Given
their first chance by a son of Mayo, signed and mentored by a Dubliner and
convinced to reform by a Waterford man Madness have all the Irish links needed
to headline the festival that brings to a close a year-long celebration of all
things Irish. Here we look at the numerous ties that Camden Town’s favourite
sons hold with the Emerald Isle.
So here we are at New
Year’s Eve 2013 looking forward to improving economic Irish fortunes in 2014
and saying goodbye to The Gathering. The last event of this celebration is
Dublin’s New Year’s Eve party. It all sounds so exciting…..except something
doesn’t make sense. The Gathering’s website states that The Gathering is “an exciting year-long celebration of
Ireland and its people”.
Bowler Hats Or Bodhrans?
So how can the headline
act be the quintessentially English act Madness. Should there be Bowler Hats or
Bodhrans on stage? Well the same website also states that it “invites anyone who has a link to Ireland or
just a love of the country, to come to Ireland”. Such a closer inspection tells
you that North London’s finest songwriters are the right choice. They are the
ultimate party band but of greater relevance is the extent to which they are
steeped in Irish links, both musical and non-musical.
When all 7 original
members of Madness walk out on to the stage to bring in the New Year, they will
also be welcoming in the year that marks their 35th anniversary.
Madness hail from NW1, Camden Town, a borough of London that has been home to
swades of Irish immigrants since the first settlers were attracted by a local
jobs boom created by railway and canal construction almost 200 years ago. Madness themselves have
very strong Irish links including two singles in their back catalogue which
cover the plight of homeless Irish people in London.
Last year's NYE gig saw Imelda May sing Kentish Town Waltz, which described her stressful first London years spent with her husband living in Camden Town's next door neighbourhood. This year Madness will blast out NW5, saxophonist Lee Thompson's own depiction of another stressful relationship with a loved one in Kentish Town.
Last year's NYE gig saw Imelda May sing Kentish Town Waltz, which described her stressful first London years spent with her husband living in Camden Town's next door neighbourhood. This year Madness will blast out NW5, saxophonist Lee Thompson's own depiction of another stressful relationship with a loved one in Kentish Town.
Cathal Smyth aka Chas Smash
Many of the key people who
have helped Madness on their way are Irish men and singer Chas Smash’s real
name given to him by his Irish parents is Cathal. The son of an engineer, Cathal
Smyth only chose the nickname because he grew tired of cockneys mispronouncing
his first name. The first words you hear when Madness step on stage on
Wednesday night “Hey You Don’t Watch That Watch This” will be belted out by
Cathal Joseph Patrick Smyth, the man who lived in Dublin, Bray, Coleraine and
Sligo as a child. His parents were Irish dancing champions and his grandfather
set up Smyth's School of Irish Dancing in London in 1945.
The songwriter, dancer,
guitarist and trumpet playing Smyth shouts out for his Sligo relatives “Tommy McGloin
and his combo” in the 1981 hit Return Of
The Los Palmas 7. He still owns land in Mayo.
Irish, Homeless and Living In London
In 1984 Madness released
two singles, both of which had strong Irish links. The Suggs penned One Better Day is a London love story of
two homeless people. This top 20 hit which just happens to be Gwen Stefani’s
favourite Madness single is set in that great London-Irish institution
Arlington House. The song’s accompanying video which personified Madness’s
later darker material opens up with Suggs dressed as a tramp sitting on the
steps of the entrance of the hostel situated in the heart of Camden Town
singing:
“Arlington house, address: no fixed abode
An old man in a three-piece suit sits in the road”
Arlington House,
originally known as Rowton House, was originally set up in 1905 to provide
accommodation for working men. It went on to become Europe’s biggest hostel for
the homeless. For three quarters of its history Arlington House was home to
more than 1,000 homeless people and as many as 400 people at the turn of the millennium.
Up until recently about a third of the residents were Irish and in its earlier
years it was majority Irish. Residents included Brendan Behan and Dominic
Behan. Patrick Kavanagh wrote of the hostel in his autobiography The Green Fool
“Many Irish boys made Rowton House,
Camden Town, first stop from Mayo. The soft voices of Mayo and Galway sounding
in that gaunt, impersonal place fell like warm rain on the arid patches of my
imagination.”
Of the institution and its residents Suggs himself only ever speaks fondly of Arlington House “We've lived in this area all our lives and I've always had an affinity for this place. If you live in Camden you know the streets are full of Arlington House people whether you chose to notice them yourself or not. It is a strange old building, with real characters who have come out of there.”
Some 15 years later Madness would release Johnny The Horse another track with Camden and Irish homelessness at its epicentre. The song was written after Madness singer Cathal Smyth noticed a homeless Irish man at the bottom of his street, crying. The emotional man told Smyth that his best mate Dempsey had been kicked to death. The song itself has a very Irish folk music feel and sounds like nothing else from Madness’s back catalogue of hits.
When Arlington House celebrated its centenary Madness played an open air gig and released doves of peace into the air during Wings Of A Dove which was a number 1 hit in just one country – Ireland of course.
Northern Ireland
Michael Caine was
Madness’s other big hit of 1984. Cathal Smyth spoke about the song at the time “Michael Caine is about informers in Ireland
and the way the government were using them to put people in internment camps in
prison. But I didn’t want to make it that obvious. It was just basically the
atmosphere I was looking for. The atmosphere of mistrust. I just threw Michael
Caine in as a red herring to confuse people.”
Smyth mentions how the
atmosphere of mistrust was never going to solve the north’s problems. Yet at
the same time plans were being put in place by Margaret Thatcher and Garrett
Fitzgerald for the following year’s Anglo-Irish agreement which alienated and heightened
mistrust on both sides of the divide. It was only 10 years later when John Hume
built trust by showing that getting the terrorists around the table was the way
forward did politicians understand what Madness were singing about. In
hindsight Michael Caine was quite prophetic.
Camden, NW1: A Postcode Of Irish Pubs
Madness grew up in a
Camden Town that was heaving with Irish pubs. One such legendary drinking hole
was Mother Redcap directly opposite
Camden Town tube station. Now known as World’s
End it was famous for its traditional Irish music sessions. Suggs spent a
couple of hours in Easons of O’Connell Street last month autographing his new
biography That Close for his many Irish fans. In the book he speaks fondly of
the Irish influenced Camden Town that he grew up in “All the pubs had these lovely function rooms and it gave a platform
for Irish bands and folk, and then pub rock. I also have to say I loved that
greyness: the Irish pubs selling Guinness, Greek Cypriot cafés serving lovely
food. It was great for someone young who did not have a lot of money.”
The Irish presence in
Camden Town has declined in recent years but the town is still the location of
the London Irish centre which celebrates Irish traditional music and dancing
through its Return to Camden Town Festival,
now in its 15th year.
The Mayo Connection – Alo Conlon’s Dublin Castle
Madness also had their
first residency given to them by a Mayo man. Alo Conlon arrived in London in
1956 as a tunnel digger but later took over The
Dublin Castle bar in Camden Town. He gave Madness their first residency
there in 1979. Convincing him did involve a few white lies though. Suggs tells
the story:
“Alo was such a friendly chap to talk to and he
gave us a break when we had barely started getting going. He asked us what we
played and we said country and western, and jazz - we thought that would be the
thing to say when going in to ask for a gig at an Irish pub. I have such a
soft spot for it, and the Conlon family who run it have been very kind. It is a
remarkable place.”
Madness have always shown
their gratitude to the pub which is still run by the Conlon clan in 2013. The
video for their Top 3 hit My Girl was filmed in the back room. They played 4
gigs in 4 nights in that very same room on their 25th anniversary in
2004 and have regularly used the ‘Castle as a venue for interviews over the
years. It is adorned with Madness pictures and posters and is still booming as
the mecca for Madness fans all these years later. Not only have Madness got
strong Irish links but we can see they have never forgotten them.
Suggs is particularly
sentimental about Old London and when he filmed his TV series Disappearing London a few years ago he
availed of the opportunity to interview Alo’s son Henry Conlon who now runs the
pub since Alo aka The Governor Of The
Dublin Castle sadly left this world in 2009.
Irish Gigs – This Never Ending Madness
Unlike some acts who avoided
Ireland at their peak, Madness have played Ireland in each of the last four decades. Their first gig in early 1980 is still remembered by the
band, mainly due to one fan jumping off the balcony of Dublin’s Olympic
Ballroom and into the crowd, obviously inspired by the Quadrophenia film. The
gig itself was celebrated in the 1995 Tivoli Theatre play Too Much Too Young. Chas
Smash popped over with Madness saxophonist Lee Thompson and recalled the
particular incident in an interview with Eamon Carr “God that was so weird. He jumped and everyone got out of the way and
let him fall”.
The plot featured three
Madness fans who meet up on the 15th anniversary of the famous gig
with contrasting fortunes in terms of how their lives had changed in the
intervening decade and a half. Suggs would have made it a Nutty Boy threesome
if other commitments hadn’t got in the way. “I
was chuffed to bits to find we were the inspiration for that play. If I hadn’t
been in the studio finishing off my debut solo album I would’ve come over for
the opening night” he told Hot Press some months later.
He was back in Dublin the
following year to officially open the highly respected Caviston’s Fish
Restaurant in Glasthule. These days he is more akin to closing things down such
as the 2012 Olympics ceremony and the BBC Television Centre. Suggs has recently
joked about this saying “we’re off to Cyprus next”. Let’s hope Madness’s
appearance doesn’t jinx our nation’s fortunes only a fortnight after exiting
the bailout.
The Dublin Connection – Dave Robinson
The most important person in
the septet’s success was Dave Robinson, ex-student of Blackrock and Terenure
College and the MD of Stiff Records. Dubliner Robinson, the former tour manager
of Jimi Hendrix and the man who got the first punk single into the charts (The
Damned’s New Rose) used his own wedding to audition Madness. When I interviewed
him in 2007 he recalled the moment with laughter “They didn’t have any gigs that I could go to. I needed a band for the
wedding and we tied the two things together so we ended up kind of having them
at the wedding and auditioning at the same time. My wife brings it up all the
time. She regularly holds it against me”
Robinson saw Madness as
his adopted sons. Robinson was a music industry revolutionary which seems hard
to comprehend in these times where marketing men such as Simon Cowell are his
equivalent. He took a particular interest in them and his musical intervention
was immense including being responsible for three of Madness’s biggest hits. He
convinced them to release One Step Beyond
and It Must Be Love to be singles
when they wanted neither to be released. He also famously walked in on a
rehearsal of House Of Fun (then known
as The Chemist Façade) and told the
band that if they could write a chorus they had a number one hit. The Dubliner
was right. They took his advice and it was Madness’s only number one hit.
Robinson, who also signed
London-Irish acts The Pogues and Elvis Costello, is still involved with them in
2013.
The Waterford Connection – Vince Power
Madness had broken up in
1986. Roll forward six years and young music lovers were listening to Nirvana
and waiting for another Stone Roses album. There appeared to be no hunger for a
Madness reunion either within the band or amongst the music buying public. Vince
Power CBE from Kilmacthomas, County Waterford was known as The Godfather Of Gigs and the man behind London’s Fleadh Festival. Through his Mean Fiddler music group he
convinced Madness to reform. 36,000 tickets for a one-off gig in Finsbury Park sold
out within an hour. A second gig was announced with another 36,000 tickets
promptly sold.
The dancing to One Step
Beyond in the first gig caused an earthquake of 4.5 on the Richter Scale. Some
21 years following this decision to reunite Camden’s Magnificent 7 are stronger
than ever.
The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
Madness’s resurgence was
kickstarted by 2009’s The Liberty Of Norton Folgate. Hailed as
“a masterpiece”, as “their greatest album” and as “their magnum opus” it would
be their first Top 5 studio album since 1981’s “7” album.
Whereas the earlier
release celebrated the London of red buses, black taxis and speakers’ corner,
Folgate’s maturity celebrated a different side of the capital city. It rejoiced
in how Irish, Jewish, Asian and Caribbean immigration had contributed a
cultural diversity that has helped make London the exciting vibrant city that
it is today. This culminated in a 10 minute title track featuring some
traditional Irish music in the form of a mandolin solo.
Suggs’ Never Ending Fondness For Ireland
Like fellow band member Cathal
Smyth, Suggs has a particular fondness for Ireland. When interviewed by Hot
Press at the height of mid-90’s Britpop Suggs flirted with the idea of taking
things one step beyond. This was at a time when his beloved Camden was being
taken over by Blur and Oasis fans trying to get a glimpse of their heroes in
one of his beloved pubs “Every time we
come over my wife gets worried because I start looking at houses and going
‘Mmmm, I wouldn’t mind living there’. I was out on the piss with some friends
of mine in Dun Laoghaire last night and it was great because even though I was
recognised a few times, no-one gave me any hassle”
The Right Choice
I wrote this article
following a recent contribution to Joe Duffy’s Liveline. A caller had
questioned the suitability of an intrinsically English band headlining the
closing event of a year-long celebration of Irish culture. Madness are certainly
not an Irish band despite these many connections but rather than being very English
it would be more accurate to call them a quintessentially London band.
They have always been good
to Ireland and Ireland has been good for them. Rather than being self-defeating
the idea of having a non-Irish band headline The Gathering’s final event is apt.
It recognises that demographically and economically modern Ireland is not an
inward looking or self-sufficient nation. It is a modern one with a
cosmopolitan multi-cultural capital city that relies on, prospers and welcomes
interaction with immigrants, tourists, celebrities and corporations from around
the world.
When the clock strikes
midnight and I hug the token random bloke beside me who has rarely fitted into
his medium sized Madness t-shirt since he bought it outside Dublin’s SFX Centre
in late 1985 I may ask: Do I care about the nationality of the band making this
New Year’s Eve such a special one? The answer is Yes. I will be delighted that
we looked across the water for inspiration.
