LONDON: Madness has paid tribute to ska legend Prince Buster as they played Radio 2’s Festival in a Day at Hyde Park. Suggs dedicated The Prince, their first single, to the Jamaican musician, who died on Thursday. “It’s a tragedy,” he told BBC News. “He was enormously important.” “The fact he came from the streets and he had a terrific sense of humour and energy - it really appealed to us and it had a huge impact on everything we did, really.” He died at home in Miami on Thursday.

The band took their name from a Prince Buster song, and later covered one his greatest tracks, One Step Beyond. “It’s like the Monty Python thing about the Romans,” joked Suggs. “What did Prince Buster ever do for us? A great deal indeed.” Madness went on to perform an invigorating set of crowd-pleasers, including Wings of a Dove, Baggy Trousers and House of Fun. Introducing Our House, Suggs noted that the band had previously played the song on the roof of Buckingham Palace, just a stone’s throw away from the Hyde Park stage. “But I remember when we got chased down Oxford Street,” he joked. “We weren’t even allowed in this part of London.”