Regular visitors Madness made a triumphant return to the BIC last night with an uplifting set full of songs old and new. And let's be honest, if there is one band that can bring a feeling of love and joy to a sold crowd on a cold foggy Bournemouth night then these guys are it.

The curtain rose to reveal the band playing Can't Touch Us Now the title track of the new album behind a set of iron gates.

Suggs pulled them open to signal the start of the evening and the opening night of a nationwide tour.

This may have been the opening night of the tour but there were no slips, mis-steps or turning up and going though the motions.

With an excellent new album freshly released and a fair few tracks given an airing tonight this is no band resting on their laurels and just playing songs from 35 years ago which they could easily do.

Don't get me wrong, they did play many of the songs that people love to hear during the early part of the set and Suggs announced that they had been trawling the 'purple bag of joy' for nuggets that they had not played for a while before the first heart beat rhythm of Cardiac Arrest rang out.

As great as it is to hear the biggest hits it's when you hear songs like this that you remember just what a rich musical history this band have.

From 30 years ago we were bought right up to date with the excellent Blackbird from the latest offering along with You Are My Everything another track from the new album described as the calm before the storm.

About an hour in and it was time for a bit of audience participation as Chris Forman called out the first line of a song and the audience responding with the second.

After a couple of rehearsals they upped the game by supplying the first line and leaving the entire crowd to complete the first verse of One Step Beyond before launching into the rest of the song to the frenzied delight of the crowd.

This was followed by House of Fun, Baggy Trousers and Our House before closing the main set with one of my all time favourite songs It Must Be Love.

After a break of about thirty seconds they bounded back on stage and started the encore with 'the current American no 1' Mr Apples which has more than a touch of the Madness of old and was received as warmly as almost anything else on offer tonight.

Next up was Madness and Night Boat To Cairo to supply a riotous end to an excellent evening of pure entertainment.