High Lodge seemed to be very well organised, 6,000 people were expected for the Madness gig, which had sold out in 2 days, it took us quite a while to get off the road into the forest, but once in there were plenty of car parks and polite and helpful staff on hand; we were also impressed at the provision of eating and drinking points and of course the vital toilet facilities, which are always high up on everyone’s requirement list. Of course the one slightly worrying thing about having a concert in a forest clearing, is you're at the mercy of the great British weather, which more often than not, isn't quite as great as you'd like; the evening was chilly and overcast, but luckily the drizzle had stopped by the time "The Nutty Boys" took to the stage a little after 9pm, and we'd soon warm up with the dancing. | "At one point I could even feel my hair vibrating, that’s surely the sign of a good evenings entertainment." | | Sharon Whight |
Looking around it was amazing to see that Madness now have a very broad appeal, I suppose the vast majority were people of my generation, 30 something’s who would've been fans in the 80s, many of them shaven headed blokes with a proliferation of parkas, drainpipe trousers and pork pie hats in evidence; but there were also lots of children and people of more advanced years. The one thing they shared was a genuine passion for the music, all of them were good humoured and every one of them were singing and dancing right from the first note of "One step beyond" to the last strains of "Night boat to Cairo" over an hour and a half later. Suggs said that this was the first gig the lads had done together for a year, but you'd never have been able to tell, the energy and enthusiasm was there in bucket loads. OK Suggs didn't throw himself around as much as he would have done 20 years ago and he had more of a sensible hairstyle, but he is still a showman and seems a genuinely nice guy. He chatted like we were all his long lost mates and had the knack for generating a huge amount of excitement and energy from the crowd.  |
With such a vast back catalogue of material they went seamlessly from one hit to another; expertly working the crowd into a singing, bouncing mass, "The Prince", "The Sun and the Rain", "Our House", "Grey Day" the hugely popular "House of Fun", "My Girl", "Driving in my car", all the classic crowd pleasers, and then, as I'd expected, the crowd erupted into a frenzy with the first bars of "Baggy Trousers". By this time I'd managed to be pushed through the masses to quite near the stage, I'm sure all 6,000 people had squeezed into about 60ft of forest clearing by this point and you had no choice but to leap around madly with everyone else. The buzz was amazing, the sound system was so large you could actually feel the rhythm of the beat in your kidneys, at one point I could even feel my hair vibrating, that’s surely the sign of a good evening's entertainment.  |
The forest was a magical place for a gig, once it got dark it would've been easy to forget you were in the open air, but the dancing meant you could smell the grass and earth. I managed to catch a glance backwards during “baggy trousers” it was an amazing sight, like a giant Mexican wave of bodies, 6,000 heads bouncing up and down, children on shoulders, everyone’s arms aloft, most of them clutching mobile phones, trying to take pictures or video (a true sign of the times, it would have been flashes from cameras 20 years ago). You could never say that Madness’s music inspired great dancers, but it’s certainly done a huge amount to kill inhibition, and I bet it gave most people a great physical workout. Madness didn't disappoint, I came home feeling euphoric and mildly rebellious in an adult kind of way. The only thing that spoilt it slightly were the seemingly large number of revelers that had drunk far too much for their own and everyone else's good, several people couldn't stand by the time that Madness came on stage, but perhaps sadly that's just the culture of my generation! |
