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  • Published: 26 September 2019
  • ISBN: 9780753553947
  • Imprint: Virgin Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Before We Was We

Madness by Madness




The highly acclaimed origin story of one of Britain's best loved and most successful bands, with a new Foreword for this paperback edition by Irvine Welsh.


New Foreword by Irvine Welsh.

In Before We Was We Madness tell us how they became them. A story of seven originals, whose collective graft, energy and talent took them from the sweaty depths of the Hope and Anchor's basement to the Top of the Pops studio.

In their own words they each look back on shared adventures. Playing music together, riding freight trains, spraying graffiti and stealing records. Walking in one another's footsteps by day and rising up through the city's exploding pub music scene by night. Before We Was We is irreverent, funny and full of character. Just like them.

  • Published: 26 September 2019
  • ISBN: 9780753553947
  • Imprint: Virgin Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

About the authors

Mike Barson

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Mark Bedford

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Chris Foreman

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Graham McPherson

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Cathal Smyth

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Lee Thompson

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Dan Woodgate

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Praise for Before We Was We

A rollicking oral history of Madness’s early years ... a goldmine of quirky anecdotes

Q Magazine

[One of] the best books to buy music fans for Christmas

The Telegraph

Brilliantly assembled by journalist Tom Doyle as an oral history featuring the voices of all the members … tells you more about how a band becomes a band than any number of anecdotes about life in the studio

Financial Times

As much as anything, the book is a social history of growing up on the edges of criminality

Financial Times

An amazing book … one of the best books about a band I have ever read. I've been raving about it to everyone I meet

Michael Hann, music journalist