Madness (Band) Trivia
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50 free Madness (Band) trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Madness band trivia quiz covers the whole story of the Camden Town ska-pop institution, from the North London Invaders and a tribute single to Prince Buster on 2 Tone, through the Stiff Records years of One Step Beyond, Absolutely, 7 and The Rise & Fall, to Mike Barson's departure, the split, The Madness, Madstock! at Finsbury Park and the long second act that ended with a first ever number-one album in 2023. The questions dig into the songs themselves — who wrote them, what they are about, the working title of 'House of Fun', the banana van behind 'My Girl', the sampled actor on 'Michael Caine', the steel drums on 'Wings of a Dove' — as well as the films, the Honda adverts, the Olivier-winning musical, the roof of Buckingham Palace and the 2012 Olympics. Around a third are easy for any 80s music fan; the rest are for people who own the box set. We never quote lyrics, so it is all about the facts. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's band and single articles and the interviews they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Madness formed in 1976 in which part of north-west London?
Camden Town
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'.
Q 02Madness took their name from a song by which Jamaican ska artist, honoured in their first single?
Prince Buster
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.
Q 03Prior to settling on Madness, the band briefly went by which name?
Morris and the Minors
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.
Q 04Suggs was once thrown out of Madness for skipping rehearsals to watch which football club?
Chelsea
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.
Q 05What is Suggs's real name?
Graham McPherson
Graham McPherson. The stage name was picked at random from an encyclopaedia of musicians, where it belonged to one Peter Suggs.
Q 06Madness released only their first single, in 1979, on which label before moving on?
2 Tone Records
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.
Q 07Which label released Madness's debut album One Step Beyond... and most of their early-1980s hits?
Stiff Records
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.
Q 08Which producing duo debuted with One Step Beyond... and later worked with Elvis Costello and Bowie?
Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley
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.
Q 09Madness's debut album came out on the same day in October 1979 as the first album by which fellow ska band?
The Specials
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.
Q 10The song 'One Step Beyond' was originally the B-side of which Jamaican ska single?
Al Capone
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.
Q 11Which song was Madness's only UK number one?
House of Fun
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.
Q 12'House of Fun' was first recorded, without its chorus, under which working title naming the shop where it is set?
Chemist Facade
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.
Q 13Madness's 'Our House' climbed to number 7 in which country, where it was the band's only major hit?
The USA
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.
Q 21'Wings of a Dove' featured a gospel choir and which other unusual instrumentation?
Steel drums
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.
Q 22Which Madness song title passed into rhyming slang for an unemployment benefit cheque?
Night Boat to Cairo
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'.
Q 23Which 1981 Madness single, the first from the album 7, marked a darker departure from their ska sound?
Grey Day
Q 14Suggs said he deliberately wrote 'Baggy Trousers' in the style of which artist?
Ian Dury
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'.
Q 15'It Must Be Love' was a cover of a 1971 song by which singer-songwriter?
Labi Siffre
Labi Siffre. He liked the way Madness took his song apart, and turns up in their video as a violinist in a white tuxedo.
Q 16Which 1980 Madness single did Lee Thompson write about his teenage sister's pregnancy?
Embarrassment
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.
Q 17The workmate whose talk of 'my girl' inspired the Madness hit was delivering which fruit with its writer?
Bananas
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.
Q 18Which actor introduced himself by name on a 1984 Madness single, in lines recorded specially for it?
Michael Caine
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.
Q 19Which comedian took a reworked cover of Madness's 'My Girl' into the UK charts in 1984 as 'My Guy'?
Tracey Ullman
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.
Q 20In which Madness video does saxophonist Lee Thompson fly through the air on a wire during his solo?
Baggy Trousers
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.
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.
Q 24Madness's 1981 film in which the members played themselves recreating their early days was called what?
Take It or Leave It
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.
Q 25Madness's 1982 album The Rise & Fall began life as a concept album about what?
Their own childhoods
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.
Q 26On which TV comedy did Madness perform 'Our House'?
The Young Ones
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.
Q 27Which Japanese company used Madness in a series of TV commercials for a hatchback and a folding scooter?
Honda
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.
Q 28Which Madness member's departure was announced in January 1984 after he tired of the music business and moved to Amsterdam?
Mike Barson
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.
Q 29A TV series planned for Madness in 1983 was to be written by Richard Curtis and which comedian?
Ben Elton
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.
Q 30In 1984 the six remaining members of Madness formed their own label, a Virgin offshoot called what?
Zarjazz Records
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.