Breakfast talked to the group's lead singer Suggs. /b>

Click here to watch our interview with Suggs.

They were as much as part of the early 1980s as Margaret Thatcher, shoulder pads and the Sinclair C5.

Madness were best known for hits such as Our House, One Step Beyond, Driving In My Car, and their only number one, House Of Fun. Baggy Trousers became a school yard anthem.

Suggs, real name Graham Macpherson, recalls: "I think part of the reason Madness is still held in great esteem is that it encapsulates something in people's lives - that's what people tell me anyway, that it was when they were growing up, or met their girlfriends.

"There are four or five Madness singles that they relate to some of the happier times of their lives."

The group split in 1986, reforming as a quartet called The Madness which itself split after one album.

Disastrous business moves

Suggs adds: "What made us so charming and real had been the fact we'd always been managed by our mates, and we'd always done our own thing. In the end, there was a point when we needed to work out what the next step was.

"There needed to be some sort of plan, and that's what we didn't have."

The group made some enormous errors financially, including setting up a record label and studios. They also made a film called Take It Or Leave It - and the audience left it.

"It would have been great if someone had come in and said: 'Look guys, just concentrate on what you're good at.'

"We should have taken some time off and started again maybe a couple of years later, but we kept ploughing on and lost our sparkle."

Reunited for Madstock shows

Suggs started a solo career and moved into TV - he now presents Channel 5's Night Fever karaoke show - but in 1992, he led a reunion 'Madstock' show in London's Finsbury Park.

He says: "It's funny, when we did some of those comeback concerts, you'd see all these guys obviously wearing T-shirts they'd bought at the time, that now only came down to just below their hairy chests, with great big guts sticking out.

"To think they were lovely young people once!"