Chapter 6: Lost In The Museum

With the Starvation project complete, Zarjazz unleashed the single on the 25th of February 1985. Unfortunatley some DJs considered the track 'too ethnic' and the record didn't get the airplay and publicity it so richly deserved. The vastly inferior 'Do They Know It's Christmas' by Band Aid had not suffered from such short sightedness, topping the Christmas chart in a blaze of publicity. The famine that swept through Ethiopia did not consider it's victims 'too ethnic'. 'Starvation' stalled at No.33 despite rave reviews from the press, overshadow by the all star cast of Band Aid.

Another Zarjazz release also managed a minor chart placing early in February. During an American trip, Carl and Suggs decided they wanted to try their hand at some of the electro style hip-hop they had heard. The resulting track was 'Mutants In Mega City One', released under the guise of The Fink Brothers in various formats on January 28th and reached a reasonable high of No.50.

On the Madness front all was quiet, Virgin had advanced the band a large sum of money to record their next album and the they duly set about doing so. With no Mike Barson around to guide the band and, more importantley, supply hit material, the pressure was certainley on. The writing and recording of their fifth long player was very different, it wasn't 1979 anymore and the band were no long guaranteed top 10 placings with every release, things had to change...

Woody: "Everyone really did knuckle under and really try desperatley hard to pull out something from themselves that they'd not previously done. I think that it's like, if you lose a hand you've got to re-adjust, you've got to work a little harder. I suppose that's what it did for the whole band.

"I've been surprised, it's only been recentley over the years that I've not been with Madness, people who are younger than me who've been saying - I grew up with Madness and as Madness changed, I did or as I changed you did. And I didn't know that before, I always thought, naively, people only loved Madness for what they were, it's only years later that you realise that those type of albums, the more mature album, are actually appreciated by people but they've sold much slower and (been bought) by a different type of audience."

The recording was not a happy affair, minor niggles were becoming increasingly irritating with certain members of the band not getting on as well as they had previously. The sessions did have their funny moments though, for the track 'Yesterday's Men' the band recruited former Specials leader Jerry Dammers to play keyboards. Dammers ordered an old Hammond organ but unfortunatley it wouldn't fit through the studio door, eventually he was left to play it in the corridor where he was freezing his knackeres off !

Madness retained the production team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley for the project which was given a working title of 'Lost In The Museum' following a quote from Stiff supremo Dave Robinson - 'I'm not running a museum here, there's the door!' Although the band never tried to replace Mike Barson, they did bring in a keyboard player by the name of Seamus Beaghan for the sessions, and he was to become a familiar face to Madness fans. It was a difficult period for all involved though, and Lee and Woody have some sore memories of the recording...

Lee: "We spent a ridiculous amount on it, what was it described as ? A polished turd (laughs), I think that was Suggs 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, 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."

The first the paying public got to hear from the new album was the single 'Yesterday's Men', issued on August 23rd 1985. The record shut up the rumour mongers who were spreading tales of the bands demise, initiated because of their 14 month absence from the new release schedules. The more naive were convinced the band were coming to a close after Suggs didn't appear on Top Of The Pops back in October '84, where Madness were backing Feargal Sharkey on 'Listen To Your Father'. The real reason Suggs didn't show was because he wasn't on the record !

'Yesterday's Men' was a laid back track that took a dig at those in high places who have long since outstayed their welcome. Following the disappointment of the bands last single, 'One Better Day' that only reached No.17 in the charts, hopes for the new track were soon crushed after it peaked one place lower at No.18. The album 'Mad Not Mad' was released on the 30th of September and, from the very first track, 'I'll Compete', it was obvious that this was a very different affair from previous releases.

'Mad Not Mad' split the music press, some heralded it as the bands finest work, while others viewed it as an all time low. It seemed that the latter of these opinions carried greater weight with the public as the album failed to progress higher than No.19, the first LP not to go top 10.

Undetered Madness set about rehearsals for the upcoming Mad Not Mad tour whilst Zarjazz/Virgin issued another single. 'Uncle Sam' was released on the 19th of October 1985 and was a real throw back to the earlier nutty sound, beginining with a keyboard that echoed the intro of 'Night Boat To Cairo' before erupting into an upbeat tale of the American dream.

4 days after the singles release, Madness opened their tour in Cork, Ireland. Dick Cuthell was back with the band to add to the horn section whilst Seamus Beaghan and Terry Disley took over keyboard duties. The tour came to a close at the Hammersmith Odeon on November the 24th, in the mean time 'Uncle Sam' had only managed to reach No.21 on the chart, despite plenty of airplay and a wacky video.

Falling record sales were not the only thing the band had to worry about, the cost of producing the 'Mad Not Mad' album and touring with such a large entourage had eaten up the Virgin advance and Madness were now, reputedly, in debt to Virgin.

Putting all their worries behind them, the band played at a Christmas Party For The Unemployed in Finsbury Park before seeing in the new year with a party gig at the Hammersmith Odeon. The New Year Party was broadcast live on TV and Radio and was then pressed as a promo only LP also featuring two tracks from a Whistle Test show.

To begin 1986 Zarjazz released another track from 'Mad Not Mad' on single. 'The Sweetest Girl' was a cover version of a Scritti Polliti song from 1981 and was not what the band had wanted released. Virgin overuled Madness, deciding that 'I'll Compete', the bands choice, was not ideal single material and although 'The Sweetest Girl' stalled at No.35, they were probably right.

Madness were now drifting further and further apart, for the two gigs the band played on the Red Wedge tour at the end of January, only Suggs, Carl and Chris, along with Seamus were present. Trying desperatley to recapture that old magic, the band set off for a brief tour of Europe before heading off to the USA and Australia for 6 weeks.

The gigs went well and so a few more were arranged, starting with an Artist Against Apartheid benefit on June the 20th at the Brixton Academy followed by an appearnce at the CND festival at Glastonbury two days later. From there the band went to Holland to play on the 29th, returned home to play in Hartlepool on July 4th and then off to Denmark the next day.

The plan was then to hit the recording studio, doing a single in August with an album to follow. During this time Lee had organised an off shoot band The Argonauts and they in turn recorded a cover version of The Kinks 'Apeman' and a version of The Stones 'Under My Thumb'. The record was pressed and sold exclusively through the Madness fan club M.I.S.

In the studio however, things were not going well, at least 11 tracks were demoed but the age old problem of musical differances was beginning to rear it's ugly head...

Woody: "Bedders, myself and Seamus, the keyboard player we were using, we were working really hard, concentrating on the songs. And we'd get together what we thought would be the right rhythm section, or the right feel or beat, and one by one the rest of the band would come in, and go... Basically it was like a Harry Enfield thing - You don't wanna do it like this, you wanna do it like that.

"It was like, we'd worked so hard, it was just this constant battle. We found ourselves being left more and more alone, and eventually we got summond upstairs and their was this meeting, and it was like the rest of them had all sat down together and, alledgedly, said we've had enough, let's call it a day.

"I mean Mark and I, we knew this was coming, 'cos it wasn't fun anymore, it just wasnt fun, it just wasn't happening. It's kind of sad really, 'cos we knew what they needed to do. The four of them needed to go off and do their own thing."

Suggs: "We'd all just got slightly different ideas then about what we should do. Chris I think, and Lee maybe, just wanted to get on with it and just get in the studio, 'cos we had a studio which we didn't use half enough, and just do some recording and get on with it. Carl had different ideas everyday, about either getting a band and playing or doing it with machines, or not doing it. I wasn't sure myself what we should do, I didn't have a clear enough idea where we were going, I didn't feel strong enough to lead in any direction and I didn't feel like I wanted to go in the direction that anyone else who was still in the band wanted to go. So that was it." And that was it, in September 1986 a press release was issued announcing the end of Madness. As one last farewell the band issued a final single on October the 27th, 'Waiting For The Ghost Train', a brilliant song Suggs had written concerning Apartheid in South Africa - although it conjured up memories of the good old 2-Tone days as well. As a fitting tribute to the band even Mike Barson returned to play on the final track, although sadly he wasn't present in the brilliant video.

The record was absolute class and one of the best the band ever issued, so it was with great surprise that it failed to register any higher than No.18 on the chart as it, and Madness, deservered a lot better.

Still after 7 years, 23 hit singles and 6 hit albums the name of Madness rightfully become a British music legend and, to celebrate this, Zarjazz released the second volume of the bands greatest hits. 'Utter Madness' compiled all the bands singles from 'Our House' through to 'The Ghost Train' and was issued on album, CD and Video to compliment 1982's 'Complete Madness' set.

And that was the original rise and fall of the Camden 7, but, as in all good stories, there was still another twist in the tale. All will be revealed in the next chapter.

Andy Clayden, 1999.