It’s Madness

Well, it was 1990, and the fans were in the emotional moments of the madness break-up, having split four years earlier in 1986; with that Nutty Sound now passé and nothing new to be heard from Madness, we were just left with time and then like Jones… along came the Pickwick distribution deal and Virgin released the first “It’s… Madness” album. Excuse me? MADNESS on Pickwick, WTF! It was a sad day in W.H. Smiths.

Pickwick Records was an American record label and British record distributor known for its budget album releases of sound-alike recordings, bargain bin reissues, and repackaging and was the dreaded imprint that only our grandparents seemed to own and the place for dead-end celebrities like Ken Dodd and the Diddy men. Gently now… I’m trying to overlook this trauma (because It’s… ‘still’ Madness).

Okay, what was so special about these two half-like hit bargain basement releases? Firstly, it was the first time that so many b’sides and the one remix (Victoria Gardens) had finally been released for the first time on CD, it was even marketed that way with “Includes tracks never previously available on CD”. You have to remember (if you were of age at this time) it was the beginning of the 90s, and we were yet to meet the MP3 phenomenon. Nobody had the technical ability to rip vinyl and distribute it other than recording it on tape cassette. I don’t recall there ever being a commercial or bootleg available featuring non-hit tracks other than live Madness tracks on bootleg tape cassettes.

Now at this point, Stiff was long gone. Virgin records owned the Madness catalogue, and the “It’s… Madness” series of releases was the first compilation album to be released since “Utter Madness”, and from this point forth, it was to be consistently reissued, repackaged right up until 2006 and left real collectors dazed and confused.

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