2010-2011

BEDDERS (speaking in 2010): I just didn’t want to be on tour and didn’t want that lifestyle again. I was really enjoying what I was doing. I liked going in and working in an office and getting into a routine. I kind of enjoyed it, to do that every day and be creative every day. There have been points where I think you can do both but now I think that you can’t and you have to either fully concentrate fully on one thing or another. I still play music because I enjoy it; the bass or the guitar every day. I don’t think you ever lose that.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): It’s hard now without Mark but I respect his reasons for leaving. After all, I did the same thing myself.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): Being in this business full-time can send you round the twist. But because there’s seven of us, there’s a bit of space and flexibility for some coming and going.

WOODY (speaking in 2010): It’s really healthy to know you can take a break sometimes. That way, there’s no pressure at all.

BEDDERS (speaking in 2010): I think – I hope – that I’d be welcomed back in if ever I wanted to be. I think that’s the family part and I’d hope that would go for any member of the group.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): Bedders can come back whenever he wants, because it’s his band as much as ours. It’s good to take a breather if you need it. Mind you, if it ends up with just three of us on stage and four Chippendales pretending to play instruments, it might be time for the 80s circuit; me, Kim Wilde and a quarter of Heaven 17.

CARL (speaking in January 2010): Madness is like my meat and potatoes, which allows me the luxury to do other things. I’m finishing a play and I’ve got two albums on the go and I’m sort of involved with a musical with Keith Allan so there’s plenty to do. I don’t know what will happen to the stuff I’m currently working on. I was thinking about putting them on a stall and flogging them.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): We thought we’d made it when we got a residency in 1979 so to be still here and loving it is pretty special. I just know that Madness is in the firmament of British culture in a positive way. We did something that is resonating with people and we are trying to do something that is good.

WOODY (speaking in 2010): Next time, I’m determined to do it in three hours and 30 minutes – absolutely determined. I’ll be 50 for the next marathon so it will be quite good. I keep saying to people, ‘When I hit 50 I’ll be the youngest in the 50+ category.’ I now run regularly, every week, and do some 10k meets, some half marathons, and really enjoy it. I’ve raised a lot of money for charity, that’s my main incentive. If I was doing it just for me I wouldn’t have a goal, there would be no point. Why go through all that agony for nothing?

CARL (speaking in 2010): We’ve kept it going and kept playing live even if we haven’t been recording together. Morrissey once said to me, ‘It doesn’t matter how many hit albums you have, as long as you’re doing it as a live band you are in the game. Some albums will be good and some not so good, it’s what you do across your career that counts.’

WOODY (speaking in 2010): We’re just hoping to carry on. We’ve got this real momentum at the moment and we’re really enjoying it. We’re not going to take a break for a while and I can see us doing another album quite soon. There’s too many good songs not to.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): We do have a lot of fun making music together, which is obviously the point of being in a band. And we really enjoy playing live, so that’s the motivation. If you can create joy – in the kitchen, in the street, or in music – there’s nothing better. We’re about community, people having a good time together.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): The chat has started again, with people saying, ‘Shall we at least think about writing some new songs?’ So the ball gets rolling and we think, ‘Yeah! Let’s make one last record! Another one-off!’

WOODY (speaking in 2010): At the moment we’re in the process of sending songs to each other, making changes and sending them back again.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): I sent Suggs three songs recently and he told me he’s listened to them, so hopefully we’ll start recording soon.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): We tried to write a great album last time, with lyrics and arrangements that were surprising; this time we’d like to write a simple British pop album that’s as much about dancing as anything.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): Like everything else, it’s going to be a long process. I have loads of songs I’ve been hoarding because I always seem to miss the writing process for one reason or another.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): It means we can go in and out whenever we please, rather than rent a rehearsal room at an hourly rate. We can bring in our kettles and sandwiches and stuff and use the third floor for rehearsals, the second for refreshments, that sort of thing. It means we have the time and space to put it all together – that was the key to the last album.

WOODY (speaking in 2010): We go into this big rehearsal space where there’s a big board on the wall on which we write the songs down and we go through them all. It’s as simple as that. Then once we think we’ve cracked it, after about 20 songs or so, we’ll say, ‘We’ve got a lot of songs – again.’ Then a producer, probably Clive Langer, will sort out the wheat from the chaff and we’ll go into a studio and try and bosh it down as quickly as possible.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): She’s about 4ft 3in tall; she’s a beggar really, but she’s great at making money and it all goes in a fruit machine at the end of the night.

STEVE BUNYAN (Union Square Music, speaking in 2010): As a catalogue marketing company we have to be inventive. For instance, we have to figure out how to re-promote Madness. We’ve now got three Madness best-ofs in the market and if we do a proper job on those campaigns, they’ll sell tens of thousands of copies.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): One of the things about popular music in the truest sense of the word is that you hit certain pieces of people’s lives, in a bubble of that time. You know, when you have a hit record for two weeks it’s the most important thing in your life. This might be the two weeks when you fell in love for the first time, went to your first rave or whatever it may be. Pop music is one of the greatest art forms. It’s been the only one over the last 20 years that’s actually done anything, said anything, changed anything, communicated on such a great level to so many people. It can move you to tears or laughter. I mean, seriously, how many paintings have you ever actually laughed or cried at?

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): By the time you’ve written the songs, rehearsed them, recorded them, mixed them, listened to the mixes and so on, you’re not really inclined to listen to them again for a while. However I did just that a few years ago to write out the lyrics and some of them are really good.

CARL (speaking in 2010): Maybe our success is because we haven’t grown up. I think there is a definite naivety about allowing ourselves to be ourselves, which is part of being an ‘artist’, if I can humbly insert that word. It’s about striving for the true voice; the expression, which in itself is what people can see is true. I think if you’ve got energy and content, if you can make the listener feel some proximity to an emotion or feeling they’ve had themselves, then you’ve done half the job. It’s a very complicated thing, I’m still learning.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): I still think we sometimes get looked on as a bit of a lightwieght comedy band, even though Thommo’s lyrics can be up there with the best of them. Some of his lines like, ‘Looking at my possessions / Wondering which ones I own’ are pure class. Suggs, Carl and Mike have also written some very good lyrics over the past 30 years.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): I’m often asked why Madness are still as popular 30-odd years on and, apart from the obvious fact that we had a lot of hits, I think it’s because we have always ploughed our own furrow and have rarely, if at all, been in fashion. That gave us an independence from the fickle business of show. And given that in the early days there’d be ten or more of us and our friends, often a lot more, on the road together, we could create our own crazy world, style and sound, which for some peculiar reason still resonates today. And I honestly feel that amongst all of our great achievements, the greatest is that we are still friends today.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): I’m very fortunate to have been in a band that I’m not embarrassed about, that’s something I’m very proud of. I am a troubadour, a jester. I’d love to be described as a sculptor, but unfortunately I haven’t done any sculpting. Perhaps I’m a social sculptor?

SUGGS: Lee was trying to get an autograph for his children and Calvin Harris wouldn’t do it, so when he went in the portaloo they locked him in by putting a scaffolding pole against it which was very unfortunate. Even worse was that I got the flippin’ blame for it! Calvin was ranting and raving and it was nothing to do with me. I had paparazzi chasing me down the road and I didn’t have a fucking clue what they were talking about. I suppose it was a bit sad and unnecessary all round.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): When you’re young, your music is full of life and lunacy. As you get older, the temptation is to forget about that as your musicianship improves. We’ve never done that – we try to write with the same energy we had when we were 18. But we write about the lives of men in their 50s, which we all are. It would be stupid to still try to write about being a teenager. It makes me laugh when I sing House of Fun: ‘Sixteen today and up for fun’? That’s a fucking albatross around my neck; our very own, ‘Hope I die before I get old’.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): In order to be taken seriously in this world, it seems to me that you have to be serious about your work, which is something I find difficult. I don’t like pretension. On the other hand, I’m very serious about being a songwriter. I’ve got a great desire to succeed in whatever area there’s an opportunity. I’ve got that Yosser Hughes thing: ‘I can do that.’

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): The intelligentsia – the serious newspapers and the people who run the BBC – never really liked us. The Liberty of Norton Folgate changed that, but there’s still a notion that we ‘re just a bunch of idiots fucking about. And that’s not the case.

WOODY (speaking in 2010): I suppose we are a part of British life, really. If you ask people what’s typically British in music, Madness is the name that will come up. We’re just typical British blokes with families and we just write about British life. Everyone seems to know us and have a fondness for us. Even if people don’t like Madness they know about Madness. We’ve become a part of the institution I suppose. We’ve never really gone away; we’ve just done our own thing.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): After we went and rehearsed earlier this year, we wrote five new songs. So we’ll be playing some of them on this tour to try them out. It’s one of the things I’m pleased about, as I got a bit bored of just doing the greatest hits all the time. It’s interesting for me to do new stuff and songs we haven’t done for a while, like Driving In My Car, which we rotate.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): Saying that, we’re under no illusion that our fans want to hear the old stuff, and we’ll never be one of those sniffy bands who only want to play their new material. The biggest bind is trying to fit into the set all the favourites from a career of more than 30 years, having too many great songs. Then again, that’s not a bad situation to be stuck with, I suppose. Most bands would kill to have a problem like that.

WOODY (speaking in 2010): We understand that we can’t try too many new songs out on punters because fundamentally we’re there to entertain the crowd so we have to give them all the great hits and more – and the ‘more’ bit is us experimenting on the crowd with a few new ones. Years ago we had to play Embarrassment, Baggy Trousers and Our House to crowds who hadn’t heard them before. They didn’t know the songs so it was hard work but we persevered with them and years down the line they’re great hits. It’s all part of the process.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): We did a pretty extensive tour last year complete with matinees and we really enjoyed it. In fact, we got such a good response from fans saying they’d love to take their kids that we decided to do it again. I enjoy them because, even though I’m nearly 50, I feel I’ve kept in contact with my childish side.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): We last did the matinees about 25 years ago, to cater for all the young kids who couldn’t get into venues because they were under-age. And now the funny thing is, they’re all grown up and bringing their kids. The poor things must have been forced to watch our videos when they were naughty.

WOODY (speaking in 2010): We’re often a little cautious about overdoing the number of gigs because people could then say, ‘Oh, I’ll see them next year’ but people seem to be coming back. There is definitely demand. I think it’s all off the back of Norton Folgate, which gives a bit more interest to the whole thing.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): It’s been a proper laugh seeing all our old footage again; some of it I can’t even remember doing in the first place. What was wicked was seeing the long-lost pilot for the Madness sitcom we filmed for about £50. Looking back, it’s clear to see what a genuinely good time we had.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): We had to cancel as all the public transport was just gone – people who lived three miles away couldn’t get to the shows.

SUGGS (speaking on tour in 2010): This is what we do – we make music, make some money, make people happy and have a good time. And the closer we get to death, the better and better it all becomes.

WOODY (speaking on tour in 2010): These days, I treat touring pretty much like an athlete – it’s really hard and gruelling work and I’ve got to be rested and healthy. I’ve even given up drinking. I had to stop cos it just caught up with me. We had a gig in Greece years ago and it was horrible; I was so drunk I hardly played – and it’s bloody hard enough to play as it is. There were gigs leading up to that where I was clinging on for dear life and it was a vicious circle of drinking too much before a gig, then going, ‘Bloody hell, I wish I hadn’t done that.’ Or I’d have a whole day of white-knuckling it and then I’d have to have a drink. That’s when you know there’s a problem.

SUGGS (speaking on tour in 2010): I always wondered if you could be dignified after a certain age. But, yes, it is possible, as long as you enjoy doing it and people enjoy watching you make a fool of yourself.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): We’re still having fun now, although Barso is always late and Woody and I are always early, which can cause some friction. But it’s always been like that.

SUGGS (speaking on tour in 2010): Even in the early ’80s when Madness mania was full-on and everyone was telling us how great we were, there were enough of us in the group to pop each other’s bubble if our heads got too big. These days we’re just a working band of ordinary blokes and just don’t do that whole tabloid scandal rubbish. I don’t get papped because all they’re gonna get is a pic of me and the missus shopping down the market or coming out of the boozer after having a few ales. And who on earth wants to see that?

WOODY (speaking in 2010): The one thing about Madness is that we’re honest. We are what we are. And in the same way, we write in our songs what we see. We can’t ever say, ‘This is right and this is wrong.’ That’s not our style. We reflect life. We’re just social commentators.

SUGGS (speaking in 2010): My life could have gone in so different ways, but I’m just grateful for the way it did go. I’ve been very lucky. If you’d told me this when I was a kid I’d have laughed so loudly my socks would have flown off. Of course it’s remarkable and a privilege to still be doing this funny old business that we do.

CHRIS (speaking in 2010): The music we do does appeal across the board. Some young people probably still think we’re some kinda dinosaurs, which is true to some degree. But we don’t just do the hits, we do stuff from our latest albums and, in fact, we’re working on a new album probably for release next year. Last year, we did our back catalogue but we got quite a few new ones in the set which made me happy. The thing is I try not to be grumpy about it. I mean, I’ve performed Baggy Trousers like a million times but you have to remember that it’s stuff like that which the fans have come to hear, they’ve paid to hear it. So maybe I just stick in a bit of a heavy metal twist in there along the way, just to keep things fresh.

CHRIS (speaking in 2011): I think some of the new songs are now ‘done’ and we should just go and record them.

WOODY (speaking in 2011): Like everything else, the inspiration for the new songs comes from the world around us and our experiences with real people. We can’t write about those things unless we do them, so taking a break to live in the real world has been important.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): The last album was a conceptual affair with stuff like a 12-minute song, so with this one we’re going back to three-minute sparkling uptempo-ness. I’ve always loved pop music and what we’re trying to do is write pop music from the perspective of someone who’s 50 rather than pretending to be 18. So Mike – who originally wrote a song about his girlfriend that became My Girl – has now written a song about being divorced.

SUGGS: It was the best night of my life. My wife and friend arranged this kind of mutant music hall extravaganza, with a few of the old bods who can still do stuff like making ladders out of newspapers and sand-dancing. Madness were also there, along with about 200 other people. It was brilliant because I love all that music hall stuff. At the end of the night this massive cake was brought on and out popped my wife, this absolutely stunning gorgeous vision, and I thought, ‘I’m taking that one home tonight!’

HUGH GADSON (Madness co-manager): We started talking to Butlin’s and they started to get excited. And we knew they were excited when they suggested lunch in Minehead and sent the Butlin’s helicopter. So we developed the idea, presented it to the band and it was amazing.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): The opportunity came to do a super gig in a state-of-the-art holiday camp and it seemed like an opportunity that was too good to miss. I used to go to Northern Soul weekenders at Camber Sands and places like that when I was a teenager and I always liked that idea of a festival where you go on a Friday and don’t go back to work until Monday afternoon. It’s all going to be indoors and it’s an amazing fucking complex with about five different venues. The people come and stay for the whole weekend and we’re curating for a whole weekend. It’s really a dream come true and really good fun.

CHRIS (speaking in 2011): We’ll be playing some brand new songs at Butlin’s, maybe we’ll even preview a whole new album if we can get our act together by then.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): Part of the contract is that we have to put on redcoats and be on 24-hour alert. I’m looking forward to getting hold of the tannoy system and doing surreal announcements at three o’clock in the morning: “Come on! Let’s get up and at them campers!”

CHRIS (speaking in 2011): We’ve got all the songs together in very good shape and now we’re going to get cracking on getting it all together.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): The last album had a bit of a theme, so for this one we’re kinda thinking about the current climate, and an element of tolerance and compassion; standing up for the average person. That’s the areas we’re looking into at the moment.

LEE (speaking in 2011): I wasn’t invited to sing on the last album, but on this one there’s a track called Deoolali – or Man of Steel for the American version – and hopefully I’m going to vocal it, but it’s got to be right. I’m really into it and would like to sing on that.

CHRIS (speaking in 2011): I‘ve written more songs this time and we now have a really good collection in the bag. We’ve got some fast ones, some slow ones, some reggae ones, some rock ones, even a disco-type one. As ever, the subject matter is mostly drawn from our past and London. It’s sounding good and also means we’re not just dragging the greatest hits set around.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): The songs are coming along effing brilliantly. We haven’t got an album title – last night we were laughing about Bring On The Pleasant Thoughts.

CHRIS (speaking in 2011): It will hopefully be ready by the beginning of next year – but don’t quote me on that.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): It’ll definitely come out next year – hopefully we’ll finish it this year. We were hoping to get it done but then we decided to postpone the whole thing because we weren’t completely satisfied with what we’ve done so far. We’re working on it and I think it’s that thing. When you’re young you have all the time in the world. We don’t spend 24 hours a day working on music like we used to when we were younger, so you have to do it in batches – sporadic, intense.

MIKE (speaking in 2011): It’s still frustrating when you’re trying to do a song you like and other don’t like it, although that seems to be changing these days. Maybe I’m getting better at writing songs? But seriously, there seems to be a lot of positivity in the band and we’re sparking off each other.

CARL (speaking in 2011): The band has just done two months in a rehearsal room in Hackney working on new material, I didn’t attend as I don’t want to leave Ibiza, I did my work here then went over for a day or two and played it to them. Generally there are different partnerships, if I’m going to write a song with anyone it’s usually with Suggs these days but I have written songs with Mike and Woody. But these days it’s usually with Suggs or I’ll write it all myself now. Being in Ibiza has made me become completely productive, I love it.

LEE: I wanted to go back to the music that we originally did, really rootsy, and Madness really didn’t fill that space. So I got together a load of chums and went back to our bare roots of ska music from the mid-60s. I got them together in about six weeks and we had about half a dozen rehearsals before we did our first gig.

LEE (speaking in 2011): The LTSO musicians are top dollar and are all great to work with. The politics has been pretty much, not much.

WOODY (speaking in 2011): I think it’s healthy for band members to branch out and do something of their own. I’ve always written songs but my background in music isn’t really one of ska/Blue Beat/Motown, that sort of thing; I’m a bit more rock and my brother’s a bit more Beatles-y in his style. It means that when I’ve brought songs to the band, they’ve often not been of the right genre, so I need another avenue. Jimi Hendrix needed to go off and play his guitar after being in The Isley Brothers, so it’s a bit like that!

LEE (speaking in 2011): It’s a real acoustic-y, folky thing – very different. We recorded it the other day and it was really fun and exciting.

SUGGS: I thought they were joking when they first phoned up; Baggy Trousers is an up-tempo and not overly melodic song. When we first started rehearsing and trying to slow it down, it seemed like an impossible task. We got to the point where we started to sound like Tom Waits then someone, Chris I think, came in with the bright idea that maybe we should do it in the style of a French chanteuse, with accordians, violins and all that. But we were still struggling a bit, so Woody suggested we did it in a waltz style and suddenly it all came together. It was a rather fascinating and extraordinary thing to see this song that we’d been playing for 30 years refilled with life in a completely different and unexpected way.

BEDDERS: I was flown in especially just to do double bass for the video.

SUGGS: Every fibre in our beings wanted to jump up and down and get going, but we had to do it as slow as possible. I’ve got to tell the kids out there what hard work it is sitting at a table with a never-ending pint of beer for three days. Day one I was really good, day two I started about two in the afternoon and day three I started at 11 in the morning. I just had to sit there and do nothing in a long shot and I realised it was real beer not just a prop. I took a sip and then of course they had the thing topped up. It was like being at one of those functions at an opening of a gallery where you’ve got a glass in your hand and people go round topping them up. You’re not sure whether you’ve had nine or 900 glasses.

SUGGS: A friend of mine was looking for someone to play a cynical ageing rock star, which is a coincidence and also probably fairly accurate.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): I was sitting in the bath on the morning of my 50^th birthday and I was feeling slightly worse for wear because I’d had my party the night before. And I heard a crash, and my cat fell off a shelf and died right next to me. And I thought, ‘How can God do this to me on my 50th birthday?’ And this strange thing put my mind in motion; looking at my poor cat who I loved. The cat that caught 12 mice in one day. That used to climb up the vine on the front of the house and tap on the window. My little Mamba… who could do that on my 50th? It suddenly hit me, the notion of having a half-century of my life gone. It made me think, ‘What’s happened in those 50 years?’ And then I had the idea of a one-man show, telling anecdotes about my 30 to 40 years in showbusiness. I wanted to take a romp through all the things I’ve achieved in my life and also play a few songs along the way. When we were first rehearsing it, my keyboard player would stop every so often and say, ‘Was that bit really true?’ And it was, all of it. Amazing, really. But it’s terrifying being on my own and I’ve never worked so hard. In Madness we just sit around smoking but this is really hard work, especially as we’ve been working on the band’s new album at the same time. I’ve been doing both in tandem.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): There’s no one else around like us and it’s always been like that; we’ve really never fitted in. There have been odd brief moments when we seem to be in the right place at the right time, but I think we really are unique.

CARL (speaking in 2011): We like to think we’re in a Ridley Scott movie but really it’s a Carry On. Some of us are evolving faster than others but we’re all helping each other and we all love each other as friends. We’re so inveigled into each other’s consciousness, we all have an idea of what is a Madness song and what isn’t and what works for Madness and there’s almost an anal attention to detail and principal that keeps it what it is.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): The only thing is, we’re not the hardest workers. So we haven’t been overly prolific – but I don’t think it’s becoming of a man of a certain age to work too hard.

CARL (speaking in 2011): But not being workaholics also works in our favour. By not touring for too long and staying at home, it’s given us a certain relationship with the British public. We haven’t done the star trip – people still see us riding around on bicycles in Camden. They probably think we’re pot-less but it’s just choice and it’s meant that we’ve kept our heads together for the long term.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): I got on the euphoric roll on the first week, writing 2,000 words a day or more and I thought I’d be done in a month. Of course by week two you’re doing 1,000 and then it’s 500, 200 and then it’s none for four days and then one word. Then you’re like, ‘Fuck, this is going to take the rest of my life.’

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): There are so many festivals in Eastern Europe and the good thing is that we’re new to them. They’ve been starved of live entertainment for so long that they love what we do.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): It’s very rewarding to still be going and playing live like this. I look on it with great pride and satisfaction.

MIKE (speaking in 2011): There are some fantastic moments – at some of the gigs I look around and I see the band doing their thing and I think it’s brilliant; Carl jumping around, Lee doing something strange, a beaming Woody behind the drums, Suggs spinning a brolly, Chris playing in time… almost.

WOODY (speaking in 2011): I sit quite close to Lee on stage and when he’s playing really well it’s absolutely brilliant to watch cos he can really, really blow that saxophone. My god, he’s got some lungs on him; it’s quite something to see at close quarters.

LEE (speaking in 2011): It’s still a lot of fun. I’ve said it a million times – it’s more difficult to get out of this band than it is to get into it.

WOODY (speaking in 2011): Something else I see – although it’s pretty rare yet beautiful – is when Mike smiles. Seriously, he’s got a lovely smile; he should do it more often.

GRAEME ‘BUSHERS’ BUSH (bass player): Reading was a great gig, but every time I walked on stage with Madness was a highlight. I was lucky enough to do some great tours and some of the biggest festivals around.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): I don’t know why we’re still so popular and why we keep getting booked to do festivals. Maybe the organisers say, ‘The line-up isn’t looking terrifically exciting. I know what we’ll do – we’ll get Madness down there to liven it up.’ Of course, there will come a time when we can’t liven it up any more but long may it reign. As long as the Rolling Stones are a couple of years ahead of us, we’ll keep going. When I see Mick wilting I’ll know that the end is nigh.

WOODY (speaking in 2011): I think we’re still here because we’ve never taken ourselves too seriously. We’re not pompous musicians, more like a bunch of mates getting together to do what we love. We’ve always tried to stay grounded and write honest music that people can relate to – and it seems to have worked.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): I also reckon it’s because Madness have always been about accentuating the positive. I have my down moments; everyone does. But it’s no accident that our songs are still played three decades later. They’re upbeat, timeless, a clear-eyed celebration of real life as it’s lived.

MIKE (speaking in 2011): Obviously you want to have success, but these days, personally, I’m more into making great music.

IAN ‘DAD’ HORNE (sound engineer, speaking in 2011): I’ve never got bored of their music – after 27 years you might go, ‘Aw I’ve had enough of that’ but I still get a buzz out of it, it’s dancy music, it’s not too heavy. Lee’s the one for entertainment – he gives it 100%. The other musicians like Woody are hardcore; they have those lovely parts that they play really well. Carl is a great entertainer too – a real showman. They’re just a great team. If you see them, you’re not just checking out one person, you’re checking out what they’re all doing. They’re all lovely characters.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): You could get bored hanging around with people you don’t get along with, but we’ve somehow managed to transcend all that. We’re all in it, our families are intertwined, there’s 40 people connected at this point, so it’s just the way it is. We just like playing music, and every now and again you remember, ‘I’d still do this if they didn’t pay me’. So the trials and tribulations are as nothing really.

MIKE (speaking in 2011): As people get older, they get grumpier, so it never gets any easier. But we do spend the best parts of our lives with each other.

CLIVE LANGER (producer, speaking in 2011): In some ways their egos have got stronger; or maybe nowadays we’re ALL just grumpy old men as opposed to young kids.

IAN ‘DAD’ HORNE (speaking in 2011): We’re like a family; on the road we’ve all got to look after each other. We’ve all had relationships go wrong and not go wrong. Life changes and things happen that make you go in certain directions, but we’ve always stuck together and been a team.

CARL (speaking in 2011): No matter what happens within the band, no matter what tension there is or what arguments we’ve had, whatever’s going on, we all shake hands before we go on stage. It always fits back together again.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): I’m very much of the opinion that people who moan about success wanna have some therapy. Well, they probably wanna have less therapy, actually. I think it was Pavarotti who said, ‘If you’re bored of fame, stop working for six months, it will soon go away.’ If you don’t like it, there’s a very simple cure.

CARL (speaking in 2011): Playing Ibiza was a blast. It was an opportunity to invite my landlords and certain people around the island in restaurants etc that I love and give them something back.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): We’ve played some bizarre festivals this year. When we played in Ibiza there can’t have been anyone over 12 in the audience and still they seemed to dig it. I’m very pleased that we’re still popular.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): With every passing year we seem to get more and more of a new audience and it’s really strange that a lot of people don’t actually know a lot of our back catalogue. So if you know nothing about the band, you can buy this and understand every nuance of our personalities.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): I’m not actually sure what we’ll be doing. We’re going to do a big gig on the Saturday and on the Friday night we’re going to do something, but we’re not entirely sure what it’s going to be yet – we’re not supposed to say. We may do stuff from the new album, that might be the plan. I’ve seen Primal Scream at Glastonbury doing the whole of Screamadelica, fucking brilliant. So there’s some sort of wind in the sails about the band maybe just performing the whole of One Step Beyond. But then again we might do our new album. We’ll be out and about too. We’re all involved in various family activities. I’m in charge of the knobbly knees competition, but I’ve got a big feeling I’m going to be the winner of that. So there’s a lot of good music, a lot of good things. We’re going to sleep for three days and three nights beforehand to store our sleep, like camels, and unleash our lively souls for 72 hours.

LEE: I was a bit dubious about it at first, as I often am. I thought, ‘Next thing, we’ll be working Haven holiday parks.’ But I ended up having a brilliant time – it was the real, proper fans who were there. Fantastic.

LEE: Falling Down is about your surroundings and the things you got up to and places and people you met and were inspired by. It’s a folk-type lyric to pop music I suppose.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): It’s a memoir with a few songs thrown in for good measure. It’s not stand-up. It’s not An Evening With… I toyed with calling it Mad-Life Crisis, but, in the end, it’s simply My Life Story, which does at least tell you what you can expect, the good bits and the darker moments. When I did it a few months ago, on the first night I thought I’d contracted some weird tropical disease because my mouth was so dry I couldn’t speak. My tongue was stuck up my nostril and I couldn’t speak – I couldn’t even remember my own name. I was also really nervous about what my mum would think of it. I could see her from the stage and she was laughing and crying in all the right places, so I must have been getting it about right. I think she was just amazed I could remember it all, to be honest.

SUGGS (speaking in 2011): Every time I have to fill out a form where it asks your occupation, I never know what to write. I’ve never felt comfortable being described as a songwriter or a singer. But I’m a performer, for sure.

WOODY (speaking in 2011): I’m a drummer, it’s my job and it’s what I’ll do till the day I die. If someone asks me if I want a gig, it’s a stupid question. Yes I’ll do the gig, and I’ll keep doing gigs.