Madness hail recent album success

Madness have said that they are proud of the success of their new album The Liberty of Norton Folgate.

The group claimed that it was a struggle to record the new LP, but they were relieved when it reached number five in May.

"It took a long time to do this album but it seems to have been pretty well received so it's kind of rewarding," Suggs told Music-News.

"We put a lot of effort into this record and it's always hard to compare one album against another but we're very pleased with what people are saying about it."

Bandmate Chris Foreman added that it was a coincidence that the record's release coincided with the 30th anniversary of their debut LP One Step Beyond.

"We've been working on it a long time so it was a bit of luck that we finished it and oh look, it's 30 years, well that's handy. I wanted to have it out at least a year ago, but it's taken a long time," he said.

Discussing the decision to call the record The Liberty of Norton Folgate, Suggs explained: "I read about Norton Folgate in a book. It was a part of London that had its own laws and rules, and I thought it sounded like a great title apart from anything else.

"We were trying not necessarily to emulate the Beatles or anything, but something like Sergeant Pepper's, something that had a lot of colour in it."