Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da (Expanded Edition)

MIKE, CHRIS AND WOODY LOOK BACK ON WRITING & RECORDING MADNESS’ TENTH ALBUM, QUI OUI, SI SI JA JA DA DA…

Presenting the Deluxe Two CD Edition of “Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da,” the eleventh studio album from the legendary Madness. Originally released in 2012, this special edition made its debut in the United States on November 13th of the same year. Notably, the album was crafted during a period when the band’s founding member and bassist, Mark Bedford, was on hiatus, lending a unique dynamic to its creation. Despite this absence, the album garnered widespread acclaim from both critics and fans alike, showcasing Madness’ enduring creativity and musical prowess. Preceded by the critically acclaimed ‘comeback’ album, “The Liberty of Norton Folgate,” the band collaborated with renowned artist Peter Blake to settle on the distinctive title. Blake’s artistic vision is evident in the album’s cover design, featuring crossed-out titles that were considered before settling on the final name.

Additionally, the album’s release was preceded by a tantalizing ‘teaser’ song, “Death of a Rude Boy,” which became available as a digital download on August 12, 2012, accompanied by a remix from Andrew Weatherall. “Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da” garnered praise from numerous esteemed publications, including Q, Mojo, The Arts Desk, and the Evening Standard. Critics lauded its energetic and upbeat sound, clever lyrics, and infectious melodies, cementing its status as a standout addition to Madness’ illustrious discography. However, the NME’s review offered a dissenting opinion, criticizing the album for its perceived lack of originality and failure to match the band’s past achievements.

This reissue presents an exciting opportunity for fans to delve deeper into the Madness experience, featuring a 2CD digipak format adorned with 11 bonus tracks previously unavailable on the original release. Moreover, exclusive liner notes accompany the reissue, featuring insightful interviews with band members Mike Barson, Chrissy Boy Foreman, and Daniel ‘Woody’ Woodgate, providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the album’s creation and its enduring legacy.

Woody: We’d been writing some pretty good stuff around the time of The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, and this album was a continuation of that. There seemed to be a rich stream of good songs.

Chris: We were working in a rehearsal room in Hackney called The Premises, which was really nice, but it had a little café, so people had a tendency to wander off. You’d be like, “Where’s Lee?” “Oh, he’s off having a three course meal.”| was commuting in from Brighton, and Cathal had moved out to Ibiza at this point, though I reckon he could’ve made it to London quicker than I could’ve! The early days of the album were quite productive – we were getting a lot of songs together. Some songs were pretty old, as is often the way. I always have a backlog of things that never got finished.

Mike: Cathal had gone to live in Ibiza. Mark had left the band. There was a bit of bad feeling building up – everything seemed a bit splintered. But it was the same with The Liberty Of Norton Folgate – Mark wasn’t on a lot of that album, and Chris disappeared at one point, so that was a difficult patch, but it was a good album, nonetheless. It doesn’t necessarily make a bad record, if there’s a bit of animosity or you aren’t getting on that great.

Chris: We were rehearsing the songs, and the management were like, “You need to get a producer”. We thought, if we’re going to get somebody to produce us, it’d be good to play them the new songs.

Mike: Sometimes we’d hang a microphone in the middle of the rehearsal room and end up with pretty dodgy recordings. So we thought, “What if we record the rehearsals a little bit better? In this day and age, it’s not that difficult.” Chris: Our manager, Hugh, said “I’ve got this guy, Charlie Andrew”. Charlie Andrew was this young guy – I mean, to me anyone under the age of 40 is young – and he came in with all his stuff, mic’d everything up and we started recording.

Woody: We only intended them to be demos, really, but they were really good – very fresh and creative. Charlie would go home and give it character, and maintain the essence of a live recording. At the same time, the management came up with this “great” scheme, that we could be produced by both Blur’s producer and Oasis’ producer.

Chris: One of our managers, Garry said, “We’ve got two producers in mind: Stephen Street, and Owen Morris. One of them produced Blur and one of them produced Oasis. It’ll be a really very interesting angle, publicity-wise”. And I thought, not really, because the Blur and Oasis thing was long in the past – if we’d got Damon Albarn and Liam Gallagher to sing on one of the songs you might get some attention… We kept going recording with Charlie, and I’m thinking, “We’ve got it”. And I swear to you, when they heard Charlie’s tapes, both Stephen and Owen said, “What can we do with these? They just need mixing.” But still we persevered with them. So the album had been kind of lo-fi, and then suddenly it became a bit more big budget, as was reflected in the costs.