Madness '(Waiting For) The Ghost Train'

Chart Peak: 18
YouTube

Their farewell single after 21 Top 21 hits! 'Ghost Train' features the return of pianist Mike Barson

Well, when the subject crops up of bands who were active in my childhood and used humour and entertaining videos to get some interesting subject matter over... well, you can't not mention Madness so it's good timing for them to turn up here. Good timing doesn't mean they were having a good time though, and by the middle of the decade the strain was starting to show as the singles weren't going Top 10 any more. Barson seems to have been a key figure in keeping the septet into some sort of order and after he'd left the remaining six obviously weren't having so much fun.

So they finally decided to split up, which called for a second best-of collection (Utter Madness
 to follow Complete Madness) and this new single. Tellingly, I have no memory of hearing this at the time at all, and when I did first encounter it (on a boxed set my dad bought at a car boot sale in the mid-90s) I wasn't keen. Over the years I've grown much fonder of it, the only Madness hit written entirely by Suggs (unless you count 'Forever Young', which peaked at 199 in 2010) which is apparently a song about apartheid in South Africa; I'd never have guessed but you can sort of hear it when you're looking out for it, especially in the chorus "It's black and white, don't try to hide" and in the accent with which he sings certain lyrics. Although the track was, like every other hit they had in the 80s, produced by regular collaborators Langer & Winstanley, it does sound decidedly of-its-time, dominated by brittle-sounding drums and synthesisers and a phasing effect that sounds a bit like they were playing about. Arguably they could have put more effort into the structure of the song than messing about with the gimmicks but I suppose they were losing focus a bit. Still, the song is strong enough to shine through and has the advantage of not being as overplayed as the big Madness songs.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 3, 6, 21, 43
Available on: Mad Not Mad

Madness 'One Better Day'

Chart Peak: 17

YouTube

One of a few acts to have appeared on all the first three volumes, a run that ends at this point as they're not on Now 4 (or Now 5 for that matter). 'One Better Day' was also the last Madness single to be released on Stiff records, and indeed one of the last big hits on the original version of that label before it ran out of money a couple of years later; it's presumably for this reason that there was no video budget available and the band had to fund it themselves, and they saved a few bob by using Bette Bright (aka Mrs Suggs) to play the part of the homeless woman. It's good that they bothered though, because there's something rather sweet about the finished clip which amplifies the song's sentiment, a reminder that the poor and dispossessed are still humans with feelings.

In sound only, this is probably the furthest of all their singles from their most famous Madness sound, although it does occur to me that if all the Madness songs you'd ever heard were the ones on Now albums you'd get quite a different impression of them from their best-known songs. The title (buried in a middle-eight) is of course a play on the phrase "seen better days" and there are no laughs to be had here as such, just a sympathetic depiction of life in and out of hostels. Of course, anyone who really knows Madness and their music will realise that the undercurrent of sadness and social commentary has always been there, but rarely did they foreground it as much as here. Though somewhat of its time, the track is brilliantly arranged and the soon-to-depart Mike Barson is particularly impressive on percussion and piano, with that quotation from 'Dancing Queen' (possibly via 'Oliver's Army') providing an additional hook. And even as an agnostic when it comes to saxophone solos, I can't fail to notice Lee Thompson's versatility - his bluesy lead-sax part here is completely different from 'One Step Beyond' but feels totally natural. It's a good record, but it's not what people expected or wanted from Madness, hence the relatively disappointing chart position: their lowest ever peak at the time though each of their next three singles did progressively worse.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 6, 8, 21, 43
Available on: Total Madness

Madness 'Uncle Sam'

Chart Peak: 21

YouTube

Madness' first single of 1985 'Yesterday's Me' became their 20th consecutive Top 20 single in Britain. The follow-up, 'Uncle Sam' had just entered the Top 40 by the end of October and was beginning its climb.

Bad luck again here, because in the event this fell once place short and became the first single of their entire career to miss out on a Top 20 placing. Their next single couldn't even made the Top 30 and the one after that was a farewell release, for a while at least. This track comes from their last studio album of the 1980s, Mad Not Mad, and as the title implies they were at a slightly confused time in their career, even more directly political and gradually shredding the nutty image that had made them famous. Sometimes this worked pretty well - the aforementioned 'Yesterday's Men' was one of their straightest singles and whilst it's probably not anyone's favourite Madness song it's an enjoyable number that should probably be better remembered than it actually is.

The trouble with 'Uncle Sam' is that it seems to fall between two stools, somewhat, attempting both to make a serious point (about the relationship between the British and American military) and to restore the old japery; but it sounds like their hearts aren't really in it. On a commentary track on the now-deleted Divine Madness DVD, keyboard player Mike Barson (who had of course left the band by this point) mentions that nobody plays the off-beat, which would have improved things significantly but still not made this a classic Madness single because the songwriting isn't really up to scratch. It has the air of a forced attempt at a single when they'd left this style behind a bit. Even the video feels a bit like a rehash of past glories, although there's a subtle touch with Lee Thompson's blue face make-up, presumably a reference to their earlier (and better) anti-war song 'Blue Skinned Beast'. And a nice nostalgic view of the old John Lewis Partnership logo at 2:46.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 3, 8, 21, 43
Available on: Mad Not Mad

Madness 'Michael Caine'

Chart Peak: 11

YouTube

A pivotal track in the band's history. Last time Madness cropped up, I mentioned that Mike Barson had left the band shortly afterwards, and this is dramatically illustrated in the video, where he appears only at the start. 'Michael Caine' was the first single from Keep Moving, the album they made while he was serving out his notice, and it sounds very like a band looking for a new direction. In fact, at least once when this record has come up on the radio, I've been asked by someone else in the room whether it really was Madness, so unlike their most famous material does it sound. Of course, the most obvious reason for that is that it's not Suggs on lead vocal, but rather Chas Smash, whom you rarely hear singing on a hit. And whilst long-serving producers Langer & Winstanley were still on board, they've moved towards what was then a contemporary sound, adding the sampled backing vocals and layers of keyboards that now date the record terribly.

The song itself uses the typical Madness trick of tackling a serious subject but hiding it with humour. In this instance, the topic is (I later learnt) IRA informants, hence the paranoia described in the third-person versions and the quiet desperation of the first-person chorus. Seldom can the phrase "There's panic and I hear somebody scream" have been uttered so sweetly. The more jocund elements come in the famous actor's interjections (he famously had to be talked into it by his daughter) - live versions without this part sound decidedly odd. Somewhere in the middle are the sound effects, which relate to the serious content of the lyric. The telephone is so perfectly timed I almost regret mentioning it.

The song proved to be pivotal in their career too: in peaking at 11 it seemed to prove that their run of Top 10 hits was at an end. Partly because of this relative obscurity, this has become one of my favourite Madness songs now, and remains on my MP3 player even after a lot of their more celebrated material has moved on.

And just to ensure that I got my money's worth from buying the Now album, I can confirm that it disappointingly omits Caine's "I think we got it there, don't you?" after the fade-out.


Also appearing on:
Available on: Eight Madness Tracks [MP3 album]

Madness 'The Sun And The Rain'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

One of the dominant pop acts of my youth, Madness always seemed to have a new single and crazy video out: this was their fifteenth Top 10 hit since 1979, though it proved to be the last of their original career. In a way, you could see this as the beginning of the end for Madness - it was their last single written entirely by keyboard player Mike Barson, who handed in his notice soon afterwards - and tiredness was starting to creep in. By their high standards the actual performance is slightly weak; they never quite seem to get the tempo right, almost as though they're in a hurry to get through it.
That said, though, 'The Sun And The Rain' is the second track from this project that's on my MP3 player, and not without reason. It's a long way from the ska sound of their early material, reverting to the style of classic sixties pop, and particularly seeming to channel the Kinks, demonstrating one great skill that Madness seem to have learnt from them: the ability to make the everyday seem fascinating and often joyous. This is just a song about splashing about in puddles, but they make it sound like it matters. Particular credit is also due to the brilliant but not overexposed string arrangement.

One other fact: at the time of writing this is the only track on the album not available as a download, the licence on their back-catalogue having expired a while ago. Re-issues are apparently pending though.

Also appearing on: Now 2, 3, 6, 8, 21, 43
Available on: Millennium Collection: the Best of [Us Import]