Madness Biography
Madness Biography
Seven lads out of North London sprang onto the music scene in 1978 with a brand of music dubbed the ‘Nutty sound’. They were called Madness and, in the mid-eighties, became the best-loved British band since The Beatles. Between 1979 and 1986 they had 21 top 20 hits, and released their first studio album in 14 years, called ‘Wonderful’, in 1999.
Madness signed to Stiff Records in 1979 and released their debut album ‘One Step Beyond’, followed by their second ‘Absolutely’.
The albums ‘Seven’, ‘The Rise and Fall’ and ‘House of Fun’ gave them their first number one single in Britain and, with ‘Our House’, their first top 10 in America. Although often seen as a slap-stick humorous band, some of their eighties tracks (‘Embarrassment’, ‘Grey Day’) reflected the recession and general gloom and doom that was apparent at the time in the UK.
Whilst recording the fifth album in 1984, ‘Keep Moving’, keyboardist Mike Barson announced he was leaving. While the rest carried on for a while and released ‘Mad not Mad’ - the album didn’t do too well and the band split in 1986.
However, in the early nineties, a kind of Madness revival happened and, in 1992, a compilation album of their singles was released and it went to the top of the charts. They began to do one-off gigs, like Madstock, and audience reaction was so favourable that they decided maybe they had ended their career a little too early.
The band’s hits were also recently revised and turned into a West End musical – ‘Our House’ - which also saw lead singer, Suggs, back on stage.
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