Well known for ska hits like Baggy Trousers and House Of Fun, Madness continue to be a favourite today. Madness lead singer and singer songwriter Suggs speaks with Amanda Hunt about smashing up venues, The Young Ones, and embarrassing uncles at weddings.
Showing no sign of slowing down, the sound of Madness is still lighting up music festivals, palace rooftops and the forthcoming Can’t Touch Us Now Christmas 2016 tour. “Over the last five years we’ve had Buckingham Palace, the closing of the 2012 Olympics and it’s been great!” Madness frontman Suggs tells us. “It’s been a privilege for a band that has been around for as long as we have to be offered so many things. It’s been a really exciting time and I wouldn’t complain about it at all.”
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As with any musical movement, a certain dress code is necessary to identify the person to the sound. The 2 Tone style was unique: sharp and snappy with clean lines, polished boots and shirts that required a great deal of ironing. Are there any original Rudys still going to Madness gigs?
“Yeah! You see these little grandchildren that have been dressed up by the grandads in all that gear. Sometimes it’s a bit worrying because you see these old guys who were obviously around in 1979 and haven’t danced like that for 30 years. You start to worry that there might be a few collapses in the front row.”
So what is it about his music that makes you want to get up and be stupid? “It has something infectious and when we started playing that kind of music, we knew we were onto something different. I get a lot of kids coming up to me saying stuff like ‘Oh my God, on the weekend I was so embarrassed because I was at a wedding and I’ve never seen my dad dance before. Night Boat To Cairo came on and my dad and uncles all jumped up dancing like they were 18 again!’ Young kids seem to really identify with the stupidity. We made those videos to have a good time; we were dressing up and messing around just like kids. I think that is still attractive to kids today.”
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In the early 80s The Young Ones rocked our television sets. Contentious, funny, intelligent and totally outlandish, it naturally followed that Madness would make a guest appearance – not once but twice. “It was pretty exciting and it was what they called ‘Alternative Comedy’ in those days,” Suggs recalls. “They knew we were fun and they just said – do you want to come on play a song and what would you like to do. So we thought we would do Our House with a load of policemen and smash up all their police vans. They said yeah fine, no problem – so there we were singing Our House, a lovely song about family life, while standing on the roof of a police van throwing polystyrene bricks at each other… Again, those programmes were made a long time ago but have lasted the test of time as well.
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“Certainly in the early days of the band, a lot of venues got smashed up. A lot of it was youthful enthusiasm. Sometimes you’d get two gangs, one from one town and one from the next, and they decided to choose a Madness concert to sort out their differences. That music creates a lot of energy, which normally goes the right way but on the horrible odd occasion it can go the wrong way.”
Suggs was pleased to announce that Madness’ new album, Can’t Touch Us Now, is due for release on Fri 21 Oct and can be pre-ordered on their website. Before that, though, the boys will be performing at Cyfartha Castle this month. “I’m very much looking forward to coming to Merthyr! I’ve never played there before but I have got a few friends that live there and if the people I know are anything to go by it will be very colourful…” Suggs laughs.
Madness, Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil, Fri 19 Aug. Tickets: £47. Info: 0300 3656677 / www.madness.co.uk