'Madness' are about to release a new album after 10 years, which consists of an interrelated, song cycle about London called 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate'. Although the songs are on one level about different areas of London, they focus musically on the waves of immigration to the city - Irish, Jewish, Caribbean, Asian etc and the musical legacy they have contributed to the city. The concert is at the Hackney Empire, a show with powerful connections to the grand Music Hall traditions of the place, situating Madness where they belong, clearly within a uniquely English Popular Musical Culture with its roots in the Victorian period. Weaving through the concert, Suggs and Carl, take us back in time to the London of Karl Marx and Jack the Ripper. Humorously introducing the subject of each song, they take us on a tour through the psycho geography of the Old East End, Spitalfields, Smithfield, Wapping, Bethnal Green, ending down on the beaches of the Thames beyond Tower Bridge Finally.

Madness: The Liberty of Norton Folgate

In the presence of HM the Queen and the royal family, an array of stars from the last sixty years of rock, pop and classical music perform on a spectacular stage built around the Queen Victoria Memorial, right in front of Buckingham Palace.  Hit songs and show-stopping performances are promised, with hosts including Rob Brydon, Miranda Hart, Lenny Henry and Lee Mack. Proceedings conclude with HM the Queen lighting the National Beacon.