"The Ghost Hour" was to be Madness' seventh studio album. Between July and early September 1986, they recorded demos for this new album at their Liquidator Studios in North London. From these sessions, they selected a sequenced track list of 11 songs to be produced for the finished album. But ... let's see what happened.
Everything seemed to be going well and the future lp was announced with its track listing displayed in Issue XIV of the official Madness "MIS" Nutty Boys fanzine (published during August 1986):
1.11th hour. / 2.(Waiting for the) Ghost Train.
/ 3.Be Good Boy. / 4.Natural Act. / 5,Maybe In Another Life. / 6.Precious One.
/ 7. Patience. / 8. Remember The Day. / 9.Perfect Place. / 10. 4.B.F. / 11.It´s
For The Best.
Four songs were selected to be future singles
from this album: "11th Hour", "Waiting For The Ghost
Train", "Be Good Boy" and "Natural Act"
The band held a competition on Nutty Boys Issue XIV for MIS members to design the cover for the pop-up album. The number read: "The topic will be ghosts, hocus pocus, hubble bubble, forests and streams, witch hour, creatures of the night, etc." Entries were expected to be received by October 13, 1986. Even so, the band had wanted to "photograph themselves sitting in front of a blazing fire in a large, dark, and dingy room". The idea was that ghost stories were being told on; but they decided to separate due to musical differences, they announced their separation at the end of September 1986, so they abandoned the album, this lost work was to be produced by Stuart Levine.
Madness without Carl, Suggs, Lee and Chris recorded two songs: "(Waiting for) The Ghost Train" and their B-side "Maybe in another life." These songs became the group's farewell single, released on October 27.1986. This single spent nine weeks on the UK charts, reaching number 18. The song first appeared on a bit.ly/M-ss The band's 1986 "Utter" album. Madness Greatest Hits Compilation, released one month after the single's release.Madness's unreleased album, whose title was to be: "The Ghost Hour", was replaced by a compilation known as "Utter Madness." In 1988, four members of the band – Suggs, Chas Smash, Lee Thompson and Chris Foreman – continued under the name The Madness. After one self-titled album and two singles that failed to make the top 40, this band also split.
Below is a reconstruction of that album with
twelve songs and not eleven, as it has been discovered that "Song in
Red" was also recorded during those sessions; with this line-up:
Side One: 21:32
1.11th Hour. (Rmk). 4:02 / 2.(Waiting For The) Ghost Train. 3:44 / 3.Be Good Boy. 4:11 / 4.Natural Act. (Live edit) . 3:11 / 5.Maybe In Another Life. 3:00 / 6.Precious One. (Live edit) . 3:01
Side Two: 18:03
7.Patience. (Edit). 1:20 / 8.Song In Red. 3:38 / 9. Nightmare,Nightmare. 4:29 (A.k.a: Remember The Day) / 10.Perfect Place. 3:05 / 11. 4.B.F. (Remix). 2:51 / 12.It´s For The Best. (Remix). 2:37
All songs have been improved, some edited and some reworked to find the best and most robust result possible. As there is no official cover, the original idea sought by the group of a penunmbra room illuminated by the fire in the fireplace has been followed. Ok guys!..,, see you soon with more and better..