Madness have announced a string of tour dates at the end of the year.

Tickets go on sale at 9am tomorrow, 4th September.

Tuesday 1st December 2009 – Bournemouth Intl Centre
Wednesday 2nd December 2009 – Brighton Centre
Friday 4th December 2009 – Plymouth Pavilions
Saturday 5th December 2009 – Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Monday 7th December 2009 – Swindon Oasis
Tuesday 8th December 2009 – Leeds O2 Academy
Wednesday 9th December 2009 – Sheffield O2 Academy
Thursday 10th December 2009 – Birmingham O2 Academy
Saturday 12th December 2009 – Newcastle O2 Academy
Sunday 13th December 2009 – Glasgow O2 Academy
Tuesday 15th December 2009 – Manchester Apollo

We introduced a few weeks ago MTV’s hunt to find “The Greatest Album Ever“. It raised a fair few questions, and a lot of angry responses from you guys as you listed your favourite bands who weren’t included.

Rather unsurprisingly, Michael Jackson topped the poll, having announced his sensational run of London shows between the announcement of the show and the results. Almost one in three of all votes went to the crazy American. In a shock move, Craig David was number 2 in the poll, and has been deemed more popular than Radiohead and Nirvana, receiving more votes than the Oxford based quintet and Seattle grungers combined. Surely that’s got to be some kind of mistake?

Over forty thousand votes were cast, which gives a pretty good perspective of what people think. Many in the comments of the previous post asked about some pretty seminal albums, however it should be noted that these are the best albums since 1981 – when MTV began, so many classics (Pink Floyd, Smiths, Who etc) aren’t eligible for the list. However, as Thom so rightly commented…. no Libertines? Crazy, no?

Speaking of wacko Jacko’s win, Trevor Nelson commented

I don’t think there’ll ever be another album like it ever in the history of music. There will never be a marriage of producer and artist and song writing and pop sensibility – it just won’t happen again. And also, due to the way people buy records now, there’ll never be an album that sells as many copies – and that’s the thing that will keep it at number one.

Interestingly, Zane Lowe didn’t agree with Craig David’s high ranking, commenting

The guy was hugely successful and there’s no denying that album is a great listen from start to finish as a pop record. It probably stands up as the greatest British urban pop record of the last twenty years. Still no one’s really topped it – apart from Winehouse. Should it be number two in The Greatest Album of all time? No, in my opinion, but I’m not going to begrudge anyone’s success, and if his fans voted for it then what’s encouraging for me is that they still consider that record to be an important part of their lives and that’s what music is.

After the jump: the complete list of albums
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It seems every awards season we have another “Greatest album” survey, most of them from one random source who have basically surveyed their friends to see what they like best that day.

However, when MTV do a survey you know it’s going to be the right choice. They’ve just launched their hunt to find the “Greatest Album Ever“, after they crowned Duran Duran’s Rio as having the “Greatest Video Ever” last year.

In conjunction with music industry experts, MTV’s flagship music channels VH1, MTV Two and MTV Base have each collated their top ten greatest albums since 1981, the year MTV launched. The debates to select the albums were chaired by channel presenters Edith Bowman (VH1), Zane Lowe (MTV Two) and Trevor Nelson (MTV Base).

Suggs (of Madness fame) was one of the key contributors to the shows, talking about Amy Winehouse’s decline and then subsequent rejuvenation:

It’s great to see her looking marvellous again. There was quite a gap between her first and second album and I used to see her around Camden a lot, and when you see someone regularly its harder to notice their demise. I’m so glad she looks well again. It was fate putting her together with Mark Ronson for Back to Black, and was so good for her putting her voice right in the middle of it.

Meanwhile, as only MTV can, Pete Burns gave us an, erm, “intriguing” insight into his friendship with Morrissey, who failed to make the top 10 for any of his solo albums, but whose Smith’s classic “The Queen is Dead” appeared in both VH1 and MTV 2’s top 10’s:

I knew him personally back in the day, he gave me a copy of this album. I loved it from track one. He has a very unique sense of irony and humour. As a person he’s very difficult and awkward to get on with. He stopped talking to me over a fur coat, and still to this day he holds a grudge about it!

Personally, I’d love to see REM get the award. All the others are great, but people seem to underestimate the consistency of REM. Plus, Michael Stipe is a legend in my eyes. Either that or Human League, but I can’t see them beating the big boys – can you?

Voting for the top album is now open over on MTV’s website. Each channel’s review of the top 10 albums can be seen this weekend, with Trevor Nelson presenting the MTV Base run down Saturday 28 February at 9pm, followed by Edith Bowman presenting VH1 and Zane Lowe MTV Two both on Sunday 1 March at 9pm. The final winner will be announced on Sunday 12th April.

After the jump, check out the top 10 albums chosen by each channel.
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If the credit crunch is doing you some favours and you’re actually feeling particuarly plush at the moment, maybe you’ll be interested in bidding on some amazing money-can’t-buy items thanks to childrens charity Rays of Sunshine. Normally they hold a gala dinner at London’s Roundhouse, however in the current climate they’ve moved online, auctioning their amazing lots online and giving everyone a chance to win the auction, not just the rich..

Website founder Mia Woodford commented “The Rays of Sunshine Virtually Brilliant Auction contains some of the best lots we have ever seen. Bids have already started to come in for such money-can’t-usually-buy opportunities as meeting the Kaiser Chiefs or Coldplay, with VIP concert tickets, or the chance to go on set with Emma Thompson as she films Nanny Mc Phee II”

So, if you want a chance to win some of the amazing auction items below, just go on over to Rays of Sunshine’s online auction. At the time of writing, you can get 6 VIP Madness tickets for just £80 – so get bidding before the price goes astronomical.

Auctioned items include:

• 2 VIP tickets to see Coldplay in concert followed by a meet and greet
• 2 VIP tickets to see Kaiser Chiefs at Wembley Arena followed by a meet and greet
• A Fender guitar signed by Sting
• The chance to have lunch or dinner with Craig David at his home in Hampstead
• 4 VIP tickets, flights and accommodation to the 2009 Europe Music Awards in Berlin
• 6 VIP tickets to see Madness and meet the band backstage

Madness have announced a winter jaunt of some UK Arenas. They’ll be stopping at 7 venues in 8 days, which is impressive by any band, let alone one that’s been around for about 30 years or so.

Catch them at the below dates. Tickets go on sale on Friday (7th September) at 9am as ever.

Thursday 6th November – Aberdeen P&J Arena
Friday 7th November – Belfast Odyssey Arena
Saturday 8th November – Liverpool Aintree Pavillion
Monday 10th November – Cardiff International Arena
Tuesday 11th November – Plymouth Pavilions
Wednesday 12th November – Birmingham NIA
Friday 14th November – London O2 Arena

Photo comes from rocktographer’s flickr stream under the creative commons license.