Madness Get Nutty (w/ Stone Foundation) as Summer Season Starts at The Piece Hall in Halifax [Photos]

The Piece Hall in Halifax has been putting on some fantastic summer shows for the last few years and has raised its game even higher for this year’s Summer Series.

It’s a stunning open-air venue reminiscent of an Italian piazza in the heart of West Yorkshire and is making a real name for itself on the live music circuit attracting huge names such as Sting, James, Queens of the Stone Age and the new supergroup BoyGenius to name a few this year.

Opening this year’s proceedings are original “Nutty Boys” Madness who we caught on their second sold-out show in as many days. Turning the Piece Hall into a sea of red Fez hats and waving arms they flew through a relatively short set that was packed with all the classics you need to send a pack of over 40’s crazy.

They are like catnip to a certain generation.

If there was a roof on this place, they’d have blown it off, creating a true party atmosphere with people dancing all around the venue. Opening with the anthemic call to arms “One Step Beyond” they set the bar for the evening quite high. But with the band, and cheeky frontman Suggs in particular, having earned National Treasure status they have more than they need in their back pockets to keep the momentum going.

Suggs begins pretty much each song with a funny anecdote, it sounds like Micky “Out Out” Flanagan has taken over vocals for the intros. He even throws a bit of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” into “Return of the Los Palmas 7” – which is something I never thought I’d hear coming from the PA in this Grade II listed building. Multi-instrumentalist Lee Jay Thompson regularly threatens to steal the show with his sax solos though it’s possibly the crowd that does that singing and dancing their way through the final half of the set.

Stone cold classics, “House of Fun,” “Baggy Trousers,” “Our House,” and “It Must Be Love” all follow each other to ramp up the hysteria of the audience before ending the main set. How many bands could close a show with that many bangers?

Returning for the encore of a Prince Buster cover, “Madness,” and the reason for all the Fez hats, “Night Boat to Cairo,” they close the opening shows of this year’s Piece Hall Summer Series in spectacular fashion – sending the revellers into the streets of Halifax having relived their youths.

With so many sold-out shows still to come to the Piece Hall, they are set for their best summer yet! For more info on the band, hit their site here: https://www.madness.co.uk.

Madness (w/ Stone Foundation) @ The Piece Hall (Halifax, UK) on June 17, 2023

61 photos