Madness, Paul Heaton

Having seen Madness before at the S.E.C.C , I was looking forward to seeing them at the academy. A better venue and also with the added bonus of Paul Heaton opening for the nutty boys as part of their `Do Not Adjust Your Nut` tour which has seen them brave terrible weather conditions up and down the country (making popular pub stops on the way) an excellent combination … If a little surprising. How would those Scottish Ska maniacs take to the smooth poetic dulcet tones of a man famed for his Beautiful South and Housemartins days?

The answer is rapturous applause and an all round respect for a man who has already surprised me this year with his superb `Acid Country` album. It took me aback how good it was. A fantastic solo album with the lyrics and harmony’s both especially epic that should be included in many writers end of year reviews... So I`m delighted to say he done it again at the academy. The new songs translated superbly well live with a few crowd pleaser classics thrown in for good measure. He seemed at ease with a rowdy crowd of Madness hungry Glaswegians who lapped up his show from start to finish. His singing was just as good if not better than when I see him belt out his Beautiful South hits at T in the Park around Ten years ago. Job well done. Now it was time for Madness.

Having witnessed Leftfield at the academy a few days earlier I can honestly say this is one of the busiest, craziest crowds i`ve ever witnessed at the Academy. You could tell this was a crowd who had got a night off from the kids and were out to have it large watching a band who would take them back to their youth. The crowd went into a complete frenzy as `One Step Beyond` kicked in and afterwards the punters were putty in Suggs & Co`s hands as they knocked out hit after hit. `Baggy Trousers`, `Night Boat to Cairo` , `Our House` you name them, They were all present . I risked serious head injuries near the front for most of it and I then left the frantic moshpit for a quick beer and reappeared at the top tier to catch the awesome hands in the air sing-a-long moment that was `It Must Be Love` .

The boys certainly havent lost any of their energy or enthusiasm as the years have passed and they still appear to genuinely love what they do. There`s other bands in their situation who take the money and run but Madness have an affinity with their fans which is second to none. I heard one person say that the set was `too short` however when you bare in mind they had travelled miles in dangerous weather conditions and had also played a matinee show that same very day then I dont think it`s fair to say so.

These guys are no spring chickens yet run around the stage like teenagers providing a truly dynamic and entertaining set with songs that freeze memories in time. Give me a band who play a high energy set of hits with gusto anyday over half arsed cardboard cut-outs playing 2 hours of B-sides that noones ever heard of. Leaving the audience wanting more can never be a bad thing especially after what was such a crowd pleasing set. They are apparently back in the studio working on a new album at the end of this tour which means we can hopefully look forward to another step beyond very soon.