MADNESS – THE RISE & FALL LP – Nr MINT- UK STIFF 2 TONE SKA

Madness – The Rise & Fall
(Stiff Records 1982  SEEZ46)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Embossed Gatefold Sleeve in Excellent+ condition
– some wear to edges/corners

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 apart from some light pops/crackles)

Madness are an English ska band from Camden Town, London, who 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”.

The Rise & Fall is the fourth studio album by English ska/pop band Madness. It was originally released in October 1982, on the label Stiff. This album saw Madness at their most experimental, exhibiting a range of musical styles including jazz, English music hall, and Eastern influences. NME described it at the time of its release as “The best Madness record”. It has often been retrospectively described as a concept album.

Initially conceived as a concept album about nostalgia for childhood, the concept was eventually dropped, though the original theme is still evident particularly in the title track and the album’s major hit “Our House”. This theme was also mentioned recently when interviewed as part of T in The Park highlights, where their lead vocalist Suggs claimed that all the band members were told to write about their childhood memories for The Rise & Fall (although he did say that their keyboardist Mike Barson got the wrong idea, and went off and wrote about New Delhi).

Although the band had previously been avowedly apolitical, the track “Blue Skinned Beast” was an overt satire on the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her handling of the Falklands War, paving the way for more political comment on subsequent Madness albums.

Though the album was never released in the US, several tracks were later placed on the compilation Madness, including the melancholic pop of “Our House”, the band’s only top 10 hit in America.

The song was performed in the musical, ‘Our House.’

Track listing

Personnel

Madness

• Suggs (Graham McPherson) – lead vocals
• Mike Barson – keyboards; harmonica, piano
• Chris Foreman – guitars
• Lee Thompson – saxophones
• Daniel Woodgate (Woody) – drums
• Mark Bedford (Bedders) – bass guitar, double bass
• Chas Smash (Cathal Smyth) – backing vocals, trumpet; lead vocals on “Madness (Is All in the Mind)”

Additional personnel

• David Bedford – string arrangements

Production

• Clive Langer – producer
• Alan Winstanley – producer
• David Wooley – engineer
• Jeremy Allom – engineer