Madness

Madness are one of those bands that due to their popularity hardly ever play in small venues, usually to catch them live you would have to brave either an outdoor festival or event, or a 12,000 capacity indoor arena.

Thankfully this time around they decided to include Nottingham's Rock City venue as a part of their 'Do Not Adjust Your Nut' tour, partly to celebrate Rock City's thirty year anniversary, but partly to give fans a chance to see them up close and personal.

Before Madness arrived on stage they had some video footage to play which was projected on screens wither side of the stage as well as being projected onto the stage. This formed the goggle box where live shots of the band were intermingled with other footage to give an impression of watching an old TV set. It also happens to be the name of their box set as well.



Suggs and co arrived on stage wearing their usual stage attire consisting of grey suits and sunglasses. Also Suggs brought an umbrella emblazoned with the Madness logo onto the stage with him for reasons that will remain a mystery.

Since Madness formed in 1976, they have built up a loyal army of fans over their long outstanding career, and the lucky fans that had managed to obtain tickets for this show certainly knew the words to the songs.

During the intro to opening song 'One Step Beyond' (Hey you, don’t watch that, watch this...) it was near impossible to hear Madness due to the sheer volume of the audience. Then as soon as the saxophones kicked in for the opening notes the crowd just exploded into a frenzy of bodies wriggling and jumping around. Not that it was a bad thing; it made the atmosphere feel like an absolute ball. Everybody was singing-a-long and at times dancing along too. As per usual the fans had made an effort with wearing hats and sunglasses, which was quite a sight.

There is no denying that Madness know which buttons to press to work a crowd, and armed with a back catalogue of pop and ska classics, it would be difficult for them to go wrong. It felt as if Madness were genuinely happy to be on stage and appreciate their fans.



As expected their setlist covered their greatest hits and fan favourites including 'Our House', 'Driving In My Car', and 'Night Boat To Cairo'.

Suggs and co had slipped in a few nice touches to the show such as beaming photos of landmarks in Nottingham onto the screens, which was a nice touch. Madness demonstrated that even after thirty years of being together, they still have the talent and charisma to entertain and be in a league of their own when it comes to playing live. This will be one gig that will be hard to top for many years to come.

Setlist:

One Step Beyond
Embarrassment
Shut Up
Driving In My Car
NW5
Black and Blue
My Girl
Lovestruck
Forever Young
Sun and the Rain
Young & the Old
Just Another Day
Bed & Breakfast Man
Clerkenwell Polka
The Prince
Big Time Sister
House Of Fun
Madness
Baggy Trousers
Our House
It Must Be Love

Encore:-
Swan Lake
Wings Of A Dove
Night Boat To Cairo

FUTURE GIGS