352 Hello Madness - The Prince

Chart  entered : 1  September  1979

Chart  peak : 16

Number  of  hits : 32

I  first  heard  a  snatch  of  this  on  a   Radio  One   Newsbeat  feature  while  sitting  with  Him  Next  Door  in  his  garden. The  feature  placed  them  squarely  as  part  of  something  called  the  Mod  Revival. I  was  mildly  interested  at  the  time  not  realising  how  soon  it  -the  first  movement  in  youth  culture  since  punk  -  would  begin  to  have  an  impact  on  my  life.

I'm  not  sure  how  much  Madness  welcomed  the  tag  at  the  time  though  as  a  young  band  just  starting  out  they  needed  any  sort  of  publicity. Ska  originated  in  the  sixties  but  it  hadn't  previously  been  strongly  associated  with  mod  which  was  first  and  foremost  a  fashion  movement.  The original   mods  actually  had  quite  a  broad  range  in  musical   taste  , pretty  much  anything  that  was  short, lively  and  danceable  from  Motown  to  the  amped -up  pop  of  The  Who  and  Small  Faces. And  the  Mod  Revival  needed  the  Two-Tone  bands  ( particularly  if  we  stretch  a  point  and  include  Dexy's   in  that )   because  apart  from  The  Jam  , the music  that  came  with  it  was  pretty  second-rate,  from  sixties  revivalists  like  Secret  Affair  and  the  Q-Tips ,  through  slavish  Jam  copyists  like  The  Chords  (  though  their  1980  single  Maybe  Tomorrow  is  a  corker  )  and  Purple  Hearts  to  jerky  power  pop  bandwagon-jumpers  like  the  Merton  Parkas  and  Lambrettas. The  biggest  dilemma  of  all  for  the  new  mods  was  whether  they  were  required  to  evince  enthusiasm  for  the  arid  dinosaur  rock  of  the  present  day  Who  and  Kinks.

Madness  began  life  as  the  North  London  Invaders  in  1976. Keyboard  player  Mike  Barson  ( born  1958 ),  guitarist  Chris  Foreman ( born  1956 )  and   saxophonist  Lee  Thompson  ( born 1957 )  were  all  in the  starting  line up.  Cathal  Smyth  aka  Chas  Smash  ( born  1959 ) , often  wrongly  assumed  to  be  a  fan  who  blagged  his  way  into  the  band, was  next  to  join  on  bass.
The  following  year  Graham  McPherson  aka  Suggs  joined  as  lead  vocalist . Frequent  disputes  meant  that  only  Chris  had  an  unbroken  tenure  in  the  band  but  they  fumbled  their  way  to  a  steady  line  up. In  1978  they  acquired  a  new  rhythm  section  in  bassist  Mark  Bedford  ( born  1961 )  and  drummer  Dan  Woodgate  ( born  1960 ).  They  briefly  changed  their  name  to  Morris  and  the  Minors  before  alighting  on  Madness  in  early  1979  in  tribute  to  a  song  by  one  of    their  favourite  artists , Prince  Buster.

The  North  London  Invaders   seem  to  have  mainly  played  friends  parties  so  we've  no  objective  account  of  what  they  were  like.  The  guys  have  said  they  were  not  particularly  good  musicians  at  this  stage. Their  big  break  came  when  some  of  them  attended  a  Specials  gig  in  London  and  Jerry  Dammers  needed  a  place  to  kip  so  he  ended  up  at  Suggs's  mum's  flat.  I'm  guessing  Jerry  didn't  know  that  Suggs  was  a  friend  of   punk  racist  Ian  Stuart  at  the  time.  As  a  result  Madness  became  the  second  band  to  release  a  single  on  2  Tone  with  "The   Prince".  Jerry  knew  he  didn't  have  the  time  to  develop  any  other  acts   so  the  deal  was  always  for  one  single. At  this  point  Chas  was  not  officially  in  the  band  but  he  was  following  them  around  as  a  dancer  and  appeared  with  them  on  Top  Of  The  Pops .

I've  covered  "The  Prince"  already  here   but  since  then  it's  been  pointed  out  that  the  melody  is  filched  from  Howlin  Wolf's   Howlin  For  My  Baby.  Naughty  Mr  Thompson !