Madrophenia

I have to say Madness were astounding on Brighton Beach, with Suggs on vocals, Chris Foreman on guitar, Mike Barson on keyboards, Mark Bedford on bass and Dan Woodgate on drums. They opened with a rousing version of One Step Beyond, which had the 80,000 capacity audience skanking and reeling from the get-go. Marvellous renditions of Embarrassment, The Prince, NW5 and My Girl were to follow against a fabulous montage of iconic Madness imagery presented in a Warhol style. By now, the audience were hanging on every word whilst bopping along to the Madness rocksteady beat. Renditions of The Sun and the Rain, Return of the Los Palmas 7, Wings of a Dove and Lovestruck remained faithful to the originals but somehow with a very modern twist. For the encore, Night Boat to Cairo was near on perfect and provided a great crescendo to a fabulous evening.

Prior to Madness’ appearance, Pauline Black’s latest version of The Selecter put on a good show with all the hits, including On My Radio, Three Minute Hero, Missing Words and a fab ska medley that made a nod to Toots and The Maytals. I have to say The Selecter however, did not eclipse The Blockheads’ set, which provided an important portal into the songwriting skills of Ian Dury and Chaz Jankel, who remains in the band to this very day. From the get-go, versatile vocalist Mike Bennett spat out the clever lyrics of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and I Wanna Be Straight as a great tribute to Ian Dury without ever being a soundalike.

Other highlights included What a Waste, where John Turnbull created an extended solo as Chaz Jankel and Mick Gallagher sat in the pocket on dual keyboards. Sax player Dave Lewis provided star-studded moments throughout, especially on Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3 and the classic Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, where somehow, he managed to play two saxophones at once. Sweet Gene Vincent was also great, but there was no need to go back to scratch for the audience singalong; nevertheless, it worked, as did the cockney knees-up song Billericay Dickie, which genuinely had the audience chanting along with a great deal of enthusiasm without having the audience going ‘back to scratch.!’