Hi Chris, me and my mates are really looking forward to the new album and tour that follows- bring it on !! Its pretty common knowledge that you were responsible for the name of the band-please correct me if im wrong -Anyway could you delve into your memory bank and tap into the old grey matter because i would love to know who came up with the names of your Albums ? Thanks look forward to hearing from you soon, good luck with the new album – another classic no doubt ! Cheers, Steve.

Dear Steve
“One Step Beyond” was of course one of the main songs on that album, so fairly obvious there. “Absolutely” was my suggestion. We had a tour manager/soundman, a great character called Tony Duffield, who always used to say “Absolutely”. Note: As a matter of further interest, he allegedly worked for Yazzo and their album “You and Me Both” I read once, was named after…….something the tour manager used to say. I should ask Vince Clark about this – shouldn’t I? I so desperately want it to be true. He also used to say “You and Me Both” a lot to us,as well. He also used the term “Well That’s Rock and Roll” , usually when something went wrong. 7 was Chas’s idea it’s the magical number seven of us etc. “Rise and Fall” was named after a song on the album, “Rise and Fall”. Then “Keep Moving”, ditto. “Mad Not Mad” – track on album. “The Madness” – name of [re branded] band. Then we came back with “Wonderful”, which was Chas’s idea as he had written a song called “Wonderful”. Suggs had suggested “Excuse Us” which I preferred but there was the usual procrastination. Incidentally Adam and The Ants had also released an album called “Wonderful”, so it must’ve been a popular name for an album. David Essex too but I think that was after us. Then we released the “Dangemen Sessions” Everyone was doing albums called “the Sessions” so it seemed the right thing to do but I was not too involved in that one. Then we have the great “comeback” album, “The Liberty of Norton Folgate” again titled after a song. This method seems to be the most common way of picking an album title really.
yours, CB
CB
CB