See Hear Podcast

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