The Madness

Also known as the embarrassment (excuse the pun) in Madness' history. The lesser known album/band has all but been whitewashed out of Madness back catalogue and their past.

After the Nutty Boys broke up in 1986 a few of the guys put together another band in 1988. Suggs, Chas, Lee and Chris went it alone, and wanted a new name for the venture - A new band with new music, leaving all the nutty madcap music behind them, music that didn't seem to feel right or have a place in late 80s Thatcher's Britain. The name they opted for was 'The Wasp Factory', after the Ian Banks novel of the same name they were all reading at the time. However an underground band already had that name and pleaded with them not to use it. So they didn't. And unimaginatively came up with putting the prefix 'The' before Madness.

By doing that though they shot themselves in the foot. This was going to be seen as a Madness album, so people would expect that nutty sound. And with the band having gone their seperate ways in 1986, this was going to be seen as their comeback. So if this was Madness where were Bedders, Barso and Woody? Those three members weren't given the chance to join as the other four did it behind their backs. In fact this left a sour taste in the mouth of Woody in particular (who was replaced by original lead singer John Hasler on drums), when a 1995 tour programme interview asked 'What was the biggest mistake Madness ever made?' he replied 'The Madness'.

He needn't have worried though. The Madness fell flat on their arse. The album, which I have had for years and never listened to fully, is as unimaginative as the band title. It's boring, subdued and plain. At best. It spawned two singles which both failed to reach the top 40. One of which was I Pronounce You. When the chaps were about to perform it on Friday Night Live and the lunatic Josie Lawrence was building them and the single up as nutty, Suggs and Chas had to admit that it 'hardly nutty at all'. Worse of all Ben Elton then introduced them as Madness and not The Madness. The song itself was the pick of the album but it was plodding and melancholic, thus mediocre at best. Strangely although it has never appeared on any Madness greatest hits album, it curiously appears on Divine Madness DVD.

So there you have it. The recent 'Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da' is not the tenth studio album that Madness proclaim it is. It's actually the eleventh. Thanks to the embarrassing footnote that was The Madness. The Madness. It really was.