REVIEW: Madness (Westonbirt) (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Nutty Boys turn Westonbirt into a House of Fun

3:13pm Monday 25th June 2012 in What's On By Danny Hall, Sports Editor

ROY HODGSON’S boys may have tried to put a dampener on Sunday evening but Madness made sure that a little corner of Westonbirt will forever be a House of Fun.

The Nutty Boys delayed their appearance on stage until the first 90 minutes of the Euro 2012 quarter final between England and Italy had been played.

Then lead singer Suggs had to pepper his between-song banter with updates on extra time and penalties.

Doom and gloom in Kiev it may have been, in the forest it was a full-on party.

If you don’t like a Madness song, there will be another one along in three minutes. This is a band that does not indulge in extended solos and wig outs. You get the hits and they crammed 21 of them into the 85-minute set.

After opening with a an early cover version – Prince Buster’s ‘One Step Beyond’ – we were treated to the full panoply of cherishable and unique nuttiness – both dark and chirpy.

Few bands have the creative juices to write great songs more than 30 years into their career, however the irresistible chorus of ‘NW5’ proves that Madness are no waning power. They even introduced an as-yet unreleased song ‘Circus Freaks’ as a taster to their forthcoming new album.

But if you wanted the hits, you got them as they galloped to the memorable finale with ‘House of Fun’, an especially sprightly ‘Wings of a Dove’, ‘Baggy Trousers’ and the recently Buckingham Palace-aired ‘Our House’ and ‘It Must Be Love’.

The encores of ‘Madness’ and ‘Night Boat to Cairo’ cranked up the crowd a little more, proving there is one group of Englishmen that always delivers.