Madness in Wolverhampton. Photgraph by Ian D. Hall

Originally published by L.S. Media. December 18th 2009.

To a certain generation the evening felt like a school disco from their childhood in the early eighties. Not only did the audience have the pleasure of seeing the band on a short film but then there was the musical interlude before the main act. A superb D.J playing all the tracks the late thirty and early forty something’s would remember with fondness such as Tenpole Tudor’s Swords of a Thousand Men and The Undertones’ My Perfect Cousin.

With the sell out crowd properly in the mood, the lads from London came on stage to huge applause and honest appreciation for a band that have now celebrated thirty years as one of the most popular bands to have come from this country.

Opening the night with One Step Beyond and Embarrassment set the tone for the evening ahead and the crowd acknowledged this by not standing still throughout the entire gig. Songs from the fantastic new studio album The Liberty of Norton Folgate got an early airing with the quirky Dust Devil before heading back to the early days of the band’s history with Sun and the Rain and the message ridden Johnny the Horse.

The guys were on top form all night with Suggs and Chas Smash proving once more how good they are on vocals. The band certainly seem to have enjoyed themselves immensely on this tour and it shows, as the rest of the band interacted with each other and the excellent string section extremely well.

Possibly mindful of not aggravating the old fans by playing too many of the new tracks, Madness played the set with great balance between the two eras as they went through tracks such as MK Two, That Close and the brilliant Clerkenwell Polka before ending the set with five of the best from the early period, the infectious House of Fun, Wings of a Dove, the 80′s generation favourite Baggy Trousers, Our House and the sublime It Must be Love.

The band finished an awesome and truly memorable set with an encore of On the Town and Night Boat to Cairo.

A band that is still too good to be blasé about and a must for any music lover to catch live.

Ian D. Hall