Mike Barson (born Michael Barson, 21 April 1958, Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British musician, best known as a founding member and keyboardist of the second wave ska band, Madness.

[edit] Biography

Born in Edinburgh, Barson grew up in North London and is often nicknameed 'Monsieur Barso'.

Barson co-founded a band called The North London Invaders in 1976.^[1] Soon, they changed their name to Madness after the song by Prince Buster ^[2] and became one of the popular bands in Two Tone, and of the 1980s. In 1984 after the recording of the album Keep Moving and appearing in the promo clips for the two singles from that album - "Michael Caine" and "One Better Day", Barson, who was one of the main songwriters and effectively the musical director, left the band. Two years later Madness disbanded, but Barson did join them for the recording of their final single - "Waiting For The Ghost Train".

They reunited in their original line-up in 1992,^[1] and he still plays with them. In 1995, he co-wrote and produced a number of songs for Suggs' first solo album The Lone Ranger. 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 never made it on to the album, but was released a year later in 2003 on the compilation album B-sides, Remixes and Rarities.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Madness official MadSpace
• Mike Barson's official MySpace