A Guided Tour Of Madness (3CD+DVD) [Box set, Collector's Edition, Extra tracks, PAL, Original recording remastered]

And so we reach the stage in Madness' career where the box set is considered the way forward in terms of working their back catalogue. This isn't their first box set, but it is the first to attempt to bridge the chasm from the perceived `singles band' of the 80s and the greatest hits playing `nostalgia act' seen live to the reality: a band which released classic single after classic single in the 80s, that more often than not had absolute gems on the B side, who built a reputation as a solid live band who could play and entertain and one which released a string of albums, which sold well if not massively. Crucially these albums were stuffed with subtly political and biographical tales of real life. Sometimes the spotlight would be turned inwards to reveal an honest and often melancholy insight into the real lives of the various band members.

This box set attempts over three discs and seventy tracks to illustrate this point. Whilst sticking broadly to a chronological route through their career this tour is not afraid of taking the odd diversion to show the listener a B side or EP track which came out after an album, before returning to the main route through the singles and album tracks. In fact running like Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road do through Camden Town, almost all of Madness' singles are threaded through this set in order of their original release. Missing in action are Sweetest Girl and Sorry. The latter is no loss to this writer. Michael Caine is the first single not to appear in order, with One Better Day pushing in. Songs released as singles account for 32 of the stops along the way.

So what of the choices for the remaining 38 destinations? For this Green Bus Rider they make a pleasant journey. There's a few places I'd have liked to have gone, but the driver chose otherwise. Isn't it always the same when you're in the back of a taxi, certain you know the best route. Sit back, relax and the driver may well open your eyes and in this case your ears, so it's best to be looking out of the window.

With the exception of Mad Not Mad all of Madness' studio albums are afforded a minimum of two non-single slots. I have no qualms about this at all as it leaves space for All I Knew, B side of Yesterday's Men and in my opinion one of Madness' finest moments. This is a song which deserved far more than its non-album B side status. Perhaps fellow passengers will come to realise this too.

This tour, my friends, is like a holiday in Cornwall: you'll never get to cram everything worth seeing in to one holiday, but you'll come back savouring the memories of the places you did get to. Some you'll want to visit again and again on future holidays, but you'll also be wondering where else to go, what else there is to see. I can assure you of that as I've just returned. Sitting here listening to A Guided Tour Of Madness is like looking through my holiday snaps. Except instead of Kynance Cove I'm lost in the dream world of Primrose Hill, wishing I were there. And it has dawned on me that I really enjoyed my holiday and that this is one hell of a compilation of Madness songs!

Some of the details? Right I'm going to assume you're familiar with the original run of singles, 22 of which are present and correct. Later on you'll find another ten singles covering the period from 1999 to date during which Madness have made the transition from playing a purely nostalgic set live to a working, writing, recording and gigging band, whose new songs sit well in the set. A band whose 2009 album, The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, was their biggest hit (and selling) album of new material since 1981. It was also arguably their best album. So be prepared for an introduction to Lovestruck, Johnny The Horse and Drip Fed Fred from Wonderful, Shame And Scandal and Girl Why Don't You from their alias project The Dangermen Session and the four singles from the aforementioned Norton Folgate: NW5, Dust Devil, Forever Young and Sugar And Spice. Finally you arrive at Madness' newest single, Le Grand Pantalon, their reworking of Baggy Trousers made for a series of TV adverts. You'll either love or hate it. Me? I love it. Not only is it slowed down as per the brief for the series, it is also totally rearranged as a waltz, which builds from very little to a rousing singalong, fitting in perfectly with where Madness are in 2011.

So now I'll whip you back to 1979, where our journey began for a brief précis of the tracks you'll be less familiar with. Mistakes was apparently the first song Madness ever wrote. Its co author John Hasler was no longer a member of Madness by the time it was recorded as the B side of One Step Beyond... No matter. It sets the agenda strongly for themes Madness would explore for decades: introspection, honestly, regret and the wish to better one's self especially with regard to youthful mistakes. And so we move on through tracks from One Step Beyond... and Absolutely and the Work Rest And Play EP with the songs concentrating on petty crime, drinking, ageing and broken promises.

These are not boastful songs: In The Middle Of The Night explores character of a knicker nicker, Deceives The Eye portrays the young shoplifter caught, not only by the police but by his own thoughts: "what will me social worker say...". This is no longer a laugh. The young Chris Foreman is clearly scared of the consequences now his actions have caught up with him. On The Beat Pete sees Lee Thompson having a look from the beat bobby's perspective: he knows who all the young herberts are. You can't help but feel that Thommo knows this copper would like to help some of these characters get a leg up, if only he could. Strangely Thommo's songs about his own youthful incarceration are absent from this collection. Perhaps this is a good thing as it allows plenty of room for the other song-writers to get a look in? Besides Suggs is writing on that same subject on Not Home Today: the embarrassment and shame for parents as the gossip starts about kids not seen around town lately.

Pausing briefly at third album 7 we see Madness starting to broaden their lyrical horizons. Time spent on planes and tour buses on the ever longer tours had given the band time to read books and see different parts of the UK and the world. This would be obvious on Tomorrow's Dream (Thompson/Barson) and Sign Of The Times in which Suggs realises the cynicism and manipulation of the tabloid press. A song that's as apt in 2011 as it was in 1981.

Disc two takes us to the second phase of Madness' journey, starting with their only number one single so far (ha ha), before we go on a journey within this journey on Driving In My Car and the schizophrenic look at armed robbery that is Calling Cards from fourth album The Rise And Fall. Any sense of fun is brought into stark relief by Blue Skinned Beast, Lee Thompson's look at those who returned from The Falklands Conflict in body bags. Remember dear passenger, this is The Nutty Boys. Your kid brother's favourite band. The pop band on 2Tone, pandering to the kids whilst the more serious bands got on with the politics. Well I am that kid brother and I soon got a taste for the darkness in Madness' lyrics and revelled at their ability to make earworms, get radio airplay and hit records with songs that looked at familial racism, IRA informants, depression, unemployment and eventually murder.

This from a band who could also look at humdrum family life, youth, growing up, the freedom of getting your first old banger or chuck in a massive cover version, such as It Must Be Love. Their only failure to get away with this trick was with Cardiac Arrest. Cathal Smyth's look at stress induced illness was pulled by Radio One. Had it been called Seven Letters (its euphemistic working title) it would almost certainly have been as big a hit as their previous singles. Wearing one's heart on one's sleeve is one thing. Sticking the name of one of biggest killers on your sleeve is another!

By fifth album Keep Moving Cathal was wise to this, so his look at IRA informants was doubly disguised by being titled Michael Caine and by having said actor as a guest vocalist on the track. Other themes explored are homelessness (Victoria Gardens and One Better Day), immigration and racism (Prospects). The only album only track from Mad Not Mad, I'll Compete, sees Madness looking at a theme also explored in the title track of Keep Moving: Trying to keep up, the struggle to stand still, let alone progress. Two tracks that almost accidentally sum up the Thatcher years of the 80s.

Disc 3 starts with an oddly stranded Waiting For The Ghost Train, the farewell single when Madness split up 1986. Apartheid was the cheery subject for this last goodbye...

At this stage one should pop the DVD in the player. Yep, put disc 3 to one side for 90 minutes, fast forward to August 8 (and possibly 9) 1992 and ask the cabbie to drop you off at Finsbury Park where an earthquake is erupting. Available for the first time on DVD and long since deleted on VHS this is the original Madstock! A record of the weekend in 1992 when Madness defied the odds and years of indifference by performing a storming set to 72,000 fans over two heady days. Many tears were wiped from eyes just in time for Chas Smash to bellow "Hey You!". Those two words were all it took to get the crowd in the palm of his hand. This DVD gives a faithful representation of what it was like to be there when Madness came back to say goodbye.

The DVD appears to include no obvious extras or easter eggs, although one can select individual tracks. Whatever you do, don't use this feature for Wings Of A Dove. If you really do only want to watch Wings Of A Dove, do yourself a favour and select Close Escape instead. In time you will thank me for this little tip... Read more ›

Seven letters in the name. Seven members. Their 7th single 'The Return of the Los Palmas 7' reached a chart high of....Number 7. Their 3rd album (titled '7') peaked in the album charts at--You guessed it--7!. They split up (first time around) after a recording career of seven years. One of the most loved and (subsequently) revered bands of all time, Madness have taken their place alongside The Kinks, Small Faces,The Jam, The Who and Pink Floyd in that pantheon of quintessentially English bands. Their sharp lyrical observations, jaunty (and dark) music and visual style--remember those videos--endeared them to many. This latest compilation combines 3 cd's of music and 1 dvd of the original Madstock weekend to present a wonderful overview to both die-hard fans and those coming to the group for the first time. Nearly all of the singles are here of course but as with previous compilations not always with the correct mix. In almost all cases when Madness singles also appeared on their albums they were re-mixed and sometimes re-edited aswell, a nice way of not charging the fans twice for the same song, if you like, but not so good when trying to put together a decent 'Best of'. If you're a die-hard fan (like me) you'll be able to tell which mix was used for which song but to me all the singles on here should be presented in their original 7" mix. To the best of my knowledge the original single mixes of 'My Girl' 'Embarrassment' and 'Night Boat To Cairo' have slipped through the net of both this and the previous re-mastering campaign of 1999, a situation that should be rectified. Anyway, now I've got that off my chest I can wholeheartedly recommend this anthology. The sound of these new re-masters has been much criticised for being too compressed and therefore too loud which isn't completely untrue but there is nothing you can do about that. The early stuff certainly is very loud but it always was-even the vinyl.The sound calmed down from the third album onwards but the songs remained wonderful. The great thing about this collection is that it scatters lots of album tracks among the more famous singles giving a better overall picture to a new listener. The magnificent 'Take It Or Leave It' for instance. Never a single but one of their greatest songs nonetheless.You even get the re-recorded 'Baggy Trousers' used in a recent lager commercial. As for the DVD of the first Madstock its typically energetic, if a bit rough around the edges but even the bum notes have a certain charm. Put simply, if you're thinking about buying this, just do it. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT! Just a word of warning about the packaging. It's rather fiddly getting the CD's in and out without scratching them as this box goes for that horrible overlapping CD tray design which serves no purpose other than risking damage to the playing side of the discs. So be careful. One last thing--anyone else think 'House Of Fun' doesn't sound quite right on this. I think they used an early 'working' mix by mistake here because the song doesn't fade out like its supposed to. Check out the terrible ending--surely never intended for the listener.

So here it is, a Madness box set that spans the entire career of one Britain's best loved bands. Just in case you didn't know Madness were (alongside UB40) the best selling singles band in the UK during the 1980's with 23 hit singles and 6 fantastic albums, and since reforming back in 1992 they have had further successes with their comeback festival 'Madstock', 3 more studio albums including the critically acclaimed 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate'. In addition to these successes they even had their own West End musical back in 2003 entitled 'Our House' which won the Olivier Award for best new musical. All of the moments above are captured within the 4 discs contained in the box set.
The 3 music cd's consist of the majority of the band's singles plus a selection of tracks from each album, along with a few b-sides from each period. The variety of the tracks give you, the listener a rich insight into the world of Madness where clever lyrics are sung over fantastic melodies. Madness have a knack of tackling serious subjects in such a joyful manner. Songs that truly highlight this are Cardiac Arrest, Mrs Hutchinson (a song about a women who was misdiagnosed by a Doctor, later to find out she was seriously ill) and 1999 single Johnny the Horse (a song about a defenceless tramp been kicked to death for entertainment.
There is a total of 70 tracks spread across the 3 cds and it is nice to hear some of the lesser known tracks for a change, which I am sure will please even the more casual listener, and will encourage people to have a look at some of the albums from the band.
The 4th disc is a DVD that contains the recording of the first 'Madstock' comeback gig from 1992. It's the first time that this has been released since the orginal VHS, and the transfer isn't too bad. Most of the big hits are present along with some classic live Madness tunes and also 1992 single The Harder They Come. It's a fantastic show and is most certainly worth a watch.
In addition to the 4 discs is a 70 page booklet containing sleevenotes from the band, land marks from Madness' past in London, and also the first edition of The Nutty Boys Comic.
The set is great value for money, even if just for the DVD. Purists like myself will moan that 3 singles are missing from the cds, but at the end of the day that doesn't matter. I bet you can't even notice what is missing.