profile-image

Madness


"Madstock!" is the first live album by the British ska/pop band Madness, released on November 2, 1992, through Go! Discs. The album captures highlights from their first concerts after disbanding in 1986, held on August 8 and 9, 1992, at Finsbury Park in London. The lineup for these concerts featured various artists, including Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Morrissey, and Flowered Up. The full concert was also released on video, and while both the album and video are now out of print, a DVD version is included in the box set A Guided Tour of Madness. The success of these concerts led to a series of biennial Madstock events in 1994, 1996, and 1998, with the last event available on DVD. In December 2008, Madness announced a fifth Madstock concert for 2009, celebrating their 30th anniversary in Victoria Park, East London. Madstock! peaked at #22 on the UK album charts. The only single from the album, a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," reached #44 in the UK charts. The album was recorded using the Fleetwood Mobile recording studio and was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The cover features photographs by rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky, who captured the band in action during a warm-up gig in The Hague on August 6, 1992. The photos were creatively collaged together to produce the album cover. On October 9, 2015, the album and video were reissued as a 1-CD/1-DVD set, complete with four bonus tracks.