GENEROUS pop group Madness have given their support to a Bolton charity for homeless youngsters.

The band were so impressed by a video promoting Backup, the new name for Bolton Young Persons Housing Scheme, that they waived their usual fee and let the charity use their song Our House for free.

Maura Jackson, the charity’s CEO, said: “I wanted to do a music video and met up with a team of local video producers to talk through the idea.We were thinking of iconic bands that all people liked and I suggested Madness as they are fun.”

The hit song Our House was chosen because of the charity’s links to housing and its orange house logo.

Initially, the plan was to use a tribute act to perform the song for the video as it was thought securing permission to use the band’s version would be too costly.

But Maura took a chance and contacted Madness’ management.

“They read my proposal and loved it and waived the £1,000 fee. I couldn’t believe it.”

Three days were spent filming the video and when it was finished, Maura sent the video to the group’s manager who was so impressed he asked permission to show it to the band members.

“They loved it and even offered us tickets for their Manchester gig,” said Maura.”This just started as an idea to mark the change of our charity name and it’s completely snowballed.