play EP and three live tracks from the Film Dance Craze.

The 2014 Reissue included a 14 song rehearsal tape from April 1979 and due to space issues a further 6 tracks were made available from the Madness website, iTunes and Amazon - though only two were available on each.

I think it still sounds great all these years on and more than worthy to the listed among S4L Presents: The Best Debut Albums.

One Step Beyond... - Madness

Stiff Records

Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley

Released 19th October 1979

UK Chart #2

Personnel
Madness
    Graham McPherson (Suggs) – lead vocals
    Mike Barson (Monsieur Barso) – keyboards
    Chris Foreman (Chrissy Boy) – guitars
    Mark Bedford (Bedders) – bass
    Lee "Kix" Thompson – saxophones, backing vocals, lead vocals on tracks 5 and 10
    Dan Woodgate (Woody) – drums, percussion

with:
    Cathal Smyth (Chas Smash) – backing vocals, fancy footwork, lead vocals on tracks 1 and 15
    NOTE: Smyth was not an official member of the band at the time or the album's recording or release. He would formally join Madness only a few weeks after One Step Beyond... was issued in October 1979.

Singles/EP's from One Step Beyond...

One Step Beyond / Mistakes / Nutty Theme

26th October 1979 

UK Chart #7

My Girl / Stepping Into Line / In the Rain

21st December 1979

UK Chart #23

Work Rest and Play EP

Night Boat to Cairo / Deceives The Eye / The Young and the Old / Don't Quote Me On That 

March 1980

Tv Performances etc

One Step Beyond (Top of the Pops)

My Girl (Top of the Pops)

Night Boat To Cairo (Old Grey Whistle Test)

Bed and Breakfast Man (Old Grey Whistle Test)

Land of Hope and Glory (Dutch TV 1979)

Madness Live

Live in 1979 (not sure the venue).

 The Prince, One Step Beyond and Night Boat To Cairo.

Live in Paris.

One Step Beyond, My Girl, Swan Lake,

Razor Blade Alley, Night Boat To Cairo, Madness and Don't Quote Me On That.

Live at Rockstage Nottingham 1980.

You'll have to pump the volume up a bit for this as the sound is quite low. A great little insight into the live performance of the band. Not sure if this was done for a TV show. This must have been on The Absoultely Tour I think.

Rewind: 1985 Mad Not Mad - Madness

  

Mad Not Mad - Madness

Zarjazz

Released 30th September 1985

Produced by Cliver Langer and Alan Winstanley

UK Chart #16 

  

Singles From Mad Not Mad

1. Yesterday's Men
   Released: 19 August 1985 UK Chart #18
2. Uncle Sam
   Released: 14 October 1985 UK Chart #21
3. The Sweetest Girl
   Released: 10 February 1986
   UK Chart #35

Madness
    Suggs (Graham McPherson) – lead vocals
    Chris Foreman – guitars
    Mark Bedford (Bedders) – bass guitars
    Lee Thompson – saxophones
    Daniel Woodgate (Woody) – drums, lynn drum programming; keyboard sequences
    Chas Smash (Cathal Smyth) – backing Vocals; lead vocals on "Tears You Can't Hide"
    Steve Nieve – keyboards

Session musicians
    Roy Davies – piano
    Judd Lander – harmonica
    Luís Jardim – percussion
    Tom Morley – computer supervision
    Gary Barnacle – horns
    David Bedford – strings and MD
    Trevor Ford – strings
    Rupert Bowden – strings
    Bill Benham – strings
    Belinda Blunt – strings
    Rusen Gunes – strings
    Adan Levine – strings
    Basil Smart – strings
    Afrodiziak (Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine) – backing Vocals
    Jimmy Helms – backing vocals
    Jimmy Thomas – backing vocals
    Jimmy Chambers – backing vocals

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Mad Not Mad is the sixth studio album by the British ska/pop band Madness. It was originally released in late 1985, and was their first official release on their own label Zarjazz, which was a sub-label of Virgin Records. The album was recorded over a period of two months in 1985, at Westside Studios in London, and at Air studios also in London. The album is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work. It features three prolific guest backing vocalists, including the female duo Afrodiziak (composed of Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine), and Jimmy Helms. The album is notably the band's only album not to feature their keyboardist and founding member Mike Barson, who had left the group the previous year to spend more time with his now ex-wife Sandra in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Barson's keyboard parts were filled by synthesizers and Steve Nieve joined the band to take his place. Two years after the album Madness disbanded, but Barson did join them for the recording of their one-off single, "(Waiting For) The Ghost Train". The album was their last recording of original material until they officially reformed in 1992. The album peaked at number 16 in the UK charts, and achieved silver status from the BPI. However, the album remains the band's poorest selling studio album to date. It featured the songs "Yesterday's Men", "Uncle Sam", and "Sweetest Girl" which were all released as singles, with corresponding music videos. The three singles that were released all reached the top 40 in the UK charts, however the latter two failed to make the top 20, which was a first for any Madness single. The aforementioned "Sweetest Girl" was a cover version of a song by the British post-punk/new wave band Scritti Politti.

On release, the album was received favourably by the majority of music critics, although opinions have become much more negative in subsequent decades. And after only a few weeks of its initial release, the writers of NME listed this album at number 55 on their list of the "100 Best Albums of All Time". The band themselves have been quite vocal in that they were less satisfied with the album. In a BBC Radio 1 interview in 1993 their lead vocalist, Suggs described Mad Not Mad as "a polished turd" (referring to its distinctively glossy mid 1980s over-production by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, whom had both produced all of Madness' work since their debut). However, NME are still favourable for the album, including it in their 2015 list of "50 Albums Released in 1985 That Still Sound Great Today".

The album was re-released in the United Kingdom, in October 2010 on Virgin featuring rare bonus content. The reissue was a 3-disc set which comprises a 14-track with the original album digitally remastered from the original 1/2" mix tapes; alongside three bonus single remixes and '(Waiting For) The Ghost Train'; a Bonus 10-track CD including demos of all the album's singles and their respective B-sides; plus a Bonus DVD containing all the music videos for the singles as well as live performances from five BBC TV shows. It also features liner notes written by comedian and Madness fan, Phill Jupitus.

Despite the lack of success of the album it still remains an album of theirs that I really love. Burning the Boats is one of my favourites and Yesterday's Men I think is one of their finest singles, even if it is a bit out of character for them.

Burning the Boats and Time - Whistle Test 26/11/85.

45RPM: #23 Baggy Trousers - Madness (1980)

 There's loads of links on here today so if you like your music Nutty, give 'em a click!

Madness had already enjoyed some success in the charts with their first three singles and EP all reaching the Top 20 (The Prince #16, One Step Beyond #7, My Girl #3, and the Work Rest and Play EP #6) and their debut album, One Step Beyond, peaked at #2.

Their next single was the forerunner to a new album that would be released on the 26th September called Absolutely (another one that would stop shy of top spot as it stalled at #2). Baggy Trousers was written by Suggs and Chrissy Boy Foreman.

Suggs recalled in an interview for the BBC's Young Guns Documentary that "I was very specifically trying to write a song in the style of Ian Dury, especially the songs he was writing then, which [were] often sort of catalogues of phrases in a constant stream." He contrasted Baggy Trousers with Pink Floyd's hit Another Brick in the Wall: "I was writing about my time at school. Pink Floyd had that big hit with 'teacher, leave those kids alone'. It didn't really relate to me, because I hadn't been to a public school where I was bossed about and told to sing 'Rule Britannia!' and all that", having instead attended a comprehensive school with much less strictly enforced discipline.

Madness had already demonstrated that they could be great entertainers with their video promos and Baggy Trousers video is one of their most popular of all time.

The B-Side, The Business is an instrumental of what would become Take It or Leave It on the album 'Absolutely' and funnily enough the vocal version would provide the title to the first ever Madness Movie Take It or Leave It!

Baggy Trousers / The Business

Stiff Records

Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley

Released 5th September 1980

UK Charts #3

A-Side: Baggy Trousers

B-Side: The Business

La Grand Pantalon. - Full Length Video of the song they recorded in 2011 for Kronenbourg 1664 beer. It's very slow but I really like this version, not as good as the original of course.