Madness (band)

Madness
Madness at Scarborough Open Air Festival in 2024
Madness at Scarborough Open Air Festival in 2024
Background information
OriginCamden Town, London, England
Genres
Years active1976–1986, 1992–present
Spinoffs
Members
Past members
Websitemadness.co.uk

Madness are an English ska and pop band from Camden Town, north west London, who formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s two-tone ska revival, they continue to perform with six of the seven members of their original line-up.[1] Madness's most successful period was from 1980 to 1986, when the band's songs spent a total of 214 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, holding the record along with English reggae group UB40 for most weeks spent by a group in the UK singles chart during the 1980s.[2][3][4]

Madness have had 16 singles reach the UK top ten, including "One Step Beyond", "Baggy Trousers" and "It Must Be Love", one UK number-one single "House of Fun" and two number ones in Ireland, "House of Fun" and "Wings of a Dove". "Our House" was their biggest US hit, reaching number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2000, the band received the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Outstanding Song Collection.[5]

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas."Madness biography". Retrieved on 19 June 2007.
  2. ^ Rice 1990. p. 286
  3. ^ "Graham McPherson". IMDb. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
  4. ^ "Five things you might not know about Madness". The News. 23 May 2018. Archived from the original on 24 May 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference novellobbc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).