8th March 1983 is a date that will be forever imprinted on our mind. Why? It was the first time we ever saw Madness live at the famous Glasgow Apollo Theatre as a thirteen-year-old that was allowed to travel into the city centre of Glasgow alone for the first time! Crew cut hairdo, donkey jacket with a Grey Day patch on the back, stay pressed trousers and of course the old doc marten boots were the order of the night for us. That experience was a memory never to be forgotten and tonight during the Hit Parade show at the OVO Hydro, we get to hear most of the tracks the nutty boys played that night with the focus being on playing their most popular songs on this tour. It’s hard to remember now how many times we have seen Madness live now but it must be almost twenty by now, surely.
The support band for the tour are Squeeze who are themselves celebrating fifty years in the music industry, they are a very fitting band for the support slot and have just announced their own show in the OVO Hydro for next year proving how popular they remain. They may have had their heyday back in the 1970s but an army of fans still follow them around, during the interval we got speaking to a couple of guys that were here just to see Squeeze! All the big hits are in the twelve-track set including Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), Up The Junction and Cool For Cats, led by two original members Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Gifford in the modern world, they can also count Jools Holland and Paul Carrack as past members among many others. There are eight band members on the stage and Up the Junction is a personal favourite from the set, both lyrically and musically this track is top drawer, the whole arena is now packed out as Squeeze bring some punk energy to our Saturday night. Glenn Tilbrook tells us that there is an album due next year, a collection of 1970s songs and we get to hear a couple from that tonight while an accordion player joins them for Goodbye Girl adding to the entertainment. Synth led song Slap & Tickle is a joy to hear as is Cool For Cats and last song Take Me I’m Yours has the band introductions that lasts well over five minutes pushing the set time up to a decent fifty minutes. 9/10
It’s the usual Saturday night mayhem at the OVO Hydro – long bar queues and general chaos – well it is a Madness concert after all, we wouldn’t expect anything less! It would be rude to not introduce the band: Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson (vocals), Mark ‘Bedders’ Bedford (bass), Mike ‘Barso’ Barson (keyboards), Lee ‘Thommo’ Thompson (saxophone) and Daniel ‘Woody’ Woodgate (drums), sadly Chris ‘Chrissy Boy’ Foreman is not with the band on the tour after he was diagnosed with cancer during the summer, we wish Chris a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on tour next time they hit Glasgow. Suggs did shout out who was on guitar tonight and we picked his name up as Kevin Barnett. The set begins with “Hey you don’t watch that, watch this”, we all know what is coming next “One Step Beyond” before Lee Thompson and his brass section take centre stage and whip the arena into a frenzy, Embarrassment and The Prince follow this making it the perfect start to the set. The old videos playing on the screen behind the stage add extra nostalgia to the show as NW5 proves but it is just hit after hit now with all the old classics coming out including My Girl and Cardiac Arrest, the latter song isn’t one they normally play live and is a great addition to the set. We are singing every word back at Suggs now as the set flows so smoothly through The Sun and the Rain, Return Of The Los Palmas 7 and Wings Of A Dove that provides another crowd singalong moment.
Looking back at the setlist there are only three modern day songs in the set – NW5, Lovestruck and Mr Apples – all three are well worth hearing though whilst old classics Grey Day and Bed and Breakfast Man are a joy to behold. Shut Up from the 7 album deserves a special mention as a ‘burglar’ is chased across the stage adding to the mayhem … We are now in the fun part of the set as House Of Fun, Baggy Trousers and the excellent Our House takes the energy to another level, the latter song was played on the roof of Buckingham Palace as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations a few years ago. The last of the main set is a cover of Labi Siffre song It Must Be Love, EVERYONE knows this song or has heard it at some point in their lives and it is an absolute gem of a song tonight.
Before the encore a bagpiper takes to the stage and leads the crowd into a verse of Flower Of Scotland followed by Scotland The Brave … Suggs then takes over and congratulates Scotland on finally getting to the World Cup, the patriotism in Scotland is at an all-time high right now after the famous victory over Denmark the other week, chants of “No Scotland, No party” ring out around the arena. An appropriate cover of the Wizzard song I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day is quickly followed by a cover of Prince Buster song Madness that has everyone on their feet around us chanting back the lyrics to the stage while Night Boat To Cairo is the last of the twenty-three track set and takes us way back to 1979. The sea of Fez hats in the standing area tonight is impressive, it is the usual song that has everyone leaving the arena with big smiles on their faces … Monty Python song Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. This show was so memorable and we are sure the nutty boys have plenty of life in them yet for the 50th anniversary tour in 2028! 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
