Lee Jay Thompson (born October 5, 1957 in London), nicknamed Kix or El Thommo, is an English musician, best known as the saxophonist and songwriter of the second wave ska band Madness.

Thompson started Madness with Mike Barson and Chris Foreman in 1976, and wrote the group's debut single "The Prince". Among the other songs he is credited with writing, alone or with others, are the singles "Embarrassment", "House of Fun" and "Uncle Sam". His experiences of being a petty criminal (and consequently serving time in borstal) in his youth informed his lyrics for "Land of Hope and Glory", "Deceives the Eye" and "One's Second Thoughtlessness", the latter an unusual diversion into synth pop for the group.

According to Madness drummer Daniel Woodgate,

"Lee is not bound by the English language, but he is a great songwriter. He writes from the heart and expresses himself in a way that other songwriters can't. He's a very poetic writer who ignores the rules."

After Madness disbanded in 1986 he formed a new band The Madness with Foreman, Suggs and Chas Smash but it was not successful and broke up after one album, also titled The Madness.

Lee then joined forces with Chris Foreman, and the pair began to write songs. They soon recorded their material, with himself on vocals and Chris playing anything and everything. This album included the song Magic Carpet; co-written with Suggs in the days of Madness and originally meant to be included on the fabled last Madness album "Lost in the Museum". When it came to promoting their new record they found they needed to form a group, and quickly; and also decide on a name. Thanks to a mistake at the printers, the band name and album title were accidentally switched and they started off life as The Nutty Boys. The album was re-released in 2002 and the mistake was rectified, The group are now known as Crunch! .

Thompson reunited with all seven original Madness members in 1992, and still plays with them today.

Lee is still married to Debbie (nee Fordham) and they have 3 kids - Tuesday, 24; Daley, 21 and Kye, 11. He is also Grandad to Sydney and KD.

Thompson lives in Barnet, North London and he is currently working on a new album with Madness.

External Links

• The nutty forum