On the inner sleeve of Wonderful, their first album of all-new material since 1985's Mad Not Mad, Madness have included the quote "I knew you'd come back. We always do. Like thieves returning to the scene of the crime" which somehow seems a typically tongue-in-cheek Madness way of deflecting any potential criticisms which may come their way.
"There's a certain element of getting your retaliation in first, alright!", laughs Cathal Smyth, the man who under the moniker Chas Smash inspired a generation of teenagers to plague school discos with demented, angular dance shapes.
"We knew that while people were quite happy for us to play a few big shows every couple of years, a full album of new material was a different story entirely. Playing a 'greatest hits' set is fine, but if we'd rushed into recording a bunch of new songs when we first got back together we'd probably have been slaughtered, and more than likely deserved it. I think we were right to hold off making this record until now. There was no panic or pressure and we felt completely confident with the quality of the songs. I reckon it shows, even if I am biased!"
Cathal's confidence is indeed justified, as Wonderful maintains Madness' noble traditions of mercurial mood shifts, gliding easily from melancholy verses to an ecstatic chorus in 'Lovestruck' and on 'Johnny The Horse' disguising a grim tale of displacement and death within an unremittingly jolly tune.
"That's a true story," says Cathal of 'Johnny The Horse'. "There these two tramps who used to hang around near where I lived when the band were starting off. They'd sit on a park wall drinking their bottles of VP Ruby Red, but one day there was just one of them there when I passed and he was crying his eyes out because his mate had been kicked to death by a gang of lads. For a laugh! That's where "Johnny The Horse was kicked to death/He died for entertainment" came from, and I remembered that story and expanded it a bit to take in how we all have the potential to be great, but life can take you down weird roads."
When Madness first cavorted into our consciousness in 1979 they were undoubtedly a goodtime band, their ska-rooted early hits barely hinting at the depth and sophistication which would gradually seep into their writing. Yet for a significant percentage of their public, the Nutty Boys image of the band was set in stone, which must have caused a certain amount of frustration within the ranks.
"To an extent, yeah," agrees Cathal. "At the start there's no question that it was just full-on entertainment, not that there was anything wrong with that at all. The darker side of the band came as a reaction to the Eighties recession when the full effects of Thatcherism began to show. We were touring constantly from the off and by our fourth or fifth time around the country we began to see that a lot of our fans were going through a tough time. You'd drive into towns and on every visit there'd be more factories closed and shops boarded up. There was a gloomy mood in the country which was virtually impossible for anyone with a brain not to pick up on and, naturally enough, it started coming out in the music. We saw ourselves as a Pop band certainly, but that shouldn't mean that everything you do has to be superficial and irrelevant."
For many the key seachange in Madness' fortunes came in 1984 when keyboard player Mike Barson left and moved to Holland and although classic songs like 'Michael Caine', 'Yesterday's Men' and 'One Better Day' maintained their impeccable standards and remarkable run of Top 20 hits, by 1986 the remaining six members had decided to call it a day.
"It wasn't so much that we felt we were drying up or anything," he recalls, "more that we were knackered. Since 1979 we'd been on the go constantly. We'd not had a really decent break. For the first few years it was incredibly exciting of course, an adventure, a gang on the road, but we all had relationships and families and gradually you're worn down by being away for most of the time.
"When you're standing onstage with a crowd going mental in front of you and find yourself looking at your watch thinking 'Oh, must ring my girlfriend once we're off' you know it's time to step off the treadmill. Of course it suits a record company's interests to keep a band busy - less time on their hands to think up awkward questions! - but we all had lives and wanted to live them. That was why we knocked it on the head."
Cathal, singer Suggs, sax player Lee Thompson and guitarist Chris Foreman reconvened for an album in 1988 as The Madness ("Not exactly a bright or clever move, looking back," he admits) but it wasn't until 1992 that the first reunion took place with two huge gigs in London's Finsbury Park, the Madstock festival.
"It made sense," says Cathal. "There hadn't been any bad blood between us, we were all getting on with our own lives, the Divine Madness compilation had topped the charts, so we thought 'Why not?' We weren't going to be flogging ourselves around the world for six months and the money certainly came in handy. It was an honest endeavour with no hidden agenda: 'Here's the hits, let's have a good day out'. And it was incredibly enjoyable, so much so that we repeated it in '94, '96 and '98."
One of the support acts at that first Madstock was Ian Dury, now sadly battling with cancer, who turns up on Wonderful as guest vocalist on the marvellously sleazy 'Drip Fed Fred'.
"When Lee approached him about doing the song and told him the title Ian's initial reaction was 'Are you taking the piss, mate?' It didn't take too long to convince him of the sincerity of our intentions and he put the vocal down in double-quick time. There's no doubt that Kilburn ... The High Roads and The Blockheads were influences on Madness so it was very fitting to square the circle, especially as he hasn't got too much time left. I'd really love to get it out as a single while he's still around, as if it was to come out posthumously I think it'd be a bit creepy, to be honest. In fact, we did a few dates in the States recently and people were actually turning up with placards proclaiming 'We Want Freddie For Our Leader'. So it's a live favourite already."
So with all their songwriting skills intact and a fine album showing the benefits of a sustained bout of battery recharging, what are the long-term plans for Madness?
"The long-term plan is that there is no long-term plan," laughs Cathal. "There's no pressure, the album with Virgin is a one-off deal so if we decide we don't want to carry on then we don't have to. We're all grown men - some of us a tad overgrown perhaps! - and we're actually looking forward to heading out and playing plenty of dates. Get us out from under our wives' feet! Our attitude has remained the same. Our attitude was that we played Pop music and we continue to do that. We've always been approachable, we were never on a star trip, and that's resulted in a lot of goodwill. People vote with their feet. And we wouldn't have it any other way." n
* Wonderful is out now on Virgin.