Includes the latest fantastic Madness single – ‘Le Grand Pantalon’ – previously unreleased on CD. The track is a slowed-down Gallic-flavoured version of their smash hit ‘Baggy Trousers’ and very much reflects the Madness of today.

72-page full colour booklet includes written and verbatim liner notes from band members and key personnel, plus previously unseen photos, a reproduction of the first issue of the Nutty Boys Comic (1981), discography and a Treasure Hunt Map of the nuttiest parts of London – Camden and Kentish Town. 

For a limited time only, each box set contains a business card featuring a unique serial number, allowing access to the Madness Treasure Hunt and an online game. The winner will receive a signed and framed customised copy of the box set sleeve, plus a video message from the band.

Fancy playing our Madness online game? Click here to see how you do!

REVIEWS

"Steeped in the ways of a bygone London that now seems positively quaint, silly yet far from stupid, and usually accompanied by a wacky video, Madness’s early-’80s mastery of the three-minute pop single has earned them a special place in the nation’s affections. Though there’s no The Sweetest Girl, this 70 track retrospective gets just about everything else right, including a sprinkling from 2009’s well-judged comeback, The Liberty Of Norton Folgate. With a bonus DVD of their hectic 1992 Madstock reunion in London’s Finsbury Park, plus an extensive booklet and sundry memorabilia, an excellent little package."

**** Peter Kane, Q Magazine, October 2011.

Three CDs and a DVD: a true Camden Town compendium.

Having completed their reissue programme of original albums with bonus discs over the last couple of years, Salvo must surely be bringing down the curtain on their Nutty Boys campaign with this anthology; 70 tracks plus a DVD of the 1992 Madstock gig in London’s Finsbury Park. Ska roots and comic novelty dominate early on, giving way to the introspective elaborate pop of ’One Better Day’ and ’Yesterday’s Men’, while a healthy chunk of 2009’s better-than-we-might-have-expected The Liberty Of Norton Folgate brings the story up to date. There’s also the added bonus of ’Le Grand Pantalon’, the slowed down version of ’Baggy Trousers’ from the Kronenbourg TV ad.

**** Terry Staunton, Uncut

"No strangers to having their songs used to hawk products on telly, the recent Kronenbourg beer ad featuring Madness and a leisurely reading of Baggy Trousers also serves as a portrait of the band themselves. They they sit in a bar; middle-aged men musing on their energetic youth, the eventually airborne sax player Lee Thompson a sneaky nod to their early videos.

The fresh version of a bygone hit, renamed Le Grand Pantalon, is the only track of the 70 here not to have already surfaced on CD as part of Salvo’s impressive double-disc reissue campaign of the original albums.

Presumably aimed at punters who want more than a standard singles collection but are in two minds about where to go next, the anthology paints a fuller picture of a group rightly lauded for their chart record, but who are also capable of less obviously commercial material of intriguing depth.

Keenly observed character studies (Mrs. Hutchinson, Victoria Gardens) share space with articulate introsepction (I’ll Compete, Prospects), the chronological running order revealing not just a maturity in the band’s lyrics but in the personal development of their music ideas; it’s fascinating to listen to them grow up through our speakers. The DVD features their entire 1992 Madstock show from London’s Finsbury Park, the scene of one of pop’s most triumphant reunions that kick-started a whole new chapter in the band’s story.

**** Dan Tweedy, Record Collector