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Tour Madness 8 - 24 December, 1980 - TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS TOUR: UK
8 December, 1980: (Two shows) NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND: City Hall
Support: (second show) Otway & Berratt (for all shows of the tour except Dec 10)
Set:
One Step Beyond
E.R.N.I.E
Mistakes
Disappear
Bed & Breakfast Man
The Return of the Los Palmas 7
Close Escape
Overdone
Not Home Today
Razor Blade Alley
Embarrassment
Take It Or Leave It
On The Beat Pete
My Girl
Shadow of Fear
You Said
In the Middle of the Night
In The Rain
Baggy Trousers
Rockin’ in Ab
Madness
encore: Crying Shame
The UK leg of the ‘Madness Monster’ tour (dubbed ’12 Days of Christmas’) takes up 25 shows, including ten children’s matinees; only Glasgow and Brighton have to do with just the evening show. Madness are also proud to launch the first issue of the combined comic strip/fanzine The Nutty Boys which will also be enclosed as a free gift with the 12” format of the Los Palmas single in January 1981. Magician Simon Drake opens the matinee shows before the band take the stage by jumping from a spring-board. The February 16 show was reviewed by junior reporters, this time a proper journalist (a representative of Sounds) attends and is far from impressed with the stage antics.
9 December, 1980: (Two shows) EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND: Odeon
10 December, 1980: (Two shows) GLASGOW, SCOTLAND: Apollo
Support: Bad Manners
The day after the show, Madness go to Southampton to appear on a Christmas edition of the popular children’s programme ‘Runaround’ (aired December 25).
12 December, 1980: (Two shows) MANCHESTER, ENGLAND: Apollo
Due to impopularity with the crowd, Simon Drake makes his last appearance on the tour.
14 December, 1980: (Two shows) BRIGHTON, ENGLAND: Conference Centre
15 December, 1980: (Two shows) DERBY, ENGLAND: Assembly Rooms
16 December, 1980: (Two shows) BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND: Odeon
17 December, 1980: (Two shows) HANLEY, ENGLAND: Victoria Hall
20 December, 1980: (Two shows) SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND: Gaumont
On this tour, Lee regularly does his flying act from the Baggy Trousers video that made him a star with young children. Interviewed by Sally Stratton for a promo CD in October 1999 he recalls his preparation for this act. “We did a gig at the Southampton Gaumont and ‘Peter Pan’ was meant to be on the following week. They had this big harness-thing there, a curby wire, and a bloke strapped me in it (caught half me scrotum in the strap). I had to run from the end of the platform to the other, and as I run, these two blokes jump on the rope; and this bloke jumps on top of them, and it right goes up to the Royal Box. I swung out with me sax and I get up to these 13-year-old kids. They left and cried their eyeballs out. I totally freaked them out.”
21 December, 1980: (Two shows) LEICESTER, ENGLAND: De Montefort Hall
Although the increase of the teenage fanbase alienated the neo-Nazis, they return and take advantage of the situation by handing out flyers outside the venue to potential junior recruits, and selling copies of the right-extremist magazine, Bulldog. The same also happens at the London shows. 30 skinheads cause a stage invasion during Embarrassment; Madness threaten to strike the show if the skinheads don’t back off. Much to the crowd’s delight, the trouble-makers are ejected from the venue.
22, 23, 24 December, 1980: (Five shows) LONDON, ENGLAND: Hammersmith Odeon
Support: (second & fourth show) Otway & Berratt/Tenpole Tudor; (last show) Otway & Berratt/Tenpole Tudor/Ian Dury & The Blockheads
Set fourth show:
One Step Beyond
E.R.N.I.E
Mistakes
Disappear
Bed & Breakfast Man
The Return of the Los Palmas 7
Close Escape
Overdone
Not Home Today
Razor Blade Alley
Embarrassment
Take It Or Leave It
On The Beat Pete
My Girl
Shadow of Fear
You Said
In the Middle of the Night
The Prince
Baggy Trousers
Rockin’ in Ab
Madness
encore: Crying Shame
encore: Night Boat to Cairo
The tour ends with five shows in three days. Tenpole Tudor, who are recently signed to Stiff, are added to the support. The fourth show is recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio. Disappear is dedicated to a girl, Beverley, whom the band couldn’t visit when she was in hospital. Beverley is watching the show. Suggs dedicates On The Beat Pete to “any of you who are policemen”. Tonight’s version of The Return of the Los Palmas 7 appears in 1986 on ‘MIS Live’; Madness ends up in July 1992 on the B-side of the My Girl vinyl reissue. The fifth show is added at the last minute after Madness came back on their refusal to play on Christmas Eve because public transport companies stage festivity curfews. Ian Dury & The Blockheads are added to the support. The concert not only raises money for children’s homes but also toys supplied by members of the audience.
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