Madness (2-Tone Version)

According to the back sleeve of One Step Beyond…, there are seven songs on each side, and at the end of side two, “Mummy’s Boy” is swiftly followed by “Chipmunks Are Go!” Imagine the looks of glee on every young rude boy and rude girl’s face when the intro to “Madness” comes blasting out of the speakers unannounced—a secret track!

So, how did it get on the record? It was all down to Clive Langer. “The artwork had been done before we put ‘Madness’ on it. Robbo said that we couldn’t put it on because the artwork was finished, and I remember saying, ‘of course you can just stick it on’—how brilliant for everyone who listens to it!” Mystery solved, then—it’s always been on the album but never credited.

“Prince Buster‘s ‘Madness’ was one of the Blue Beat singles I bought at Berwick Street market,” says Suggs, “and I particularly liked it as it was a 12-bar, but not quite, and it had a nice lyric which I thought would suit us as a band.” When they first” “played “Madness”, the band was called The Invaders. They even changed their name to Morris & the Minors for one show, as another ‘Invaders’ had sprung up.

It’s well documented that Chris said they should call themselves after a song in their set, then groaned when “Madness” was selected.