Madness live was like pub karaoke

A sea of red fezzes greeted Madness when they made their way onto the stage in Sheffield’s 13,000-capacity Utilita Arena on Thursday night. These little red hats – an emblem taken from their 1979 hit “Night Boat to Cairo” – are sold at the merch stand and have become commonplace at Madness shows over the years, and as the band launched into the propulsive “One Step Beyond”, they bobbed up and down merrily in the crowd.

What’s also become tradition is a Madness tour at Christmas, and Thursday’s show kicked off the Nutty Boys’ first full UK tour in two years. Ostensibly in support of the band’s latest compilation album, Hit Parade, which collected 45 singles from between 1979 and 2024, the setlist was stacked with hits. It’s the songs that got the crowd on side: aside from the competent musicianship of Mike Barson on keys and Lee Thompson on saxophone, the show felt, in general, a little under-rehearsed.

The person struggling the most through the 23-song setlist was 64-year-old lead singer Suggs. Swaying around the stage in his suit and sunglasses, he seemed swamped by the size of the stage and the venue. And while he has never been an excellent vocalist – that wasn’t the point, after all – this performance was more pub karaoke after a few too many than frontman at a pop show. The sound desk seemed to agree: at times it felt as though his voice was being deliberately buried beneath the more impressive live instrumentation.

It didn’t help that Suggs didn’t seem to be having very much fun. While Thompson stomped jovially up and down during songs like “My Girl” and “Wings of a Dove”, Suggs often struck a disinterested figure. His attempts to chat to the crowd were also lacking. “This is a song we wrote a long time ago. The tragedy of homelessness,” he said before the slinky yet politically charged “One Better Day”. “Not that we’re going to get into any of that.” Given the subject matter and the current rising rates of homelessness in the UK, it felt odd to bring up the issue then shrug it off. 

By the time we got to the 2016 single “Mr Apples”, which was lifted by a thrilling saxophone solo, the crowd were beginning to lose interest. Luckily, that was when Suggs announced: “This is the bit of the show we like to call show time.” What followed was an undeniable four-song run of “House of Fun”, “Baggy Trousers”, “Our House” and mass sing-along “It Must Be Love”, which ignited a spark under Suggs. It was just about enough to win the crowd back over and generate enough good will that people didn’t immediately leave during a dreadful ska take on Wizzard’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday”. 

Still, it did feel as if the energy had come too late. In a show supposed to celebrate 45 years of solid gold hits, what a shame that Madness failed to bring the party. Yes, the fezzes were bouncing, but the band sure weren’t. 

Madness tour the UK until 20 December