Madness
are as British an institution as swigging lager, queuing and wearing silly
hats, and there was plenty of all of those things going on as the evergreen ska
band took to the stage at Chelmsford City Racecourse.
Madness
emphasised their quintessential Britishness at the start of the show with a
montage of video clips, splicing together films like Goldfinger and The Italian
Job with various sporting endeavours including footage of that famous 1966
World Cup win.
Then it
was straight into a two-hour set of ska-infused sing-a-longs which made you
realise just how many great songs Suggs and co turned out in their heyday of
the early 1980s.
It's only
the third date of the band's Grandslam tour of sporting venues but they're a
well-oiled machine live which I guess they would be after more than 35 years in
the business. It may be a long time since their Two Tone days and the release
of debut single, The Prince back in 1979 but Madness still know how to get a
party going.
A crowd of
race-goers in a field in the Essex countryside couldn't help but dance along to
brilliant pop songs like Embarrassment, My Girl, House Of Fun and a blistering
version of the anthemic Night Boat To Cairo.
And it's
not just dads in their Fred Perrys reliving their youths here either - everyone
is skanking along to the songs, from teens to OAPs, which gives you an insight
into Madness's universal appeal.
With
frontman Suggs offering cheeky banter and joke asides between tunes, Madness
play a smattering of more recent songs from their oeuvre including My Girl 2
and Dust Devil (accompanied by the video featuring Jamie Winstone and Alfie
'Reek' Allen) as well as some lesser-known early tracks like Bed And Breakfast
Man and Take It Or Leave It, both of which sounded great.
But
Madness really come into their own when they're playing old favourites like
House Of Fun, Wings Of A Dove and The Prince which all have the crowd dancing
and singing along. A rousing two-song encore of One Step Beyond and Madness ups
the intensity of the dad-dancing to new levels before Suggs and co bid us a
fond farewell and we all head our separate ways with a rocksteady spring in our
steps.
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