B iS fOr...

We start as 3, now we're 18...
On this day, we, Rita, Sarah, Shannan, Graham, Jonathan, Dermie, J-P, Paul Flanagan, Iky, Looby, Bernard, Stephen, Mister B, Paul Rodgers,Jean-François"Mad Jeff" Peres,Jérôme Groux, Emily Blue Tit and I decided to celebrate the B's...God save the B's (and the bees).We described our own vision of Madness with words beginning in B.
Can you hear...Blue Tit singing, scratching AND...(listen to the audio)

AUDIO VERSION : VERY SOON

is for Badge. (listen to the audio)Essential and almost compulsory accessory of the Madness fan. Often round (but not always), the 25 mm badge is hung onto the jacket by a small pin.  It had its first hours of glory in the 70/80’s, but it is always fashionable today and it’s even easier today to create and design some unique badges ourselves! On the Madness side (and the fans one), it is a sign of belonging ; all the more so as in the 80’s the band themselves made some for the members of the official fan-club and in 2009 for the buyers of the luxury edition of "The Liberty of Norton Folgate". As time goes by, the fan of Madness had the possibility to have an extraordinary collection of badges of the group, remember the rare and hand-made, old and dirty 1979’s one or the whole set of 7 badges declining the letters of the band's name or the faces of the members (you didn’t lose even one, good!)…Here at the Madnessedaire, we usually and still regularly wear badges and we’re proud to do it. Below, here is my piano full of badges, is there anything wrong?

is for Baggy Trousers. (listen to the audio)Back is Stephen, one of our members about it... It was the first record he bought, good choice Stephen! Well, for me, it certainly was the first 7" that I borrowed for life from my big brother’s collection… ermm ermm, but hey that's another story! Extinguisher, Extinguisher !(listen to the audio) yes that was here, Baggy Trousers, this is where Woody uses an extinguisher to start the song. It is primarily a perceptive portrait of school, in a few words, everything is said and even today it remains a fairly accurate portrait of youth at school. Baggy Trousers is the first extract from the second album of Madness " Absolutely ". Released in November 1980, this song began to be played on stage by the magnificent 7 of Camden Town in April 1980(listen to the audio). The promo video clip was shot in a park and a school of Kentish Town and is known as the one where we can see the sax, Lee Thompson flying in the air with his saxophone! Lee Thompson did a lot of dangerous things with Madness: climbing, flying.... On several occasions, on stage and on other promo videos, you could see him in the air but, some days ago, he had an accident on stage but hopefully it was not really serious ! Lee, stay with us !

A few years ago, Suggs came back in the school of his childhood to give advice to pupils about songwriting. It was the occasion to write a song with a group of young Londoners. (listen to the audio)

 

 

is for B and B. Bed and Breakfast, Bed and Breakfast man? No no no !(listen to the audio)

It is for Barson and Bedders, , two members of the combo.(listen to the audio).

Mark Bedford aka Bedders is the youngest member of the group. Bass player, ukulele player, he is responsible for songs like "Mummy's Boy," he is the co-writer of "Deceives the Eye","Disappear, "Maybe In Another Life "and others ...

If Bedders is not the most prolific songwriter of the band, his style is recognizable, from the start, he is a musician of great subtetly and his bass lines are always intelligent. To be sure, listen again to "Tomorrow's Dream" (listen to the audio)or to this sadly unfinished instrumental (listen to the audio). At last Bedders has a collection of elegant caps.(listen to the audio)





Unlike Bedders,  Mike Barson aka Monsieur Barso, master of the keyboards, is very prolific. (listen to the audio)

The list of his songs is certainly higher than Mike is tall; he’s one of the founding members of the group in 76. He’s the minor chord specialist, especially B minor and the f…..g C minor, Mike Barson is considered the leader of Madness. Writer of hits and obscure tracks,(listen to the audio) Monsieur Barso is  the original driving force behind the band, and especially the most ... perfectionist in songwriting, the hardest working man in the band. Regularly in his interviews, he emphasizes the value of work! (listen to the audio)

 is for Be Good Boy. A track by Thompson and Foreman. (listen to the audio) In 1986, on stage, Madness began to play new nice tracks as “Natural Act Of Love, "Precious One ", “Winter in Wonderland”, “Perfect Place” and " Be Good Boy ", covered “The Harder They Come” by Jimmy Cliff, and have played “4 BF” since 1985. For fans, it was a good sign which announced Madness had stuff to release a new LP in 1987. But only 4 of them were eventually officially released. Cause, regrettably, Madness called it a day in September 86. Four ex- members, Suggs, Carl, Lee and Chris, decided to stay together and, in 1988, released the album "The Madness” which sadly didn’t meet the expected success.

"Be Good Boy" ended on the B-side of the first Picture Puzzle piece of music "What’s That ' in May 1988 as well as on the CD version of the album (do you still follow me ? Lol).

Is this track about Lee’s mother, keeping advising him ? (listen to the audio)

is for Benny Bullfrog :(listen to the audio) This track, from the 3rd LP, 7, is one of many of Madness songs where we can hear really unusual sounds. You heard the extinguisher sound,before, yep?

     
Here, Lee quietly and repeatedly burped. Is this a part of the Nutty sound?

And Madness, even wrote this on the back cover of the LP! Naughty boys ! (listen to the audio)

 is for Billy Bentley .(listen to the audio)This track is the B side of the first 7” of Ian Dury first band, Kilburn and the High Roads. The OTHER side, Rough Kids, was covered on stage and in rehearsals by Madness many years ago. (listen to the audio)

We will talk later about the massive influence of this group on some young Londoners during the Seventies.

 is for Bingo (listen to audio)-Another track by the magical duet ending in "son" Thompson/Barson, from the 2009's excellent "The Liberty Of Norton Folgate" album this time. Let’s listen to Suggs talking about it : (listen to the audio) Fell in a trap ? Bingo ! It is said to have been based on a real life experience of Mr L.J.Thompson who provided the lyrics. Musically, it sounds like an old track by Mike Barson,  written in the 80’s, (listen to the audio)! At the end, you could hear some audio parts of Take it or Leave it, the movie about Madness, just to remember another trap... when Suggs and Co escaped from a skinhead nastyboys trap in the backyards of an              Acklham Hall venue.

 is for Blue Skinned Beast. (listen to the audio)extract from "The Rise and Fall”, the 4th album, released in October 1982, it is proved to be one of the most activist songs written by Madness.

Ironic, just based on a metaphor, about soldiers’ bodies returned in big blue bags from the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina, this song mocked the cynicism of the Thatcher government and is an absolute anti-war protest song. (listen to the audio)Lee said Madness could not keep writing songs like Benny Bullfrog. Madness wrote about the political reality of England at that time, a really sad one! There is a remix of Blue Skinned Beast; does it mean it was planned as a single? Anyway, this song has been in the set list of Madness for a long time …Recently, a slightly different live in studio version that was recorded prior to the album has been found and can be found on the web.

 is for Brighton. (listen to the audio)The place  where Chrissy Boy is now living. 

To Paul Rodgers , Brighton is the place where he first saw Madness live on the 4 th of November 1981  , with the  support act, the Belle Stars. It was for the “7” tour.   (listen to the audio)He was 13 and the youngest one from his school to go. He still goes to the Brighton Centre every time Madness play there. To everyone here, places remind us of souvenirs, gigs or anything else. In the 1992 Finsbury Park programme, Chrissy Boy talked about the locations of some video promos in London. To me, Southend on Sea is certainly one of the best English places which remain a souvenir associated with Madness.

 is for B-Side. Here, even if we like them, we don’t talk about the dub version, live version, remix version or demo version of a song which is already released elsewhere. We’re talking about the real B-sides: original tracks or covers we can listen to on the 7”, 12” or CD singles and which are not elsewhere. About 36, here at the Madnessedaire we did a Top 10. The 5 most quoted by the 16 members are:

1.Fireball XL-5
2.Mistakes
3.Crying Shame
4.Deceives The Eye  
5.Don't Quote Me On That
 

As you can see, only original tracks, even if « Don’t Quote me On That » is heavily influenced by the Bush Doctors with the track « Music Doctor ». A B-Side is often the possibility to be a bit experimental , to be freer, for a band to show another side (saw the play in words ?...). 

Talking about a B-Side, which starts in B, “Behind the 8 Ball” here is a cover of it by us.

 

is for Burning the Boats, (listen to the audio) a song from the 6th album "Mad Not Mad.". It is often one of our Top 20."Burning the boats" is a 15th century phrase that means  "being forced into a situation with no way back", it is used in the song by Madness to comment on the political situation that was happening in the mid 1980's. The Conservative Party was closing down or selling off government owned industry into private owned "free market" economic conditions.
In 1984 they announced intention to close 20 British coal mines, this caused a strike by Miners Unions and 2 years of bitter troubled conflict between the countrys working class and politicians.

 

Extract :
"Full Moon of may the 3rd, all the lighthouses and seasides roads..."
Coal was imported, cheaper from abroad, had been stock piled in anticipation of the strike, and distributed from the docks by road on prearranged alternative truck routes instead of the usual railroads. One of the many conflicts between protesters and police against such tatics during the strike happened on this day at Ravenscraig powerstation when coal was delivered. 300 people were artested in the conflict.
Extract :
"London bridge is to be be closed"  ...   "blowing dust from my loud hailer"

The police were given new powers over the movement of people, due the size of the protests that were growing at pickets around the country.

Extract :
"I never read in the news"  ...  "Tap tap tap birds that sing, telephone calls that do not ring, whos hanging off my line..."

The song hints at more tactic, it deems underhand, from media manipulation to espionage, with talk of tapped phone lines, and not reading all sides of things in the press.

When performed in studio, the legend says that Suggs used to play the spy singing with his mouth full of cotton wool for the following lines:(listen to the audio) "The Ministry of Co operation, Washed and hanging on the line, there's a million burning questions, To set the Thames alight». Let’s listen to it again! (listen to the audio) As we have no official proof of it, Mister Graham Yates is now giving you a demonstration, with the mouth full of cotton, in French, s’il vous plait, and in a very typical great British humour. A crescendo moment as we can qualify, anyway a great moment for this Madnessedaire : Monty Python, BEWARE ! Graham is coming! (listen to the audio)

French version :
"Finalement mes amis je suis ici, avec Burning the Boats.....attends....The ministry of co-operation etc....
Ca c'est.....sans le coton….
Dans quelques moments, avec le coton : The ministry of co-operation etc....
Ca c'était avec le coton..
Et encore... : The ministry of co-operation etc....
Attends je vais placer plus de coton. : The ministry of co-operation etc....
Maintenant je suis comme un "hamster"...attends.
Pour le final avec....................................uhhhh...plein de coton : The ministry of co-operation etc....
     Ca, c'est la fin......au revoir!"

UK Translation :
At last, here I am with "Burning the Boats" … Wait… "The ministry of co-operation etc...." ...It was without cotton.
Now, in a few moments with the cotton: "The ministry of co-operation etc...."It was with cotton
Once more: "The ministry of co-operation etc...."
Wait, I’m going to put more cotton in my mouth: "The ministry of co-operation etc...."
(More cotton) Now I  look like an Hamster… wait: "The ministry of co-operation etc...."
For the final moment with ……….. uhhhhhh full of cotton : "The ministry of co-operation etc...".
       That’s it …. Bye
                                                                                                                   Graham Yates  


 Frankly, I still don’t know how Graham could remain serious during this recording, thank you mate! You can listen to it again with the written translation of it on the blog. (listen to the audio)                                                                                         

Larger Version at the French M.I.S (in French),
 all the best 
     Judge Fredd