Madness Show Preview: at Club Nokia – Los Angeles, CA – April 16, 2012

The yearly festival known as Coachella put on by Goldenvoice always has a few bands on its roster that all of us get unbelievably stoked on. This year is no different as the worlds finest Ska band of all time is set to play the massive sold out fest. No ticket to Coachella? No Problem! Madness has scheduled a one-off intimate show at downtown LA’s Club Nokia set for April 16th.

Better yet, Big Wheel wants to hook you up with a pair of tickets to that intimate show!


Madness is without a doubt the largest and most successful band to emerge from the 2nd wave of Ska, especially of the 2 tone variety. Their humble beginnings can be traced back to England where they formed in the late 70‘s, it is there they toured with The Specials and Selecter and lead the 2 tone revival. The bands early success came with their first single “The Prince” which paid homage to veteran Ska artist Prince Buster. The bands debut album One Step Beyond became an instant hit as it produced 4 singles that topped charts and earned the band a spot on TV program Top of the Pops cementing the bands sound, name and unmistakable image in Britain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-uyWAe0NhQ
 
The band reappeared a year later in 1980 with the release of their 2nd album simply known as Absolutely’ which peaked at #2 on the British charts. It’s best known single “Baggy Trousers” and its accompanying music video further demonstrated the bands over the top sense of humour and style. Their popularity in the UK and Europe soared with the release of their 3rd album “7” and its hit singles “Cardiac Arrest” and “Grey Day”, though it would be a single pulled from their fourth album Rise and Fall that would make them a household name in America. That single, which has remained their swansong for 30 years, has been the pop friendly hit “Our House” which sent the bands to new heights reaching #7 on the American charts. If you’re a younger fan chances are you heard this song before you even knew of the band Madness, this track is a classic! The band would follow up with 2 more successful albums in the 1980’s before breaking up in 1986.

Thankfully the band would reunite in 1992 with a gigantic comeback concert known as Madstock. The concert drew thousands of fans and caused controversy as neighboring buildings had to be evacuated due to seismic shifts caused by fans dancing during the bands historic set. Yes, you’re reading that correctly, people unaware of the concert felt the ground shake and assumed an earthquake had hit London. Has there ever been another band or concert known to cause such a panic? We don’t think so!

Since then Madness has hosted a Madstock festival nearly every 2 years and have continued to tour Europe every summer hitting the largest festivals known to man. In the last few years they’ve released a covers album and an album of new material which was met with praise from critics around the world. This will be the bands first appearance in the Los Angeles area since their secret last minute one off gig at The Troubadour in 2005.

As mentioned before, we at Big Wheel are so incredibly looking forward to seeing Madness at such an intimate and awesome venue. This gig is going down as one of the must see concerts of the year, don’t hesitate, this show will sell out!

Here is your chance to score big and see Madness on us - ENTER HERE


-Louie Bones-
Big Wheel Staff Reporter

 

 

Check out more show previews HERE

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE