After an opening week of Fatboy Slim shows, it was time for the Nutty Boys to bring their Madness presents Madrophenia show to Brighton Beach, with a support line-up of contemporaries from their 70s/80s heyday. This marks a swift return as they performed up the road at Brighton Centre just seven months ago (read our review here).
With everyone in a great mood following the excellent sets from The Selecter and The Blockheads, it was time for the main event and the large video screens showed blue theatre drapes opening to reveal a carousel of the many hit songs Madness has released over the years.
The band enter and open with “the heavy heavy monster sound” of One Step Beyond with Suggs addressing the horn section as Lee Thompson’s sax wrings out the high notes until the pace slows to the end.
There were cheers of recognition as Mike Barson’s piano introduced Embarrassment, with Suggs updating the lyric to “three times as older” before taking us back to Top Of The Pops in “1879” where “seven spotty herberts” paid tribute to Prince Buster with the infectious The Prince as ska record labels rolled past on the screens behind.
By now a small flotilla of freeloading boats had assembled offshore to which Suggs remarked, “see first hand the problem with boat people, we should charge ‘em a fiver”. NW5, their 2007 homage to Camden Town, followed with the arena now a sea of red fezes and pork pie hats. Mike Barson, or “Monsieur Barzo” as Suggs introduced him, reminisced about coming to Brighton to see The Piranhas and told the relatable story of young love behind My Girl. With every song and every video shown, if you were of a certain age (and many were), you were taken back to younger, more innocent days. The sheer volume of classic songs has cemented their place in the Great British Songbook.
A disco mirrorball appears for Return Of The Los Palmas 7 and they are transformed into a lounge act in a tiny room of thousands as a conga winds its way through the crowd. Then the gospel-infused Wings Of A Dove is a pure joy that cranks the party atmosphere up to maximum carnival level. It’s futile to wait for a weak song to go to the loo as there are none.
Suggs recounting a tall tale of bunking the train to Brighton was a great introduction to a magnificent Bed & Breakfast Man, that proved they are still at the top of their game and newer song Mr Apples was classic Madness with music hall melodies played to a film of sleazy Soho.
Guitarist Chrissy Boy Foreman, who has returned to the band after a spell of ill health, informed us that he now lives in Peacehaven and commented on the new boundary changes that will make it a part of an extended Brighton in a couple of years.
House Of Fun had everyone dancing while Baggy Trousers was the ultimate singalong and by the time Our House comes, everyone is best friends and singing arm in arm, including the beautifully turned out Pearly Queens Of Kings Cross and St Pancras who’d been turning heads all day. This continued with It Must Be Love, which was a total love-in, with the crowd singing unaccompanied. It may be a cover but they’ve definitely made it their own and was a lovely way to wrap up the set.
Thankfully they make a quick return with Suggs asking “is anyone still here?” and Prince Buster’s Madness was uncontrolled joy with the whole arena dancing, hugging and kissing. They ended with Night Boat To Cairo and wrung every last note out to extend the party for as long as possible. This set should be available on the NHS as a cure-all wonder drug.
THE SELECTER
The best thing about bands with a long history only being given a thirty minute set time means you are pretty much guaranteed to get a set of crowd pleasing classics and this proved to be the case as The Selecter kicked off with their take on The Avengers Theme. It’s 47 years since they formed and Pauline Black still looked stunning as she called out “We only stop to start again!” as they launched into Three Minute Hero.
Original drummer Charley “Aitch” Bembridge kept solid time with flourishes of cymbals and rolls and Black’s voice remained as strong as ever. She asked if there was anyone here from Clacton and advised them to “Do your duty and vote for Binface”.
Frontline’s lyrics of getting “out on the streets” was a strong reminder of the civil unrest of the past while War War War’s reggae rhythms saw the sax and bass in unison with added guitar jabs and organ swirl. This was expanded with a detour into the Motown classic War.
Missing Words provided a great soundtrack for the jet skiers enjoying the free show, then On My Radio, with organ and sax taking the lead showed it remains one of the finest songs of the Two Tone era.
Black shouted “We are under too much pressure” to kick off another classic, that squeezed in a taste of Toots And The Maytals’ Pressure Drop to end a short but sweet set from an eternally class act.
THE BLOCKHEADS
Following Craig Charles’ set of soul and funk bangers, The Blockheads took to the stage with no introduction and fired into Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Singer Mike Bennett made a difficult job look easy as he obviously had to sound like Ian Dury without being a pastiche and he made a damn good fist of it.
With original Bloackheads Chaz Jankel (keys and guitar), John Turnbull (guitar) and Mickey Gallagher (keys) still on board and excellent newer members on sax, bass and drums, they showed they are still a super tight funk band as they delivered excellent versions of I Want To Be Straight and What A Waste.
Billericay Dickie remains a filthy piece of music hall fun with Bennett taking great delight in delivering the saucy lyrics.
Turnbull’s guitar introduced Sweet Gene Vincent but a restart to get the crowd singing along was a mistake as not many seemed to know the introductory verse. That said, the momentous part of the song where the rock n roll riff kicks in meant this classic still has the power to thrill and delight.
Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 kicked off with a funky drum intro, with Gallagher giving it plenty of cowbell. It’s such an unusual song, with Dury’s lyrics celebrating the things he loves but it’s a quintessential Blockheads song.
The finished with their most successful single and great crowd pleaser, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, which featured an extended workout with Dave Lewis honking on two saxes at the same time as singer Bennett took a well dererved rest. With so many excellent songs to their name it would be a crime for them not to continue.
On The Beach concludes tomorrow with a sold out show from Moby.
Photographs Jon Southcoasting
