As a founding member of ’80s pop legends Madness, Cathal Smyth has many, em, mad claims to fame. Amongst them is the time Morrissey asked him to be his manager through the medium of that famous song ‘You’re The One For Me, Fatty’.
“Yeah, well allegedly I was quite overweight at the time,” the amiable 56-year-old musician chuckles.
Needless to say, Smyth turned Moz’s request down.
“My then wife said,‘Oh, don’t be daft, you wouldn’t want to be ironing his socks!’ I’m glad I didn’t, you know? He’s a very interesting man – very succinct, very minimal but intense – and I like that. Morrissey’s very much at the altar of Morrissey.”
Despite his own years of success in the music business, it’s only in recent times that Smyth has actually considered himself an artist. Last year he abruptly dropped his ‘Chas Smash’ moniker, quit Madness, and put the finishing touches to a solo album he’d been working on for almost a decade.
“Madness are out playing probably the biggest tour of England they’ve done in years right nowI’m not with them,” he shrugs. “In June of last year I had an epiphany, and realised I had to make some changes in my life.”
Although he had actually instigated the Madness reformation, he knew he had to follow his own path.
“I reformed the band, I managed the band, and I came up with the tour names, the photographs and the content for the programmes. I’m quite control issue obsessive. But I had to focus on myself for a bit. I had to leave, take a break – whether it’s forever, or for a month, or for a year. It’s definitely not for a month! Because they’re busy all this year.”
Will he go out to see them on tour?
“No, I won’t,” he says, shaking his head. “I mean it’s like a separation in all intent. And the separation curve is I’ve gone through the grieving and the fear. It was likeAn American Werewolf In London, that scene where he wakes up from a dream, but it’s still a dream, then he wakes up again and again. I was going through sleepless nights, like, have I done the right thing? This was my day job! I might end up poor in a garret in Paris! Then, a leap of faith is aeap of faith. I applied a bit of the old Sun Tzu aspect, which is – burn your boats and leap. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done it, I would just be there forever.”
Instead of joining his former fellow Nutty Boys on tour, Smyth will instead be touring and promoting his heart-breaking solo debut, A Comfortable Man. He began work on the album during a month-long stint in Cottonwood Tucson, a rehab facility in Arizona, more than a decade ago. Following a painful split from his wife of 28 years, he had checked in to deal with his anger, hurt and depression.
He ultimately worked through his issues by writing a series of cathartic songs. Although the break-up happened in 2005, many of these beautifully orchestrated pop ballads still sound raw and fragile. In ‘Love Song No 7’, he sings, “My heart is in pieces/ It’s lying broken on the floor/ My days are so empty/ Without you in them anymore.”
He admits that it’s all a little behind schedule.
“I made a three, five and seven-year plan,” he laughs. “I separated in 2005, I sent something to my ex in year three, I sent her the songs in year five, and in year seven I was going to release them. So I’m three years late. But there was a plan; I just wasn’t ready in year seven.”
Smyth isn’t overly concerned how A Comfortable Man sells. As the title suggests, as far as he’s concerned it’s already done its work for him. He freely admits he’s still in love with his ex-wife, but these songs are what got him through.
“I’m very happy. I’ve gone through the fear, now I’m in the love. You know... fear?” He firmly shakes his head. “Love! Fucking love! That’s what it’s about.”