Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: In Concert, New Broadcasting House, London, Britain, 12-11-2025

Here's a concert from a mere week ago (as I post this in mid-December 2025). It's the British band Madness performing a concert for the BBC. 

True, they're getting pretty long in the tooth by this time, and I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to post this or not. But they've done pretty well in their later years, both commercially and critically. In fact, their most recent album, "Theatre of the Absurd Presents C'est la Vie," released in 2023, actually reached Number One in the British album charts. Surprisingly, that was their first number one album (though it should be noted that doesn't mean nearly as much as it used to, since album sales have plummeted in general). 

Most importantly, I listened to the album and though it was a strong performance, so I decided to post it. This could easily be mistaken for a recording from decades earlier. That's true of the song list as well. They were promoting a new greatest hits album, released the month before, so they concentrated on their best known songs and didn't play anything from their latest album. The only surprise is they finished with the cover song "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday," a hit for Wizzard in 1973, to mark the Christmas season.

I found a high-quality video file of this concert at a bootleg site. I converted it into audio format and chopped it into mp3s. The music here is unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 talk by Jo Whiley (Madness)
02 One Step Beyond (Madness)
03 Embarrassment (Madness)
04 talk (Madness)
05 The Prince (Madness)
06 talk (Madness)
07 NW5 (Madness)
08 talk (Madness)
09 My Girl (Madness)
10 talk (Madness)
11 The Sun and the Rain (Madness)
12 talk (Madness)
13 Return of the Los Palmas 7 [Instrumental] (Madness)
14 talk (Madness)
15 Wings of a Dove (Madness)
16 talk (Madness)
17 Lovestruck (Madness)
18 talk (Madness)
19 Bed and Breakfast Man (Madness)
20 talk (Madness)
21 Shut Up (Madness)
22 talk (Madness)
23 Mr. Apples (Madness)
24 talk (Madness)
25 House of Fun (Madness)
26 talk (Madness)
27 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
28 Our House (Madness)
29 talk (Madness)
30 It Must Be Love (Madness)
31 talk (Madness)
32 Madness (Madness)
33 Night Boat to Cairo (Madness)
34 talk (Madness)
35 I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (Madness) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oEs7aFLZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5kL2wdH1y2g9QUH/file

The cover image of the band's lead singer Suggs is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. 

Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Dominion Theatre, London, Britain, 7-7-1982

I had decided that, in addition to working on my big BBC project and having other musical attentions, I want to make a more concerted effort to post "various artists" concerts. People know of the big ones, like Woodstock and Live Aid, but there are many lesser ones that often slip through the cracks, where they don't get officially released in full or at all, yet bootlegs aren't common either since there isn't one big performance by someone famous to draw attention.

Here's one such example. It's the first of several semi-annual Prince's Trust concerts from the 1980s that I plan on posting. I don't know much about these concerts since I'm not British and only recently discovered recordings of them. But I looked up the Prince's Trust on Wikipedia. It's a charity that was founded in 1978 by then Prince Charles, who is now King Charles III as I write this in 2023. It funds a variety of programs to help troubled youths. According to Wikipedia, it has been very successful and is the country's biggest youth-targeted charity.

This was the first benefit concert for the charity. More would be held in the 1980s, though not every year. They stopped happening around 1990, but then have resumed occasionally in the 2010s. The 1980s versions typically had impressive line-ups of usually British musical acts. 

What I think is particularly interesting about them is that different stars didn't just perform with their usual backing bands and then leave the stage. That was sometimes the case, but other times, a house band would be formed that played for a bunch of different artists. For this show, Madness started out with a 26-minute long set, easily the longest of the show, and it was just them. Then came a reggae band called Unity, and it was just them. Joan Armatrading performed two songs next, alone on stage with her acoustic guitar.

After that, Phil Collins played his classic "In the Air Tonight" in an unusual stripped down version with just him on piano and no drums. From that point on, I'm pretty sure he didn't leave the stage for the rest of the concert. He backed "Jethro Tull" on drums. I put that name in quotes because it was really just lead singer Ian Anderson. Then the same band stayed on stage for the rest of the concert. It featured some big names playing together, including Phil Collins on drums, Pete Townshend on lead guitar, and Gary Brooker on keyboards. I found it especially interesting having Townshend playing guitar behind the likes of Kate Bush and Robert Plant. I don't know if that's happened on other occasions. You can watch the whole concert on YouTube if you want to see who played what exactly.

Speaking of Townshend, he was still mostly preoccupied being a member of the Who at this time and almost never performed in concert without them. So that's interesting all by itself. But he also said that his performance of "Slit Skirts" was the first time he'd played piano in public. But what really surprised the heck out of me is that the final song of the concert, "I Want to Take You Higher," was a cover of the Sly and the Family Stone classic funk sung mostly by Townsend (with Robert Plant on backing vocals). I looked it up on setlist.fm, and that's the only time he ever performed that.

Speaking of rare, Kate Bush concert appearances are slightly less rare than hen's teeth. She only sang one song and then left the stage. But this seems to be the only time she ever sang "The Wedding List" in front of an audience.

In case you're curious, Prince Charles and his new wife Princess Diana (they married the year before) sat in the balcony and watched the entire show. I wonder if they really enjoyed these musical styles or if they were just being polite.

The sound quality is pretty good, but not great. I took it from YouTube videos, and there was some loss of quality along the way. However, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments in some cases, and that helped. I especially did a lot of that for "In the Air Tonight." In the beginning of the song especially, the vocals were very low. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

The album is an hour and 25 minutes long.

01 God Save the Queen (Madness)
02 House of Fun - Shut Up (Madness)
03 talk (Madness)
04 Tomorrow's Dream (Madness)
05 Madness (Madness)
06 talk (Madness)
07 One Step Beyond (Madness)
08 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
09 Driving in My Car (Madness)
10 It Must Be Love (Madness)
11 talk (Unity)
12 Crab Race (Unity)
13 talk (Joan Armatrading)
14 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
15 talk (Joan Armatrading)
16 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
17 In the Air Tonight [Edit] (Phil Collins)
18 Jack in the Green (Jethro Tull with Phil Collins)
19 talk (Jethro Tull with Phil Collins)
20 Pussy Willow (Jethro Tull with Phil Collins)
21 talk (Midge Ure)
22 No Regrets (Midge Ure)
23 Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townshend)
24 talk (Pete Townshend)
25 Slit Skirts (Pete Townshend)
26 A Whiter Shade of Pale (Gary Brooker)
27 talk (Gary Brooker)
28 The Wedding List (Kate Bush)
29 talk (Pete Townshend)
30 Worse than Detroit (Robert Plant)
31 I Want to Take You Higher (Pete Townshend & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vGspapgK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/gOWdPKGbgy9TK02/file

alternate:

https://www.upload.ee/files/15483233/VarArtsts_1982_PrincsTrstRckGalaDomnionTheatrLondnBritain__7-7-1982_atse.zip.html

I could have taken a screenshot of the video for the cover art, but the video quality was merely okay. Luckily, I found a couple of photos. I chose one with Robert Plant (left), Mick Karn (center, the bassist in the band Japan), and Pete Townshend (right). The photo was in black and white, but I knew the colors from the video, so I made sure they matched, especially Plant's "Where's Waldo"-styled red and white shirt.

Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: 2012-2017

This is the sixth BBC album from Madness that I plan on posting, and also probably the last. This ends in 2017, and I haven't come across any BBC material dating after that. They're still in existence as I write this in 2023 though, so one never knows for sure.

I found a full BBC concert from 2012, and at first I was going to post all of that. But I decided that it was quite similar to the 2009 concert I already posted as "Volume 5." The only difference was a section in the middle where they played a bunch of new songs. So instead, I only selected those new ones. Then I found more BBC from 2014, 2016, and 2017. Some were in front of a live audience and some were not, so this is a mix.

The sound quality is excellent throughout. However, for a few of the songs, a BBC DJ (Chris Evans) spoke over the endings. I used the audio editing program UVR5 to wipe his voice while keeping the music. Those are the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles.

Most of the songs here are originals, but there are a few interesting covers: "You Keep Me Hangin' On," "Kooks," "Sunny Afternoon," and "Shop Around." Also, most of them are originals that were new at the time, but they included some older hits: "House of Fun," "It Must Be Love" (which also is a cover, by the way), "Embarrassment," and "Cardiac Arrest." Note that "My Girl 2" is a totally different original song than their old hit "My Girl."

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 My Girl 2 (Madness)
02 talk (Madness)
03 Never Knew Your Name (Madness)
04 talk (Madness)
05 La Luna (Madness)
06 talk (Madness)
07 How Can I Tell You (Madness)
08 talk (Madness)
09 Kitchen Floor (Madness)
10 talk (Madness)
11 Misery (Madness)
12 talk (Madness)
13 Death of a Rude Boy (Madness)
14 The Last Rag and Bone Man (Madness)
15 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Madness)
16 Kooks (Madness)
17 House of Fun [Edit] (Madness)
18 Mr. Apples [Edit] (Madness)
19 It Must Be Love [Edit] (Madness)
20 Sunny Afternoon (Madness)
21 Embarrassment (Madness)
22 Blackbird (Madness)
23 Cardiac Arrest (Madness)
24 Shop Around (Madness)
25 Herbert (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15164847/Madns_2012-2017_BBSessionsVolume6_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken during the closing ceremony of the Olympics in London in 2012. A few of the band members are further to the sides and were cropped out.

Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-28-2009

Here's another full concert of the British band Madness broadcast by the BBC. This one is different than the others because it takes place decades later.

Normally, when it comes to posting music on this blog, I like to catch musical artists when they were at their prime. Many artists keep going for decades after the creative fire is gone, turning into an oldies act. For a long time, that seemed to be the case for Madess. The band broke up in 1986, and didn't do much for a long time after that, other than a studio album of new material in 1999, "Wonderful," and an album of cover versions in 2005.

But then, in 2009, the band came roaring back with the album "The Liberty of Norton Folgate." It was critically and commercially celebrated as a return to form. It reached Number Five in the British album charts, and sold more copies than any of their albums of new material since 1982.

Thus, this is a worthy time for another BBC concert. The band generally played it safe, mostly playing their older hits, but five of the songs are from recent albums. As expected of the BBC, the sound quality is excellent.

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 talk (Madness)
02 One Step Beyond (Madness)
03 Embarrassment (Madness)
04 The Prince (Madness)
05 talk (Madness)
06 NW5 (Madness)
07 talk (Madness)
08 My Girl (Madness)
09 talk (Madness)
10 Dust Devil (Madness)
11 talk (Madness)
12 The Sun and the Rain (Madness)
13 talk (Madness)
14 Chase the Devil (Madness)
15 talk (Madness)
16 Clerkenwell Polka (Madness)
17 talk (Madness)
18 Bed and Breakfast Man (Madness)
19 Shut Up (Madness)
20 talk (Madness)
21 Forever Young (Madness)
22 talk (Madness)
23 House of Fun (Madness)
24 Wings of a Dove (Madness)
25 talk (Madness)
26 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
27 talk (Madness)
28 Our House (Madness)
29 talk (Madness)
30 It Must Be Love (Madness)
31 Madness (Madness)
32 Night Boat to Cairo (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15603444/Madns_2009_BBSessionsVolume5InConcrtGlastonbryFestivl__6-28-2009_atse.zip.html

The cover photo actually comes from this very concert.

Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-31-1985

It's time for the next volume of the British band Madness playing for the BBC. Like the last volume in the series, this is a full concert that was broadcast live.

Madness had a great run of singles and albums from 1979 to 1986. But by the time of this concert in late 1985, they were reaching the end. I recently did some reading about their career, and found they were tired in every way. From the beginning, their music was ska-based and energetic, and their image was of being "nutty" and wild. As they got older, they found it harder and harder to keep that going. 

Yet, in my opinion, many of their songs from 1985 or thereabouts were still as good as their earlier ones. In retrospect, they had increasing problems with bad production, which was all too typical in the mid-1980s. But that was far less of a problem in a concert setting like this one.

This concert serves as a kind of "best of" for the band's first phase. (They would later reunite, and unlike most bands from their time, they would have a lot of critical and commercial success in the 2000s.) There's not much else to say. Even though this concert remains officially unreleased, the sound quality is excellent, and there were no problems to fix.

Perhaps the only surprise here is the appearance of Feargal Sharkey on one of the songs. Sharkey was the lead singer of the British punk band the Undertones, but he left for a solo career in 1984. His first solo single, "Listen to Your Father," was written by Carl Smyth, a member of Madness, and was performed and produced by Madness. It was a minor hit in Britain. Madness also backed Sharkey when he performed the song for the BBC TV show "Top of the Pops," so it's not that surprising that they did the song together for this concert too.

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

I do like some of what Madness did after they later reunited, and they did more performances for the BBC then, so I'll have more to post in this series.

01 talk (Madness)
02 Keep Moving (Madness)
03 Samantha (Madness)
04 Take It or Leave It (Madness)
05 Michael Caine (Madness)
06 Mad Not Mad (Madness)
07 talk (Madness)
08 Grey Day (Madness)
09 My Girl (Madness)
10 Tomorrow's Dream (Madness)
11 talk (Madness)
12 House of Fun (Madness)
13 4 B.F. [For Bryan Ferry] (Madness)
14 Yesterday's Men (Madness)
15 Blue Skinned Beast (Madness)
16 talk (Madness)
17 Time (Madness)
18 It Must Be Love (Madness)
19 talk (Madness)
20 Burning the Boats (Madness)
21 Shut Up (Madness)
22 talk (Madness)
23 Uncle Sam (Madness)
24 talk (Madness)
25 Embarrassment (Madness)
26 talk (Madness)
27 I'll Compete (Madness)
28 talk (Madness)
29 Listen to Your Father (Madness & Feargal Sharkey)
30 One Step Beyond (Madness)
31 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
32 talk (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15603419/Madns_1985_BBSessionsVolume4InConcertHammrsmithOdeon__12-31-1985_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any really good photos from 1985. The cover photo comes from an appearance on Saturday Night Live in April 1984.

Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: Rock Hour, Dominion Theatre, London, Britain, 3-2-1983

I've posted two volumes of Madness performing for the BBC in recent weeks. Here's a third one. There are more coming.

This concert took place around what was arguably the band's commercial peak, thanks mostly to the song "Our House," which was a Top Five hit in Britain, and the band's only significant hit in the US.

I believe this concert remains unreleased. That said, the sound quality is excellent.

There's not much else to say. It's a great summary of the band's best songs up till that point, with lots of hits but no big surprises.

 This concert is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Madness)
02 House of Fun (Madness)
03 talk (Madness)
04 Disappear (Madness)
05 talk (Madness)
06 Close Escape (Madness)
07 talk (Madness)
08 Bed and Breakfast Man (Madness)
09 talk (Madness)
10 My Girl (Madness)
11 talk (Madness)
12 The Sun and the Rain (Madness)
13 Embarrassment (Madness)
14 The Rise and Fall (Madness)
15 talk (Madness)
16 Sunday Morning (Madness)
17 talk (Madness)
18 Mrs. Hutchinson (Madness)
19 Take It or Leave It (Madness)
20 talk (Madness)
21 Razor Blade Alley (Madness)
22 talk (Madness)
23 Tomorrow's [Just Another Day] (Madness)
24 talk (Madness)
25 Grey Day (Madness)
26 Shut Up (Madness)
27 talk (Madness)
28 Madness (Madness)
29 talk (Madness)
30 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
31 talk (Madness)
32 Our House (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376608/MADNSS1983BBSssonsVlum3RckHurDminonThatre__3-2-1983_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any really good color photos of the band from 1983. This one is from an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in April 1984.

Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-23-1980

The second volume of the British band Madness at the BBC features a full concert.

This entire concert was released as bonus tracks on a deluxe edition of the band's 1980 album "Absolutely." It's from when the band was still heavily into ska.

There's not much else to say. For once, there were no problems or complications.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 One Step Beyond (Madness)
02 talk (Madness)
03 E.R.N.I.E. (Madness)
04 Mistakes (Madness)
05 talk (Madness)
06 Disappear (Madness)
07 Bed and Breakfast Man (Madness)
08 talk (Madness)
09 The Return of the Los Palmas 7 [Instrumental] (Madness)
10 Close Escape (Madness)
11 talk (Madness)
12 Overdone (Madness)
13 talk (Madness)
14 Not Home Today (Madness)
15 Razor Blade Alley (Madness)
16 talk (Madness)
17 My Girl (Madness)
18 Take It or Leave It (Madness)
19 talk (Madness)
20 On the Beat Pete (Madness)
21 Embarrassment (Madness)
22 Shadow of Fear (Madness)
23 You Said (Madness)
24 talk (Madness)
25 In the Middle of the Night (Madness)
26 The Prince (Madness)
27 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
28 Rockin' in a Flat (Madness)
29 Madness (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15603357/Madns_1980_BBSessionsVolume2InConcrtHammersmithOdeon__12-23-1980_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from an appearance on a short-lived TV show called "Cheggers Play Pop" in 1982. I would have preferred something from 1980, but this was the closest in time I could find that looked good and showed the whole band on stage.

Madness - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1979-1985

Now that I've posted two stray tracks albums from Madness, I can post what they did for the BBC. I actually have four albums of BBC material, all from their early 1980s commercial peak. This one contains all of their studio BBC sessions. The other three are full length concerts.

Madness had a couple dozen hits in Britain from 1979 to 1986 (when the band broke up for the first time). Unfortunately, they didn't perform in the BBC studios that much, so this is a rather odd collection of songs. It includes some of their hits, but misses just as many, even some of their biggest ones, such as "House of Fun" and "Our House." 

That said, the sound quality here is excellent. All but three of the songs were released as bonus tracks to various albums. The other three, "Night Boat to Cairo," "Burning the Boats," and "Time," come from appearances on the BBC TV show "Old Grey Whistle Test." They sound very good too, although they remain unreleased.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 The Prince (Madness)
02 Bed and Breakfast Man (Madness)
03 Land of Hope and Glory (Madness)
04 Stepping into Line (Madness)
05 Night Boat to Cairo (Madness)
06 Razor Blade Alley (Madness)
07 One Step Beyond (Madness)
08 Grey Day (Madness)
09 Missing You (Madness)
10 Sign of the Times (Madness)
11 Tiptoes (Madness)
12 Rise and Fall (Madness)
13 Tomorrow's [Just Another Day] (Madness)
14 Calling Cards (Madness)
15 Are You Coming [With Me] (Madness)
16 Burning the Boats (Madness)
17 Time (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16695550/MADNSS1979-1985_BBSssonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken in Liverpool in 1980.

Madness - Wings of a Dove - Non-Album Tracks (1983-1985)

A few days ago, I posted an album of stray tracks from Madness. This is the second such album, finishing off most of the rest of their first era, prior to their first break up in 1986. I do have something different for 1986 tracks, however, so this only goes to 1985.

During this time period, Madness was still commercially successful (though mainly just in Britain). There are two hit A-sides here, "Wings of a Dove," and "The Sun and the Rain." Additionally, two more songs ("Yesterday's Men" and "Uncle Sam") were hits but were included on the band's 1985 album "Mad Not Mad." However, I was able to include interesting alternate demos of those that were later released as bonus tracks.

Nearly all of the other songs are B-sides. The only exceptions are the last two tracks. "Shop Around" comes from a bootleg, and is a cover of the famous Motown classic. "Jennie (A Portrait Of)" wasn't released at the time, but later was released as a bonus track.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Wings of a Dove (Madness)
02 Behind the 8 Ball [Instrumental] (Madness)
03 One Second's Thoughtlessness (Madness)
04 The Sun and the Rain (Madness)
05 Fireball XL5 (Madness)
06 If You Think There's Something (Madness)
07 Guns (Madness)
08 Yesterday's Men [Demo] (Madness)
09 All I Knew (Madness)
10 Uncle Sam [Demo] (Madness)
11 Please Don't Go (Madness)
12 Call Me (Madness)
13 Shop Around (Madness)
14 Jennie [A Portrait Of] (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15603329/Madns_1983-1985_WngsofaDve_atse.zip.html

The album cover is the exact cover for the "Wings of a Dove" single with no changes.

Madness - House of Fun - Non-Album Tracks (1979-1982)

Madness was one of the most successful bands in Britain in the 1980s. They broke up for a while. But they're still going strong as I write this, releasing some acclaimed albums in the 2000s and still having six of their seven original members.

In the US these days, unfortunately, it seems they're mainly known for their one big US hit, "Our House," which reached Number 7 in 1983. They had one other Top 40 hit in the US, "It Must Be Love." But in Britain, they've had 26 Top 40 hits. Many of their singles contained A- and/or B-sides that weren't included on their studio albums. As a result, there's enough material for two albums of stray track materials for the years 1979 to 1986, when the band broke up for the first time.

All the songs here have been officially released. Four of them are A-sides: "In the City," "It Must Be Love," "House of Fun," and "Driving in My Car." Three more, tracks three through five, come from an EP. The rest are B-sides.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Nutty Theme (Madness)
02 Stepping into Line (Madness)
03 Deceives the Eye (Madness)
04 The Young and the Old (Madness)
05 Don't Quote Me on That (Madness)
06 Crying Shame (Madness)
07 In the City (Madness)
08 That's the Way to Do It (Madness)
09 Memories (Madness)
10 Never Ask Twice (Madness)
11 A Town with No Name [Instrumental] (Madness)
12 It Must Be Love (Madness)
13 Shadow on the House (Madness)
14 House of Fun (Madness)
15 Don't Look Back (Madness)
16 Driving in My Car (Madness)
17 Walking with Mr. Wheeze [Instrumental] (Madness)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15603349/Madns_1979-1982_HouseofFn_atse.zip.html

The album cover is simply the cover of the "House of Fun" single, without any significant changes. (I cropped it a bit.)