A Shining Moment Of Madness

By Joe Kavanagh

Each year, the massive music festivals that have come to characterize the summer offer a chance for a handful of acts to propel themselves into the public eye, with vast crowds, huge media coverage and the lust for something fresh in a music world constantly on the lookout for the latest trend, providing acts with the perfect opportunity to promote themselves to the world at large.

The summer-long orgy of music allows acts the prospect of building up the kind of momentum that launches long careers, as festival goers and music critics alike typically walk away from the summer buzzing about a clutch of names whose definitive performances capture the imagination.

In recent times, this convergence of factors has seen acts like the Ting Tings, Kasabian, Keane and Klaxons all emerge from the indie underground into mainstream recognition, often with enough force to make waves on the other side of the Atlantic.

This year, conversely, has failed to provide us with one clear contender in terms of fresh blood, as many of the most highly touted names fell flat, or failed to deliver the goods, due to a dearth of decent material or because their hype was not proportionate to their actual talent.

A glance back over the most talked about acts on the European music circuit of 2009 is almost like a glimpse back in time, as this year's finest performances were undoubtedly given by names with decades of experience under their belts.

Acts like Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur set the bar at festivals on both sides of the Irish Sea, charming young and old alike with flawless performances that provided this year's most significant live musical moments. In addition, time and again, one other name remained on punters lips long after the festival lights had faded to black; an act whose career has been longer than the lives of most of those that they have shared billing with.

Not only that, but this remarkable band, whose seven original members still remain over three decades into their career, recently released an album that is undoubtedly the best of their acclaimed career.

Like some musical version of Mork from Ork, Madness are proving that even after 30 years, their best days might still be ahead of them.

The poseur-choked, clichéd Camden town of today is virtually unrecognizable from the gritty neighborhood that brought together seven schoolboys under the banner of North London Invaders (eventually shortened to Invaders), back in 1976.

In addition to its function as an artistic outlet, the band offered a sense of belonging to a group of teens that virtually all came from dysfunctional family backgrounds, but it was not until they changed their name to Madness (as tribute to a Prince Buster song) and jettisoned their original lead singer, in favor of 16-year-old Grahame "Suggs" MacPherson, that the band truly came together.

And there it might just have as easily fallen apart, as several members walked out after arguments, but - as has been the case ever since - they were eventually drawn back by the potent power of music and friendship so evident among their number.

Even Suggs was not immune to the initial upheaval, as members grew frustrated with him constantly putting his love of Chelsea football club ahead of his musical responsibilities.

In fact, it was only when he opened a local newspaper and saw a group advertising for a vocalist - only to recognize the number given as one of his bandmates - that he truly began to prioritize his life in music.

In the event, it did not take long for the seven-piece to see results, as they signed on with ska-label 2 Tone Records, which had just been formed by Specials songwriter Jerry Dammers.

In 1979, the band announced their arrival with the ska-song, The Prince (another tribute to Prince Buster), which surprisingly traveled all the way to #16 in the singles chart, despite little or no promotion.

Seeking to capitalize on their momentum, they then signed on with Stiff Records, and immediately set to work with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, the two men who would eventually sit behind the desk for all but one of Madness albums over the next three decades.

Heavily influenced by ska, the band's debut album, One Step Beyond arrived late in the year, spawning a single of the same name in addition to the iconic track, Night Boat To Cairo, making Madness one of the biggest acts in European music and touching off one of the most intensely successful careers ever seen in British music.

In 1980, they returned with Absolutely, which generated three more top 10 singles, including Baggy Trousers, continuing a trend which would eventually see the band score 20 top 20 singles in a row (their 21st would curiously peak at #21).

Follow-up albums 7, The Rise and Fall, Keep Moving and Mad Not Mad saw them remain at the zenith of the European music scene, as they spent a record 214 weeks in the UK singles charts in the years 1980-86.

With each album came a progression, as they sought to expand their sound, straying first from the confines of straight-up ska into pop territory and even throwing out a concept album, in keeping with the tradition of other iconic cockney acts such as the Kinks.

It was not all eminence and adulation nonetheless, as they found themselves caught up in something of a race issue and failed to replicate their European success on the other side of the Atlantic.

Regarding the former, the band found themselves adopted by radical racist elements of the skinhead movement, despite their outspoken views to the contrary and the fact that trumpet player/singer Cathal Smyth had even engaged in fistfights with racist skinheads as a youth.

As a ska band Madness frequently featured opening acts that included black musicians, leading to several skirmishes in the 80s, which greatly troubled and frustrated the band.

To this day, they are careful when waving to members of the paparazzi, lest the media spin a simple wave into a neo-Nazi salute and many believe that the Glastonbury festival turned its back on them for many years for fear of attracting skinheads.

On the second matter, like the aforementioned Kinks, the inherently English sound of Madness found little or no purchase in the US initially, with Rolling Stone famously deriding them as an "English Blues Brothers" but as their music progressed, so too did interest in the States, albeit by increments.

Eventually the ride came to an end in 1986 with the departure of keyboard player/songwriter, Mike Barson, though four members came together briefly in 1988, to make an album as The Madness.

It appeared that the public had finally turned their back on the beloved "Nutty Boys", until the 1992 release of greatest hits album, Divine Madness, propelled their cover of Labi Siffre's It Must Be Love into the charts for a second time.

The band made their live return in utterly spectacular fashion with a Madstock! Gig in London's Finsbury Park, which saw the huge crowd's frenzied dancing to One Step Beyond, register an incredible 4.5 on the Richter Scale!

In the years since the band has seen its star rise sufficiently in the US to warrant their first tours there since 1984, watched their songs transformed into a West End musical and even managed to put out the album Wonderful, in 1999.

Such is their current position in the hearts of music fans, that they now only participates in the projects that feel right, something that marks them out from so many other reformed acts whose contrived reunions revolve around milking every opportunity that comes their way.

Though they could easily continue to simply march around churning out their vast back catalogue of hits from here to eternity, Madness firmly put to the sword any notion that they are simply doing it for the money with the release of their first album in a decade earlier this summer.

The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, is quite simply the best album that they have made in their storied career, and undoubtedly a contender for album of the year.

Three years in the making it is a collection of enormously alluring and immensely articulate songs, covering all aspects of the journey through life, its challenges and paradoxes, successes and failures, where love can be lost as easily as it is found without ever quite knowing why.

It is an album that the band refer to as their "Sergeant Pepper's", a work of depth and poise that vindicates music, as much as it does the band who produced it.

Although it is a tale of London, its subtlety, eloquence and everyman themes make its appeal wholly universal, as it incorporates a host of unlikely influences whilst remaining unmistakably Madness-like.