In last week’s issue it was nothing more than a rumour. A week on and (thanks to a heads-up from Vince Carden) we can confirm that Madness will be performing at the Dublin City New Year’s Eve Festival this December.

For more information point your web browsers over to: http://www.ireland.com/events/articles/nye-dublin-2013

Moving on, and with the launch of the his autobiography fast approaching, followed shortly after by a string of December dates in his long running “My Life Story” stand-up tour, we have learned that Suggs has been busy working with his new web team in an effort to expand his online presence.

The man can be found in numerous official places online. So far we’ve managed to dig out the following locations:

Suggs on the Official Site
http://www.madness.co.uk/category/suggs/

Suggs Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSuggsMcpherson

Suggs Website

Homepage

Suggs Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Suggs-Mcpherson/196554997174490

Suggs Twitter
Tweets by suggsgmcpherson

At present there’s only a landing page on the Official Suggs web site, but even that looks really stylish. Here’s hoping that the quality of the underlying pages, once the site opens, is just as high.

Naturally, if/when the site opens we’ll be reporting about it in a subsequent issue of the MIS.

In the meantime, check out Suggs trying his hand at a spot of graffiti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6co6Gb3Nu0

Now, on with this week’s issue.

Enjoy the read,

Jon Young, Liz Hazelby, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts

SHOWTIMES

See below for all forthcoming Madness and Madness related gigs and events. If there’s something we’ve missed off or you feel should be added then please let us know.

Madness

September 14th, Madness play Free at Applepop Holland.  21.25pm at The hoofdapodium – http://www.appelpop.nl/

September 15th Rockhal, Belval, Luxembourg
September 16th L’Olympia, Paris, France
September 22nd Northants CCC, UK
September 28th Alexandra Palace, London, UK

October 12th Esprit Arena, Duesseldorf, Germany

November 22nd – 25th House Of Fun Weekender, Minehead, UK

December 31st – Dublin

For tickets see links via: www.madness.co.uk

Suggs Live

Suggs My Life Story, the West End of London December Run.

http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/garrick-theatre/suggs_my_life_story_in_words_and_music

December 1st     – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.
December 8th     – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.
December 15th  – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.
December 22nd  – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.

The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra

October 2nd Brighton, Concorde 2
October 3rd Cardiff, Globe
October 4th St Albans, Arena
October 5th Norwich, Waterfront
October 18th Ipswich, Corn Exchange
October 25th Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
October 31st (Halloween)  Jazz Cafe, Camden Town.

November 1st, Komedia, Bath
November 8th, headlining the Friday of Specialized, The Big One 2, Parkdean, Sandford, Dorset

See ticket links via: www.ltso.mis-online.net

Deaf School

Saturday, 19th October, Liverpool, East Village Arts Club
Thursday 24th October, Jazz Café, Camden Town, Book Launch

More info at: http://deafschoolmusic.com

Cathal Mo Chroi

Friday September 13th. – Part of The Number 6 Festival. Portmeirion Wales. First airing of solo songs, at The Town Hall, in a slot run by composer Joe Duddell adding strings and harp to the songs.

BUY IT NOW

If money’s currently burning a hole in your pocket then perhaps we can help with your dilemma.

The Liberty Of Norton Folgate – Reissue on Salvo

This edition is retailing at just over £5.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Liberty-Of-Norton-Folgate/dp/B00DB51OTM/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1

Fu Man Chu 7” Single

Fu Man Chu has been made into a 7 inch vinyl single. Pressed as a limited run, and licensed for sale, it’s predominately created for the DJ Japan market. But ,if you want to grab one phone Rads on 07940293945 to confirm and you’ll be given the address to send money to.

£4.50 for one £7.50 for 2. Basically £3 each plus postage. Cheque to R Shand.

Pre-Order Available – Take it or Leave it Re-release With Soundtrack CD

Following the sell-out of the Gogglebox box set, the Madness movie has been sadly unavailable. From October 7th it’s back, thanks to those lovely people at Salvo sound and vision.

This is being re-released for the first time with a nearly complete soundtrack CD of all the tracks from the movie, including a couple of old rock and roll numbers by the original artists. Namely Fat’s Domino, and The Four Tops, along with all of  Madness’s tracks which are heard throughout the movie.

There’s new packaging for this re-release which will be available from music stores and online outlets, for under a tenner. This release also and contains a booklet containing information about the film.

Mad Not Mad Fanzine – Summer 2013 Edition

Reviewed in issue 743 of the MIS, this latest edition of Ian Taylor’s Madness/Ska-zine spans a whopping 70 plus pages and features a CD covermount in the form of “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”, by Too Many Crooks.

Priced at a mere £5 delivered (for UK readers. Those oversees will need to check), this is amazing value for money and is absolutely bursting with content.

For order enquiries and more information, you can contact Ian Taylor of Mad Not Mad at bige70@blueyonder.co.uk

Hopefully, the bigger response Ian gets the less of a wait we’ll have until the next issue surfaces!

MIS FEATURE

Cathal Moi Chroi – Ar Gcroi Eisteacht

This coming Friday sees the tentative beginnings of Cathal Mo Chroi as he plays festival Number 6. Carl has been speaking about this forthcoming solo project due in 2014, on his new page for the project on facebook, as you may have read here also last issue, and he named several songs, as well as revealing “Love Song Number 7” in a classical piano instrumental mode, the first fully public peak into the newly named “Cycle of songs” as the man himself puts it.

The roots of this emerging artist have been in the ground for the longest of times though. It’s not as if Carl hasn’t put his heart into songs before,

But what can we expect from his solo work? The fact it is first emerging at festival number 6, with orchestrated backing,  is telling, for Carl is in piano classical mode with serious world commenting vocal subjects, and elegant woven poetry of a lyrical approach, these will nicely fit more elaborate arrangement to heighten the emotional content of the songs he wants to unveil.

Wanting to distance this output from the more jovial name of Chas Smash, is a clear mark in the sand. One Step Beyond to fish and chip parade, and the recent bounce of Misery is all a different kind of Carl. We’ve seen sides of Carl previously that are perhaps more Mo Chroi though, stepping stones on this path, from the late 80’s piano moments, in “Time” or “Tears you Can’t Hide’s” vocals. By the time of The Madness he was choosing his Celtic original name of Cathal, and Song in Red about death is deeply clearly from the heart.

Around the late 80’s he was often seen in piano mode in short glimpse of documentaries or clip show, even through the picture of London documentary where love song number 7 once appeared. Viva Londinium too, through to his poetic performances in the Folgate film, or aborted tracks like “Love Dies Slowly” or “The Weak and the Strong”, from previous solo attempts, even the high profile single Michael Caine have all shown a serious commentary and deep emotional impact in Carl’s writing of lyrics.  The implication is now he feels he’s finally found the right mode for this kind of song and direction, with age comes gravitas, and things coming together, and for this style of music perhaps a little closer to The Smiths or Lennon solo, or morrissey than Madness, it’s time to carve a new side avenue.

“Our lives are precious so precious, hard times may break us, yet make us… ”  Requiem for Common Sense.

“Don’t we all want to live in peace, and have our children come home each night safely.”

“And I’ll be with you always, in the air that you breath.”

In the past this project was referred to as a “relationship album”, and Carl has previewed bits of it to fans and friends alike over it’s gestation period. These glimpses show an exciting powerfully emotive set of tracks,  We cant wait to hear more, and really look forward to 2014 and the release of  “A comfortable Man”.

“mian leat go léir is fearr le haghaidh fear compordach.”

Jonathan Young

I REMEMBER WAY BACK WHEN

This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby, goes back 5 years to issue 488, and the week of Sunday 7th September to Saturday 13th September 2008, and then back 10 years to issue 226 and the week of Sunday 7th September to Saturday 13th September 2003.

5 years ago…

Issue 488 – Sunday 7th September to Saturday 13th September 2008

Well, this was it. We’d been waiting weeks, nay, months, for this, and it was finally here.

What were we talking about? The lovingly crafted Madchart, of course! Over the previous 3 or 4 months the votes had been flooding in to the mailbox of the one and only Paul Muscat, and he’d been busy not just collating the results, but compiling various facts and figures about each of your chosen tracks, too.

The man had gone above and beyond the call of duty, and so much of this issue was devoted to the first part of the countdown. We kicked things off with a massive intro from Paul, and then scattered countdowns for positions 100 – 91, 90 – 81, 80 – 71 and tracks 70 – 61 throughout the issue. There was a heck of a lot to read through, and the countdown was chock full of wonderful facts and stats about each track.

In non Madchart related news we spent time covering the launch of Nutty Radio. Following a successful test show it was all systems go for the fledgling web station, and we had a report from the MIS’ Jon Young and Nutty Radio’s Adam Nicholls covering the story.

In competition news we featured an update on the recent quiz we set giving you the chance to win a doctored version of Scootering magazine. To win we asked for you to title a song as if Madness had written it about Scooters.

We had numerous entries in but there could only be one winner and that was Denise Young of Kent who titled her imagined Madness song  ‘Scootling Through London’.

We brought this issue to a close with the news that following Chrissy Boy’s blessing, The Madness Trading Ring web site were hoping to catalogue the lyrics to all released and unreleased Madness tracks. Exciting stuff.

10 years ago…

Issue 226 – Sunday 7th September to Saturday 13th September 2003.

This week news was so thin on the ground that the issue had to rank as one of the shortest editions of the MIS we’ve ever produced.

We started off the issue with a final set of reminders to those booked in to attend the Madness Weekender at Great Yarmouth on the 26th and 27th of September.

The hotel where the event would take place was the Burlington Hotel, just north of the ‘Odeon cinema’. This is where Madness stayed on the ‘Out in the Sticks’ tour 1980.

Moving on, and we featured a number of Suggs related snippets, which detailed a whole range of things including the landlord of The Dublin Castle pub nominating Suggs as his first choice of a “Music Czar” for Camden.

We also printed a heart-warming thank you message from subscriber Chris Wardell who reported that he’d recently had a tumour removed, and was now starting his chemotherapy course.

Rob Hazelby

LIVE AND INTENSIFIED

Reviews and write-ups of live gigs. You’ll find them here.

Saturday 31st August – Madness

From http://philtheone.com/

Madness isn’t really my era but for twenty quid I thought I would give it a go.

I used both the bus service and the tramway to get to the event. The bus was over 10 minutes late because of congestion en route, presumably caused by the Promenade being closed. The tram was packed with most people on board of an age whereby they would not be paying. The tram was nice inside; I was surprised as I expected them to have been ransacked by now.

Upon arriving at the Tower Headland venue at approximately 1.45pm, it was apparent that it was very quiet. The bar at the back of the venue was closed and the stalls were all dead. One bar was open and manned by a large number of staff  but they were stood around chatting as it was dead. The prices were what you might expect; £3.50 for a lager, £4.00 for a cider. As the weather was good, a number of people were sunbathing on the Comedy Carpet.

At around 2.30pm, half an hour after the show was supposed to have started, Hayley Kay from Radio Wave strutted on to the stage with a pair of massive sunglasses on. She read a couple of words from a piece of paper and then a girl named Nancy something came on. She sang a few cover versions and some of her own tunes over a backing tape but didn’t really look like she was into it until the time came to take a photo of the crowd and put it on Twitter.

Then there was a long break. This was the story of the day, it was disjointed and incoherent. Hayley Kay came back on, introduced operatic duo Richard & Adam who apparently were on Britain’s Got Talent. This was the last we saw of the Radio Wave breakfast show presenter. Richard & Adam are probably good but the sound system and the acoustics did them no favours at all. This and the fact the sound man seemed more interested in stuffing a baguette into his gob.

Following this, there was a long break before Little Roy and his reggae band came on and did some bizarre cover versions of old Nirvana tracks. Then after that there was another half an hour break before Madness.

On the left hand side of the stage, a woman appeared with a large cool box which she opened and produced loads of bottles of spirits and some beers. These were placed on a table and the woman was seen mixing various cocktails. Glasses of booze were conveniently located around the stage for Madness members to drink.

The timing coincided with the football at Bloomfield Road finishing and at this point – coincidentally or not – swathes of fat, drunk, ‘ska’-type skinheads sporting tattoos and Dr Marten boots piled in to the venue and proceeded to cause mayhem by aggressively pushing to the front of the crowd. I was in amongst it and tensions were at boiling point as one woman with two young children angrily laid the law down to a posse of piss heads who were jumping all over the crowd, swearing and smoking. The children looked terrified. One disabled gentleman in front then explained to the group how he would shove his walking stick up the rectum of one of them if he didn’t stop trying to pick fights and cause mayhem. This threat didn’t work and the stewards were alerted. A lecture was given, but this had no effect. The ‘ska’ drunks were heard stating they would “have him by the end of the night”, referring to the gentleman that had alerted the stewards.

I looked across and more stewards were standing on the railings at the front, telling another group of k-lined ‘ska’ types to back off and stop pushing the crowd forward. This spoiled the first half an hour or so of Madness as the drunks were causing chaos and the security company were doing nothing about it. Most of the men around me were visibly tensing up to repel any of these ‘ska’ thugs away from their partners and families. I was doing the same and had to throw one backwards who attempted to climb on my back.

After this point the ‘ska’ thugs seemed to calm down so Madness could be enjoyed. They were good. Worth the money but it would have been nice to know what time they were coming on beforehand. At the end of the show, a handful of young children went on stage with Madness.

Fags and booze

During the many long intervals a loop of five or six music videos from Cheryl Cole, Olly Murs and Rihanna played over and over and over again, interspersed with heavy advertising for E-Lites electronic cigarettes. There were also dolly birds tottering around promoting this smoking product and when Madness came on stage most of the band were smoking throughout. At a family event like this, it seemed completely at odds with the Blackpool Council policy of banning smoking in as many places as possible, particularly where children were likely to be present.

Similarly, with the EMRO decision on the horizon, to have the headline act openly boozing on stage in front of families with children seemed to be giving out a mixed message.

It seems like Blackpool Council will sell the town’s soul to the devil for a short term cash fix, illustrating their lack of sincerity when it comes to blanketing vices from children.

Phil

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Various articles that have caught our eye over the past week or so…

Madness Musical Hits Halifax

From The Huddersfield Examiner web site.

Named after one of the band’s most popular songs, Our House, the show burst on to the West End more than 10 years ago.

It’s an extraordinary show which promises more than a hint of Madness.

But then what would you expect from House Of Fun, the hit show with music and lyrics from Madness.

Named after one of the band’s most popular songs, Our House, the show burst on to the West End more than 10 years ago.

Now you can see it in Halifax with Huddersfield actor Colin Harris, 54, who steps into the shoes of Madness icon Suggs to play the father of main character, Joe.

Full article here:
http://www.examiner.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/musical-madness-hits-halifax-5842978

Northants Chronicle and Echo

“We were from working class backgrounds but had aspirations to do something other than steal and run around the streets causing trouble, so we started the band, just for something to do…” said Suggs as he reflected on the beginnings of one of Britain’s best-loved groups, Madness.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/what-s-on/star-interviews/as-long-as-we-are-enjoying-ourselves-we-ll-keep-going-1-5441441

The Blockheads – Same Horse, Different Jockey

The 23rd of November sees The Blockheads release their new album, Same Horse  Different Jockey. A month

In the run-up to the album and single release, The Blockheads have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund three music videos for the leading tracks from their new album

Hi Mick Gallagher (Blockhead) here

For those of you not familiar with the band, we were formed in 1977 after the first Stiff Records UK tour backing Ian Dury while promoting his album New Boots & Panties.

We continued touring and recording until Ian’s unfortunate demise in February 2000. We made a decision to carry on as a band and continue to work independent of the music industry, as we were told by many a mogul that there was no point in The Blockheads without our iconic front man.

GOING ALONE…

Since 2000 we have recorded and released a number of albums via the internet and live appearances. We have operated outside the industry with the exception of one disastrous flirtation in 2008 which almost finished us…We survived but lost all our money and the rights to our album’ Staring down the Barrel’ for 10 years.

We have recovered enough to get back in the studio and record a new album, paid for by ourselves and of which we are very proud . We have no label interest and not enough money to finance any kind of campaign to give the album the chance it deserves to be heard by a larger audience.

THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY…

Our music has inspired some very creative visual ideas from a small independent film company called Free Seed Films.

Like us, they operate on a no budget policy. This policy, although at times an aid to creativity, brings with it obvious restrictions when it comes to the finished product.

KICKSTARTER…

We would like this funding to enable us to make three music videos to accompany the leading tracks from our new album and complete an almost perfect package. Without quality visual representation music has a half life. The marriage of sound and vision has become an art form in itself and an essential element to the success of any album.

The band aim to raise £10,000 to cover the cost of filming the promotion for the album, and cover the costs of the exclusive gifts to sponsors. From as little as £5 you can get a video message of thanks from the band.  The band are well on their way to success with £6,000 nearly reached. And a month left to run on the campaign.

Other items include signed CD, Books, T-shirts and more.

Here is where you can view the project and get involved.

Welcome to The Magic Brothers

http://www.classicpopmag.com/2013/09/welcome-to-the-magic-brothers/

“This album is a culmination of the music we grew up with, and loved. Our tastes are far reaching, and obvious to anyone who likes the 70s,” says Woody. “Nick and I love writing songs together. Nick is a brilliant musician, and at heart a real sentimentalist. Mix that with my pop sensibility, and big production values and you get the Magic Brothers.”

‘The Magic Line’ draws from a wide range of influences, from the Beatles to Pink Floyd. Written and produced by both Woody and Nick, it bursts with rich vocal harmonies reminiscent of ELO and Supertramp, enhanced by Woody’s wife Siobhan Fitzpatrick who was guest vocalist on Madness’s ‘Small World’. The family affair doesn’t end there, with daughter Mary also lending backing vocals on the sweet and catchy ‘Sunshine’.

Uptempo, uplifting songs such as ‘Always Be With You’, the psychedelic stomper, ‘Downtown’, and ‘They Tell You’ boast big brass arrangements rich in style and content. ‘You Don’t Have to Hide Your Love Away’ echoes Madness and the Carpenters, while ‘Magic Brothers Part 2′ and ‘The River’ both show off Nick’s accomplished guitar capabilities. ‘Frank’ is a song about an old man Nick met at a bus stop in Romford suggesting an Ian Dury influence while the closing track, ‘The Magic Line’ takes you on a train journey back to 70s Britain.

TIME…

That’s almost it for this week’s issue, but before we go one last thing to pass in your direction.

Regular readers may recall our MIS “Name That Elephant Competition”, where we’ve asked you to name the elephant proudly displayed on each and every bottle of Gladness ale

The prizes in our MIS Gladness Competition include some Bottles of Gladness (of course!), a large fruit of the loom Gladness promotional T-shirt signed by Suggs, Chas, Bedders and Woody, and a Gladness Pump Clip signed by Suggs, Chas, Bedders, Woody and Lee. All these are now here with us, ready to send out to one lucky winner or winners.  You can see the pictures of the items here.

www.madness-mis.com

Have you named the Elephant yet? We’ve a stack of great entries in and many have made the shortlist we will be sending Bedders to make the decision from. We’re aiming to name the Elephant in our MIS issue on the 15th – next weekend, so you’ve about 1 more week before the decision making starts (if we are on track!). Don’t name out loud online. Instead, send the name to Jonsmad@hotmail.com to be in with a chance of making that shorlist.

Gladness. Drink it at The Dublin Castle, The Ally Pally Gig, Nicholson chain Pubs. and More.

Until next week, take care,

Simon Roberts, Jon Young, Liz Hazelby, Rob Hazelby

(With special thanks to Vince Carden)