I HAVE wondered for a while what it is that has drawn me into the sphere of ‘80s legends’ Madness this year.

That is, of course beyond their excellent music. You know the hit singles – and don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love them. I also particularly like some of their album tracks, lesser known singles and more recent hits so I will take a moment to name check three of several – March of the Gherkins (from the album Keep Moving), One Better Day (also from Keep Moving, but a genuinely beautiful song which was the product of one of the rarer songwriting combinations in the band, namely Suggs and Mark Bedford) and Yesterday’s Men (from the album Mad Not Mad).

One factor is also the music videos; it could be argued fairly successfully that Madness and their record label Stiff Records were among the earliest to understand the power of the music video in the nascent world of MTV.

I can never decide what my favourite Madness music video is – Our House is gloriously funny, Baggy Trousers is a microcosm of the time it was made (not to forget THAT sax solo on strings) and I’ve long liked Uncle Sam just for how silly and daft it is.

More recently, I particularly like the music video for Mr Apples (from the 2016 album Can’t Touch Us Now). So on an amusement level, Madness really deliver.

But in recent weeks, I have found myself watching various documentaries and films both about Madness and in some cases, produced by them and I think I’ve realised what it is.

It’s their authenticity. It’s a group of genuinely ordinary people who managed to break through the thick ice ceiling to make a creative career for themselves.

Where nowadays popular music is more manufactured than ever, with Tiktok followings, algorithms, marketing teams and ‘casting’ increasingly dictating the music that’s made and listened to (don’t even get me started on the wailing garbage used as the Sky Sports F1 theme now), I think I’ve been drawn rather belatedly to the world of Madness because it represents the type of world that I am more familiar with.

There’s a 30 minute video on You Tube called Madness: Past, Present and Future that I’ve watched a couple of times now. It simply is two groups of Madness band members (Suggs, Chris Foreman and Lee Thompson in one group, Mark Bedford and Dan Woodgate in the other) walking through Camden reminiscing about the place they remembered growing up. It is littered with anecdotes, amusing memories and interesting details that I, as someone who doesn’t really know London that well, can only glean from those who lived there.

Besides, in what other time could seven people, mostly from unremarkable or what we would call ‘broken’ backgrounds today come together, get a gig at a local pub, break through the ceiling and take on the world? Well, provided they could get back to Camden within ten days of doing so.

I don’t think it would happen today, somehow.