Madness are really really good thread

[holyzombiejesus]

I never made that connection before. Shall investigate.  Frazier Chorus sometimes sounded like mid eighties plaintive Madness. With added woodwind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVjHFqePWEQ

FACTOID
The singer from Frazier Chorus is the brother of Bilbo Watson from The Office.

FACTOID

Does anyone like Mad Not Mad? I liked it at the time because I was a kid and "A Madness Fan" so had to, but I do remember not really loving it. They lost a lot when Barson left.

I tried to buy the Zarjazz stuff too but only got the Feargal Sharkey and Fink Brothers singles, IMRC.

[Jockice]

FACTOID
Does anyone like Mad Not Mad? I liked it at the time because I was a kid and "A Madness Fan" so had to, but I do remember not really loving it. They lost a lot when Barson left.

As I've already mentioned, this was the first Madness album I actually bought. I had others taped off friends but I think the Barson factor put paid to some fans, while I'd sort of lost touch at the time with the mate who was a real fanatic. We hadn't fallen out or anything, we were just late (as in 19-year-olds, not as in dead) teenagers expanding our social life and finding different mates. I can remember Mad Not Mad being in the NME's Hundred Greatest Albums ever thing not long after it's release, so it obviously wasn't that badly received. Still have it on (probably unplayable) vinyl (it's in the cellar) and although   I haven't played it for years, I can remember being very fond of it. One I'll have to rebuy in the near future.

[Brundle-Fly]

FACTOID
The singer from Frazier Chorus is the brother of Bilbo Watson from The Office.

FACTOID

ANOTHER FACTOID
Kate Holmes from Frazier Chorus is Alan "I cannae stand namby pamby bedwetter music" McGee's wife.

ANOTHER FACTOID

[Dr Rock]

My gf recently bumped into Alan McGee's illegitimate child who she used to know a bit and is now a heroin addict beggar.

I suppose we're drifting off topic there though.

[Jockice]

My gf recently bumped into Alan McGee's illegitimate child who she used to know a bit and is now a heroin addict beggar.

I suppose we're drifting off topic there though.

I used to have..er...a bit of a thing... with someone who ended up going out with McGee. I couldn't complete there. Especially when he wrote songs about her and put her on record sleeves.  She's even mentioned in books about the label. The last time I saw her she was with him at a showing of that Creation Records film.

[holyzombiejesus]

Have we had a 'people whose records you like but are cunts' thread?

[Brundle-Fly]

Have we had a 'people whose records you like but are cunts' thread?

Why?

[Serge]

I used to have..er...a bit of a thing... with someone who ended up going out with McGee. I couldn't complete there. Especially when he wrote songs about her and put her on record sleeves.  She's even mentioned in books about the label. The last time I saw her she was with him at a showing of that Creation Records film.

She wouldn't be the girl on the cover of the 'L'amour, Demure, Stenhousemuir' compilation by any chance would she?

[holyzombiejesus]

Why?

My gf recently bumped into Alan McGee's illegitimate child who she used to know a bit and is now a heroin addict beggar.

[Brundle-Fly]

Ah.

[Jockice]

She wouldn't be the girl on the cover of the 'L'amour, Demure, Stenhousemuir' compilation by any chance would she?

Oh yes. Belinda's her name. Appeared on the cover of a Biff Bang Pow album too, from which the song The Girl From Well Lane is about her (amazing fact, Well Lane is Sheffield's shortest street. Three houses. And as well as Belinda, my schoolmate Josh also lived on there. What are the chances of that happening eh?)

Nice lass but a bit starstruck (to be perfectly honest the only reason I got anywhere with her is cos I was a local music writer) and she later became mentally ill and anorexic. As far as I know she still lives with her parents, and at that film showing I was at she left before the end so I didn't really get the chance to talk to her. The few times I've met McGee we've got on well though. No love rivalry there.

[Jockice]

Another amazing fact. A few years ago I found a CD copy of that Biff Bang Pow album in a charity shop in Sheffield. I bought it of course, and it was stamped as from the public library in Carlisle, where I used to live. Belinda Carlisle eh?

[23 Daves]

Oh yes. Belinda's her name. Appeared on the cover of a Biff Bang Pow album too, from which the song The Girl From Well Lane is about her (amazing fact, Well Lane is Sheffield's shortest street. Three houses. And as well as Belinda, my schoolmate Josh also lived on there. What are the chances of that happening eh?)

Nice lass but a bit starstruck (to be perfectly honest the only reason I got anywhere with her is cos I was a local music writer) and she later became mentally ill and anorexic. As far as I know she still lives with her parents, and at that film showing I was at she left before the end so I didn't really get the chance to talk to her. The few times I've met McGee we've got on well though. No love rivalry there.

Heh! I remember seeing that record in the racks of my local HMV when it came out, and thinking to myself "God, she's beautiful". But then I noticed it was just a compilation of Alan McGee tunes and not a disc by some hot new indie singer.

To be fair to Alan McGee's tunes, some of them are OK, but I've never bothered to actually buy a Biff Bang Pow LP, and I doubt I ever will.

[Brundle-Fly]

Lucky old Jockice

[Jockice]

You think so eh? Any progress there was halted by McGee being more famous than me. Either that or Ms ******** was really really into red-haired Scots.

[thraxx]

Lucky old Jockice

Ah, yes, now I see.

[holyzombiejesus]

Oh yes. Belinda's her name.

Was she from Manchester?

[Jockice]

Nah, Sheffield. I seem to recall that her and McGee lived in Manchester for a while though.

[Serge]

I used to own that compilation, but probably only listened to it about once, as Biff Bang Pow were shit. Let's be honest, I only bought it because she was on the cover.

[Jockice]

I used to own that compilation, but probably only listened to it about once, as Biff Bang Pow were shit. Let's be honest, I only bought it because she was on the cover.

I'll tell her that if I ever see her again. She doesn't look like that anymore though.

[Uncle TechTip]

Anyway, I think it's fair to say that Mad Not Mad is the weakest album. It feels electronically sequenced throughout, which does not fit their sound. A few catchy songs but nothing like their previous work. Still worth a listen though if you haven't.

[Brundle-Fly]

Anyway, I think it's fair to say that Mad Not Mad is the weakest album. It feels electronically sequenced throughout, which does not fit their sound. A few catchy songs but nothing like their previous work. Still worth a listen though if you haven't.

Lee and Woody on Mad Not Mad

Lee: "We spent a ridiculous amount on it, what was it described as ? A polished turd (laughs), I think that was Suggs who said that, a polished turd. We had all these musicians coming in, left, right and centre, I just thought - what's going on here ? This isn't Madness anymore, this is a bunch of session players. String players, Brass players. Then I really sort of gave up, I landed up staying away from the band as much as possible.'

Woody: "That really is the beginning of the end because on that record, I didn't play on it. We spent weeks programming the drums on the 'Mad Not Mad' album, in case we'd used them instead of me. Clive (Langer), I think, was under so much pressure to come up with a hit record, that he wanted something really clean cut, good production sound and the easiest way of getting a good drum sound is not to have a drummer on it, but you lose all the character.

"It really got to me actually. That's when I really started getting kind of depressed by the whole situation. Because technology had got to the point where, instead of spending hours getting a really good drum sound, all you did was go and get a drum machine."

[Serge]

I'll tell her that if I ever see her again. She doesn't look like that anymore though.

To be fair, I don't look like 1991 Serge much these days....

[Brundle-Fly]

Ever wondered who the girl was in Madness's My Girl ?   All revealed here.

Also has anyone ever seen Mike Barson and Sean Lock together in the same room?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ4CSzeHO9M

[Nowhere Man]

I just needed to bump this thread to point out again what an absolutely perfect pop song The Sun and The Rain is. From the guitar orientented middle section to the joyous piano fills. For me its up there with the likes of Mr Blue Sky, Happy Together, Go Your Own Way etc. as a perfect pop song

[Serge]

Apart from the fact that I hate 'Mr. Blue Sky' and 'Go Your Own Way', I agree with you there. It is an absolutely bloody brilliant record and has slowly worked its way to being my favourite Madness song over the years (albeit with some competition from 'Embarrassment'.)

[Brundle-Fly]

The Sun And The Rain is one of those Madness stand alone singles that never appeared on a studio album. The others being:
It Must Be Love, House Of Fun, Driving In My Car, Wings Of A Dove, (Waiting For) The Ghost Train, Sorry and Le Grande Pantalon

I can't think of many bands that did that. Influenced by Ian Dury And The Blockheads, perhaps? Stiff Records were always peeved that Dury didn't include any of his major hit singles on the early albums. i.e.: What A Waste, Hit Me... Reasons To Be Cheerful...I Want To Be Straight

[Paaaaul]

Pretty much every band in the 60s released singles that weren't on albums. Check out 'The Beatles' and 'The Kinks' for loads of good non-album singles.

[Brundle-Fly]

Pretty much every band in the 60s released singles that weren't on albums. Check out 'The Beatles' and 'The Kinks' for loads of good non-album singles.

Absolutely.  I wasn't thinking that far back.

Has any chart act of the last twenty years took this tact? I think Blur only released a couple in their pomp, Popscene and Music Is My Radar. I don't include the post split Record Shop Day releases here.

[Natnar]

Absolutely.  I wasn't thinking that far back.

Has any chart act of the last twenty years took this tact? I think Blur only released a couple in their pomp, Popscene and Music Is My Radar. I don't include the post split Record Shop Day releases here.

I think it probably went out of practice during the 80's when record companies realised that they could get away with releasing 4 or 5 singles off an album, so there was no need to release many stand alone singles. Although i do miss getting an album and then trying to guess which songs would be released as singles over the next year or so.