See Hear Podcast Episode 84 - Interview with Bill Jones and Ben Timlett, directors of "Before We Was We: Madness by Madness"

The late 70s moving into the 80s was a time ruled by conservative
government in the UK. There were clashes with government ideology
and the NF was scarily making its collective voice heard. Musicians
reacted in different ways. There was the Rock Against Racism march
with a huge concert featuring The Clash and other great punk acts
of the day. As well as punk music, the other style that brought
black and white people together was ska – a revival of the music
made popular in Jamaica in the 1960s. The main acts spearheading
the second wave of ska were The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter
and Madness Welcome to episode 84 of See Hear Podcast. Madness were
less overtly political than their contemporaries, but by writing
personal songs about daily life and how people living in England
were coping, they still fit in as a political band. Of course at
the time, their image was all about having “the nutty sound”, so
people would dance to their hugely catchy and popular tunes. Often,
the subject matter was darker than people remember. Bernie was
absent, but Tim and I were thrilled to go one step beyond and speak
to the directors of a new 3 part documentary about Madness called
“Before We Was We”. Bill Jones and Ben Timlett joined us to talk
about the making of the documentary, the band's music, petty crime
and the NF controversy. Also, as an added bonus, we got the time to
talk about an earlier documentary the gents made called An
Accidental Studio about Handmade Films, the company George Harrison
established just so he could watch an obscure film directed by
Bill's dad.... “Before We Was We: Madness by Madness” will debut on
the AMC network on May 1, 2021. Keep an eye out for viewing
opportunities beyond that. Our gratitude to Bill and Ben for their
time and excellent conversation. Many laffs ensued. If you’ve been
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Hear is proudly part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts.
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