Madness on Tour
Over 40 years since the release of their debut album, UK's ska survivors Madness remain committed to taking fans one step beyond. With six of their seven original members still reporting to active duty, Madness have retained their reputation as one of Britain's most joyful and energetic live bands, with a deep repertoire of over 20 UK Top 40 hits to pull from. Tellingly, the band capped their 2019 campaign with three nights at London's legendary Roundhouse venue, for an event they dubbed "Past Present Future" — which suggests this veteran crew still has much skanking left to do. Whether you catch them in a club or at a summer festival, an evening of nonstop dancing and pint-sloshing sing-alongs is guaranteed.
Madness in Concert
Though they emerged as part of the two-tone ska scene that flourished in late-'70s England, Madness eventually distanced themselves from their punkier peers by fashioning a more quintessentially British pop sensibility and maintaining a permanent presence near the top of the UK charts for much of the '80s. After party-crashing the mainstream with irreverent skanking classics like "One Step Beyond" and "Baggy Trousers," Madness revealed a more sanguine side with 1981's hit cover of the ‘70s pop confection "It Must Be Love" and the eternally anthemic "Our House," which became their one and only Top 10 single in the U.S. But while the hit parade had slowed down by the '90s, Madness' influence was filtering down to acts ranging from No Doubt to Blur to The Streets, setting the stage for Madness' 21st-century renaissance. In 2009, the band released their first album of original material in a decade, The Liberty of Norton Folgate, an ambitious song cycle that catapulted the group back into the UK Top 5 and proved this group was not about to recede into the oldies circuit.
