By Amanda Cunningham, London Correspondent
The weather set the mood, the venue set the stage and Madness set the Epsom Downs Racecourse alive!
A crowd of 16,000 revelers from across the generations stretched far across the Epsom Downs, the sell out event even saw families parked in the near-by fields with picnics, just to be able to hear the band spill out their nostalgic songs across the Downs. Suggs (Graham McPherson) appeared ever the dapper gentleman, wearing a suit, striped t-shirt, and of course those famous jazz shoes. The man still ‘has it’, unblemished vocals like he’s had them cryogenically preserved, taking me back to 1982 to the youth club disco bopping away and somehow remembering every word to ‘House of Fun’. The stage was well equipped with lighting, fez hats, tambourines and all the Madness that goes with the band!
Madness first stormed onto the UK music scene in 1979, becoming one of the most prominent bands of the UK ska revival scene with hits including ‘Baggy Trousers’, ‘It Must Be Love’, ‘Driving In My Car’, ‘Our House’ and the 1982 #1 ‘House of Fun’.
No strangers to performing at Jockey Club racecourses, they last visited in 2010 to a phenomenal response, treating the crowd to a set comprising of their 15 UK top 10 hits and more from a career now spanning 5 decades. Madness are a British musical institution not to be missed.
PHOTO GALLERY
“Our House”
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