Renew Your Audio Media Subscription for 2009!

22
Special Report
The Nuttiest Sound Around:
Madness
MOJO WORKING talks to Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, and discovers how the heavy heavy monster sound of
Madness came to be put together in the middle of the night, and mixed in a shed.
The Specials may have
spearheaded the British ska
revival that emerged during
1979, but by the end of the year
the race was on to see whether
the Coventry-based band or North
London’s self-styled ‘Nutty Boys’,
Madness, would release their debut
album first. Madness just barely beat
The Specials to the punch, in the
process establishing a production
partnership between Clive Langer
and Alan Winstanley that also went
on to generate hits by artists such
as Elvis Costello, Dexy’s Midnight
Runners, Morrissey, Bush, David
Bowie, and Mick Jagger.
Beginning To Feel
The Heat
Winstanley, who started out as an
engineer at Fulham’s TW Studios,
first met Langer when the latter’s
band, Deaf School, booked time to
record an album with Rob Dickens,
head of Warner Bros. Music, producing.
“[Clive] was always the one
who stuck around to see how the
process went,” recalls Winstanley,
who had worked with Martin
Rushent, including engineering
several Stranglers albums with the
producer, and with Stiff Records
acts such as Rachel Sweet and Lene
Lovich, at the basement studio.
When several members of
Madness, fans of Deaf School,
approached him in mid-1979 to
work with them, Langer, who had
also recorded with Mutt Lange and
Muff Winwood, saw an opportunity
to try his hand at production.
Those tracks, recorded
at Pathway
Studio in
Highbury, caught the ear of Jerry
Dammers, keyboardist with The
Specials, who released the band’s
first single, The Prince, on his 2
Tone Records label in August 1979.
The single peaked at number
16 in the UK chart, but secured
Madness an album deal with Dave
Robinson’s Stiff Records.
Robinson put Winstanley’s name
forward to produce the album,
having worked with him at TW
Studios. The band wanted to
continue working with Langer.
Having also worked together on
tracks for The Yachts as well as
Langer’s post-Deaf School band,
The Boxes, Langer and Winstanley
had no problem pairing up; thus,
one of the most successful UK
production teams was born.
“Dave Robinson told us the
Specials’ album was about to come
out, and he wanted to precede
that release by a week or so. So we
worked non-stop for three weeks,”
reports Langer. “We rehearsed
quite a bit, knocking the songs
into shape. The rhythm section had
always been good, so we were able
to do things quickly.”
Rockin’ In A Shed
Winstanley takes up the story:
“We did the first week at Eden
Studios. The reason we went to
Eden was that The Specials were
in TW with Elvis Costello producing.
When we got to TW for our
second week they’d left a tape
lying around, so we were able to
spy on them and hear what they’d
been doing.”
He continues, “The third week
was supposed to be at the studio
that Martin Rushent and I were
building in the grounds of his
house near Reading [subsequently
named Genetic]. The equipment
had turned up but the studio
wasn’t ready. So the first Madness
album was basically mixed in
his shed!”
Once More With
Feeling
Winstanley recollects that Robinson
arranged to come by and listen to
the album on the
final night of mix-
ing. “We planned
to meet him at the
local pub about
7 o’clock and he
didn’t turn up
until closing time,
about 11; we were
totally out of it!” he
laughs. Robinson
promptly declared
that the title track,
One Step Beyond,
would be the first
single. The producers
pointed out
that the instrumental
track over which
Chas Smash, not yet
a full-time member,
introduced
the band, was just
over one minute
long. “Dave said, ‘Just go once more
round the houses – double it up.
I’m going back to London, have it
in my office by tomorrow,’” recalls
Winstanley.
“By then it was about 2 o’clock
in the morning and we were in no
fit state. So I put the mix through
a couple of mono Eventide
Harmonizers and tagged it onto
the end, so it goes through it twice.
The idea was that it was a demo for
him and we’d go in the next day
and do it for real. By the time we
reconvened to do the remix he’d
mastered it and the lacquers were
on the way to the factory! And it
was a top 10 hit.”
AUDIO MEDIA MAY 2009
Chipmunks Are Go
As for the album, he says,
“From the day we started
recording it was in the
shops five weeks
later,” ahead of The
Specials.
“The idea was that it was
a demo for him and we’d
go in the next day and
do it for real. By the time
we reconvened to do the
remix he’d mastered it
and the lacquers were on
the way to the factory!”
A harmoniser also gave sax
player Lee Thompson his signature
sound, notes Winstanley: “When he
first started playing tenor sax, Lee
didn’t realize it was a B flat instrument,
and it was never quite in
tune. So we’d harmonise it to cover
up the fact that he was out of tune,
and that became his sound.”
As for Mike Barson’s
piano, he continues,
“Rather than harmonise
it we would
double track him
then varispeed the
machine slightly.
We thought that
was the way the
Beatles would have
done it – or maybe
I’d read that’s how
they did it.”
“ I r e m e m b e r
finishing the album
and going home
f e e l i n g r e a l l y
depressed, thinking
it was a load of
rubbish,” says Langer.
“But a couple of
days later, with a bit
of sleep, it sounded
good. It was a good
mixture, capturing what they
were like live but with a bit of
discipline in the studio and a few
poppy moments.”
One Step Beyond reached the
number 2 position and remained
in the UK chart for over a year.
With Langer and Winstanley at the
helm, Madness went on to clock
up 214 weeks on the UK singles
chart between 1980 and 1986.
The pair has produced all but
one of the band’s albums, and
recently finished working on
their ninth full-length and 30th
anniversary release, The Liberty of
Norton Folgate. �
© Copyright Mojo Working International
2009. All Rights Reserved.
Thanks to Mojo Working
International for putting this feature
together. Mojo is a PR company for
the global recording, post,
and creative markets.
www.mojoworking.com