by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
We did it as an encore, all at the front of the stage,” says Mark, and it’s this that sends shivers down his rhythm pal’s spine. “I had absolutely no love for this whatsoever,” says Woody. “It became part of the set after the album was out, and we had to go to the...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
According to the back sleeve of One Step Beyond…, there are seven songs on each side, and at the end of side two, “Mummy’s Boy” is swiftly followed by “Chipmunks Are Go!” Imagine the looks of glee on every young rude boy and rude...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
Mark explains that “Mummy’s Boy” was written while he was still at school. “It was a chance remark by one of my teachers who told me he still lived at home with his parents. That set me thinking—in fact, I found it quite shocking. Why would he...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
Dan Barson was the singer of Bazooka Joe, a north London rock and roll band that started in 1970. His brother Mike used to see them play in the mid-1970s. After seeing the Sex Pistols, the band changed and is now better known as Stuart Goddard’s first band, Adam...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
“One Step Beyond…” album by Madness includes four cover versions, and “Swan Lake” is one of them. Interestingly, it’s a cover of The Cats’ version, released between 1968 and 1970, which itself was a reggae version of...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
Bands on the Two Tone Label had a following of skinheads. If you judged solely by the song title, “Razor Blade Alley,” you might assume it was about mindless violence or football hooliganism. However, it is actually about contracting a sexually transmitted...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
Clive Langer praises the song and describes it as “dead solid, a great song. Barson comes up with something in a melody that no one else does. And he writes a great mundane lyric.” It is clear that the song bears the unique style of Mike Barson, but there...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
The band has a collective memory of Suggs getting the idea for the song from a genuine newspaper article about a knicker thief seeing his own description and photo-fit in the papers and making a dash for it. Not so, however. It transpires that Suggs worked at...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
Practically an instrumental with a few lines of banter to kick it all off, it’s hardly surprising that these days, the band has a very shaky recollection of how the song came about. It boils down to there being two schools of thought. “God only knows what...
by Madness Discography | Feb 17, 2024
Based loosely on Prince Busters ‘Earthquake’* this track was taken from a session recorded at the tiny Pathway Studios in Highbury, London. The other 2 tracks recorded were the b side, Madness, and a version of My Girl (with Barso on vocals) which was to...
