Madness

 Taken From www.garbledonline.net/

16th December1999 at The Brighton CentreT

We wouldn’t normally cover such a mainstream band in Garbled Communications UK. I’m not especially a huge fan of the band. Sure, I liked them as a kid, but that’s about as far it goes. But as I was given a ticket to see them as a Christmas present, last night I saw Madness at the Brighton Centre, and couldn’t resist posting a review.

For some reason that we may simply never understand, Phil Jupitus was the main support act. With the whole crowd baying for Madness, he died on stage last night. Hardly getting a word in between the tedious calls of ‘You Fat Bastard’ he tried to tell a few jokes, and respond to the hecklers, but “When was the last time I saw my dick ? Inside your mothers mouth this morning”  is such an old put down you could almost hear the audience cringe, that is before they hurled even more abuse at him. A few Star Wars jokes, heard too many times before, failed to interest the audience, and then, for some reason, he got two members of the audience onstage to sing Beatles tracks, before disappearing about ten minutes early. The whole idea of a stand up comedian at a Madness gig is laughable in itself. The hugely pissed audience simply wanted to dance like loons, not listen to some bloke tell jokes, and it’s little surprise that he went down so badly. Jupitus simply shouldn’t have been booked to support them, but he could have controlled the crowd better. Been funnier.

And so to Madness. Who were alright. What you expect. Bouncy. Loud. Almost fun. Almost. The new stuff sounds like the old stuff, but somehow less catchy, less interesting. Suggs’ early lyrics had occasional poignancy. Now it seems that at some point he bought a rhyming dictionary and now writes the songs in his sleep, Lovestruck being the worst example of this. But it was alright. The audience went mad for the big hits, Our House, One Step Beyond, My Girl. As you’d expect. And they raised a smile. Nostalgia not always being such a bad thing.

I don’t think I’ll ever bother seeing Madness again. They publicly admit that they only got back together for financial gain, and the whole experience is slightly hollow. They’re never going to be a band who really interest anyone again, but just continue their careers as musical jokes. Which is the saddest thing of all. Proof, if any were needed, that bands should never reform.

Alex Finch.