‘One Step Beyond’: The Madness song Suggs described as a “free ticket to Euphoria”
On October 18th, 2023, Madness took to the stage in KOKO, Camden, to perform their newest album in its entirety. In doing so, they decided to give fans the chance to experience the album in full, meaning they played it from start to finish, entirely in order, the set unwavering. That might all sound good, but in doing so, the band had to sacrifice opening the set with one of their most iconic songs to date.
Anyone who has seen Madness live before will be able to attest to the fact that it is over an hour’s worth of unbridled joy. Their music is infectious, to the point that it is difficult to find somebody who could go to one of their shows and not have the best time of their life. People know they’re in for a good time when the first song starts; there is complete silence, the band on stage but not making a sound, before the booming words of “Hey you, don’t watch that, watch this…” resonate throughout the venue.
“It’s a big decision,” said Suggs when talking about not opening with ‘One Step Beyond’ and instead opting for something new. “’One Step Beyond’ is like a rallying call, and it’s always been so; the whole of it gets the crowd going. It’s like a free ticket to euphoria. When we decided, it just made sense because we were obviously trying to promote the album. Also, the song itself just had enough in it to get away with being something that wasn’t 100 miles an hour.”
Suggs is correct in that ‘One Step Beyond’ seems to impact audiences the same way a code word to a sleeper agent does. Something is built in us as human beings to start dancing the minute that trumpet run comes in. It’s an infectious track and a pretty good representation of what Madness has always stood for: silliness and good times.
The song that replaced the opener was ‘Theatre of the Absurd’, a track that isn’t as upbeat as ‘One Step Beyond’ but still has enough to be well received. Some static welcomes the track in before there are constant keys ringing through, and Sugg’s undeniable voice sings, “The lights go down on a dark theatre in London, for the cruellest comedy.”
Despite being different in tone to what fans are used to, the song still has enough Madness injected into it to get the crowd going, as it did that night in Camden. Onlookers watched as the band played the never before heard music and watched in awe as, 48 years after their original inception, Madness showed that they were still great performers and great songwriters.
It’s always tricky when a band has an undeniable hit, as there seems to be an unwritten rule that it needs to be included in every set moving forward. This is no doubt how the band feel towards ‘One Step Beyond’ so deciding to remove it as the opener was bold, but it paid off. The new album ended up being Madness’s first number-one album, and the undeniable talent that went into every track contributed massively towards that accomplishment.
