MADNESS – COMPLETE MADNESS LP – Nr MINT UK 1982 STIFF 2 TONE SKA

Madness – Complete Madness
(Stiff Records  1982  HITTV1)
Matrix No’s: A7/B7 – UK Pressing

Gatefold Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
– some slight wear to edges

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Madness are an English ska band from Camden Town, London, that formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s 2 Tone ska revival, they continue to perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members.

Madness achieved most of their success in the early to mid-1980s. Both Madness and UB40 spent 214 weeks on the UK singles charts over the course of the decade, holding the record for most weeks spent by a group in the 1980s UK singles charts. However, Madness achieved this in a shorter time period (1980–1986).

Madness have had 15 singles reach the UK top ten, one UK number one single (“House of Fun”) and two number ones in Ireland, “House of Fun” and “Wings of a Dove”.

Complete Madness is the first greatest hits album by ska/pop group Madness. It was released in 1982 (see 1982 in music) and included Madness’ biggest hits from their first three studio albums and the stand-alone singles. Complete Madness spent 99 weeks on the UK charts peaking at number 1.

An accompanying video cassette was also released, containing all thirteen of the group’s music videos up to that point (the twelve UK singles plus “Bed and Breakfast Man”, which was a single in Canada), with specially filmed introductions to each video; together with the car commercials they’d done for Honda in Japan.

When issued originally many of the tracks faded early into each other with no banding, sometimes very abruptly. This continued on the 1985 CD issue (although differing slightly, as an early fade of the original 7″ single version of “House Of Fun” was used). The first time the songs appeared in full for this compilation was for the 2003 Virgin reissue, although a similar, shortened version of “Shut Up” (originally used on the 2000 reissue of the Divine Madness compilation) continued to be used, and continues to be used on subsequent reissues.

The original Australian edition replaces “In The City” with 13th UK single “Driving In My Car”.

Track listing

1. “Embarrassment” (Thompson, Barson)
2. “Shut Up” (McPherson, Foreman)
3. “My Girl” (Barson)
4. “Baggy Trousers” (McPherson, Foreman)
5. “It Must Be Love” (Labi Siffre)
6. “The Prince” (Thompson)
7. “Bed & Breakfast Man” (Barson)
8. “Night Boat to Cairo” (McPherson, Barson)
9. “House of Fun” (Thompson, Barson)
10. “One Step Beyond” (Cecil Campbell) [Originally album version, single version on re-issues]
11. “Cardiac Arrest” (Smash, Foreman)
12. “Grey Day” (Barson)
13. “Take It or Leave It” (Thompson, Barson)
14. “In the City” (Barson, Crutchfield, Foreman, Inoue, McPherson, Smash)
15. “Madness” (Campbell)
16. “The Return of the Los Palmas 7” (Barson, Bedford, Woodgate)

Personnel

• Graham “Suggs” McPherson – Vocals
• Mike Barson – Keyboards, Harmonica, Vibes, Marimba, Tubular Bells
• Chris Foreman – Guitars
• Chas Smash – Vocals, trumpet
• Lee Thompson – Saxophones, Vocals
• Mark Bedford – Bass
• Dan Woodgate – Drums, percussion
• Alan Winstanley – Producer
• Neill King – Engineer
• Clive Langer – Producer