Music Blogs

With every band in pop history that ever split now seemingly reformed and feverishly milking the cash cow, including fellow ska legends The Specials, it's worth noting that Madness never really went away. OK, so they may have broken-up in the mid-‘80s, but with a new album due out next month and a series of exclusive shows in their "spiritual home" set to accompany this weekend's Camden Crawl, it looks like the nutty boys/men have got plenty of life left in them beyond pure nostalgia.

In fact, "The Liberty Of Norton Folgate" is being talked-up as their best album in over 25 years, and it is set to be launched by new single "Dust Devil". The video is a nepotistic carnival, starring as it does Lily Allen's brother Alfie and Ray Winstone's daughter Jamie, who has been making something of a name for herself as an actress in recent years and takes noteworthy centrestage in the promo.

Shot on an action-packed night out in London's Soho with a camera attached to her face, "Dust Devil" captures a drunk, foul-mouthed and emotional Winstone staggering about town, aided by numerous people, include Madness, and an assortment of props, such as a shopping trolley, traffic cone and fake plastic breasts. "Come early evening, she's banging off the ceiling...", sing the band, quite correctly about their lead. But perhaps the most interesting thing here is that the tune sounds like both classic Suggs and co but also an off-cut from the debut album by a rather different Allen. Perhaps a cover of "Baggy Trousers" is in order for this summer's festival circuit, Lily?