In the centre of England, Derby hosted its second TK Maxx – Summer Sessions Festival on the weekend of the 12th – 14th of July. It ran Friday to Sunday with Sunday having the times rescheduled as revellers (and acts) were clearly going to be torn between music and football. The venue for the festival is under the big top in Markeaton Park, which really made a great venue for a selection of the charts biggest acts. Before Madness come on they play a video with them in, inspired by the Thunderbirds, which is really funny. Before the opening number ‘One Step Beyond’, which is one of my personal favourites. It has a really long Sax solo, and you have to love a Sax solo. Their Prince Buster cover’s are just brilliant, and this one starts the set off in the right way. Before they burst into the infectious and catchy ‘Embarrassment’, which everyone is bobbing their head to, singer Suggs has not lost anything, he still has the character of a great frontman and knows how to command the stage and audience. Pointing his finger out at them, as he moves back and forth, actually a lot of pointing goes on, like you can see in the pictures. What frontman can go on about the biggest allotment competition, and get away with it. I don’t know about any other, he can be very silly. And it is seen as something else, and the band actually don’t seem silly even though they are. Yes! the Fez hats are even cool, and you can see quite a few of these in the audience. There is a little lull before they bring things back up with the chart hits ‘My Girl’ and ‘Wings of a Dove’, which are always fan favourites. They are good sing-a-long tracks like ‘Shut Up’, ‘Our House’ and ‘House of Fun’. Not to mention the get up and dance sounds of ‘Baggy Trousers’, a song that can fill any dance floor on any night. The set did include a version of ‘Three Lions’, because of England being in the Euro 2024 final. Missing a trick with The Lightning Seeds being on the bill today, they could have brought Ian Brodie on to sing it with them. I have to say Madness do what you want them to do, a set of funny Ska / 2-Tone songs that always delight the audience, and give them lyrics and melodies to sing-a-long to. The Nutty Boys of Camden close their main set with ‘It must be Love’, before returning for an encore of ‘Madness’ and ‘Night boat to Cairo’ . Ending what had been a great weekend of music, maybe I will get my Madness records out now. And go down Camden, and give them a little spin.
etlist
One step Beyond (Prince Buster cover)
Embarrassment
The Prince
C’est la vie
NW5
My Girl
Three Lions (Baddiel and Skinner Feat. The Lightning Seeds Cover)
The Sun and the Rain / Singing in the Rain (Gene Kelly Cover)
Hour of Need
Wings of a Dove – See our crowd video here
Lovestruck
Run for your Life
Bed and breakfast Man
Shut Up – See our crowd video here
Mr. Apples
Baggy Trousers
House of Fun – See our crowd video here
Our House
It Must Be Love (Labi Siffre Cover)
Madness (Prince Buster Cover)
Night boat to Cairo