Night Boat To Cairo

Complete Madness, 1982

Suggs says…
Mike had written a very Eastern sounding tune in the heyday of the off-beat, which inspired me one evening to tosh-out a verse (at which it stayed) in a similar vein.
The Nile, Cairo, an old barge and a toothless oarsman.
A feeling of no beginning and no end, just (hopefully) a few mysterious images conjured up in the brainbox.

The Lot, 1999

Suggs: Night Boat To Cairo started with a title and some music that Mike had written. I wrote a story about the last boat along the River Nile. It was a parody of the Western view of Arab countries – the way those places were depicted in BBC newsreels and Abbot & Costello or Laurel & Hardy films.

One Step Beyond, 2023 CD reissue

Mike: ‘Night Boat To Cairo’ was sort of exotic, and it had all these elements of old British comedy, like Carry On Up The Khyber. There was a long music hall tradition of doing pastiches – around the time archaeologists had discovered the relics of the pharaohs in Egypt, the British music hall performers started working that into their routines.
Bedders: ‘Night Boat To Cairo’ was written a little later than some of the other songs on the album. We felt we needed another tune like ‘One Step Beyond…’, another in that style.
Chris: Dave Robinson was obsessed with instrumentals. He said, ‘You’ve got to do another instrumental!’ So Mike wrote this as an instrumental. But I think Suggs had realised that there’s money in writing lyrics. So he wrote some lyrics. And Mike grumbled a bit, but as I told him, it’s such a great song.
Mike: I was at the piano, struggling away, and I suddenly realised I had something. I loved the chords, that Egyptian kind of sound. I remembered The Specials’ ‘Gangsters’, this little Egyptian fill Jerry (Dammers) does on the organ. And I just got into it and I managed to create a whole song in that kind of vibe. I remember piecing it all together at home. Then Suggs came along and wrote some lyrics. At the time I thought he was a bit too jokey. I saw it as a little more serious. “It’s just gone noon / Half past monsoon”, I thought that line was a little much. Suggs did that on his own, I don’t remember being asked if I wanted singing on it.
Bedders: The arranger misheard. He thought Clive said he wanted “gypsy strings”. But Clive meant Egyptian strings.
Chris: ‘Night Boat…’ was the fourth single off the album, and we thought, it’s too many singles, we didn’t want to do four singles off one album. Can you imagine that now? But back then we just thought it was wrong. We said we wouldn’t put it out as a single unless we could do it as an EP, and that’s how the Work Rest & Play EP came about, with the three new songs. We always had that kind of thing, wanting to give people value for their money. We did the video at the last minute, just before we went to America, and it’s become very popular. I mean, I think it’s a bit naff, but there’s something about it. Most of us were quite drunk when we did the video – those rucksacks had beer in them, because we’d just got a Gold disc. That’s how quickly everything happened – we’d already got Gold discs for the sales of the album, or a Silver disc at least.

The song first appeared on the ‘One Step Beyond…’ LP (Stiff)

‘Night Boat To Cairo’ featured on the Work Rest & Play EP, Madness’ fourth single

An early rough / ‘demo’ mix of ‘Night Boat To Cairo’ appeared on the Portugal EP

This version has a different guitar and keyboard/organ track

The U.S. version sounds like a produced version of the rough mix with additional strings

Also appears on ‘OUR HOUSE: THE VERY BEST OF‘ (USA, 2021)

Various remixes were released in 1993

‘MISTAKES’ 2LP – The Paradise Ballroom, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 24 Feb 1980

‘DANCE CRAZE’ 1981 – St George’s Hall, Bradford 27 Apr 1980

‘KING BISCUIT FLOWER HOUR’ – Pier 84, New York 22 Aug 1983

‘MIS LIVE – A COLLECTION OF LIVE SONGS RECORDED AROUND THE PLONET 1980 TO 1985’

‘MADSTOCK!’ – Finsbury Park, London 8 Aug 1992

‘MADSTOCK 2’ – Finsbury Park, London 6 Aug 1994

‘UNIVERSAL MADNESS’ – Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, USA 26 Apr 1998

‘AT MADSTOCK’ – Finsbury Park, London 7 Jun 1998

‘LIVE: TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND PART 2’ (2006)

‘ON STAGE 1’ – Brixton Academy, London 7 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 2’ – SECC Hall 4, Glasgow 12 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 3’ – MEN Arena, Manchester 13 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 4’ – Telewest Arena, Newcastle 14 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 5’ – NEC, Birmingham 16 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 6’ – BIC, Bournemouth 17 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 7’ – Brighton Centre, Brighton 19 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 8’ – Wembley Arena, London 20 Dec 2006

‘LIVE AT THE ASTORIA 3.12.07’ – Astoria, London 3 Dec 2007

‘LIVE AT THE O2 ARENA 14.12.07’ – O2 Arena, London 14 Dec 2007

‘NW5’ – Bestival, Isle Of Wight Sep 2007

‘HACKNEY EMPIRE 24’ – Hackney Empire, London 24 Jun 2008

‘HACKNEY EMPIRE 25’ – Hackney Empire, London 25 Jun 2008

‘HACKNEY EMPIRE 26’ – Hackney Empire, London 26 Jun 2008

‘MADSTOCK V’ – Victoria Park, London 17 Jul 2009

‘UK TOUR 2009’ – The Liberty Of Norton Folgate UK Tour, Dec 2009

‘ITUNES FESTIVAL: LONDON 2012’

‘GLASTONBURY’ – Glastonbury Festival, Somerset 25 Jun 2016

‘HYDE PARK’ – Hyde Park, London 11 Sep 2016

‘THE GET UP!’ – London Palladium