{"id":622962,"date":"2026-09-21T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622962\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:20:10","slug":"being-in-madness-kept-some-of-them-out-of-jail-how-the-baggy-trousered-nutty-boys-made-a-guerrilla-cinema-classic-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622962\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Being in Madness kept some of them out of jail\u2019: how the baggy-trousered nutty boys made a guerrilla cinema classic | Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s March 1981 and Madness<\/a> are revisiting the haunts of their recent youth with a film crew in tow. In the 18 months since releasing their debut single, The Prince, the group have become the UK\u2019s most beloved hit-makers, their ascent abetted by inventive music videos that have left viewers of Top of the Pops and Tiswas believing a man could fly \u2013 while blowing a sax.<\/p>\n

But this new project is something else. Instead of squandering their newfound wealth on fast cars and country piles, the seven-piece have invested in a semi-fictional big-screen telling of their origin story that tempers their trademark \u201cnuttiness\u201d with a kitchen-sink realism suiting their working-class roots. While Take It or Leave It sank into obscurity soon after release, a new 4K restoration has primed the film for rediscovery as a time-capsule of grimy 70s London, and perhaps cinema\u2019s most honest depiction of the challenges involved in trying to get a band together.<\/p>\n

The movie was the brainchild of Dave Robinson, honcho of Stiff Records. Back in 1979, Robinson triumphed in the bidding war for Madness, then in their late teens and early 20s. \u201cThere was a special connection,\u201d the charismatic Dublin-born mogul says today. \u201cTo them I was \u2018Uncle Dave\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

All naturals \u2026 Madness filming Take It or Leave It in 1981. Photograph: BFI<\/p>\n

Robinson recognised Madness as more than just prodigiously talented musicians and songwriters. \u201cWe were these different characters, jumping around and clowning about, like kids at school showing off,\u201d says keyboardist Mike Barson. \u201cDave encouraged that.\u201d Uncle Dave intuited this energy would flourish in the embryonic music-video format, hiring Chuck Statler \u2013 who\u2019d made memorable clips for Devo<\/a> and worked quick and cheap \u2013 to film Madness\u2019s first promos. Dave took over the reins for 1980\u2019s My Girl, working even quicker and cheaper. \u201cI was also running a record label,\u201d he says, \u201cso we\u2019d have to get the videos done in a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Robinson never compromised his youthful charges\u2019 imaginative approach. Saxophonist Lee Thompson tested the label-owner\u2019s impressive ability to \u201cmake things happen\u201d with 1980\u2019s Baggy Trousers. \u201cI told Robbo I wanted to play sax while flying through the air,\u201d says Thompson, who arrived at the shoot to find Robinson had booked a forklift and kirby wire. The resulting stunt became part of the group\u2019s iconography.<\/p>\n

double quotation markTracking shots were filmed by a cameraman in a trolley or on a bicycle<\/p>\n

When Robinson began work on Take It or Leave It, he says, \u201cpeople told me it couldn\u2019t be done, that we were mad\u201d. He tapped the band members and manager John \u201cKelloggs\u201d Kalinowski for \u00a320,000 each (\u201cthe price of a fuckin\u2019 two-bedroom in NW5 back then\u201d, says Thompson), covering the rest of the budget himself. \u201cI had planned to shoot it in a week,\u201d he says. But when Robinson arrived on set the first day he was greeted by \u201c50 guys staring at me, eating bacon sandwiches\u201d. Unlike the videos, the movie was \u201ca unionised shoot\u201d, and Robinson sensed this crew would slow him down. \u201cI had to get rid of them. I paid them all off and they never turned up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crew purged, he returned to his \u201ctypical smash-and-grab, guerrilla-film-making methods\u201d. Frontman Graham \u201cSuggs\u201d McPherson remembers tracking shots being filmed \u201cby a cameraman in a trolley or on a bicycle\u201d; overhead shots involved \u201csomeone hanging off a stepladder\u201d. Robinson rarely sought permission to shoot locations, guitarist Chris Foreman describing their mindset as \u201cdo it quick enough and they can\u2019t tell you to stop. By the time some jobsworth comes along, you\u2019ve already finished.\u201d It was a vibe they\u2019d learned as teenage delinquent graffiti artists.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Madness took care of the soundtrack, covering Elvis Presley and Fats Domino tracks \u2013 often poorly, on purpose, to suggest the roughness of their first incarnations \u2013 and performing their own songs during scenes replicating early gigs. They also cut new songs such as Don\u2019t Look Back, a funk track heard during a party scene, and co-wrote the script \u2013 what there was of it.<\/p>\n

Delinquent graffiti artists \u2026 the film\u2019s smash-and-grab guerrilla-film-making methods harked back to the bands teenage years in Camden. Photograph: BFI<\/p>\n

Before production began, Robinson interviewed the group about their early days, boiling his research down to 30 scenes that told the Madness story. On set, the band members would ad-lib these scenes with \u201cgreat older actors\u201d Robinson had hired to play authority figures. His cast were, he says, \u201call naturals\u201d. McPherson remembers Robinson screening \u201cKes, Bronco Bullfrog, Mean Streets and some British kitchen-sink dramas, to get that vibe of just being ourselves\u201d. He also took them to see Raging Bull, Thompson adds, which was \u201can eye-opener: black and white, grainy, gritty, real. Dave wanted that as our inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Realism was paramount. Robinson filmed scenes where they\u2019d actually happened: shabby rehearsal rooms; legendary Camden hostelry The Dublin Castle; the Crouch End home of Mike Barson\u2019s mum, where the group first formed. \u201cDave used cameramen who\u2019d worked on documentaries,\u201d says bassist Mark Bedford, \u201cand the film was close to a documentary \u2013 most things had really happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d done all these psychedelic videos,\u201d McPherson adds, \u201cbut our aim now was to capture the dreary reality of forming a band.\u201d The first 20 minutes of the movie are in black and white, he says, \u201cbecause London felt fuckin\u2019 black and white in the late 70s\u201d. There\u2019s little of the manic visual invention of their music videos, although a set-piece where Thompson drives a van into a low bridge during brief, ill-fated employment on a building site is a masterpiece of comic pacing. A plan for the streets to turn into marshmallow after a wild night out was nixed due to budget \u2013 and a worry this family-friendly band shouldn\u2019t let on that some members enjoyed psychedelics.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Take It or Leave It is a very funny film, much of its comedy coming from Barson. \u201cMike had a role he could sink his teeth into: the bad guy,\u201d says Foreman. As the sardonic ringleader of this unruly circus, he excoriates band members for bum notes, bad attitudes and, in McPherson\u2019s case, ditching rehearsal to go see his beloved Chelsea FC. Barson\u2019s abrasive manner, which Bedford says was \u201cslightly exaggerated\u201d for the film, sees off McPherson, Thompson and vocalist\/trumpeter Cathal Smyth for brief periods, although everyone agrees that without Barson\u2019s \u201cdoggedness\u201d, the band would never have made it. \u201cMike was the engine,\u201d says Bedford.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s clear the youthful Madness aren\u2019t Brit School graduates\u2019 \u2026 an image from Dave Robinson\u2019s private collection. Photograph: Dave Robinson<\/p>\n

Throughout, there is a sense that this beloved pop-cultural institution might easily have never happened, for all the everyday, low-drama reasons so many bands implode: internal ructions, the interminable juggle of creative ambitions and real-life responsibilities \u2013 and the eternal struggle to find a decent drummer. When the lineup finally coalesces and the artists formerly known as the North London Invaders rehearse as Madness for the first time, it makes for electrifying cinema.<\/p>\n

Not least because of the stakes at play. Throughout the film, it\u2019s clear the youthful Madness aren\u2019t Brit School graduates or posh kids slumming it before taking a job at daddy\u2019s firm. Thompson can\u2019t get saxophone lessons because his horn is stolen and its serial number has been rubbed off. Suggs\u2019 chronic truancy and misbehaviour solicit the unwelcome attention of social services, looking to remove him from his mum\u2019s care. One gig ends with an ambush by skinheads in the toilets, the band narrowly escaping a clobbering in their Morris Minors.<\/p>\n

On the commentary track for an earlier DVD release, Robinson said: \u201cThe system didn\u2019t know what to do with young lads who weren\u2019t nasty but were just trying to have a laugh.\u201d Today, he reckons \u201cbeing in Madness kept some of these lads out of jail\u201d. The film reveals an edge that wasn\u2019t obvious while the group was clowning with Tiswas\u2019s Phantom Flan Flinger, but surfaced on grittier songs like Embarrassment, Overdone and Not Home Today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at a crossroads,\u201d nods Thompson, whose dad had been in prison multiple times. He remembers wondering, \u201c\u2018Do I stick with the band, or hang around the bus stop sniffing glue?\u2019 The pal who got me my saxophone, he was later stabbed to death in the Music Machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barson\u2019s crossroads moment is depicted in the film, although it\u2019s played as fantasy, he and friend Si Birdsall discovering neon tube-lights, wielding them like light-sabres and evading the coppers. In reality, they actually got caught smashing lightbulbs by transport police and were sentenced to three weeks at Wormwood Scrubs. En route to prison, his police van passed Buckingham Palace, and he saw the bus he used to ride into central London.<\/p>\n

At a crossroads \u2026 the light-sabre scene was inspired by Barson\u2019s arrest and imprisonment for smashing neon lights. Photograph: BFI<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018If I was free, I could get on that bus, go home and make myself a cup of tea. But now I\u2019m wondering if they\u2019re going to strip-search us and hose us with disinfectant when we get there.\u2019 I was scared. After that, I pulled back from hanging out with them kids who were into wild, aggressive things and put that energy into music. Years later, in 2012, we played on the roof of Buckingham Palace and the queen waved up at us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all on a spectrum of petty criminality, growing up in an environment of violence,\u201d says McPherson, \u201cthough none of us had that thing where you\u2019ve been beaten into wanting to hurt other people. There was a crossroads where some in our gang were definitely going criminal, and we were the artistic side of that coin. Criminality boils down to: are you prepared to shoot someone? And no, I\u2019m not. I don\u2019t think I had the guts for it. The band was our way out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the shoot took longer than a week: memories vary, but somewhere between a fortnight and a month. Robinson broke his foot midway through but says: \u201cAt the end, we all clapped each other on the back and said, \u2018We got away with it!\u2019 We were thinking it\u2019d go on the art film circuit. But it played in one cinema in Camden and that was it. We didn\u2019t get a big campaign from the distributor, which it needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Guardian\u2019s Derek Malcolm gave the film a positive review, and a VHS release sold well to the Madness faithful, Take It or Leave It was quickly forgotten. A couple of years later, after their guest appearances on The Young Ones<\/a>, that show\u2019s creatives, Ben Elton and Richard Curtis, filmed a pilot<\/a> for a proposed Madness sitcom. \u201cThe premise was that we ran Britain and had to solve some big problem every week,\u201d remembers Foreman. \u201cITV were interested, but we were holding out for the BBC. Then Mike left the group, so it came to nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, McPherson auditioned for Julien Temple\u2019s Absolute Beginners, but broke his big toe while training with the choreographer. \u201cSo that was the beginning and the end of my film career,\u201d he sighs, though he doesn\u2019t really sound very disappointed. \u201cMadness was always my priority,\u201d he explains, \u201cand I\u2019m so glad. If I\u2019d gone into acting, I\u2019d never have achieved everything I did with the band. You can\u2019t have it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he never made another film, Robinson is still active, organising benefit concerts for the children of Ukraine. Madness released their 12th album in 2023 and recently completed a summer tour. The restoration has them reflecting on their movie, and the passage of time. For Barson, four-and-a-half decades have caused reality and near-reality to blur. \u201cWhen I try to remember what really happened, I get stuck on how it happened in the film,\u201d he says. \u201cThe reality has become inaccessible because that film gets in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film is now a time capsule for a bygone age: the band comment longingly on machines on the tube selling 40p tickets and the ability to park your car wherever you wanted. Other memories are more heartfelt. \u201cGary Bovey, who was briefly our drummer and played himself in the film, was a good friend of mine,\u201d says Bedford. \u201cHe died a few years ago, and it\u2019s amazing to see him on screen, speaking and being himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so disappointed with the film when we finished it,\u201d adds McPherson. \u201cI thought it was prosaic and boring. But now \u2013 it\u2019s just so charming. We were friends, most of us, before the band started, and we are good friends now. To see our story up on screen makes me very proud. I love those guys. I fucking love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take It or Leave It is in UK and Irish cinemas from 2 October, and on Blu-ray\/DVD from 19 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s March 1981 and Madness are revisiting the haunts of their recent youth with a film crew in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-622962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}