Wallop! When Skaville hits the smoke all hell breaks loose. Those precious rhythms stir young bodies, upful and enervating, penetrating to the deepest recesses of the seventh sense and unleashing a whirling mass of energetic celebration, dance carnage. Stomping boots and shuffling sneakers, Madness is all in the feet.
Skaville hit the smoke Monday night at the Lyceum:Tuesday night at the Dominion is more Ikea matinee, presented in Tottenham Court Road's best pantomime setting, complete with 30 start and a Saturday Club audience buying corn in the foyer. Whereas the Lyceum gig was 8rough and rowdy skanking free-for-all, the Dominion show was a tidy extravaganza, a supremely professional package for all the bairns perched smiling on the back of their seats. Madness at the Dominion was a BIG performance, grand theatre polished till it shone.
Shame then that they took so long to get there...
For a big opener, "House Of Fun" is pretty small. A panel rises in the backdrop and Madness emerge, km streaming thru' the hatchway and scattering the clouds of dry ice (courtesy Close Encounters Of The Nutty Kind) as the boys tumble down the gangway to launch into the song of their first number one video.
"My Girl," their third single and biggest chart success before "House Of Fun," is also dogged by tiredness. An under-the-weather Magnificent 7 were joined by a string quartet, busily bowing their violins behind the backdrop, but tho' Madness struggle to inject some sparkle "My Girl" was restrained where it should jump, a shadow of a great single.
"Blue Skinned Beast" will be yet another great Madness single. Promise. I shall rush out tomorrow morning and book it in for two weeks at No 1 and its rightful place in history alongside "Ghost Town" and "Lunatics" as a smash-hit manifesto. At the Dominion it comes complete with its own video, mixing clips of war in the trenches with caricatures of Thatcher and flashing the figure of 8,000,000 dead on the big-screen backdrop. Tuesday night it bumps along pleasantly enough but sorely lacking the singular urgency it promised on Rise And Fall, their weakest album to date.
Suggs tries hard to shake off the drowsiness of bad flu but e'en the winners sound weak-spirited. "Embarrassment" passes by painlessly, without the quiet, sweet hooklines and that strange. rare sadness ever really biting. "Grey Day" unwinds solemnly.
Offbeat speed, coupled to Barso's splendid melodies, was always Madness' greatest asset and their more deliberate pop compositions suffer badly from the weariness. When "Rise and Fall" lets loose it never really lets rip; Carl and Suggs sit smoking, resting on the riser while Lee takes a turn, but the initial outburst of skanking has now lapsed to a gentle bobbing. Repeated calls for a stomper like "Swan Lake" are met by tamer standards, neatly delivered but all too polite.
The weenies' determination to dance-and-to-hell-with-restraint isn't helped by the nauseous, officious bouncers. Everytime some kid shoulders his young sister or a mini-skin strays from his seat to dance in the aisle some Hitler with a beergut sours their enjoyment. (Brownshirts are out, cacky blue tracksuit tops with ESS Services written on the back are in).
Sure, matinee performances always lacked the thrill of a night out, but whatever happened to Madness — The Greatest Show On Earth?
Suddenly the spark is there. Speed, dance and showmanship... Behind every great Madness single is a great video and in front of every great Madness gig is a great mess of flailing limbs. Flail away, o weeny ones!
Where minutes before they dragged, Madness tear thru' "Shut Up," one of their finest singles, maybe the most perfectly structured Nutty Cracker — a superlative contradiction indeed. It's as simple as Carl swivelling on his heels and counting to three. "One Two Three!" he counts (clever, huh?) and the audience responds. Madness!
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