2024

The Madness frontman provides vocals on a new single by the indie beat punk band called Zombie Nation. He also appears in the video, which sees him and the band fighting off zombies and barricading themselves in a pub, much like Shaun of the Dead. After the band perform a Nutty Train in honour of their guest vocalist, Suggs himself turns into one of the undead.

Suggs is a special guest on the Saturday morning cookery show. After having an English breakfast cooked for him, he talks about the band’s music and the upcoming Summer tour.

Suggs and Mike appear at the end of Ken Bruce’s show as the DJ marks his one-year anniversary as a presenter on the station. The duo perform a stripped back version of It Must be Love, with the vocals changed to “It must be Ken” to fit in with the celebrations. The show is broadcast from a pub, with other guests including Sharleen Spiteri, Vanessa Feltz and Basil Brush.

A special edition of the 2009 album is released, with additional tracks Bittersweet and The Roadette Song, plus a 24-page booklet with exclusive new liner notes from Suggs, Lee, Chris, Woody and Mike, and a poem by Carl.

The band appear on the prime time ITV chat show, playing Round and Round to close the programme. Recorded earlier in the week, the performance sees Mez deputising for Woody on drums.

For this year’s Record Day, a special edition of the 1980 classic is made available, with its six tracks including the original 7” mix and a previously unreleased instrumental specially mixed by Clive Langer. Side A: Embarrassment / Not Home Today / E.R.N.I.E. Side B: Embarrassment (Instrumental) / Crying Shame / You Said.

Suggs joins DJ Gary Davies in the studio for the weekly trip down memory lane. Acting as co-host during the two-hour show, he introduces some of his 80s favourites, answers listeners’ questions and discusses the No1 album and upcoming tour. Wings of a Dove and Michael Caine both got an airing, after which Suggs reveals how they were recorded. After playing a live version of Keep Moving from 1985, Gary asks the singer how his voice has changed, with Suggs joking that it isn’t really any different because he didn’t have much of one to lose. Among the chosen 80s tracks are numbers by Echo and the Bunnymen and Aswad, with Suggs reminiscing about working together before quipping: “What a mix of haircuts that was.”

Lee fronts another of his spin-off bands, who play after a screening of his rocku-docu-mockumentary One Man’s Madness and a Q&A. With Lee his usual cheeky and chatty self, the running order is a mix of covers, with David Bowie, The Kinks, Prince Buster and Ian Dury all in the mix. Setlist: My Old Man / Tired of Waiting / Clever Trevor / Kooks / Mother’s Little Helper / Ghost Dance / Mr Soft / Dead End Street / Lola. Encore: All the Young Dudes / Jean Genie.

Bedders teams up with friend and fellow musician Mark Anthony to launch a new monthly music podcast, broadcast on Shoreditch Radio at 9pm on the first Monday of every month.

Two more albums from the band’s back catalogue get a makeover treatment as two-disc expanded editions. Oui Oui… contains 11 bonus tracks which weren’t on the original CD, but did feature on the deluxe version released in 2013. Liner notes from Mike, Chris and Woody are also included. The new version of Can’t Touch Us Now includes 14 mostly demo tracks not on the original release, as well as interviews with Suggs, Mike, Chris and Lee.

Rescheduled from January, Madness play two shows on the same day as a warm-up for their impending US tour, performing a matinee at 5pm and a later show at the same intimate venue. The 16-track setlist includes three Dangermen songs as well as a trio from the latest album. Mez deputises on drums, with Woody not expected to join the band on the upcoming US tour.

One Step Beyond / Embarrassment / The Prince / C’est La Vie / My Girl / Girl Why Don’t You? / Taller Than You Are / If I Go Mad / Chase the Devil / Run for Your Life / House of Fun / Baggy Trousers / Our House / It Must Be Love. ENCORE: Madness / Night Boat to Cairo

Madness head to the west coast for their first date on US soil since April 2012, kicking off the C’est La Vie in America Tour in Washington State. Tonight’s gig sees a mix of old classics, new tracks and Dangermen numbers, with Chris resurrecting his Showtime party piece with a rendition of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.

One Step Beyond / Embarrassment / The Prince / NW5 / My Girl / Taller Than You Are / The Sun and the Rain / C’est La Vie / Shut Up / Girl Why Don’t You? / If I Go Mad / Bed and Breakfast Man / Run for Your Life / Chase the Devil / Wings of a Dove / Mr Apples / House of Fun / Baggy Trousers / Our House / It Must Be Love. ENCORE: Madness / Night Boat to Cairo

“If you ever thought your middle-aged years weren’t meant for raising hell, just say to hell with the ageists and get suited and booted for a Madness show. The North London band might have been feeling their age, too, when they performed in Oakland — they joked about having come to America on the Mayflower for their first tour in 1979. But the vibes at the Fox Theater were youthful and immaculate, bringing everyone to their feet for the rocksteady beats, from the middle-aged fans to those barely out of their teens. It’s an impressive feat that the British ska revivalists that formed Madness in the late ​‘70s have retained six of its original seven members. The fanbase has remained just as devoted, not just in sound but in style. The two-tone genre (a heady blend of Jamaican ska and reggae with the punk and new wave sounds of the ​‘70s and ​‘80s, perfect for all-nighters on the dance floor) brought out the nattily dressed — slim-cut suits and pencil skirts, and the ​‘60s mod fashions made popular by the rude boys and rude girls of the scene that still persists in the Bay Area and beyond. Coming out to the instrumental theme song from Star Wars, the band (impeccably tailored, natch) launched straightaway into their early UK chart-topper ​One Step Beyond, a cover of Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster’s mostly instrumental song. An upbeat ska bop ladled generously with signature sax, it practically commanded everyone to get up and dance. From there, it was a mix of old and new, a herculean task of shoehorning a bit of everything from their 13 albums of horn-laden stompers, slow-and-steady, laid-back beats, and a few crossover pop and rock hits. Their biggest hit, 1982’s ​Our House (which was also the name of their early-aughts West End musical), with its whimsically upbeat hooks, has silly lyrics to match its party-time mood: ​“Our house, it has a crowd/ There’s always something happening/ And it’s usually quite loud.” They dipped into fan favorites, like the coming-of-age tune ​House of Fun, with its percolating bass and funhouse menace (“Welcome to the lion’s den/ Temptation’s on its way…”) and the whirligig, bouncy beats of ​Baggy Trousers, for mischievous kids who miss the freedom of youth (“Oh what fun we had/ But at the time it seemed so bad…”). They also threw in tracks from last year’s C’est La Vie, which doesn’t break any new ground musically, but does offer a tuneful, bittersweet overview of present-day perils, with its insta-celebs and political upheavals, as in the title track’s lyrics, which warn of ​“Justice, a toothless old hag/ It’s every man now on his own/ It’s all for one, you’d better run.” Given the crowd’s jubilant response for the band’s return to the U.S. (a tour was repeatedly postponed during the Covid years), there was an air of thoughtful gratitude from the band. As the crowd chanted for more, charismatic frontman Suggs mused aloud, ​“It’s not just music.” He’s right. It must be love. The opening band, Save Ferris (a name taken from the ​‘80s movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), played the hits that epitomized their third-wave ska sound, a genre which included their Orange County neighbors, No Doubt. More pop-punk and SoCal in sound and style, they were best known for their ​‘90s cover of Dexys Midnight Runners’ hit, ​Come On Eileen, and maybe for their cameo in the ​‘90s movie, 10 Things I Hate About You. An airy, mindless hit. An ​“Oh, I remember that song,” from distracted fans mired in Madness.
Robin Lapid, newhavenindependent.org

Before tonight’s gig, the band appear at Amoeba Records for an afternoon of signing.

After the fourth gig of the US tour, Madness are joined backstage by all four original members of No Doubt, who have previously cited the band as a huge inspiration. Also among the guests is American singer and TV personality Blake Shelton.

“Twelve years! You wouldn’t believe what it took to get here,” Madness frontman Suggs McPherson told the crowd at Hammerstein Ballroom on Thursday, who were very glad the London band were finally playing NYC again. They were supposed to play in 2020 but the pandemic obviously delayed that, and Suggs also noted that in some ways it was for the best, as during those four years, Madness released their terrific thirteenth album Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est la Vie (which went to #1 in the UK), not to mention a band memoir and accompanying three-part documentary. It all worked out and everyone onstage and off had a very good time. “I can’t believe we’re all still alive,” Suggs joked later in the show, but it is pretty remarkable that basically the same lineup that gave us their 1979 debut One Step Beyond… was on stage here 45 years later, including keyboardist Mike Barson, bassist Mark Bedford, guitarist Chris Foreman, and saxophonist/percussionist Lee Thompson, who seemed to be the keeper of good vibes (and at one point poured shots and passed them to the crowd). Drummer Danny Woodgate, who is still in the band, was not on this tour. They were augmented by a horn section and percussionist, and I thought they sounded fantastic. Even with songs from the new album, which the crowd around me seemed to know, it was a hitfest on Thursday night. And Madness have a lot of hits. Our House may have been their only US Top 40 single, but they were one of the biggest bands in England in the 1980s and most of their biggest songs (which got MTV and alt-rock radio play here) were performed at Hammerstein, much to the delight of everyone in the room, who were dancing all night. The band walked out to a mash up of The Thunderbirds/Star Wars theme and Suggs greeted the cheering crowd with “Hey You!,” as they launched into One Step Beyond; the night flew from there. The first part of their set was heavy on early classics, including Embarrassment, My Girl, The Sun and the Rain, Shut Up, Bed and Breakfast Man and Wings of a Dove. The band took a break after that, but Chris Foreman stayed onstage to perform a karaoke cover of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell which was random but fun. The band then came back to play four of their biggest songs: House of Fun, Baggy Trousers, Our House and It Must Be Love. Their encore was introduced by a bagpipe player, and then they came back for two more songs — Madness and Night Boat to Cairo — and then said goodbye to the crowd while Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian played over the soundsystem. The crowd was in such a good sing-a-long mood, they started singing along to that too, and started dancing in a circle together. A surreal close to a wonderful night. Midway through the show, Suggs’ referenced The Life of Brian‘s joke about “What have the Romans ever given us?” in reference to ska legend Prince Buster’s influence on Madness. Suggs noted Buster gave them their name, inspired their debut single The Prince, and that their second single was a Prince Buster cover. (Madness is another cover.) It was all an intro to them doing a Prince Buster tribute, offering up another cover, Girl Why Don’t You? I was near the front for the first half of the show, which was great, but when I moved to the back after Bed and Breakfast Man I realized that was where the real party was. People had room to dance and were using it, and even the front lobby where the merch table was had loads of people shaking a leg. Watching the crowd lose it to House of Fun may have been the highlight of the night. People came dressed up. There were of course lots of Fred Perry shirts and porkpie hats on display, but there was also a large group of fans who showed up in red Madness fezes. With the Rangers in the NHL playoffs playing next door at Madison Square Garden, and fans in hockey jerseys everywhere, the corner of 8th Ave and 34th St was an interesting fashion show to say the least. The night was opened by Fishbone who I thought were also terrific despite “opening act sound.” There has been some inter-band drama lately, but this version of the lineup, featuring OG members singer/saxophonist Angelo Moore and keyboardist singer Chris Dowd, were all joy in their short set. Sometimes you get a metal Fishbone set, but they knew who they were opening for and their short set featured some of their most-loved songs, including Party at Ground Zero, Ma and Pa, Cholly, Everyday Sunshine and a cover of the Commodores’ Brick House. Angelo is still a dynamo frontman, jumping around, doing cartwheels, playing the theremin like a scratch DJ, and generally pumping up the crowd. He also addressed the Trump verdict, which had just come in a couple hours earlier, leading the crowd in a chant of “GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY” before dedicating Ugly to to him. (Madness also referenced the verdict later in the night.) When they were leaving the stage after their set, Angelo went back and grabbed the mic and told the crowd how excited he was to open for a band that were so influential to him, and he could be seen dancing and singing along to Madness’ set all night from the side balcony.
brooklynvegan.com

Back on home turf, and after a couple of weeks off, the band reconvene for the summer festival circuit, kicking off in the sunshine on the south coast. The running order is pretty much the standard Greatest Hits festival set, with four tracks from the latest album inserted and Mr Apples dropped from the performance after someone in the crowd requires medical assistance.

One Step Beyond / Embarrassment / The Prince / C’est La Vie / NW5 / My Girl / The Sun and the Rain / Hour of Need / Wings of a Dove / Lovestruck / Run for Your Life / Bed and Breakfast Man / Shut up / Round We Go / Mr Apples / House of Fun / Baggy Trousers / Our House / It Must be Love / ENCORE: Madness / Night Boat to Cairo

“Oh, what fun we had,” indeed. Walking down Margate seafront you could tell cockney legends Madness were in town thanks to the red fez-wearing crowds. The iconic ska band headlined the Dreamland stage on Friday June 14 as part of this year’s Margate Summer Series – as well as their own C’est La Vie tour. They are off the back of a No.1 studio album in the UK with Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie, knocking the likes of Drake out of the way in November. But before they sauntered onto the stage, rock band The Lightning Seeds warmed up the boisterous crowd who were more than ready to belt out their timely rendition of Three Lions. The bars which surround the main stage were packed between the performances but the queues moved quickly. Suggs and co, who had their heyday in the 70s and 80s, started their performance with what else but One Step Beyond followed by Embarrassment and The Prince. In between songs Suggs performed as a stand-up comedian and the crowd lapped up every second of it. Their newer songs such as Run For Your Life and C’est La Vie were featured as well as NW5 and The Sun and the Rain, released in 2007. Like any ‘older’ band there is a sense that the crowd, who were mainly in their 50s, wanted the hits they knew every word to and the more recent songs did fall a bit flat. This is not because they weren’t good or performed well, but rather that most of those in attendance simply didn’t know them. Around halfway through the performance, there was a pause – just after Run For Your Life – due to someone being ill. But after the break Madness came roaring back with Bed and Breakfast Man and Shut Up before heading into the encore of their truly massive hits. They left the best till last, with the lights now beaming in the dark, and finished off the entertaining night with House of Fun, Baggy Trousers, Our House, It Must Be Love and Madness. Before heading off the stage Suggs played with the crowd, asking if they were still here, before sending the audience into a frenzy with my personal favourite – and what seemed like the song of the night – Night Boat to Cairo.
Joe Crossley, Kent Online

Madness, madness, they call it madness. And it certainly was on the Hoe as NW5’s greatest export created the mother of all knees-ups. From the front barriers to the beer tents people were skanking and stomping as Madness turned Plymouth Summer Sessions into a Saturday night party. Arriving on stage to the Thunderbirds theme, it was lift-off as One Step Beyond got the jamboree jumping, and it didn’t let up. Dressed in their sharp suits and hats, Madness were as much natty boys as nutty boys, and talking of hats, the audience was awash with them: fezzes, trilbies, and pork pies. There were also lots of DMs, Harringtons and black-and-white checks. Plymouth had really made the effort. It was worth it. Jaunty renditions of Embarrassment, The Prince, new track C’est La Vie, NW5, My Girl, and The Sun and the Moon tested the stamina of a jubilant crowd. They were up to it though. Suggs, always a wit, had even done his homework on the city. “Just got back from America,” he said. “They wouldn’t be there without you lot.” He knew all about the Plymouth Brethren too. Playing for about 90 minutes, Madness performed 22 songs, with highlights including the funky new number Run For Your Life, and first-album favourite Bed and Breakfast Man. “It was going to be a single,” said Suggs. “I don’t know why it wasn’t, perhaps there is still time.” Then things took a truly nutty turn as Chris Foreman took over vocals for a mind-boggling cover of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. Everyone loved it. With Lee Thompson blowing up a storm all evening on the sax, Chris then yelled: “It’s showtime!” Cue a rousing finale with plenty of singing along to House of Fun, Baggy Trousers, Our House and It Must Be Love. An encore of Madness and Night Boat to Cairo was so good even the rain, which had stayed away all evening, came out to see it. “Is this cultural appropriation?” asked Suggs. “Or just a tea towel on my head?” What it was, was great fun. And it had all started five hours earlier with a fine set from Hardwicke Circus, not easy for the boys with many people still coming into the Hoe arena. Lightning Seeds were great too, with the audience in fine voice for Three Lions, singing along 24-hours before England kicked off in the Euros. The smart and catchy singles Lucky You, Life of Riley and Pure went down a treat. Marvellous. There’s another one. The Zutons performed a tight set too, all the better when Abi Harding was blowing her sax. But the 50-minute performance was, perhaps, a little too long. When Dave McCabe sang the opening line of Don’t Ever Think (Too Much): “I’m standing on the edge of a cliff…” Some wag shouted: “Jump.” There was a feeling that perhaps Lighting Seeds should have gone on after the Zutons, with the “football’s coming home” mass chorus having built momentum nicely before the main attraction. But the Zutons sure had their moment when Valerie brought back the sing-a-long vibe. People love to join in, and those three bands each gave them a chance, which they took like a striker gobbling up a loose ball. Special mention, too, to the woman who signs the lyrics during the performances. Not an easy job and performed with energy, swiftness and a smile on her face. She wasn’t the only one smiling at the end of a great third night at the Summer Sessions.
William Telford, Plymouth Herald

“Well if this is madness then I know I’m filled with gladness”. Sums it up really. The lyric from their eponymous first-album song may not have arrived until the encore but it was present throughout the evening. Madness have always been a reminder to not take life, or ourselves, too seriously. They can bring sunshine to the greyest of days, and did so in Guildhall Square, treating an exuberant crowd to most of their hits and plenty of north London banter. Welcomed on stage to the Thunderbirds theme tune, accompanied by typically comic visuals, the band romped through three classics before saying hello. One Step Beyond and The Prince came either side of Embarrassment, during which “I’m feeling twice as older” felt like a heartfelt chant from both the band and, let’s say, more senior members of the audience. Actually, doing the maths I realised that I was nearly ‘three times as older’ as when I first saw them at the Gaumont, and I wasn’t the only ex-nutty boy creaking where once I bounced. Having said that, the crowd included loads of younger folk and, surprisingly according to lead singer Suggs, lots of women, and they seemed to be enjoying the newer material. C’est La Vie, the title track of their latest album was a pleasing hark back to their earlier Ska roots. A personal favourite, the bittersweet 2007 song NW5 – “I would give you everything, for just that smile you bring, for just that song to sing” – seemed to be particularly well received. This and the ensuing My Girl reminded me that the band have always been able to deliver pathos alongside the cheeky chappie fun. Much of the stage humour was provided by Suggs and saxophonist, Lee Thompson, whose gentle sparring with the audience and each other seemed genuine and certainly not forty-five years old. Guitarist Chris Foreman, as well as keeping us informed of the England v Serbia football score, added to the chaos later by offering a karaoke version of Living on a Prayer while the band disappeared for ‘a cup of tea’. After this interlude the 80’s hits just kept coming. “There’s always something happening and it’s usually quite loud.” Our House had the whole crowd going wild, and the set came to a riotous, anthemic end with I Must Be Love. “I knew that it’s you I need to take the blues away” sums up perfectly how most fans feel about Madness. Suggs, Barso, Kix, Chrissy Boy, Woody and Bedders may have funny nicknames and cheeky grins but they are also excellent musicians and every song was delivered with class and quality. Back on stage for the encore, Madness and the classic Night Boat to Cairo allowed the Nutty Boys to finish with a flourish, reminding everyone of their Ska roots, eccentric pop songs (“It’s just gone noon, half past monsoon”) and outstanding musical ability. “Oh what fun we had”. Trousers may not be as baggy as they were back in the day but the feel good factor remained the same. As the band left the stage the PA pumped out Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and the crowd merrily dispersed singing along to the chorus.
Nick Mabey, in-common.co.uk

Madness put out an extended double-disc edition of their No1 album, with the 32 tracks including five previously unreleased numbers: I’d Do Anything (If I Could), which is credited to Chris, along with No Reason (McPherson), Hello Sun (Woodgate), Long Goodbye (Woodgate) and old favourite Culture Vulture (Barson/Thompson). Sung by Lee, the latter has been around in various guises since the 1990s, with this version more like the one performed at the 2018 House of Fun weekender than the one revealed at Madstock in 1996 that didn’t make the cut for Wonderful. Available in the usual variety of formats, the second disc also includes six live tracks from the 2023 Christmas tour: Theatre of the Absurd, C’est La Vie, Hour of Need, Round We Go, Run For Your Life, In My Street and Friday Night, Saturday Morning.

After completing their sojourn around the British Isles, Madness head to Europe for three festival appearances.