I first saw Madness on the legendary Two-Tone tour which called at Newcastle Mayfair on November 9th, 1979. This tour brought Ska to the masses, coming off the back of the punk revolution, and featured the combined talents of headliners The Specials, Madness and The Selecter. The tour sold out everywhere, and was a complete success, but sadly the main reason it made the press was because of some violent outbreaks caused by a minority of troublemakers in some venues. The National Front and the British National Party were out recruiting at the shows, even though the bands who were performing on the tour openly distanced themselves from racism. It was a strange paradox, here we had fans dancing to multi-racial bands and singing along with songs whose lyrics preached racial unity, and yet the far-right was trying to sell politics which came from the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
As I recall, there was quite a bit of trouble at the Mayfair gig, with fights breaking out throughout the night; and being one of a small number of people in the crowd with long hair, I did feel quite unsafe at times. None the less I survived, and it was a great night, featuring three excellent bands, and one of several nights I would spend with Madness over the next few years. By the time the Two-Tone tour visited our towns, Madness were already hitting the charts and bringing their nutty humour and perfect pop tunes into our living rooms on Top of the Pops. In 1979 “The Prince”, “My Girl” and “One Step Beyond” had all been chart hits in the UK.
The next time I saw Madness was at Sunderland Mecca, which by then was also called the Mayfair (just to confuse things), on April 30th, 1980. The place was packed, and a hot sweaty fun night had by all. I remember being right down the front in the pit, getting knocked and pushed all over the ballroom floor. I then saw them at concerts at Newcastle City Hall in December 1980, October 1981, and February 1983. I also saw Madness headline the first night of the Dock Rock Festival, which took place down at Hartlepool docks in the summer of 1986. Going to a Madness gig meant a guaranteed night of fun. By the mid-80s there was no stopping these guys; and they hit the UK single charts over 20 times, assembling a catalogue of tremendous pop tunes to draw from including “Baggy Trousers”, “Our House” and “House of Fun”.
Madness split shortly after the Dock Rock Festival in 1986 and reformed some years later to give us many more years of fun! They would often headline Newcastle Arena, and I went along and saw the nutty boys on several more occasions, each one bringing the audience a guaranteed night of chart hits, dancing and singing along. I enjoyed every time and so I was delighted to read that: “Following the success of their No 1 album ‘C’Est La Vie’ this week, get your baggy trousers ready as we are thrilled to announce MADNESS are to perform at Newcastle Racecourse on Friday 28th June 2024!
Theatre of the Absurd presents: Madness – C’Est La Vie “The lights go down on some dark theatre in London / For the cruellest comedy…” Read the headlines and it’s hard not to conclude that the world has gone mad. Mad enough, in fact, to give North London’s finest twelve-legged quorum of Nutty Boys a run for their money. According to keyboard-wrangler Mike ‘Barso’ Barson, the title track to Madness’s lucky thirteenth full-length C’Est La Vie is “about these crazy times we’re living in, and how I just want to stay on my boat and not be a part of All this madness. But of course, I’m a member of a group called Madness. Perhaps we should have called ourselves ‘Sanity’…” If this latest opus is any indication, when the going gets mad, the Mad only get sharper, wilder, and more succinct.”
“C’Est La Vie combines the widescreen ambition of masterpieces like The Liberty of Norton Folgate and The Rise & Fall and the allkiller- no-filler tune factory instincts of classics like Absolutely, 7 and Can’t Touch Us Now. It’s a 14-song suite packed with lunatic hooks and neon choruses, eerie spaceska and sophisticated pop genius – a giddy gambol across a bouncy castle soundscape that finds time for moments of righteous anger, powerful empathy and the kind of plain-spoken wisdom that’s always operated beneath the group’s nutty veneer. Vintage Madness, in other words.”
How could I resist? Well, the answer was of course, I couldn’t’ t, could I!? The last time I went to a similar event was to see the Beach Boys at York races, which was lots of fun. So, Jackie, Harvey and I elected to go to the races. I decided to pay for the Premier Enclosure which placed the three of us in a nice part of the racecourse to place our bets before the nutty boys took to the stage. We did quite well actually, coming out with £20 profit overall to share between us. We won on every race! Wish we had done an accumulator. We had a nice drink and then wandered down to see Madness.
We bumped along over the grass and got so far down into the crowd. We couldn’t get right to the front because the closer we got to the stage the fuller and crazier it became. Hence, we got the closest we could and watched Madness perform a set of greatest hits. I had forgotten just how many hits these guys have had. They came one after the other: “One Step Beyond”, “My Girl”, “House of Fun”, “Baggy Trousers” and “Our House”. Everyone singing along and dancing crazily. Great fun. The final encore was, as always, complete with fez’s “Night Boat to Cairo”. We all meandered out towards our taxi home. A good time had by all. Happy days.
Many thanks to Jackie for pictures and helping me navigate the site.
Setlist: 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; Livin’ on a Prayer; House of Fun; Baggy Trousers; Our House; It Must Be Love
Encore: Madness; Night Boat to Cairo.
One Step Beyond! The nutty boys returned with a triumphant performance at Newcastle Arena. The arena was absolutely crammed, fully sold out and everyone was in the early Christmas spirit and ready to party with 
First up were support 
But the warmup was not finished. Between bands an excellent DJ appeared spinning some cool sounds including the original “Tainted Love” by Gloria Jones, a big northern soul favourite from a lady who went on to become Marc Bolan’s girlfriend and was driving the car during the tragic accident which led to the star’s untimely passing; Desmond Decker’s classic “the Israelites” and closing with David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel”. The crowd were singing along and dancing to every tune. Well done Mr DJ.
Next up Madness. I swear that at least half of the crowd were wearing Fez hats as featured in their song “night Boat to Cairo”. From the word go, everyone was dancing around going completely nuts! I have never seen the floor of the arena so crammed. The set was a mixture of hits and songs from their new album Cest La Vie, which focuses on petty crime as was illustrated by the fantastic visuals on the screens above and behind the band. The visuals, actually, were amazing adding much to the experience.
We were treated to all the hits: “Our House”, “Embarrassment”, “The Prince”, “One Step Beyond”, “My Girl” and many, many more. One particular song brought back embarrassing memories. The song in question is “It Must Be Love” which was, of course, written by the great Labi Siffre. Many years ago I was out with Marie, my late wife who was at the time my girlfriend. It was a Friday night and there was no particularly exciting band appearing at Sunderland Mecca or Newcastle Mayfair so we decided to, on the off chance, drive through to Newcastle Polytechnic to see who was appearing at that venue.
When we arrived I asked at the door “Who is on tonight?” Labi Siffre they replied. “Oh no I said I have just seen him at Sunderland Empire (supporting Linda Lewis I believe) and he is so boring!” Well I turned round and facing me was none other than Labi Siffre himself. It was one of those moments when you hope the ground will open up and swallow you. I didn’t know what to say so just paid my money and we went in to the concert, which was actually very good and he was not boring at all! Looking back he was an excellent singer/songwriter and I still feel awful about my comment that evening.
People were dancing up and down the wheelchair ramp in front of us. The encores completed with the aforementioned “Night Boat to Cairo”. Elaine, Jackie and I all agreed that it was a tremendous performance by a band of consummate professionals. Magic.
Many thanks to Jackie for the images, Elaine for joining in the fun and Chris for assisting me in completing this entry.
Update 26 March 2024. Just bought myself a copy of Ian Broudie’s book which is entitled “Tomorrow’s Here Today”. A nice signed copy courtesy of Waterstones. I thought I would add it to this blog entry (see images).
Update 27 December 2021. Many thanks to Jimmy Burns (a.k.a. Punk Hoarder) who kindly provided me with an image of the poster for the second gig. Another crazy, crazy night. People were trying to climb on stage and sing and dance with the band. This caused lots of fun, but also numerous interruptions in the show. The Specials were really on top form in those days and a great live band who went on to have some very special (no pun intended) chart hits. I wish I could relive the punk era and go to some of those concerts again. I also wish I had taken a camera. But at least I was there to experience it and still hold (some of) my memories. Happy days!
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