Madness
NME 13 June 1986
Suffice to say they leave a whole heap of fond memories
and mammoth void. They were a national bloody asset and
they spoilt us rotten. Madness, Yesterday's Men, tomorrow's
inspiration - Will Smith
"Some of us may be working together again. It was
a perfectly amicable split, but there was just too much
compromise involved in the band." Suggs, September
6, 1986
In the eight years of their existence since Prince Buster
met the Nutty Boys on the streets of Camden, Madness have
proved to be one of Britain's greatest pop bands, not
only in terms of classic singles and albums, but the way
in which they injected humour, wit and trenchant comment
in their work.
Madness succeeded on al fronts but never better than
in their videos which brought together both their sparkling
music and singularly surreal and original worldview.
Like their memorable music, who could forget the freefall
van from 'Wings Of A Dove' video, the Goliath size ear
in 'The Sun And The Rain', or the high flying Lee Thompson
and his skyward saxophone in 'Baggy Trousers'?
To commemorate their passing, NME proudly presents the
best of Madness throughout the interview years. This was
the heavy heavy monster mod; diamond geezers all.
"Yeah, Yeah, I am. You see it's just kids like this
that vote NF and stuff, but because they do we're supposed
to tell them to fuck off. Whereas I'd rather have it like
this, sitting talking about it, the way everyone else
I know does. I think the worst thing about racism is that
it's a really touchy subject. Nobody will talk about it
without it being on one side or the other, really going
mad over the top about it. It's like a dirty word."
Suggs, February 23, 1980.
"Like there's so much conning and falseness in the
whole set up, like when you go on TV there's certain things
you don't say. You're forced to draw the line, you're
not going to turn around to Jimmy Saville in front of
15 million viewers and ask have you got any gear? Any
good 16 year-olds up at Stoke Mandeville?"
Chas Smash, May 1, 1982
"I hate the feeling of people looking up to me,
like when I go into a pub. 'Take It Or Leave It' shows
we're ordinary people." "You get a lot of glamour
and al that bollocks but we just want to lead a pretty
ordinary existence... We just get on with it. If you start
analyzing it all, you'll end up crawling up your own bum."
"At the moment, the real thrill of this is being
so popular when we're really just a bunch of absolute
knobs. I get a real kick out of seeing all those lags
who are supposed to be popstars 'cause we're bigger than
any of them." Suggs, March 28, 1981.
"We used to be mods, we've just come through the
rockabilly phase and now we're going... Were just going."
Chas Smash, May 1, 1982.
"I don't like doing things in a weedy way. If we
just put out any old tosh then it wouldn't be Madness.
If we've ever been sloppy, I've always felt bad about
it afterwards." Mike Barson, April 2, 1983.
"If anything we're closer now than we've ever been.
If there are any problems they are always sorted out quickly.
I know it sounds a cliché but this band is almost
like a family. Sometimes it's hard to believe we're still
going... But there's never been a question of a split."
"Sometimes I just can't believe that people still
want to listen to us." Woody, April 2. 1983.
"He really made life easy. I'd come in and say Mike,
I've got this idea', and I can't write music. But he knew
exactly what you wanted. You'd click with him, which was
brilliant. But know all that's going to change. It's not
going to be easy from now on." Chas on Barson's departure,
January 21, 1984
"If everybody in Great Britain was really going
on about Margaret Thatcher then we'd be on playing those
organs and drum machines singing, 'Oh the flowers and
the trees!' We're trying to do the opposite." Suggs,
January 21, 1984.
"You look like a million dollars today. All green
and wrinkled." Chris Forman, January 21, 1984.
"I think that individually none of us are geniuses,
but collectively we seem to be able to reach things."
Suggs, January 21, 1984.
"When you've been around for a long time you realise
that there aren't going to be any more Mowtown's. Ideally,
I'd rather like to have a record label that was all young
kids making brilliant records but we know from our experience
as a band that you're not going to have any uniform vision.
Suggs, September 23, 1984.
"In London town, a man get's mugged every 20 minutes.
He's getting very sick of it." Suggs on stage in
Birmingham, 1986.
