‘Madness Are Go’ at Kirkstall Abbey
Written & Edited by Erin Clark.
The legendary, Camden-native, ska-legends Madness are a band with absolutely nothing to
prove. Boasting multiple musical accolades, a longstanding fortified fanbase, and an
illustrious, six-decade long career, it’s no wonder that the six-piece effort can afford to take a
well-deserved victory lap. Rather than a ‘victory lap,’ maybe the more appropriate term is a
quasi-languid-victory-stroll, which comes in the form of the 2024 ‘C’est La Vie’ tour – named
verbatim after the band’s most recent release. The surplus of their ardent fans have
remained steadfast in their belief that Madness have been criminally, critically overlooked
throughout their career – with this fact culminating for many in their first number one studio
album being last year’s studio release.
Critically overlooked or not, as I watch over an abundant crowd gathered at Kirkstall Abbey,
it remains clear that the love and adoration that these fans feel for Madness is definitively
palpable. I can’t escape the feeling that Madness has provided a much-loved, lived-in
soundtrack to these people’s lives, to the shenanigans of their adolescence, to the self-
discovery of their music taste, and to the many sleepless nights spent ‘skanking.’ Surveying
the crowd, I feel as though there is some form of reverse game of ‘Where’s Wally’ afoot, with
the stark abundance of red felt fezzes. Aesthetics aside, this crowd feels as though they
already know one another, as if they are family with members both young and old – and this
seems to stand as a testament to the lasting power of this legacy that the band has carved
for themselves. From the fresh-faced, tongue-in-cheek young radicals that burst onto the
scene in the late seventies, to the established, revered and monolithic pioneers of two-tone
ska – Madness’ essence has remained unwavering, unchanging and steadfast. The
immediately recognisable and youthful visages remain just under the surface of the band’s
current image; if there’s one thing that this band has kept a firm grasp on, it’s a sense of
having fun. Pure, unashamed, unprohibited fun.
With their entrance framed by an appropriately camp spoof of the intro to iconic 60’s series
‘Thunderbirds,’ the band were treated to rapturous applause as they assumed their positions
on stage. Once assumed, the formation resembled something that was equal parts an
exceedingly musically talented effort, and equal parts old friends uniting for a jolly. Still performing as the original six members of the band, there is an air of an established legacy,
a comradery, and ultimately a brotherhood. And with that, Madness ‘are go.’
Like a stallion storming out of the metaphorical gates, with a cover of the Prince Buster
single ‘One Step Beyond’ which gifted Madness the title for their debut album, straight away
the band settled any sorts of debates around their ongoing capacity for an energetic
performance. I was well aware that the band were famed for their enigmatic zeal, but the
energy and enthusiasm that Madness exerted was something really remarkable. The
program of individual performances proved very prompt, with minimal time between entries
to the setlist for the band to engage much with the crowd. That being said, this lack of direct
engagement in the form of speech was well accounted for in the reciprocal energy exchange
of the band’s relentless, back-to-back sonic performances.
Giving no room for digestion, reflection or dead space, the band skilfully leaped into
performances from musical entries spanning any and every one of their 13-strong studio
album roster. Highlights of this stint were 1984’s ‘The Sun and the Rain’ and ‘Wings of a
Dove,’ alongside 2023’s camp anthem ‘Run For Your Life.’ Though these repeated shifts in
musical tone could have been easily disjointed, Madness skilfully weaved these strands from
vastly different decades together to form an ultimately delightful testament to the band’s
discography.
As Chris ‘Chrissy Boy’ Foreman graced the stage in what can only be described as ‘pound
shop royal regalia,’ I don’t think that anyone in attendance would have guessed that a cover
of AC/DC’s gargantuan 1979 monolith ‘Highway to Hell’ was in store. I must stress here that
I use the term ‘cover’ in the loosest, most liberal sense of the word – perhaps something
akin to a dad shouting karaoke after sinking upwards of around five pints. This campy ad-lib
served to shift the gears into the next stint, which proved to be a round-off, a home-run of the
band’s most popular singles.
Rapid-fire, high-energy performances of ‘House of Fun,’ ‘Baggy Trousers,’ ‘Our House,’ and
Labi Siffre’s ‘It Must Be Love’ proved to supersede the appetite of the gathered masses, with
not a single person stood still remaining in the venue. The variety of dances presented a
kind of ‘Choose Your Character’ choice: would it be a drunk dad swaying with bottle in hand,
a young child holding hands with their mother rhythmically kicking their legs, or perhaps one
of the many fedora-donned, tie-wearing Madness-enthusiasts singing every word? The short
masquerade of an encore was shortly followed by a double-bill of a cover of Prince Buster’s
‘Madness’ and the band’s colossal single ‘Night Boat to Cairo.’
For a band with nothing to prove, Madness conducted themselves as if all shades of doubt
were against them. It is the very essence of this mindset that has treated the band to its
illustrious career, they have never rested on their laurels and they continue ardently
choosing to remain as musically tight, as personally bound, and as cheekily lovable they
have ever been.
