London’s Regent Street is to be closed to traffic for a Madness concert.

The street will only be accessible to pedestrians and attendees of the gig, as part of the Regent Street Festival, on Sunday September 27 – the first time it’s been closed for a music event.

The eight-hour gig is a joint celebration, marking the 30th birthday of the British band, the 10th anniversary of the London festival, and the first birthday of Absolute Radio, and frontman Suggs said it would be “a celebration and a privilege”.

“It’s quite an exciting prospect. I don’t think we’ve ever played at Regent Street before,” said the 48-year-old. “It’ll be a giant outdoor party so we will play music people want to hear – Madness are about having a good time, which fits in nicely with this event.”

Suggs said he loves reuniting with bandmates Mike Barson, Lee Thompson, Chris Foreman, Mark Bedford, Daniel Woodgate and Carl Smyth for performances.

It’s been a magnificent, crazy and hectic year. We’ve got a new album out, and we decided to give it a go this year,” he said.

He said Madness, who released ninth album The Liberty Of Norton Folgate last May, are enjoying the resurgence in their popularity.

“The demand for the band keeps going, so we’ll possibly stumble on to next year. We might have one more album. We thought this one would be the last, but it has been a lot of fun so probably we will continue. We’ve got a tour at Christmas as well so it looks like it’s going to keep rolling along,” said Suggs.

Tickets for the Madness concert are limited, and will be available to Absolute Radio Celebs competition winners – see www.absoluteradio.co.uk for details.