February 1992. I was 15 years old, and had just returned from a school trip to Eastern Europe (Prague, Budapest, Vienna), which had opened up to western tourism after the fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall. As fascinating and beautiful as these places were, i only had two things on my mind: music and girls. Being a shy, awkward sort, women would prove elusive to me for a few more years. But that didn't stop me having the usual adolescent crushes, the latest being a 6th former who had been on the school trip. And my musical tastes shifted toward the romantic songs. Two singles purchased on returning from the jaunt to the Eastern Bloc were Simply Red - "For Your Babies" (hormones do odd things to your mind), and a re-release of "It Must Be Love" by 80's pop band Madness, who had split up in 1986. Released in advance of a forthcoming Greatest Hits compilation, it parked itself at number 6 in the singles chart, and sparked a wave of nostalgia and a long overdue critical reappraisal. Divine Madness, a 22 song collection of the "Nutty Boys" hits, went straight to Number 1, as did the video collection. And having some holiday cash left over, i went into town and bought the cassette. I've had a lot of favourite bands and singers over the years: some have stuck with me, others haven't. But from the moment i put that tape in my stereo, my life was forever altered. Madness are more than just my favourite band. They, and their music, are a irremovable part of my life. That tape was a constant companion: it was on at home, in my walkman whenever i went out. I was obsessed with it. Needless to say, my schoolmates didn't agree. As with my early childhood, they couldn't understand what i saw in songs that were from a previous decade. Not that i cared. Over the next few months, i aquired the "One Step Beyond...." and "Keep Moving" albums (on tape, as was my choice of format for albums at the time), and became more fascinated with the band. This was pre-internet, so you had to dig for information in magazines and books, and finding out more about them became a mission. Luckily, the popularity of Divine Madness had led to demand for reunion concerts, buoyed by a reawoken love for a great English band that went way beyond their fanbase. All the time that i had been listening to their songs, i'd had a nagging feeling of sadness that i'd missed out on seeing them in their heyday, having been born just a few years too late. I'd been 10 when they'd split up, amid declining popularity and a crisis of musical direction, having lost their leader, keyboardist, and musical lynchpin Mike Barson in 1984 (who went to live on a houseboat in Amsterdam). Could the rumours they were about to reform be true? It's often said that, to really "get" an artists' music, you have to see them live. Suddenly, they were back in magazines, on the tv, announcing a one-off reunion concert, Madstock!, which became a two day event more akin to a small festival. The week before, a reissue of "My Girl" had made its way into the Top 30, and the band were back on Top Of The Pops for the first time in 8 years. The tickets sold quickly. My Mum had managed to obtain two through a local coach company, for Sunday August 9th, as a 16th birthday present. I couldn't believe it! I was actually going to see this band whose music i had fallen in love with. Madness were supported by fellow North London act Gallon Drunk, "baggy" also-rans Flowered Up, Morrissey, and the legendary Ian Dury, reunited with his Blockheads. But there's only one band people were there to see. So, Sunday August 9th, Finsbury Park, North London. The day passed by in a blur of excitement, and the band appeared, overwhelmed by the love for them. Hit after hit whizzed by, everyone singing at the top of their lungs, dancing like their lives depended on it. If you want to see just how much atmosphere their was, buy the Madstock! cd/dvd pack, which after years out of print, recieved a timely re-release in 2015. Just before Christmas, we went to see them again at the Birmingham NEC, supported by The Farm and 808 State. And that Christmas, with a my first cd player, my love of Madness continued, with Divine Madness (i'd worn the tape out by this point), Mad Not Mad, and the live Madstock! album to start my cd collection. What a year.
On a final note, the stomping feet of the crowd during the opening song, "One Step Beyond", caused an earth tremor which led the residents of nearby tower blocks to think there was an earthquake!
Even if you live under a rock, the news that one of the biggest and greatest pop bands who ever existed are back! back! BACK! can't have escaped your attention. ABBA, who ruled the charts and airwaves from 1976 until their split in the early eighties, have reformed, with their first album of entirely new material since 1981s' The Visitors, and a virtual live experience to follow (basically, they had an arena built in London last year, where a "virtual ABBA" based on motion capture tech and made to look like the band at their 1979 peak will "perform" nightly, rather than put their 70-odd year old selves through the stress of touring.) The excitement and anticipation caused their new ABBA Voyage website to crash just hours after the announcement, such is the love for the quartet and their music. Two of the new songs have been put online, and they are ok: "I Still Believe In You" is a typical ABBA power ballad, a song about themselves and the bond ...
The years 1994 -96 saw the nation in a celebratory mood: British music was back in the ascendant, our film industry was providing Hollywood with some serious competition, and there was a general sense of national pride in our sportsmen and women. "Cool Britannia", as the press dubbed it, saw a positive and hopeful mood that mirrored the swinging sixties. But not everyone went along, or fitted in with this mood. Certainly not Manic Street Preachers. They'd arrived in a whirlwind of eyeliner, leopard print, rage, and political sloganeering back at the beginning of the decade, declaring themselves to be celebrating the "culture of boredom, alienation, and despair", writing cut and paste lyrics attacking consumerism, capitalism, exploitation, as well as themes of the struggles of youth, despair, and other personal subjects. Their manifesto was to sell sixteen million copies of their self-proclaimed "best rock'n'roll album ever" Generation Terrori...
As 2004 dawned, my love of music became not just a passion, but a way to fill the hole in my life left by the unexpected loss of my Mum. There were some dark nights of the soul that year, and i increasingly tried to shut myself off from the world and bury myself in the sounds of whatever i was listening to at the time. Thankfully i had my new group of friends at work to stop me from sinking, and a whole new exciting explosion of bands to pick up my mood. Since the Garage Rock revival of 2002/03, a new crop of bands had emerged to take things in different directions, influenced by similar developments following the explosion of Punk in '76/77. Post-Punk was the catch-all label for bands who took the energy of Punk and the Year Zero attitude in more individual and experimental directions, incorporating all kinds of genres into their varying sounds - Jazz, Reggae, Dub, early Electronica, Metal, Psychedelia, Disco, World Music, Krautrock, even deeply unfashionable Prog - allied ...
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