Madness played police prank on The Clash

British pop stars Madness fell out with punk veterans The Clash for five years after dressing as cops and staging a fake raid on their studio. The Baggy Trousers hitmakers decided to play a practical joke on the rockers when they discovered they were rehearsing in the same studio complex, but the prank turned sour when their victims fell for it and flushed away all their drugs.
Madness frontman Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson recalls the incident in his new memoir, writing, “On one occasion, we got our hands on authentic police uniforms and then found out The Clash were rehearsing nearby, so we burst into their rehearsal rooms, kicked the doors open and shouted: ‘Nobody move, it’s the pigs (police)!’. We were greeted by the sound of doors slamming and toilets flushing! They didn’t speak to us for five years.”