Decline and breakup

In October 1983, the band's founder, keyboardist and prominent songwriter Mike Barson decided to leave the band, partly because he had relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands.[20] He officially left the band in June 1984, following the release of "One Better Day".[21] The six remaining members left Stiff Records and formed their own label, Zarjazz Records, which was sub-label of Virgin Records.[21] In 1985, the label released the band's sixth album, Mad Not Mad. Barson's keyboard parts were filled by synthesisers and Steve Nieve joined the band to take his place. In later years, frontman Suggs described the production as "polished turd".[23] The album reached number 16 in the UK charts, which was the band's lowest position on the album charts to date. Despite the poor chart showing, the album was listed as number 55 in NME's All Time 100 Albums.[24] The singles for the album fared even worse, with "Yesterday's Men" peaking at number 18 in the UK charts. The subsequent singles, "Uncle Sam" and "Sweetest Girl", failed to make the top 20, which was a first for Madness singles