
Madness will be releasing their acclaimed 2021 global livestream event The Get Up! as a CD/DVD set on November 18, 2022. An inventive response to the pandemic lockdown, The Get Up! featured the band playing live at the London Palladium to an audience consisting only of themselves (as snarky hecklers), interspersed with comedy bits crafted by co-star and screenwriter Charlie Higson.
Among the production’s many highlights are special guest vocalists Paul Weller and Roland Gift, the sparkling new compositions “If I Go Mad,” “Baby Burglar” and “The Theatre of the Absurd,” tardy Lee Thompson’s farcical efforts to find his way into the Palladium, and Mike Barson’s monumental performance as the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The CD/DVD track list:
- Act 1 – Rehearsals
- My Girl (Rehearsal)
- Bed and Breakfast Man (Rehearsal)
- Feel So Fine (Rehearsal)
- Theatre Interlude 1
- Concrete and Clay (Audition feat. Roland Gift)
- Theatre Interlude 2
- The Harder They Come (Audition feat. Paul Weller)
- Theatre Interlude 3
- The Prince (Audition feat. Suggs)
- Madness (Band Naming Rehearsal)
- Theatre Interlude 4
- Act 2 – One Step Beyond
- Embarrassment
- Baby Burglar
- NW5
- House of Fun
- Baggy Trousers
- Shut Up
- Night Boat to Cairo
- If I Go Mad
- Our House
- It Must Be Love
- The Theatre of the Absurd
- House of Fun (Reprise)
The Get Up! was billed as a “one-time-only” streaming event, but thank goodness it’s being issued in a more permanent format where more fans will have the opportunity to see and hear it. This is more than a simple ephemeral live show. It’s a bonafide film, and in many ways the direct sequel to Take It or Leave It some 40 years later. Suggs asks early on, “Won’t it be a bit weird without an audience?” Not really, now that the overlooked gem of The Get Up! can score the broader viewership it deserves. Don’t miss it! Order from the official Madstore or Amazon US.
Read the full Stateside Madness review of The Get Up! (as quoted in the official Madness press release).
