The Heavy, Heavy Monster Sound

Madness : One Step Beyond

[Purchase]

On October 26, 1979 Madness released their debut album One Step Beyond..., featuring the  ska band "duck walking" together on the cover. The album was released on the Stiff label after a feeding frenzy following the chart success of the London band's UK#16 tribute to Prince Buster, "The Prince". The first smart thing the band did on the album was cover a Prince Buster tune, "One Step Beyond". (Their rivals, The Specials, had scored a huge hit "Gangsters", a re-working of Prince Buster's "Al Capone" and recorded another, "Stupid Marriage", based on another Prince Buster tune).

     Trumpeter Chas Smith came up with the memorable intro: “Hey you, don’t watch that, watch this. This is the heavy, heavy monster sound …”

Recorded in 10 days with Deaf School's Clive Langer producing, the album is celebrated more for its exuberance than its musicianship. There are times when the instruments sound badly out of tune. 

England would embrace Madness, giving the North London lads more chart hits than practically any other British band in the 1980's.