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Mike Barson | |
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 Barson performing live with Madness at Manchester Arena in 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Michael Barson 21 April 1958 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Genres | 2-tone |
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| Website | madness |
Michael Barson (born 21 April 1958) is a British multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer. In a career spanning 45 years, Barson came to prominence in the late 1970s as the keyboard player for the band Madness.
Barson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He grew up in North London with his two brothers, Dan and Ben, who are also musicians [1] (with Ben being one of Roland Gift's collaborators). [2] He is often known by the nicknames "Monsieur Barso" or "Barzo". [3]
Prior to forming Madness, Barson and fellow future Madness member Lee Thompson gained some notice as graffiti artists in the mid-1970s. After reading about the emerging New York graffiti scene, they spray-painted their nicknames ("Mr B" and "Kix") along with two friends' names "Cat" and "Columbo" around north London. They managed to spray their nicknames on George Melly's garage door, prompting Melly to write a newspaper article declaring: "If I ever catch that Mr B, Kix and Columbo, I'm going to kick their arses". [4]
Barson co-founded a band called The Invaders in 1976. [5] The band later changed their name to Madness after the song by Prince Buster.[ citation needed ]
Madness became a successful British band during the late 1970s to mid-1980s, having initial success as part of the Two-Tone movement. Barson was and is a prominent songwriter in the band, and effectively the musical director. [6] However, after increasing exhaustion from the music business, he left the band in 1984 after the recording of their fifth studio album, Keep Moving , and emigrated to the Netherlands. [7] [8] Two years later, Madness disbanded, but Barson did join them for the recording of their farewell single, "(Waiting For) The Ghost Train".
He spent the rest of this time out of the public eye, remaining effectively retired from the music business. However, he was still writing and producing songs with some of his former bandmates, namely Suggs and Lee Thompson, between in his houseboat in Amsterdam and in Liquidator Studios in London, which Madness still owned. [9] [10]
Madness reunited in their original line-up in 1992, [5] and Barson still plays with them. In 1995, he collaborated with Suggs on his first solo album The Lone Ranger, having co-wrote and produced a number of songs with Suggs since 1989. When No Doubt were recording songs for their fifth studio album Rock Steady , Barson was asked to play piano on the London version of the song "Everything in Time". Barson obliged and the track was produced by Madness producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The track was not included on the album, [11] but was released a year later in 2003 on the compilation album Everything in Time (B-sides, Rarities, Remixes).
Both Barson and his bandmate, Suggs, have contributed to Audio Bullys' album Higher Than the Eiffel . They both appear on the tracks "Twist Me Up" and "Goodbye".
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