Hey Now!
Be honest folks, when was the last time you took out
one of the �old� Madness albums? Last week�..don�t
think so, listening to Wonderful I reckon. Last
summer? Nah, too busy listening to �Lovestruck�
singles I bet. How about last Easter? Oh I forgot,
Universal Madness occupied the CD Carousel. Its been a
while folks. But that shall no longer be the case now.
The sounds of �One Step Beyond�, �Seven� to �Mad not
Mad� will once again be doing the rounds. While we are
at it, when was the last time you sat down and watched
a Madness video? Yeah I know, too long. Again no
longer the case as its all here too. Sounds to good to
be true�sounds like �the Lot� has arrived.
Mad Box 2 looks a lot like its baby brother �the
Business�. The 1993 �Definitive Singles Collection�
is a must to all households and now this package will
compliment your record shelving even more. Word of
advice though, don�t let you fat auntie near it. If
she sits on the cover, it�ll resemble a floppy disc
immediately. That�s probably the worse thing about the
whole 6 CD set. The front cover is very weak and
should be handled with care. A re-newel every 2 years
will be necessary for all or else buy a glass casket
for it.
The cover if you don�t know, is the Doc Marten boots
(that appeared on the Business) but are now gold
coloured set in a black background. It�s a dark moody
cover, but dead cool. Again the design motif is very
Mark Bedford/Robert Stimpson-esque in design. We are
all familiar with their superb work on the new
material of late. �The Lot� follows the same theme.
Them at Design 451 should be drafted in to design the
next testament. Very slick and professional.
My favourite thing about the presentation is the
actual CD covers. There is 3 gatefold sleeves in all
plus the 36-page booklet. The covers are in pairs. The
first one stores �One Step Beyond� and �Absolutely�
1979/80. The cover is not the original sleeves but a
screen shot from the �My Girl� promotional video. Mike
at the piano with the young Chas Smash looking on�
..yeah that�s the scene. It opens up with a
tracklisting with full writing credits and the other
side has a quote from Woody. I won�t spoil it for you.
The flipside (as with all the CDs) details the tracks
; time duration and details which ones are interactive
video (ie. the singles).
Set 2 of the compilation has �Seven� and (the
greatest album ever released) �The Rise and Fall�.
Again no original sleeve but a shot of Suggs and the
dummy from �Driving in my Car� video. I think the
reasoning for these covers is to encapsulate the era
more than anything else. It�s the Madness at their
peak era. What is very annoying though about these
covers is the amount of time it takes to get the
bloody CDs out. The package is quite difficult to open
out. By the way, all CDs are plain black (very like
Wonderful) and may cause confusion for some!
The third set has the bugle playing Lee Thompson on
its front taken from Uncle Sam. Keep Moving/Mad not
Mad 1984/85 completes the set. Someone commented in a
magazine review that this set resembles a
battery-operated toy that starts off full of energy
and eventually winds down flat out. We of course would
dispute this, as the latter material is arguably their
best. However the sleeve notes and anecdotes from the
band members would nearly agree with this sentiment.
There is a certain melancholic reminiscing here done
by all band members. The �Keep Moving� notes are
dominated by Mike�s Departure while �Mad not Mad�
notes detail the decline of the band. Woody goes so
far as to say it was �the most depressing time of my
life�. By the way, the sleeve notes are just a treat
to read. All the tales are new and fresh and provide
some interesting food for thought as well as things
you may not have known about classic tracks.
Now the Interactive stuff. The Box set you may think
is nearly designed for the home PC user. It�s very
much geared towards that. Every interactive menu
follows a similar theme. When installed (QuickTime 4
comes on the software), the menu pops up in front of
you and you will be greeted by the Gold Boots rotating
towards you. Sheer class. There are 4 videos on every
CD all in chronological order. Bear in mind, some
tracks are only available on video and not in audio
format (It must be Love, House of fun and other
non-album track releases). The interactive menu have a
stop/play function, volume control yet now fast
forward/rewind facility. Oh yes, a 7-dot logo will
link you directly onto www.madness.co.uk/thelot. Guess
what? It doesn�t work (yet). Should be interesting to
see what that will provide. The actual videos
themselves are all there and each begins with the
legendary introductions that preceded the songs on
Complete, Utter and Divine Madness compilations
before. The quality also should be commended. It�s the
best you can get on CD-ROM. Can�t wait for the 2003
compilation �Another Madness� for the DVD picture! At
times though, they can get a bit jumpy and may go out
of synch with the audio. Perhaps my PC though is
playing up. The overall impression though is that this
technology really compliments the now vintage �pop
nuggets� that are the now ground breaking videos. For
those in the states and other non-PAL video regions,
this CD set will now no longer deprive you of these 24
classic movies. A dream come true for all fans across
the globe.
As for the music itself, I won�t even start to review
each track, as we all know how much the sounds have
changed our lives. Therefore I shall leave it at that.
>From a technical side, the digitally re-mastering is
evident if you are into that stuff. There are moments
when listening to the songs, when sounds of a backing
vocal, piano of brass section spring up that may never
have been previously evident. I don�t mean new
versions, just clearer. The one difference you may
notice is that on the track �Time� (CD 6 track 9). The
opening drum introduction is a bit longer, alike to
the live version they did back in the 1985 tour.
However maybe I am being a bit of a trainspotter here
so apologies. Each track sounds even better now than
before and all together you appreciate what a great
band they were/are and the huge back catalogue they
can be very proud of.
The 36-page booklet is simply wonderful. The numerous
writings are set to the background of video screen
shots. Now you will really see how much the videos and
music were intertwined. All albums are described in
order with details of chart position, length of time
in the charts and date of release. As already stated,
the stories for the individual songs are perhaps the
most enjoyable for the serious fan, after the actual
music that is.
I could go on and on about this box set. There are so
many things to say, about this set that has meant so
much to so many. Having them all together in one
complete ant very tasteful set is surely the best
reissue I have ever bought. They really have pulled
out all the stops this time and spared no costs, at no
real cost to the customer.
At IR�29.99 (probably less in the UK) ��.
������ITS DEFINITLEY WORTH THE LISTEN!!!!!!
Oh yeah, these boots are made for ease of wear!
All the Best
Vince!
=====
"If it ain't Vince, it ain't worth a F*CK!"
ICQ 46099201
NEVER SAY NO TO A MAD IDEA!
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