Madness – Live Review – Scarborough Open Air Theatre

By Steve Crabtree, July 2024

Ska-borough Open Air Theatre was once again home to that evergreen cockney crew we all know as Madness, as they came back to this magnificent venue to give fans yet another superb night of music and mayhem.

Not my pun. I wish it was mine, but it belonged to Suggs. As if we’ve never heard that one before …!

Anyway, it was my fourth time seeing Madness, and the second time seeing them at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, one of my favourite music venues. They’re a band whose music is fun, frenetic, and so timeless, and it’d be fair to say they’ve compiled their fair share of profound and moving tunes too.

It was a show I’ve been looking forward to seeing for months, but ahead of the main men, we’d had a decent opening act in The Hoosiers. A band from the mid-2000s who I’d almost completely forgotten about until tonight. In a compact set of songs, they started with ‘Worried About Ray’, ended with ‘Goodbye Mister A’, and did a fantastic cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ in between. They were really good… they had to be. Because on a freezing summer’s night, you need something good to warm you up.

“Fez’s everywhere”

With fez’s everywhere, 8:50pm came around, and so did Madness – via a Thunderbirds style entrance film.

Fronted by the suited and shaded up Suggs, the band kicked things off with ‘One Step Beyond’, followed by my favourite Madness track, the beat-infused ‘Embarrassment’. These got the thousands who’d rocked up to the Open Air Theatre bouncing from the off.

We had a balanced set list in store from the nutty boys, with a few from their 2024 album C’est La Vie were thrown in throughout the night. One of those was the slightly haunting ‘Hour Of Need’ which sounded great, although ‘Run for Your Life’ is one I feel is a bit out of place as a Madness track. Still, plenty loved it and the band gave a strong performance of that one.

And to add to the humour that always comes out of a Madness gig, bassist Chrissy Boy Foreman got himself in on the act by taking vocals to sing ‘Highway To Hell’ in an unexpected treat. I say humour, he was actually really good – it was his banter leading up to the tune that made us chuckle.

“The best Madness we’ve ever had”

But Madness guarantee all their hits and classics when they’re in concert, and that’s what we got tonight.  And, for me, they’re sounding better than they ever have before. Their sound from 40+ years ago is still the same today, but fuller and richer, and with six of the seven original line-up still going strong, it could be argued that every tour is the best Madness we’ve ever had.

The heavy heavy monster sounds came at us thick and fast in the form of ‘My Girl’ that was slipped in quite early in the night, and ‘Wings Of A Dove’ that came in the middle of the set. ‘The Sun and The Rain’ could be the perfect track to sum up the summer of 2024. That melancholic, danceable chorus is always a welcome at one of Madness’ live shows. And I was sad that ‘Never Knew Your Name’ didn’t get any airtime tonight.

But with energy high, and a crowd who were loving everything Suggs and his friends were giving us, we were treated to even more. ‘House Of Fun’ made sure that everyone who was able to stomp, did stomp.

“Memorable ending”

‘Our House’ brought out every single voice in the place. And ‘It Must Be Love’ sounded beautiful. One of those moments where people looked at their mates, put their arms round their shoulders and rocked from side to side.

It was a perfect three songs to bring an end to the main set, before ‘Madness’ and ‘Last Train To Cairo’ gave the east coast audience an upbeat and memorable ending to another great gig.

I think Madness are one of those bands that I’ll always want to go and watch whenever they hit Yorkshire.  They give you a fun evening, they’ve got a fantastic back catalogue of tunes and, like a fine wine, they get better and better with age.

Well done, Madness.  A great night.