Madness Tribute Band -Complete Madness

Complete Madness was formed in 1994 out of a band called Beat The System which itself was born in 1989 with original members Mark Keegan and Derek Wood who are still with Complete Madness today. Mark was always into the original Punk and Ska scene while Derek was more of an old School Rock person, so finding a happy medium of music was always difficult but in 1990 they decided to settle on the New Wave type of stuff featuring bands such as The Clash, Alarm, U2, Nick Lowe, Big Country and Flock of Seagulls to name a few and even though it was great playing this stuff it wasn't always well received in a lot of clubs. In 1992 the then base guitarist, Steve Cliffe, brought up the idea of maybe learning a few Madness tracks, Night boat to Cairo and Baggy Trousers. At that time the tracks sounded a bit on the rock side of Ska with having no keyboards but it went down well in the clubs very well, it was original and different to say the least. The band started doing showcases and as work started getting better more and more Madness and Specials tracks were being learnt, so it was decided that this was the only direction the band was going to take. In 1994, the only thing holding the band back was the name Beat The System so it was decided to rename the band and Complete Madness was born.