The Joy of Fez

- and porkpie hats, plastic trombones, skinheads and their children, ties and two-tone jackets...
In summary, to Earls Court through the snow to see Madness play the last gig in their latest UK tour:

A mixed crowd, to say the least. Age range from 4 to 60 and still older.  But then I suppose they have been going a while...

The crowd were quiet when the supporting act was on (some dancing when classics were covered), but exploded when Madness started.  And stayed raucous, noisy and exploded to the end.  Youngest likened it to being a marble on a tin tray full of marbles, when suddenly someone picks it up and starts shaking it vigorously.  And you aren't the biggest marble.

But everyone seemed to know the words, and it was pretty good-natured.  Lots of apparent skinheads singing and dancing to anti-racists songs.  All of the well-known tracks -  Our House, My Girl's Mad at Me, Night Boat to Cairo, Baggy Trousers, Driving In My Car, It Must be Love, One Step Beyond, plus the the marvellous Clerkenwell Polka from Norton Folgate.

Immensely enjoyable, I thought (but then I'm a bigger marble I suppose...).