Madness, one of the UK’s most beloved British bands, share the track 'Round We Go', taken from their 13th album, Theatre Of the Absurd Presents C’Est La Vie, released in 2023.
The album – their first ever studio album to reach the #1 spot on the UK Album Charts – came seven years after the release of their last record, Can’t Touch Us Now.
After a disparate couple of years which saw the band at their most polarised and fragmented, Madness reunited in an industrial unit in Cricklewood at the beginning of the year, where Suggs, Mark, Chrissy Boy, Mike, Lee and Woody realised that what united them was always bigger than what divided them. Emerging re-energised and reinvigorated with a fresh bounce in their nutty step, the result was their most harmonious recording experience to date.
For the first time ever, a brand new album came into the world that they were all completely agreed on. Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’Est La Vie is the band’s inaugural foray into self producing, working alongside engineer and mixer Matt Galsbey (Ed Sheeran, Maisie Peters, Rag’N’Bone Man).
Listen to ‘Round We Go’ by Madness on our Chelsea Fan Playlist on Spotify.
The governing principle behind Theatre Of the Absurd Presents C’Est La Vie, is: “let Madness be Madness”. The result is an album of typically timeless brilliance that also reflects the wonky years of its creation, these 14 songs representing the cream of the bumper crop of tunes the group cooked up, whittled down this punchy, focused set. There are moments of ineffably catchy pop excellence (drummer Daniel ‘Woody’ Woodgate’s beguiling, bittersweet carousel ‘Round We Go’, Chrissy-Boy’s anarchic anthem to perhaps-justified paranoia, ‘Run For Your Life’), while the album is bookended by two of Suggs’ finest compositions.
To celebrate the release of the album, Madness played a very special homecoming show at Camden’s iconic KOKO. Having not played at the venue since Madness were known as The Invaders and KOKO was The Camden Palace, the underplay performance gave 1,400 lucky fans the opportunity to catch them playing songs from the new album, along with some familiar favourites for the very first time.
Madness famously emerged from the backstreets of Camden Town in the late 70s and recently released a three-part original docu series with TV channel AMC about the beginnings of the band in the area. Before We Was We: Madness by Madness, chronicles the rise of one of the most loved bands in British culture
Throughout their career, Madness have had ten UK Top 10 albums, 15 Top 10 singles and have won a multitude of awards including a prestigious Ivor Novello. They’ve performed on the top of Buckingham Palace as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations and set the record for the biggest ever audience for the BBC’s Live New Year’s Eve Broadcast – the most watched TV music event of 2018.
One of the most enduring and evergreen live shows this country has to offer, their everybody’s-welcome celebrations of life’s ups, downs and everything in the middle, continue to attract new generations of fans from across every walk of life.
