''Madstock!'' is the first live album by

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

/ pop band Madness, released on 2 November 1992 (see

1992 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1992. Specific locations *1992 in British music * 1992 in Norwegian music Specific genres * 1992 in country music * 1992 in heavy metal music * 1992 in hip hop music * 1992 ...

) by

Go! Discs Go! Discs was a London-based record label, launched in 1983 from offices in Wendell Road, Shepherd's Bush, by Andy Macdonald and Lesley Symons. The pair founded the label after Macdonald left his job as press officer at Stiff Records, and Symo ...

. The album includes highlights from Madness' first concerts since their disbanding in 1986, on 8 and 9 August 1992 at

Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London parks ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The bill included

Flowered Up Flowered Up were an English indie pop- alternative dance band, formed in Camden Town, London in 1989, active during the Baggy movement. Their 13-minute single " Weekender" reached the UK top 20. The band split up in 1994 amid drug problems. Fo ...

, Gallon Drunk,

Ian Dury and The Blockheads Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...

, Morrissey and Madness. The full concert was released on a corresponding video. Both the album and video are now out of print. However, a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

of the concert is available in the box set '' A Guided Tour of Madness''. The concert briefly spawned a series of biennial Madstock events (the name sometimes rendered with no exclamation mark) in 1994, 1996, and 1998 (this last Madstock is available on DVD). In December 2008 the band announced that they would be staging a 5th Madstock concert in 2009 to celebrate their 30th anniversary held on 17 July in

Victoria Park, East London Victoria Park (known colloquially as Vicky Park or the People's Park) is a park in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England. It is the largest park in Tower Hamlets and one of London's most visited green spaces with approx ...

. The album reached #22 in the UK album charts. "

The Harder They Come ''The Harder They Come'' is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world". ...

", a cover of the Jimmy Cliff song, was released as the only single off this album and reached #44 in the UK charts. On 9 October 2015, Salvo reissued the album and video as a 1-CD/1-DVD set with four CD bonus tracks.

Production and album cover

;Production ''Madstock!'' was recorded on 8 and 9 August 1992 using the Fleetwood Mobile recording studio, and then produced and mixed by

Clive Langer Clive Langer (born 19 June 1954 in Hampstead, London, England) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Alan Winstanley. He composed the music for the films '' Still Crazy'' and '' ...

and

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. His early career during the mid-1970s was as an audio engineer, working on albu ...

at their Westside Studios in London. Seven tracks were chosen from day one and eleven from day two. ;Album cover The cover photographs were taken by

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

photographer

Jill Furmanovsky Jill Furmanovsky (born 1953) is a British photographer who has specialised in documenting rock musicians. Life and work Born in Southern Rhodesia, Furmanovsky emigrated with her parents and brother Michael to London in 1965. She studied text ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, where Madness were playing a warm-up gig for Madstock on 6 August. Wanting to create an action shot, Furmanovsky had the band jump on a beach trampoline and later collaged the individual shots together on a computer.

Critical reception

Simon Tucker of the

Louder Than War ''Louder Than War'' is a music and culture website and magazine focusing on mainly alternative arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication that was started by journalist John Robb in 2010 and is now ru ...

website called the album "musically tight with not a duff note," saying, "This album is a joy, an example of a band not understanding how influential they are or how loved until one magic moment brings it home for them." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' wrote, "the band sounds tight and in top form; the sing-along enthusiasm of the crowd makes the disc particularly infectious."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Evan Cater was less positive, saying, "

Suggs Graham McPherson (born 13 January 1961), known primarily by his stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor from Hastings, England. In a music career spanning 40 years, he came to prominence in the ...

' decision to sacrifice vocal quality for exuberance is more excusable than the unimaginative arrangements of the songs, which vary little from the original studio recordings. Moreover, the singles-heavy song selection ... is a little boring for serious fans." Commenting on the 2015 reissue, Charles Hutchinson of ''

The Press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

'' was disappointed that Salvo's CD and DVD package did not match the occasion: "The running order is jettisoned on the CD, with four numbers consigned to bin ends, while the DVD needed to be more of a documentary." Russell Deeks of ''Songwriting'' magazine wrote, "They may have been a little bit rough around the edges in places on the day ... but their knockabout humour and unrivaled sense of showmanship were definitely undimished." Deeks noted that the video quality of the DVD isn't the best, as it has apparently been transferred over from the original VHS release.

Track listing

2015 reissue

;Disc 1 The first disc contains the eighteen tracks from the original album plus four bonus tracks.
Bonus track 20 is previously unreleased on CD; tracks 19, 21 and 22 have appeared on the single "The Harder They Come". ;Disc 2

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. ;Madness * Graham "Suggs" McPherson –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

Mike Barson Michael Barson (born 21 April 1958) is a Scottish-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Barson came to prominence in the late 1970s as the keyboard player for the band Madness. Early y ...

–

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

* Lee Thompson –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

, vocals *

Chris Foreman Christopher John Foreman (born 8 August 1956), nicknamed Chrissy Boy, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Foreman came to prominence in the late 1970s as the guitarist for the Engli ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* Mark Bedford – bass *

Daniel Woodgate Daniel Mark (Woody) Woodgate (born 19 October 1960) is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Woodgate came to prominence in the late 1970s as the drummer for the English ska band ...

– drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

* Cathal Smyth – vocals,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

;Technical *

– producer, mixing *

– producer, mixing, DVD audio mixing * Paul Mortimer – engineer (Westside Studios) * Andy Rose – engineer (Fleetwood Mobile) * Peter Jones – engineer (Fleetwood Mobile) * Ian Bridges – assistant engineer (Fleetwood Mobile) *

– art direction, photography * Ryan Art – design * William Smith – liner notes * Estuary English – art direction (2015 reissue) * Piers Allardyce – photography (2015 reissue) * Ian Gittins – liner notes (2015 reissue) ;DVD * Gavin Taylor – film director * Dione Orram – producer * Rocky Oldham – producer * Juliet De Valero-Wills – executive producer * Malcolm Gerrie – executive producer * Meedja –

DVD authoring DVD authoring is the process of creating a DVD video capable of playing on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum. DVD authoring is the second step in the process of producing finished DVD ...

Chart performance

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1992 live albums Madness (band) live albums Madness (band) video albums Albums produced by Clive Langer Albums produced by Alan Winstanley Go! Discs live albums