Madness Central Interactive  Special Feature - The USM/Salvo Wonderful Reissue Contest
The USM/Salvo Wonderful Reissue Contest
Courtesy of Union Square Music

Welcome to the latest Madness Central Contest, this time for the Wondeful 2 CD Reissue courtesy of Union Square Music and Salvo.

In 1992, Madness reformed to seismic crowds in London, leading to hopes that there would be new Madness material soon on the horizon. Alas, that was not to happen, at least not straight away. As Chrissy Boy has said in times past, "Everybody wasn't ready yet." That is, until 1998, when a partial contigency of our Mad Lads sneaked into the studio to demo the songs that were to comprise their first studio album in 14 years.

While the title of the album was still in flux (an early contender from Suggs was "Excuse Us"), what was certain was by early spring of 1999 Madness began performing several new tracks from the forthcoming album on their US 99 tour of the east coast. The audience reaction was more than positive for songs like "Communicator", "Johnny The Horse", "Drip Fed Fred" and "Lovestruck."

Wonderful. The songs were wonderful. And that's the name the album eventually took: "Wonderful." The lead single "Lovestruck" shot in at number 10 in the UK charts and anticipation for the album was heady and heavy. Madness producer Clive Langer said at the time that "Wonderful is an album full of singles." As it turned out, he was dead on with that assessment.

It's 11 years since "Wonderful" first hit the stands, and thanks to the efforts of the folks at Union Square Music, Madness fans are being treated to a two-CD special edition featuring the full remastered original album with promo videos on CD 1 and the b-sides and a few other gems on CD 2. This is quite the ambitious undertaking, bringing all these songs together in one package for fans. For many younger fans, this is their first chance to hear many of these songs.

And thanks to Union Square Music/Salvo, Madness Central is having a contest to help celebrate the 6th September release of the "Wonderful" reissue.

The rules are simple. Answer the one simple question and send it in with your name and email address and you're entered into the contest. Three winners will be randomly chosen from all entries. One entry per person and per household, please.

"Wonderful" is available for preorder at all fine online retailers and will be available in stores and online on Monday, 6th September. Thanks again to Union Square Music for making this contest possible.

Please Note: To prevent multiple entries being submitted by any one person your IP address is temporarily logged when sending answers.