50 Fun Facts About Madness (Band)

Madness formed in 1976 in which part of north-west London?

Camden Town. A residency at its Dublin Castle pub made the band's name in 1979, and Suggs later had a solo hit called simply 'Camden Town'.

Madness took their name from a song by which Jamaican ska artist, honoured in their first single?

Prince Buster. The debut single 'The Prince' was a tribute to him, its B-side was his song 'Madness', and the follow-up covered another of his tunes.

Prior to settling on Madness, the band briefly went by which name?

Morris and the Minors. The name came from the keyboard player's Morris Minor van, which carried the band and their gear, and they were billed under it for just one gig in 1979.

Suggs was once thrown out of Madness for skipping rehearsals to watch which football club?

Chelsea. He missed a Saturday rehearsal for a match in 1978 and was replaced as singer, then won his place back by standing in when his replacement went on holiday.

What is Suggs's real name?

Graham McPherson. The stage name was picked at random from an encyclopaedia of musicians, where it belonged to one Peter Suggs.

Madness released only their first single, in 1979, on which label before moving on?

2 Tone Records. Its contract with the band covered a single release and no more, which left Madness free to walk away, and they did exactly that.

Which label released Madness's debut album One Step Beyond... and most of their early-1980s hits?

Stiff Records. Its boss Dave Robinson auditioned the band by booking them to play at his own wedding, then went on to direct most of their videos himself.

Which producing duo debuted with One Step Beyond... and later worked with Elvis Costello and Bowie?

Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. Langer saw the band at a London gig in 1978, offered on the spot to produce them, and the pair went on to make nearly all their classic records.

Madness's debut album came out on the same day in October 1979 as the first album by which fellow ska band?

The Specials. Madness had spent the summer as their support act, and the two debut albums, both released on 19 October 1979, carried the ska revival into the albums chart together.

The song 'One Step Beyond' was originally the B-side of which Jamaican ska single?

Al Capone. Madness's own take on its B-side was too short to release, so the producers looped it to twice the length, and that rough mix became the hit.

Which song was Madness's only UK number one?

House of Fun. A song about a boy's coming of age, it was sitting at number one when Pope John Paul II arrived for his 1982 visit to Britain.

'House of Fun' was first recorded, without its chorus, under which working title naming the shop where it is set?

Chemist Facade. The 'Welcome to the House of Fun' chorus, and with it the title everyone knows, was written only after the rest of the song had already been recorded.

Madness's 'Our House' climbed to number 7 in which country, where it was the band's only major hit?

The USA. MTV did the work: its video of the band crammed into a terraced house as one big family went into heavy rotation just as British acts were sweeping America.

Suggs said he deliberately wrote 'Baggy Trousers' in the style of which artist?

Ian Dury. Suggs wrote it lying in a sleeping bag on a bandmate's floor, as a list of school memories meant to answer the public-school gloom of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall'.

'It Must Be Love' was a cover of a 1971 song by which singer-songwriter?

Labi Siffre. He liked the way Madness took his song apart, and turns up in their video as a violinist in a white tuxedo.

Which 1980 Madness single did Lee Thompson write about his teenage sister's pregnancy?

Embarrassment. The family's shame was that the baby's father was black; relatives came round in time, and Suggs was glad of a song that showed where a band dogged by far-right fans really stood.

The workmate whose talk of 'my girl' inspired the Madness hit was delivering which fruit with its writer?

Bananas. The song's writer, the band's keyboard player, sang it himself on the first demo and at early gigs, until a record executive suggested the lead singer should take it.

Which actor introduced himself by name on a 1984 Madness single, in lines recorded specially for it?

Michael Caine. The hook recalls his spy Harry Palmer, who repeats his own name to stay sane under torture in The Ipcress File, the film the single's video was modelled on.

Which comedian took a reworked cover of Madness's 'My Girl' into the UK charts in 1984 as 'My Guy'?

Tracey Ullman. Her version reached number 23 with the Madness bassist playing on it, and Neil Kinnock, then leader of the Labour Party, made a cameo in the video.

In which Madness video does saxophonist Lee Thompson fly through the air on a wire during his solo?

Baggy Trousers. He had seen Peter Gabriel take off at a Genesis concert and vowed to copy him, so a crane hoisted him into the air outside the school where they were filming.

'Wings of a Dove' featured a gospel choir and which other unusual instrumentation?

Steel drums. The video puts band, choir and steel band at a party on a plane, then drops them to earth in a parachuting van, footage the label boss had bought from a French TV advert.

Which Madness song title passed into rhyming slang for an unemployment benefit cheque?

Night Boat to Cairo. 'Cairo' rhymes with giro, the old name for a dole cheque; the tune itself was meant to stay an instrumental until Suggs added what its composer called 'dodgy lyrics'.

Which 1981 Madness single, the first from the album 7, marked a darker departure from their ska sound?

Grey Day. The band had played it back in 1978 as the North London Invaders, dropped it, then rediscovered it three years later and recorded it with a new arrangement.

Madness's 1981 film in which the members played themselves recreating their early days was called what?

Take It or Leave It. Their label boss Dave Robinson, the man behind their videos, directed it as his first feature, and friends from the band's early days played themselves alongside them.

Madness's 1982 album The Rise & Fall began life as a concept album about what?

Their own childhoods. The plan was scrapped when writing songs to fit a storyline began to feel forced, though the nostalgia survives in the title track and the album's big hit.

On which TV comedy did Madness perform 'Our House'?

The Young Ones. Booking a band for nearly every episode let the sitcom claim a bigger variety-show budget, and Madness were the one act asked back for a second visit.

Which Japanese company used Madness in a series of TV commercials for a hatchback and a folding scooter?

Honda. The ad agency had written a jingle stitched together from old Madness hits; the band disliked it and recorded a song of their own, 'In the City', for the campaign instead.

Which Madness member's departure was announced in January 1984 after he tired of the music business and moved to Amsterdam?

Mike Barson. The band had been formed in his bedroom, and Suggs later said that once he had gone the magic began to evaporate; within three years Madness had split.

A TV series planned for Madness in 1983 was to be written by Richard Curtis and which comedian?

Ben Elton. The pair had met the band on a sitcom set and offered them a series of their own, but at the very rehearsal where it was discussed the keyboard player said he was leaving.

In 1984 the six remaining members of Madness formed their own label, a Virgin offshoot called what?

Zarjazz Records. The word is slang for 'really good' in the comic 2000 AD, home of Judge Dredd and long the band's favourite reading; the label itself lasted only a few years.

Which 1985 album did Suggs later describe as a 'polished turd'?

Mad Not Mad. It was their only studio album made without their founding keyboard player, and Suggs felt they over-compensated with glossy production; the absent founder said he rather liked it.

Madness's 1986 farewell single, released as the band split, was called what?

The Ghost Train. Suggs wrote it about apartheid in South Africa, and the keyboard player who had quit two years earlier came back to play on it, though he stayed out of the video.

The four-piece spin-off The Madness nearly took its name from which Iain Banks novel?

The Wasp Factory. The four all liked the book, but another group already had the name, so they simply put 'The' in front of their old one; the album flopped and they soon called it off.

Madness's 1992 reunion concerts, Madstock!, were held in which London park?

Finsbury. Some 75,000 fans came over the weekend, and when they jumped in time to 'One Step Beyond' the nearby tower blocks shook as if in a small earthquake.

Which Madstock! 1992 support act was heckled off after performing with a Union Jack before a skinhead backdrop?

Morrissey. He left the stage early under a hail of boos and missiles, and the NME later used the flag and the skinhead images to accuse him of flirting with racism.

The Madness musical Our House won which award for best new musical in 2003?

An Olivier Award. The show ran for ten months at London's Cambridge Theatre with a script by Tim Firth, and for a spell Suggs himself played the hero's father.

In 2004 Madness played low-key gigs of reggae and ska covers under what alias?

The Dangermen. The shows marked their 25th anniversary with the Jamaican songs they had first learned to play, and grew into a covers album, The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1, the following year.

Madness's 2009 album The Liberty of Norton Folgate is named after what?

A self-governing London district. The tiny Liberty of Norton Folgate sat outside the ordinary parish system on the edge of the City until 1900, when the borough of Stepney swallowed it.

In June 2012 Madness played 'Our House' and 'It Must Be Love' from the roof of which building?

Buckingham Palace. It was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert: animations lit up the palace front beneath them, and their departed bassist came back to play for the occasion.

At the London 2012 Olympics, Madness played 'Our House' as a street party erupted at which event?

The closing ceremony. Towards the end of the song a crane hoisted the band's saxophonist into the air, and he played on while floating above the party.

Which Madness member left in October 2014 to pursue a solo career and, as of 2026, was still absent?

Chas Smash. The band's dancer and second voice, born Cathal Smyth, called it a break to make his solo album A Comfortable Man; more than a decade later the break had still not ended.

Which 2023 album became Madness's first ever UK number-one studio album?

Theatre of the Absurd. In full, Theatre of the Absurd Presents C'est la Vie: it knocked Taylor Swift off the top, and the band's only earlier chart-topping albums had both been hits collections.

Madness share the record for most weeks on the UK singles chart in the 1980s with which group?

UB40. The Birmingham reggae band logged exactly the same total, and its bassist later guested on an album by four of the Madness line-up.

Which honour did Madness receive in 2000 for Outstanding Song Collection?

An Ivor Novello. The Ivors reward songwriting rather than sales, fitting for a band in which all seven members wrote, and it was their second after 'Our House' won in 1983.

The 2019 Madness single 'Bullingdon Boys' was described by the NME as a swipe at which politician?

Boris Johnson. Released a fortnight before the 2019 general election, the song was prompted, the band said, by the fact that 19 of Britain's prime ministers had been to Eton.

Madness's 2019 group autobiography was titled what?

Before We Was We. Billed by the band as their first official book, it tells the story of their early years in all seven voices, stops as fame arrives, and became a TV documentary in 2021.

Which 1980 Madness album, home to 'Baggy Trousers', reached number 2 in the UK?

Absolutely. The title was a pet expression of the band's road manager, who was let go just as they began recording it; Rolling Stone gave the album a single star.

Which two Madness members formed The Nutty Boys and released the album Crunch! in 1990?

Lee Thompson and Chris Foreman. The saxophonist sang and the guitarist played nearly everything else, and the pair kept the group going on the London pub circuit, later renaming it after the album.

Suggs of Madness was brought up by his mother alone; what did she do for a living?

A jazz singer. She worked the pubs and clubs, and it was her encyclopaedia of jazz musicians that supplied her son's stage name, borrowed from a player called Peter Suggs.

Which Liverpool band did Suggs manage and produce from 1990 to 1992, including their number-one album Spartacus?

The Farm. Suggs had produced their very first single in the mid-1980s, and they later had a cameo in a film he starred in, before he steered them to the top of the album chart.