You probably watched them perform at the Olympics closing ceremony last night, alongside other legends of British music including The Who, Pet Shop Boys and, ahem, Kaiser Chiefs. Well, Madness have a new, as-yet-unnamed album on the way, and they’re offering a taster of it in the form of a free download from their website in exchange for an e-mail address here.
Rather than an everyone-together-now ‘Our House’, which seems to have become the unofficial anthem of Britishness of late, ‘Death Of A Rude Boy’, is a rather more sinister skank, with a little hint of The Specials lingering in that ‘Ghost Town’-esque organ line.
The single’s also been remixed by Andrew Weatherall, which you can download from iTunes.
While there’s no release date for the album yet, the band are setting out on a tour to support it, following a few festival dates:
AUGUST
Fri 17 – Belsonic Festival, Belfast
Sat 18 – V Festival, Weston Park, Staffordshire
Sun 19 – V Festival, Hylands Park, Chelmsford
NOVEMBER
Fri 23 – Mon 26 – House Of Fun Weekender, Butlins Minehead
Fri 30 – Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
DECEMBER
Sat 1 – Brighton Centre, Brighton
Mon 3 – BIC, Bournemouth
Tue 4 – Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth
Thu 6 – Capital FM Arena, Nottingham
Fri 7 – Echo Arena, Liverpool
Sat 8 – Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Mon 10 – SECC, Glasgow
Tue 11 – Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Thu 13 – LG Arena, Birmingham
Fri 14 – O2 Arena, London
Sat 22 – O2 Arena, London
