Hey You Rude Boy! It's the Two Tone and related thread (release by release).

I love Madness dearly, but man I hate this song.

 

It's funny, I think some pass it by simply because Terry Hall had left and perhaps assume that it's not a 'proper' Specials album, or in some way inferior to the first two. Whilst I love the others and Terry's vocal prescence, In The Studio is so special (sorry) and not to be missed. Anyone with an interest in this period of music who hasn't yet got a copy should grab one. It's not hard to find and still relatively cheap, although getting a pristine copy for $1 was a bargain. Sorry to rub it in!

 

Not sure if this is common knowledge but a fun fact, the lyrics for the song were part of the original lyrics to "Man At C&A".

*lunatics of course.

 

I don't remember hearing any of the Apollanaires or the Higson single at the time. I think I'd moved on to The Jam by then as my main obsession

 

I won't be able to post tomorrow, so I am going to do Thursday early.
First up is a bit of a Beat Oddity, this release was only released in the UK, was a flop and until a few years ago, had no idea that this single even was released.
It is Pato & Roger's "Pato&Roger A Go Talk" which appeared on Special Beat Service, but on the single was attributed to Pato (Banton) and Ranking Roger. This was backed by the non-album track "Cool Entertainer". It was released on Go Feet FEET 14 not exactly sure of the date. Cool Entertainer was Roger toasting over an instrumental version of "Which Side Of The Bed".

This was in essence a Beat single, but without saying "The Beat" it went totally under most people's radar.


This is the 12" version.

Pato Banton would later go onto score some hits on his own and had a hit with UB40 with Baby Come Back.

 

On 18 sep 82 The Beat released a proper single, which was Jeanette/March Of The Swivelhead which only got to no48 for 3wks. It is a shame that these latter singles didn't chart higher, as they were as good as what came earlier.


Jeanette

March of the Swivelhead
The English Beat-March Of The Swivel Heads

 

The Beat's third album, Special Beat Service entered the charts on 9 oct 82 and got to just no21 for 6 weeks.


I guess The Beat's time was almost over, but I feel they had so much more to give if they could have just had a little more success, especially at home.

 

Special Beat Service was great. I loved it at the time, but I feel the reason it failed to get the respect it deserved was a lot of people had moved on from the ska period, but couldn't see that the bands had moved on also. Whenever they heard mention of The Beat or Madness, they expected another Hands Off..She's Mine or One Step Beyond - ignorant to the fact that all the 2-Tone bands had far more influences at work within their respected sounds. It was the last album from the original Beat line-up; a great shame as they really were continuing to produce diverse and quality music.

Final thought, I always remember the original UK press of this album being very thin and flexible!

 

Special Beat Service is an amazing album. The Beat were an oddity for these groups in that I think they may have been doing better in the US than the UK. Of all the 2 Tone bands (outside of Madness’ “Our House”, which is seen as a fluke one-hit wonder here) The Beat seem to have the most fame and presence in pop culture.

 

I'm sure the Beat's U.S. popularity hinged, in part, on their covering well-known American songs.

 

Listening back to SBS I've not sure it holds up too well, for me. I've not a lover of accordions or the production either.

 

I don't think that's the case. Outside of anglophiles the (English) Beat were never really popular. Most of their fans come from the SBS era, which coincides with MTV becoming a thing in America. Those videos for "Save It For Later" and "I Confess" got a lot of play in MTV'S early days. Add in a few influential radio stations like KROQ in Los Angeles and WLIR in New York and you pretty much have their US exposure covered. It continued into the General Public era, they were really only mildly popular on the coasts. The only popular success any Beat related act had in America was when the second Fine Young Cannibals record blew up.

 

I remember seeing The Beat (English Beat here) doing Save It For Later on American Bandstand. I think I had the 'Dance Craze' soundtrack LP by then and was pretty excitable so I went out and got the 'Special Beat Service' album practically the next day. Not as good as 'Just Can't Stop It', but better than 'Wha'appen' I thought at the time and pretty much still do. I Confess was another great track.

 

I just got “Wha’ppen” on vinyl for $5

 

I didn't know that!

 

The edit on the line "never get there at this rate" on the LP is very clunky. I noticed it when I was 8 as I had the single first. The word "he'll" at the start of the line is totally cut off!

 

I don't think any tracks are faded early on the UK version. I don't remember any tracks being different to the 45 versions. House of Fun fades out but the album version was out first.

 

Oh right. Maybe what I read was wrong. To be honest I never noticed on my copy.

 

what a fantastic thread, I can't contribute but will keep reading this one!

 

I think the tracks are faded a few seconds earlier and very tightly banded - almost cross faded - on the original vinyl. I seem to recall that it was noticable that the It's Madness CDs obviously used the Complete Madness masters as they had the same ever so slightly earlier fades.

 

Hey all, Canada Day weekend in Canada, so have been busy, but here is the next couple of instalments and it's back to Madness.
Madness Present The Rise And Fall... entered the charts on 13 Nov 1982 and got to number 10 and stayed around for 22 weeks.


Includes Tomorrow's Just Another Day and the single that is up next.
I always think of this album as the album where they got away from the wacky image that had been hanging around, especially with the Driving In My Car single. Even Our House which is quite comical it of a more whimsical than slapstick humour.
By this time, Madness was quite an established band, they had transcended the Two Tone movement and had a real identity of their own and had gained a huge amount of respect, respect that they would never lose to this day. They might not get the "hits" that they did in the 80s, although the Wonderful album in the late 90s was a nice surprise which got them a handful of hits again.

 

Our House was released on Stiff buy 163 and got to no5 in the charts and lasted for 13 weeks starting on 27 Nov 1982. This was Madness' biggest hit in the US the following year, probably helped by a really good video.
The single was backed by Walking With Mr Wheeze, and on the 12" there was a "Scratch Mix" of the A side which was one of their best remixes which incorporated samples of some of their other singles.





A truly classic single by Madness, one of their best I think.

 

The first two Madness albums were released in the US, and even their 3rd had limited coverage, but by 1982 Sire wasn't really interested in releasing Rise and Fall. The following year when Our House became a hit, Sire decided that they needed an album to go with it, but instead of releasing Rise and Fall, they released an album that mixed singles from 1980 to 1982, with tracks from Rise and Fall, and called it simply Madness.
The images for the album were a lot less serious than the UK album.



I managed to get a copy of this last year and it is actually a pretty good album, and is an interesting sampler for Madness. Of course with the release of this, it negated the Complete Madness album that the rest of the world got.

 

The US album has two unique mixes, Night Boat To Cairo and It Must Be Love. The US/Canadian 12" of Our House also has two unique mixes.

 

Had the 12" extended play of Our House, got a bit tired of it, but never got tired of Tomorrow's Just Another Day.