MADNESS + HOT 8 BRASS BAND + DAVID RODIGAN + KID KAPICHI + DJ DUSTEE DU SOUL CASSEROLE – ‘ON THE BEACH’, BRIGHTON BEACH 24.7.26
Well, here we are once again, day six of this outstanding run of ‘On The Beach’ mega shows, shows that are bringing us 40 acts over 8 magical days, 10,000 capacity daily. And what a run it has been so far, the weather has been perfect throughout, the music brilliant and vibes through the roof, I’m going to be sad when it’s all over.
Madness: 21:00 – 22:30
The nutty boys are back, well okay they were back yesterday for day five, but these ‘On The Beach’ events are their first return since their Christmas show last December at the Brighton Centre. Which funny enough was the first time I’d actually seen them live. Madness have always been there somewhere in my life, in fact ‘Baggy Trousers’ was the first ever record I was bought as a kid, 29p from Woolworths, I think it is still at my parent’s house…it had better be, apparently some of those are worth good money now!
During the pandemic I introduced the band’s music to my daughter, which eventually resulted in our live introduction last December. Funny really, I go my whole life never seeing them but now have the pleasure of catching them in August at ‘Beautiful Days’ festival and here again in Brighton ‘On The Beach’, so that will be three times in less than twelve months!
For those that maybe don’t know, Madness are an English ska and pop band famously from Camden Town in London. They formed in 1976 and despite a few fallow years in the late 80s and early 90s, their popularity still is as big as ever, if anything still ever growing. Not only that, but they also still have six of the core original members from the 70s in the band. We have Mike Barson (keyboards, piano, percussion, harmonica, backing vocals), Lee Thompson (saxophone, percussion, vocals), Graham “Suggs” McPherson (vocals, percussion), Dan Woodgate (drums, percussion), Mark Bedford (bass) and Chris Foreman (guitar, sitar) Chris is a pleasant surprise as he has not been touring this year, however, has made a surprise return for these two shows. So, strap on your Fez’s, let the Madness commence!
At 9pm we were away into a fantastic nineteen song, hour and half set of all the hits and crowd pleasers, the sort of set any Madness fan would want, hence the tour being called ‘The Hit Parade’. The band came on stage all dressed in a variety of brightly coloured suits, although Suggs was dressed fully in black. A variety of graphics flashed and lit up the stage on the huge screen ending with ‘MADNESS HIT PARADE’ prompting Suggs to get it going with “Hey you” yes, it was ‘One Step Beyond’ and of course the crowd lapped it up going wild.
We were straight into ‘Embarrassment’ the visuals mostly being the band performing on stage bordered by an old television set, often with curtains or rolling records appearing, giving nods to the past.
Suggs addressed the crowd with a “Thank you Brighton, yeah, yeah, yeah, double yeah” the crowd all yeah’ing each time in reply. “I’d like to dedicate the next song to Jerry Dammers, he of Two Tone, The Specials and all that, he gave us our first break and this song was our first break” it was ‘The Prince’, a fab song indeed, made more exciting for me that Jerry happened to be standing right behind me!
‘NW5’ came next, introduced with a Rolling Stones story, “why are you laughing, it’s emotional”, kidded Suggs.
Suggs halted proceedings “Ladies, I’d like if you would cast your eyeballs over on the amazing Monsieur Barzo”, yes it was Mike Barson who then introduced ‘My Girl’ with a story of how he wrote the song when he used to work as a banana delivery driver, his co-driver in the cab would always be saying “me and my girl did this, my girl did that” etc., the ideas formed in his mind and stuck, this song was the result. After the song Suggs joked “Ladies & gentlemen I hope you have been illuminated…. on the delivery of banana’s” he then asked the various crowd sections if they were alright including the “Yacht club” which was the VIP section, he then asked seemingly slightly annoyed “can we get a dingy and send it out there to sea to get a fiver off those people on the f*cking yachts” there were around 6 or 7 moored up out there getting the gig for free.
‘The Sun And The Rain’ came next with rain graphics over the band on the screens. Suggs mentioned they have called the event ‘Madrophonia’ a homage to ‘Quadrophenia’ and to make it more authentic, they’ve “got a couple of rockers to wait outside the station to hit Tomo with a bicycle chain, as that’s what they are…authentic!”
The fun and lively ‘Return Of The Los Palmas 7’ featured some birthday and name shout outs and led a cool fun groove as a giant disco ball on the screen spun round.
The next song was dedicated to Emma, with a short talk about Peace, “don’t we half need it” from Suggs the song of course was ‘Wings Of A Dove’. I love this song; it is so positive.
‘Lovestruck’ was introduced with a story about “drinking in a pub all day, then trying to walk home, moving from lamp post to lamp post all the way home, as God made them equal distance, the only thing is don’t fall in love with the first one.” Joked Suggs.
Next came the more moody ‘Grey Day’ followed by ‘Bed And Breakfast Man’ which was dedicated to Dave Robinson who started Stiff Records “an old one for those fans who are of a certain vintage” Suggs said.
Prison bars were on the screens over the band for ‘Shut Up’ followed by ‘Mr Apples’. The crowd again lapped it all up, for me this was probably the slower part of the set, but you always need a calm before the storm!
Guitarist Chris Foreman was name-checked by Suggs who asked us to give a round of applause, “He is a son of Brighton, who has not been well, but look at him now”. Chris took to the microphone “I live in Peacehaven by the way, which you (as he pointed at the crowd meaning Brighton) are trying to take over, we’ll see about that”. After some shout outs he had us all do a countdown from ten down to Showtime!! And then what I call the super fun part of the show really kicked in, the three mega classics ‘House Of Fun’, ‘Baggy Trousers’ and ‘Our House’. Suggs thanked everyone for coming and showing them love and the fact that they are still alive which is the main thing, but also how they were happy to see young people out there too. As you would expect, the whole crowd were singing along and dancing madly to these three timeless masterpieces.
The evening was approaching the end when Suggs announced “We are going to interrupt this broadcast with a little romance” a young man came on stage and beckoned his girlfriend Bea towards him and proposed to her in front of 10,000 people. Suggs commented after “Thank f*ck she didn’t say no! Enjoy the first couple of weeks of your relationship, it won’t last….no no, no, give them a round of applause”. The song that followed I think was to be expected it was ‘It Must Be Love’. A fine end to the set as the band all left the stage.
But was it the end? Of course not, the nutty boys returned for a two-song encore of the Prince Buster cover ‘Madness’ and the legendary ‘Night Boat To Cairo’. A perfect end to the perfect Madness set. The band obviously have been around a long time, but their unison and musicianship is absolutely bang on, so in time with each, everything 100%, all so tight, all looking the part in their coloured suits, the banter, the stories, the on-screen graphics tipping their hat to the past. The dedicated army of fans that show up each time, sing, dance, wear all manner of costumes, fun is the name of the game all round, as mentioned before and by Suggs, there are new younger fans being added to ranks all the time, the Madness will continue forever.
Madness setlist:
‘One Step Beyond’ (Prince Buster cover)
‘Embarrassment’
‘The Prince’
‘NW5’
‘My Girl’
‘The Sun And The Rain’
‘Return Of The Los Palmas 7’
‘Wings Of A Dove’
‘Lovestruck’
‘Grey Day’
‘Bed And Breakfast Man’
‘Shut Up’
‘Mr. Apples’
‘House Of Fun’
‘Baggy Trousers’
‘Our House’
‘It Must Be Love’ (Labi Siffre cover)
(encore)
‘Madness’ (Prince Buster cover)
‘Night Boat To Cairo’
Hot 8 Brass Band: 19:20 – 20:20
Hot 8 Brass Band are new to me but promise to be funky and bring some summer vibes, perfect for this warm sunny day. They are a famous Grammy award winning group from New Orleans, who mix hip hop, jazz and funk with traditional brass music. They were formed in 1995 by Bennie ‘Big Peter’ Pete, sadly Bennie passed away from covid back in 2021. Today marks the start of their 30-year anniversary tour which takes in fourteen venues and festival dates across the UK into early August.
The venue arena is pretty packed, so they have a big crowd to play to. The band kicked off with the amazing ‘What’s My Name? (Rock With The Hot 8)’ complete with the crowd singing “Bow wow wow yo yo yippee yay” back at them. “Let us see some arms in the air” we are told as they went straight into a cover of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. The band took a slight breather in the action to tell us “It feels so good to be back in Brighton baby”. We were then told about Big Tuba (Bennie Pete) who sadly died and how much he lives on within the band, when they play the music it’s for him, he was name checked throughout the set.
“Whoop, whoop, party” was the rally cry for the very lively ‘La Jean (Largent)’.
We then had another slight breather in the action and were told “I hope you are having a good time, time goes by too swiftly, I won’t talk too much, but before we came to stage, we got to meet Jerry Dammers and this song was written by him”, the song was ‘Ghost Town’. This was a really cool cover, full of energy and one that went down very well with the crowd and got a huge cheer and round of applause.
The band then brought a chap called Mr Connor on stage to join them playing and told us that “they still didn’t have their bass drum and sousaphone, they were still in the custody of British Airways”, cue lots of boos from the crowd, he laughed and continued “that’s pretty British for you right, along with that my man Mr Calhoun has none of his luggage, so yes feel sorry for him”. It was Mr Connor of the Soho Saints who had saved the day and had lent them the instruments to be able to fully play today; he continued to play with the band for the rest of the set.
This took us into ‘Sexual Healing’ the Marvin Gaye classic, we were told their music video for this was filmed right here in Brighton and that this one is dedicated to everyone out in the audience today.
Hands were up for everyone in the air as the band moved straight into the cool ‘Get Up’, another party bringer of a tune.
The band thanked everyone for coming and watching, mentioning they have lost members over the years, but they keep on going, and as the sun was setting, they wanted to play Bill Withers ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ during which the band members were introduced; sadly I didn’t have time to write these down. But all 8 of them didn’t half bring some fine quality music, it was pretty much continual from start to finish for the full hour they played and some of that brass is pretty big and heavy. They were full of energy, there were soulful moments, rap and hip-hop moments, it was all new to me and I personally really enjoyed it. Just want you want on a lazy summer afternoon.
Hot 8 Brass Band Setlist included:
‘What’s My Name? (Rock With The Hot 8)’
‘I Got 5 On It’ (Luniz cover)
‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ (Joy Division cover)
‘Big Tuba’
‘La Jean (Largent)’
‘Ghost Town’ (The Specials cover)
‘Sexual Healing’ (Marvin Gaye cover)
‘Get Up’
‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ (Bill Withers cover)
David Rodigan: 17:50 – 18:50
DJ and radio legend David Rodigan was our final warm up DJ slot of the day and what better music royalty to have, to carry out such duty. David is a British DJ, who has been entertaining on the decks since his school days, so that’s now 60 years, he has been a mainstay on various radio stations such as, Radio London, Capital, Kiss FM, BFBS, BBC Radio 2 and currently BBC Radio 1Xtra where he has had a weekly Sunday show since 2013. He is a huge champion of Reggae and Jamaican Music, with unrivaled specialist knowledge of the genre. I have to admit I was not sure what to expect during this set, I had imagined it would be David silently standing behind the decks, just playing a fine selection of classics, but boy was I wrong, the energy and crowd engagement knocked me for six, he totally had the crowd wide awake and dancing, he very much had the audience in the palm of his hand.
He arrived on stage looking cool in a Deus T-shirt, white and red neck chief, flat cap, and pale blue top zip up top and away we went with some fantastic tunes, David was not going to let the crowd just simmer, “Come on is this Radio 2?” he shouted, meaning let’s get lively.
We were told “I’ve loved the music of Jamaica since I was 16 and I first came to the beach of Brighton in the summer of 1967, and this was number 1” it was Prince Buster’s ‘Enjoy Yourself’ (covered by The Specials), prompting a mass singalong as it went straight in to ‘My Boy Lollipop’ by Millie Small afterwards.
More classics were dropped such as ‘Al Capone’ by Prince Buster’, ‘Guns Of Navarone from The Skatalites’. “Some people are still at work or just finishing to go and sit a pub, but it’s here where the music is at!” shouted David. ‘Monkey Man’ and ‘Pressure Drop’ both from Toots & The Maytals’ followed.
The crowd pick me up’s and response requests flowed from David throughout the whole set, things like “If you think weed should be legalised, make some noise”, “If you don’t need a bunch of pills to get high, make some noise” “Get your hands in the hair, make them a Jamaican police search”, “this isn’t a Zomba class”, “Shout out to the original Skins”, “Londoners give me some signal”, he also mentioned the age rage, getting those old Coronation Street fans, to shout out, then the younger Dirty Den Eastender era, before mentioning Dallas saying “Ewing would make a better president than Trump”. It was all good banter stuff and worked well with the crowd.
Songs were also punctuated with lots of “Yeah”’s, “Hey”’s and “What”’s as David kept the crowd on their toes. It was rare for him to play a song in full without some sort of vocal comments. More great songs followed such as ‘Johnny Too Bad’ by The Slickers ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want’ by Desmond Decker, ‘Never Surrender’ by Frenchie King, ‘Good Thing Going’ by Sugar Minott. All immensely danceable.
David signalled a change in direction as he announced “It’s time for some Jamaican dance hall music, what is that I hear some of you say?” he started by playing ‘Dat Sexy Body’ by Sasha and ‘Bookshelf’ by Ape Drums X Major Lazer, these were far more modern songs of the genre and again shows just how in tune he is with that scene, the crowd danced and followed his lead, but I think they were hoping he was going to stick to the older stuff.
He mentioned BBC DJ Trevor Nelson, who is currently off air at the moment as going through a difficult time “but we are all with him”. They started working together in 1990 on Kiss FM, he said there is one song Trevor will always play, it was ‘No Games’ by Serani. More great tunes followed such as ‘Bam Bam’ by Sister Nancy, ‘Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely’ by Freddie McGregor, ‘Wild World’ by Maxi Priest, ‘You Don’t Love Me’ by Dawn Penn. Throughout the set David would walk in a circle from behind the decks TO the front of stage, tell a story, walk back the other side to the decks and hit play, it was all incredibly well timed.
The set pushed more towards the crowd’s favourites with songs such as ‘Rudy A Message To You’ by Dandy Livingston, ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ by Althea & Donna and ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, this was the re-recorded version. David was again down the front of the stage dancing however at the end of the song Jerry Dammers came on stage at the end! Jerry of course was founder of Two-Tone Records and one of the founding members of The Specials, he whispered in David’s ear and left. David announced who he was and what he had just said “you should have played the original version”.
After ‘Buffalo Soldier’ by Bob Marley the very end of the set was here, David told us a story that 32 years ago he was pulled into the radio station boss’s office for playing a record on air, the boss demanded “what the hell was that you just played”, he replied “that was Jungle!” And with that he hit play on ‘Incredible’ by M-Beat (feat General Levy). A roar and laughter from the crowd as he proceeded to do a full-on dance at the front of stage, he may have referenced his age during the set, but 75 is nothing to this man, he could be in his 20s with his spirit and energy. I really enjoyed his set and am going to have to start tuning into his radio show, I think energy wise David could have been the opener for Madness, I am sure he was originally in the lineup, but I suspect things changed round to keep the live band and DJ slots alternative, anyhow he really gee’d up the crowd.
Kid Kapichi: 16:35 – 17:20
Our first live band of the day are Hastings legends Kid Kapichi, always very popular when they play locally and always a band that sells out shows. I have heard of them, but I’ve not actually caught them before, so rather looking forward to this. The band formed in 2013 and consist of vocalist and guitarist Jack Wilson and bassist Eddi Lewis, they are joined by guitarist Lee Martin, and drummer Miles Gill.
They are currently celebrating their fourth album coming out called ‘Fearless Nature’ and their local adventures don’t just end here, before their big winter tour, you can catch them on the line up in September for The Levellers homecoming day festival at Hove Park and then again later that month at The Piper in Hastings.
As they took to the stage vocalist Jack cut a cool look; dressed in a black suit, white shirt and shades, quite in keeping perhaps with the Madness crowd. Upon coming on stage, he said “Right, let’s see how it goes!” probably acknowledging that they may not have been a band normally seen on a Madness line up and the crowd dressed in their polo shirts, pork pie hats and fez’s may be a little on the fence especially after Dustee Du’s fairly mellow DJ set. Saying that, a lot of the crowd, which was a fairly decent size, got into it. We were treated to a fine eleven song, 45-minute set which started with the very lively ‘Artillery’, the guitars had nice and heavy raw sound to them, it was very good, but very different to what we had been listening to before. The equally cool ‘Let’s Get To Work’ followed.
Strapping on his guitar Jack said “Let’s get drunk” as we were given ‘Stainless Steel’ this had a gorgeous bassline, but was quite a menacing sounding song. Jack took the microphone once more “Welcome to the second best South-Eastern seaside town Brighton, we are from Hastings the best, someone said to me the other day Hastings is like the new Margate, Margate’s like the Hastings you f*ck” The next song was a tune about Hastings and called ‘Working Man’s Town’. I could see one of the security guys getting really into this one dancing at the very front, it was a proper rager of a song, I loved it.
Jack informed us “if you wondering why the f*ck this band is here playing with Madness today, it’s because Suggs is featured on this next song ‘Zombie Nation’, and hence them inviting us here today to play, that’s how it happened and why we are here, to the 50% of you I hope you are having a good time and to the other 50% I apologise”. It was a great song, a little bit Ska sounding with the guitar style, the crowd did show some appreciation, perhaps more due to the Suggs link.
This next song was ‘If You’ve Got Legs’. Jack, then apologised “if you haven’t got them sorry!!” It was a good song, slower with a darker, more menacing vibe.
We had our first boat mention of the day from Jack “Have you seen that boat, that’s annoying me, they are stealing a gig, they owe me £30 at least”. Jack lit up a cigarette and we were treated to ‘New England’. Another great song, and much like their others plenty of social commentary, punky, lively.
‘Rob The Supermarket’ came next, this one was way more fast paced; it had a really raw sound. I was starting to wish I was down in the mosh pit area now, this sort of music needs bouncing.
“This is another one that will divide the crowd” it was ‘Can EU Hear Me’, perhaps Jack meant dividing as I believe the song was referencing Brexit.
After ‘Get Down’, Jack told us “Guys, we have a couple more then we’ll get out of your hair”. The first of these was ‘Rabbit Hole’, most definitely the slowest and calmest song of the whole set, a much softer singing style from Jack, clearly its positioning in the set was meant to be the calm before the storm, as ‘Smash The Gaf’ was set to follow, however as the song finished Jack announced “sorry, this actually was the last one as we’ve been told we’ve run out of time”, with the guitars left squealing feedback, they then left the stage.
A great set for the guitar lovers, but perhaps one not so much appreciated by the audience today. I know 100% when they play at the Levellers show in September that the crowd is going to go crazy for it.
Kid Kapichi setlist:
‘Artillery’
‘Let’s Get To Work’
‘Stainless Steel’
‘Working Man’s Town’
‘Zombie Nation’
‘If You’ve Got Legs’
‘New England’
‘Rob The Supermarket’
‘Can EU Hear Me’
‘Get Down’
‘Rabbit Hole’
DJ Dustee Du (Soul Casserole): 14:00 – 16:05
Easing us into the day is DJ Dustee Du who is charged with warming up the masses for a full two hours under this luscious sunshine. Brighton based Dustee whose real name is Duman Ncube is the founder of the Soul Casserole collective who are DJs spinning Funk, Soul, Disco, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Mash Ups, Remixes, Re-edits from around the Globe. They are always in search of funky beats.
I was lucky enough to be first into the arena dance area for a few minutes to get to the very front and get the first boogie in. It was short lived as the early Madness hardcore came running down from the entrance keen to secure their front and center spots. There was a look of alarm from some of them that I’d somehow got there first, I assured them I was only just down for the first dance and some photos before moving further back. The early crowd was good news for Dustee Du, he himself looked cool in a red polo shirt, a brown flat cap and shades. More crowds built up around the edges of the arena, sitting down. He mentioned the inactive sitters a few times during his set “I want to ask a small favour, stand up and give me a wiggle, just asking…..you slags” and later on; “Is it hot? Is that why you are all sitting down, come on down I’ve got a fan” and he held up a pocket fan.
Towards the end, the sound cut out, I’m not sure if it was on purpose, but Dustee said, “not to worry it was a crap song”, he then told everyone to “get up and dance”, then he told them to “all move forward”, joking “wow I’ve got a crowd, there’s a first”.
All in all, it was a very smooth and chilled two hours of very fine songs indeed, a nice gentle easing into what was to come later in the day, perfect songs for a very sunny lazy afternoon.
Some of the songs in the set included; ‘Don’t Tell Me, Tell Her’ (Sandra Reid), ‘Double Barrel’ (Dave & Ansel Collins), ‘Feel Like Jumping’ (Marcia Griffiths), ‘Bam Bam’ (Sister Nancy), ‘Reggae Got Soul’ (Toots & The Maytails), ‘Back to Life’ by Soul II Soul, (this one had really heavy juiced up bassline and sounded great over the speaker system), ‘Hey Mr DJ’ (Zhane), ‘Johnny Too Bad’ (Neville Staple), ‘Shy Girl’ (Hollie Cook – who incidentally is Sex Pistols Paul Cook’s daughter), ‘Praise You’ from Junior Dell & The D-Lites a nice nod to the Fatboy Slim shows last weekend, ‘Silly Games’ (Janet Kay), ‘Israelites’ (Desmond Dekker), ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want’ (Jimmy Cliff), ‘Madness’ (Prince Buster), ‘Red Red Wine (Tony Tribe), ‘Trench Town Rock’ (Bob Marley), ‘Mirror In tThe Bathroom’ (The Beat), ‘Too Much Too Young’ (The Specials), ‘Monkey Man’ (Toots & The Maytals), and he closed out with ‘Town Called Malice’ (The Jam).
If you want to see what Dustee Du is all about, he has a monthly radio show on www.1Btn.fm.
All in all, another excellent day and ‘On The Beach’ event, I’ve managed to do 4 of this series in 2026, and have been all previous years. I’ve done a mix of Indie, dance and legend acts, a huge shout out to the friendly bar staff, gate keepers, bag searchers, the excellent NDST security who did a stellar job. The arena and site seem to improve each year presumably from post event feedback, this is the first year the whole dance area has been covered over, making it a million times better for dancing and moving, no doubt it makes the daily clean up operation better too. Each event brings a different crowd, I did notice for Madness a lot of people had brought in fold up chairs somehow, a lot of these were along the back of the dance area by the sound mixing desks, they did rather block the flow somewhat causing bottle necks in movement and likely making people think they could not go further forward as there was space closer to the stage, maybe a dedicated seating area might be good for future events. However, aside from that, I’d say hats off to the organisers, these events on the beach really bring so much to Brighton, long may they continue!
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