‘Michael Caine’: The Madness song about The Troubles
While north London Two-tone outfit Madness enjoys a significant presence in UK music’s collective affection, they’re often perceived as lacking the social critique of their more politically charged peers such as The Specials, The Beat, or early UB40. While they were never above indulging in the novel japery of songs like ‘House of Fun’ or ‘Driving in My Car’, the buoyant ska and ‘nutty’ videos belied another side to their songbook that lifted the lid on 1980s Britain via more subversive and irreverent chart-pleasing front.
By the time of 1984’s Keep Moving, their last for Stiff Records, ska had given way to a rich pop offering, teased by the stomping piano cheer of the previous year’s ‘The Sun and the Rain’. Audaciously leading their fifth album with the melancholic ‘Michael Caine’, Madness crafted a dramatic yet highly-catchy Top 20 hit that channelled paranoia, espionage, and the sectarian violence that had plagued Northern Ireland since ‘The Troubles‘ had reared its ugly head toward the end of the 1960s.
Exploring the British surveillance practice of recruiting ‘supergrasses’ within the IRA and other Republican paramilitaries, the song’s anxious protagonist jumps at every phone call or moving shadow, afraid his clandestine informant activities will be discovered.
Its video illustrates the agent thriller angle, nodding to espionage thrillers like The Ipcress File in its “My Name is Michael Caine” refrain, a technique deployed to resist brainwashing and interrogation. The star himself recorded the line, at the behest of his youngest daughter who was a massive Madness fan.
“…I was too scared to be obvious. And then the concept of ‘Michael Caine’ put a veneer over it, which made it like a spy film, like Get Carter. But it was totally inspired by Northern Ireland. I was scared to be overt.” Singer and co-writer Chas Smash revealed in 2020’s The Duff Guide to 2 Tone. Having spent some of his childhood in Coleraine, the climate of tension during the conflict left a deep impression: “I wanted a song to have a sense of the fear and the underlying suspicion that was present. It was almost tangible in the air. You know, that thing of the right street, the right pub…the wrong street, the wrong pub.”
The ‘supergrass’ method yielded one of the UK state’s biggest arrests during Keep Moving‘s recording. After the Provisional’s Belfast Brigade member, Christopher Black, was apprehended and offered protection from prosecution, his information resulted in 22 IRA men to a total of 4000 years, and 18 convictions were overturned a few years later.
Despite this success against the Republican campaign, the ‘supergrass’ system was ultimately dissolved due to the questionable credibility of supplied evidence and protests from the judiciary at perceived wielding as tools of government security policy.
Paranoia and double-crossing never sounded so good. The only Madness single to be fronted by trumpeter Smash, its melancholy vocal harmonies and cinematic guitar twang was the group’s boldest single to date, and light years away from the ‘nutty dance’ tomfoolery that they were known for. One of their best singles off a severely underrated album, ‘Michael Caine’ saw Madness at their most shrewdly stinging.