This Review Along With Over 327 Others Is Available In My
SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites
PROVE IT ALL NIGHT
Music Of 1975 to 1979
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues & Remasters
Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs
Just Click Below To Purchase (No Cut and Paste Crap)
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon®ion=GB&placement=B071P5X2GW&asins=B071P5X2GW&linkId=716e2a561b29ac39bd11daa25c37986b&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon®ion=GB&placement=B01K8ODVWG&asins=B01K8ODVWG&linkId=c2b6bc1e23b8a5915f1028a504607c92&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>
"...The Heavy, Heavy Monster Sound..."
Ah the 'heavy heavy monster
sound'. There are some LPs that make you grin from ear-to-ear just looking at
them - "The Undertones" debut on Sire - "The Specials" on
2-Tone and that other sweaty beauty from 1979 - "One Step Beyond" by
London's Madness on Stiff Records.
But what CD variant of their
debut do you buy? Virgin have had two - a 1989 basic issue and a Remaster in
2000 - while Union Square stumped up a '30th Anniversary Edition' in 2009 that
received mixed reviews. I'm going to argue that this 2014 '35th Anniversary
Edition' on Salvo's Sound and Vision is the four-star one to get (some poorly
recorded cassette tape rehearsals masquerading as Bonus Material on Disc one
lose it a star).
You get new Remasters from
the original quarter-inch tapes of the 15-track album as well as a further 14
Previously Unreleased Demo and Rehearsal Versions on Disc 1 (29 tracks in all)
with 10 Videos over on Disc 2 - the non region-coded DVD. To compliment these
is an upgraded digipak and booklet featuring new interviews with the men who
were there - original Producer and Engineer Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley.
Overall it's impressively presented and exudes that sense of fun the band had.
Here come the Night Boats To Cairo...
UK released 13 October 2014
- "One Step Beyond..." by MADNESS on Salvo SALVOSVX034 (Barcode
698458063427) is a '35th Anniversary Edition' CD + DVD Reissue and Remaster
with Previously Unreleased material that plays out as follows:
CD (78:53 minutes):
Original Album
1. One Step Beyond... [Side
1]
2. My Girl
3. Night Boat To Cairo
4. Believe Me
5. Land Of Hope & Glory
6. The Prince
7. Tarzan's Nuts
8. In The Middle Of The
Night [Side 2]
9. Bed And Breakfast Man
10. Razor Blade Alley
11. Swan Lake
12. Rockin' In A Flat
13. Mummy's Boy
14. Madness
15. Chipmunks Are Go!
Tracks 1 to 15 are their
debut album "One Step Beyond..." - released October 1979 in the UK on
Stiff Records SEEZ 17
Fab Toones! Rehearsal Tape,
1979
16. Nutty Sounds
17. Mistakes
18. Sunshine Voice
19. My Girl
20. Memories
21. Believe Me
22. Lost My Head
23. Razor Blade Alley
24. Land Of Hope & Glory
25. Mummy's Boy
26. In The Middle Of The
Night
27. You Said
28. Stepping into Line
29. Bed And Breakfast Man
Tracks 16 to 29 recorded on
a portable cassette recorder so sound quality varies.
DVD – NTSC, Region 0 (No
Coding), Aspect Ratio 4:3 PAL, English
1. One Step Beyond...
(Video)
2. Bed And Breakfast Man
(Video)
3. My Girl (Video)
4. Night Boat To Cairo
(Video)
5. One Step Beyond... ('Top
Of The Pops' appearance 1979)
6. The Prince ('Top Of The
Pops' appearance 1979)
7. My Girl ('Top Of The
Pops' appearance 1980)
8. Bed And Breakfast Man
('Old Grey Whistle Test' appearance, 1979)
9. Night Boat To Cairo ('Old
Grey Whistle Test' appearance, 1979)
10. "Young Guns"
Documentary (BBC, 2000)
Tracks 5 to 10 are all BBC
Recordings
MADNESS was:
SUGGS (Graham McPherson) -
Lead Vocals
LEE 'Kix' THOMPSON - Lead
Vocals, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones
MIKE BARSON (Monsieur Barso)
- Keyboards
CHRIS FOREMAN (Chrissy Boy)
- Guitars
MARK BEDFORD (Bedders) -
Bass
WOODY 'Woods' WOODGATE (Don
Woodgate) - Drums and Percussion
CHAS SMASH (Cathal Smyth) -
Backing Vocals etc
The card digipak folds out
into three flaps with both the CD and DVD see-through trays having that famous
cover photo of the six dancing underneath each disc. Both sides of the inner
sleeve that came with original British LPs is spread across two of the flaps -
that collage of black and white Polaroids - the band - fans and friends - it's
all here. The 16-page booklet is a cleverly laid out and pleasingly in-depth
affair. Around the text we get all that black and white Madness/Stiff
memorabilia that surrounded the band - buttons, shaped discs, picture sleeves,
tour passes, 2-tone label bags, a Madness watch with the cover as a face dial,
cassette tapes, different variant label repros of the LP and a very fetching
Japanese 7" single picture sleeve of "One Step Beyond" with a
different B-side to the British issue - "Tarzan's Nuts" (the UK copy
has "Mistakes" - included here in Rehearsal form on Disc 1).
There are new May 2014 liner
notes from music-lover and author STEVE CHICK that include reminiscences from
Chrissy Boy (the Bass player) and Producer Clive Langer and Engineer Alan
Winstanley. Clive tells of the band working all hours to get the album done -
Lee Thompson a semitone out of tune but because his playing had great feel -
they left it as is - and of course became part of their homemade rough 'n' tumble
Carry On Up The Khyber sound. Although the sticker on the shrinkwrap assures us
that a new remaster appears here - neither the digipak nor booklet confirm
this. Yet to my ears the core album sounds brighter and more alive than it did
on the 30th Anniversary issue I had. And there is more bottom end too which
beefs up the audio without making it into loudness wars. Let's get to the
music...
"...Hey You! Don't
Watch That! Watch This!
Move Your Feet To The Rockinest Sound Around!"
How
many of us have bopped to the brilliant opening declaration that is "One
Step Beyond..." - quietly tearing up a dancefloor somewhere as worried
older types looked on in muted suburban disapproval. They follow that corker of
an opener with more wit - "...My girl's mad at me...she takes it all the
wrong way..." - we sang along to "My Girl" - giggling like loons
as we did the Monster Mash with our 2-tone badges and pencil ties. My memories
of "Night Boat To Cairo" is a heaving dancefloor with half cut students,
afterhours office types and leather-bound rockers all letting loose –
abandoning the buffet and bar for the Saxophone joy of Madness Ska. Both the
loafer on the sofa "Bed And Breakfast Man" and the school to your
home danger of "Razor Blade Alley" all speak of social realities in
1979 – ordinary people trying to make it through life on the estate. The
piano-instrumental Swan Lake cover lifts the spirit and is a hoot - but much
better is the cup of tea and geezers bop of "Rocking In A Flat". Then
it all ends on the Prince Buster cover of "Madness" that started it
all when it was released as the B-side to their own composition "The
Prince" - their debut UK 45 in August 1979 on 2-Tone – 60ts Ska alive and
well in Putney and Camden Town.
It has to be said that the
new unreleased "Fab Toones!" rehearsal material is very lo-fi and
reflects a hissy cassette tape source (they clearly state on the packaging that
the sound isn't state-of-the-art) – but once you get used to the less than
stellar Audio then things like "Mistakes" and "Sunshine
Voice" have a certain charm. But in truth I'm not sure how many will want
to return to these no matter how much of a fan they are. The DVD disc is a far
better value item and captures the sheer fun and street-savvy wit of this band
in a way that the weedy cassette can't.
There is something
wonderfully British-nutjob about Madness that has engendered them into the
hearts of the music buying public - giving them a 40-year career that proves
they are way more than a novelty act being fondly remembered here. Like The
Undertones and The Clash and The Stranglers – their music grew and the singles
only got better and better.
O.K. – those demos slightly
let the side down for sure but the Remaster and the DVD more than make up for
those shortcomings. 1979's "One Step Beyond..." is where it all
started for MADNESS and I remember the album (as do so many others) with genuine
tearful affection and this reissue (35 years on) has only brought that
rock-steady beat back home again.
My girl's mad at me. No she's not Suggs...
No comments:
Post a Comment