Madness are not only a giant of British music, fashion and culture, they are woven into the very fabric of Britishness. Their songs and imagery have sound-tracked some of the most significant events across four decades and are ingrained into the nation’s consciousness. They are one of the top 20 selling UK groups of all time, with seven top ten albums, 22 top 20 hits and over six million album sales to their name.
Recorded at the renowned Toe Rag Studios, East London, ‘Can’t Touch Us Now’ was produced by Clive Langer, the man behind some of the band’s biggest hits, and Liam Watson, owner of Toe Rag and Grammy Winner for his work on The White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’. Recording the whole album in under three weeks, tracks such as 'Mr Apples', 'Mumbo Jumbo', the Amy Winehouse referencing 'Blackbird' and the title track 'Can’t Touch Us Now' capture the band’s inimitable combination of pop, reggae and soul influences. As on many of Madness greatest moments, the lyrics are gloriously observational and humorous, beautifully framing life in London.
Few rock and roll bands were riddled with as many contradictions as the Who. All four members had widely different personalities, as their notorious live performances demonstrated. They clashed frequently, but these frictions resulted in a decade’s worth of remarkable music. Listen to it all here!
A 2CD album featuring all their greatest hits unplugged for the first time including classics such as 'Red Red Wine', 'I Got You Babe', 'Kingston Town' and 'One in Ten'. The album also includes a bonus disc of all their greatest hits.
For the release of the album we wanted to create imagery and video content that reflected the stripped back intimate nature of the record. The band recorded the whole album at the iconic RAK studios in London, and for the photos, videos and album art we spent a day at the studios filming and shooting the band in their natural set up.
Click here to see a sample of the videos from their new album.
To celebrate UMC’s exclusive relationship with the most iconic British music TV show ever, we’ve kicked off a series of music releases with eight 3CD sets celebrating the best chart hits from the show’s lifespan, the period 1964 – 2006. Split neatly into 5-year eras – ‘1964-1969’, ‘1970 – 1974’, ‘1975-1979’, ‘1980-1984’, ‘1985-1989’, ‘1990-1994’, ‘1995-1999’ and ‘2000-2006’ – the sets come branded with the show’s original instantly recognisable logos and contain artists as diverse as The Beach Boys, ABBA, Barry White, Oasis, Soul II Soul, Girls Aloud, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Jam and Blondie. If that wasn’t enough, we’ve also released ‘Top Of The Pops Christmas’, a suitably festive 2-disc collection containing huge Christmas songs from John Lennon, Band Aid, Elton John and more plus a selection of Christmas Number 1’s from the likes of The Human League, Girls Aloud and The Flying Pickets.
Multi-million-selling keyboard icon Rick Wakeman makes UK chart history as his new album Piano Portraits has become the first solo piano album in history to reach the UK top 10.
Currently enjoying his 50th year as a professional musician, Wakeman is without doubt one of the most original, entertaining and groundbreaking performers of his generation. As well as enjoying huge success as a member of Yes, he’s carved out a fascinating, idiosyncratic career that has comfortably traversed multiple musical worlds. A classically trained pianist, he studied at the Royal College Of Music before going on to become a much in-demand session musician playing on a string of hit songs by the likes of Black Sabbath, Elton John, Cat Stevens and David Bowie.
Wakeman began working on Piano Portraits following the unprecedented reaction to his performance of David Bowie’s Life on Mars on BBC Radio 2 in early 2016, which went on become the most shared clip in the station’s history. The album features a varied selection of music including classic songs that he originally performed on including Space Oddity, Life On Mars and Morning Has Broken.
