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The Liberty of Norton Folgate

October 8th, 2009 · Posted by Skuds in Music · 2 Comments · Music

Tonight I caught up with the Julien Temple film The Liberty of Norton Folgate that I recorded when it was on BBC Four at the weekend.  I already loved the album, a strong contender of album of the year IMHO.  I played a couple of tracks on Spotify when it came out and went straight out and bought it. (Or rather stayed in and ordered it online).  I watched that bloke with (I think) Parkinson’s who played the entire album on the 4th plinth while dancing, dressed in suitable punk-Dickensian attire, and now the film of it has increased my appreciation of it even more.When you see a band with a thirty year history and more than a dozen top-ten singles under their belt playing live the last thing you want to hear is normally that dreaded phrase “and here’s one from our new album”, but in this case they played , as far as I can make out, the entire new album, and there were no old favourits on the film but it was superb.

Who could have imaged that the nutty boys would come back with, effectively, a concept album?   It is full of good tunes but, more than that it is tremendously atmospheric and joyous: a celebration of London that is at the same time both majestic and ramshackle, much like the capital itself.

Of course the old hits like Baggy Trousers, Our House and Night Boat to Cairo will still induce a wave of nostalgic affection, but if I went to see Madness and they just performed the new album, plus the Dangerman Sessions I would be happy.  Or was I the only one who thought the Dangerman records were brilliant?   I think they are playing the Brighton Centre in December.  Wonder if there are still tickets left?  Could be even more fun than the Labour conference…

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2 Comments so far ↓

  • Tim Andrews (Norton Folgate)

    l was that man on the fourth plinth with Parkinson’s Disease – thanks for your comments. By the way, our video recorder misfired on the BBC 4 Madness night – you couldn’t do a DVD of the Norton Folgate programme you recorded could you?
    See you.
    Tim

  • Skuds

    Unfortunately I recorded it on the V+ (Virgin’s equivalent of Sky+) and wiped it after watching, as I do with nearly everything.

    Mind you… I don’t have a DVD recorder anyway.

    Good to hear from you BTW. That was one of the Plinth highlights.