Isle Of Wight Festival Review: Madness Get The Party Started

The last time I watched Madness perform they were on top of Buckingham Palace, performing for the Queen.

Saturday afternoon found them on the main stage at the Isle Of Wight festival, performing for a huge portion of the 55,000 music-lovers at the event - from kids on shoulders, teens covered in neon facepaint, grown men in an impressive array of fancy dress - including bears and dinosaurs - to sixty-something festival veterans ready for some of the rock royalty on show at the four-day music extravaganza.

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Their stage may have been slightly more humble, and they weren't aided by bright projections of imagery from their songs onto the Palace walls, but they had a crowd full of joy that the sun had finally come out during a wildly wet festival.

And they kept them happy - Suggs was on top form, belting out classics such as One Step Beyond and My Girl and throwing in a surprise Prodigy cover of Outta Space.

"Baggy trousers" was shouted from thousands of mouths moshing along to the Ska group and House of Fun upped the tempo further, before hands were raised for a mass sing-a-long to the melody of It Must Be Love. The audience filled in the gaps as Madness soaked up the playback.

Suggs finally announced they had been told to leave the stage - he's not one to sugarcoat the truth - and off they went, leaving the crowd in an altogether better mood, despite the mud.

PHOTOS: Isle Of Wight performances...