Madness

The Plymouth Pavilions became The House of Fun, on Tuesday night and as it went One Step Beyond, and became utterly Love struck, for the Camden Town boys that are so utterly Madness.
With 2007 nearly over, the old saying of leave the best till last has never rung more true at the Pavilions, from start to finish Madness were the complete entertainment package and with sublime ease went about the business of producing one of, if not the best gig I have witnessed this year.
Bringing a ten strong presence to the stage, with huge twin screens to each side, Madness entered the arena to an air of anticipation that only a band with an amazingly compelling history and back catalogue could hope to live up to, but Madness, with the amazing Suggs at the helm powered through a fantastic twenty six song set that had every crowd member doing the Ska bop-along with complete abandon. One Step beyond kicked it all off quickly followed by, Embarrassment, and then The Prince, but they really could have played anything as they held court over a sea of Fez adorned people.    I admit that I do not possess a Madness record, non do I hold Ska as one of my favoured genres of music, but with so many instantly recognisable songs, performed with so much gusto, non of that mattered one bit tonight as I witnessed one of the
rare gigs that didn’t let up for an instant. From high wire flying saxophone playing, lamp post hugging and a great back set video/ light show, picking a highlight of the night was never going to be easy, was it Baggy Trousers, or House of Fun, or the encore of Madness and Night Boat, I really couldn’t decide, so all I can hope for is to see Madness again soon, maybe then I can work out how they do what they do so very, very well - Fantastic!             

                         Review - Greg Taylor