 |
 Return to Homepage |
Type some text in the box below and let us find it for you ...
Madness Central Video Player
Latest News And Information Further details can be found at the Madness Central News Blog here.
Receive notifications via E-mail or RSS as soon as our blog is updated ...
View RSS Feed What is RSS?Madness Central on The WebIn addition to this site we also have profiles on the below social networking sites.
Click on the required icon and feel free to send us a message and/or friend request.
Contact Madness Central ManagementAny queries, comments or suggestions relating to this site are always welcome and can be sent to the Madness Central management team using the form below.
Privacy Policy: Any data submitted via the above form will only be used for the purpose stated herein. In no situation will the senders name and/or email address be sold or distributed to third parties.
Navigation QuickLinks
| News Blog Interviews Lyrics Interactive Discography |
Downloads In Print Tour Madness Images MC Forum |
Return to HomepageReturn to Top of Page
THE name says it all.
Shut your eyes and think of England's entire phalanx of pop culture during the last say, 25 years: teds, beatniks, rockers, mods, skeds, hippies, glam-rock mutants, Sloane Rangers, uniform fetishists and main-line punks. Now imagine 20 or 30 of each strain, plus several dozen left-field crazies I've misplaced pigeon holes for, huddled together in a room the size of your average khazi, simmer at a steady Regulo 6, and you've got the Dublin Castle last Friday night.
This, I'm told, is a typical Madness audience, and I brace myself for the ultimate cross-over band.
Instead we get six fairly nondescript teenagers, the only visual heretic being Mikey Barson, who wears a bootlace tie, a dirty tux and exudes sleaze behind a set of keyboards. Huddled around him on the titchy stage are Lee Thompson (tenor sax), Mark "Fiddly" Bedford (bass), Chris Foreman (guitar) and a big lad called Suggs who sings. All, save Barson, have closely cropped barnets and look vaguely threatening, but this turns out not to be the case.
Suggs is a natural showman, a street-level raconteur who keeps up a constant stream of personalised banter with his audience, dedicating almost every number to someone or something, each more laughable than the last.
Vocally reminiscent of Kevin Ayers, his original songs have a strong blue-beat feel, and he's even written one extolling Prince Buster, called "The Prince", but his style and delivery is closer to Johnny Moped.
Shuffling like Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs, or grating listlessly like Sky Saxon & The Seeds, they defy tidy comparisons. Just when you've got familiar with Barson's jangly, fairground organ or Thompson's affable, knockabout sax, the former dons an England supporter's beanie and careens into "Tears Of A Clown" or the latter has a crack at "Hall Of The Mountain King" as if Greig had written it after cranking up a gram of sulphate.
By the third encore, half the punters were jumping on tables waving clenched fists, and the other half were reeling about the glass-strewn floor, jolly pissed. Catch Madness supporting the Specials A.K.A at the Nashville next week, and you may find yourself similarly disposed.
- Contributed by Sean Gaskin
Madness In Print Return
Return to Homepage | Return to Top of Page