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Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2012 9:25:51 GMT
By DAVID POLLOCK Published on Tuesday 11 December 2012 00:58 HAVING held the mantle of respected elder statesmen, 2012 was the year that London mob Madness finally graduated to full-blown national-treasure status with memorable appearances at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert and to a lesser extent the Olympic Games closing ceremony, as well as the well-received top ten album Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da. ***** Madness SECC, Glasgow Star rating: * * * * * To their huge credit, this show demonstrated not a willingness to rest on their well-earned laurels, but to strive hard to live up to their reputation. So brisk was the pace that in barely an hour-and-a-half they’d powered through more than two dozen songs, and what caught the attention was not only how many of them were recognisable pop classics but how few failed to catch the attention or the imagination. Things started in familiar style with an energetic treble of One Step Beyond, Embarrassment and The Prince, Suggs’ lead vocals treading a well-worn path between artisan spoken word and delicately-delivered soul, their uplifting tones bolstered by Lee Thompson’s trademark saxophone and a noisy horn trio. Where many other groups might deliver a mid-set lull, Madness’ lesser-known tracks were good enough to make space for a bar break hard to come by, including the new album’s lively My Girl 2, Wings of a Dove and Shut Up. A personal touch came with guitarist Chris Foreman’s fun karaoke take on AC/DC’s 210 and a reminder that the band had their roots here, and he and Thompson’s a cappella take on Alex Harvey’s There’s No Lights On the Christmas Tree Mother, They’re Burning Big Louie. These served as a brief breather before a euphoric finale featuring House of Fun, Baggy Trousers, Our House and It Must Be Love, and Suggs’ warm declaration that Glasgow “didn’t let us down”. Yet another good review  jim |
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Post by Admin on Dec 12, 2012 11:34:42 GMT
Telegraph review ...gave it 4 out of 5.
Good review, but some interesting comments on the comments page.
Apart from Madness, how many bands can claim to support an ancillary micro industry in comedy headgear? The SECC is ringed by enterprising vendors doing a roaring trade in Nutty Boy signature hats – be it rude boy pork-pie numbers with a two-tone checked trim, or the trademark fez favoured by sax man Lee Thompson, tonight clad in a garish yellow tartan suit.
Madness
Charge of the Mad Brigade
LG Arena, Birmingham
Box office:
0844 338 8000
13 December, then touring.
Tour details
Having this summer performed everywhere from the rooftop of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's diamond jubilee to the back of a flatbed truck circuiting the Olympic Stadium at the closing concert for this summer's London games, Madness's pre-Christmas Charge of the Mad Brigade tour returns them to more sensible stages. It caps a year that has enshrined their status as a national treasure, more than three decades after their formation – back when, as Suggs puts it, "Muse were just a twinkle in their granpappy's eyes".
Enjoying their shows is a well-established ritual. Chas Smash's echo-bathed "Hey you! Don't watch that, watch this … " spiel at the start of opener One Step Beyond is finished by the crowd at volume, before a mass rash of skanking demonstrates how Madness fans once managed to trigger a small earthquake in London. Viewed from the stands at the back of the arena, it looks curiously like several thousand people furiously hammering away on gym cross-trainers.
The release of Madness's 10th album Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da might have been somewhat overshadowed by their primetime televised glories, but it serves notice of rude boys in rude health. The likes of My Girl 2 – which practically borrows the stabbing chords from Tainted Love – and Misery signal a band in easy and willing command of their music's most identifiable and joyful qualities: goodtime horns, clicking rhythms and Suggs's pubby witticisms. "If you keep misery as your company," he half-sings during the latter tune, "you might as well be dead."
House of Fun, Baggy Trousers, Our House and It Must Be Love is as remarkable run of indelible pop songs as you'll hear any British band string together. The energy levels haven't been as high all set – we could have been done without Thompson cobbling through an a cappella Alex Harvey number. But it only heightens the delirium of the hit-studded finale, culminating with the daft honk of Night Boat to Cairo, Suggs lifting Thompson's fez to theatrically mop his brow during the sax solo as knees and elbows fly, and Richter-scale needles tremble ever so slightly one last time.
Jim
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Post by Admin on Dec 12, 2012 18:44:48 GMT
Hosting a congregation of 'the lads', and topped with more fezzes than a Tommy Cooper convention, British ska veterans returned to the modern day for their own hour and a half of Madness.
Aside from the absence of a good spread, obligatory sausage rolls, and some Rosy Lee, there was something terribly British about last night's affair in Glasgow's SECC. Passing by any royal connections from this summer, the cartoonish stereotype of the nation as a whole was raised in a, generally, beer-bellied skanking frenzy.
With more hats then bald patches, there were all stages of the hair-transplant flyer amongst the dad-dancing, the crowd shaping up in time for all those festive opportunities to rip it up on makeshift dance floors of work Christmas parties. The band, in turn, couldn't have been more buoyant, with good old Suggs keeping a sharp appearance, taking on the ringmaster role. Although, throughout the set, I half expected him to produce a bill for the seat, as he babbled between tracks in the booming voice of a London cabbie.
With the rest of the band in Blues Brother attire and effortlessly bopping around to their Tom and Jerry chase soundtrack, the extent of the show's pyrotechnics stretched to a revolving platform for long-serving saxophonist, El Thommo, who managed to sport two types of tartan, as well as a fez.
Showing off their new album, How Can I Tell You, and Death Of A Rude Boy continue on the same E-number infused pattern of Madness, the lurching swagger of their sound layered up like a trifle for fan satisfaction.
The set bobbed along nicely, though the wonky chromatic scales of the piano began to chafe slightly as one track merged into the next, the laid-back reggae influenced jams turning the crowd lethargic (or perhaps that was the over-exertion). The general dirge of wind instruments blew over in a bizarre bad-dad karaoke rendition of Highway To Hell, with guitarist, Chris Foreman supping up the spotlight, as other band members downed tools, allowing him to get on with his mid-life crisis solo.
The 2-Tone dance to the finish line jumped on a hit ride, elbowing any yawns out of the arena as House Of Fun led to Baggy Trousers, and onto the bounding singalong of Our House. With images of Glasgow projected on to the backdrop, albeit images that look like they had been taken en route to the venue from a West End hotel, the quirk and attention to detail went down well with the puffed-up chests of fans.
Keeping up the crowd-pleasing, the band's encore kicked off with a lone piper, who would return for the overzealous sweat-jewelled skank to the end – it turned out Madness were not to be the only ones throwing white balls into the crowd.
With no song from a fat lady, but the curtain drawn, and Monty Python's Bright Side Of Life playing, Madness and their longevity have proven themselves as unexpected national treasures – perhaps this is why they had a close brush with the crown jewels last night.
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Post by scabbydug on Dec 20, 2012 19:27:41 GMT
Glasgow gig all good, all great, all grand!!! The band only seem to be getting better with each gig...looking forward to more of the same  Sunnyside, The Dug a.k.a Mr White Balls  |
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Post by prende on Dec 20, 2012 20:27:42 GMT
Glasgow gig all good, all great, all grand!!! The band only seem to be getting better with each gig...looking forward to more of the same Sunnyside, The Dug a.k.a Mr White Balls Glad you had a good night Dug, like you said.. Madness are getting better Live every time i see them |
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jim
