Madness “Our House” b/w “Cardiac Arrest” 1982. Today, October 5th, is Madness founder, songwriter, saxophonist (and other instruments) Lee Thompson’s 60th birthday (b. 1957). Thompson founded Madness in ‘76 along with Mike Barson and Chris Foreman. “Our House” was the first single released from the album The Rise & Fall and hit #5 in the UK and #7 in the US. Like many other Madness songs, “Our House” describes working class English life set to pop/ska music (though “Our House” was MUCH less ska-y than their singles up to that point). I like the song OK, not nearly as much as “House of Fun” or “One Step Beyond,” but I have an enduring fondness for it because of Madness’ rendition of the track on The Young Ones in the 1984 episode “Sick.” You can see the clip here complete with Vyvyan performing acupuncture on Neil with 6 inch nails, rock throwing, car crashing, a full-on street riot and Madness beating the hell out of each other with their instruments.