It’s here! The Grandslam tour officially kicked-off on Friday night when the band took to the stage in Lincoln.

The band’s largest tour to date, this UK-wide extravaganza sees Madness travel the length and breadth of the British Isles over the next four months. Let’s hope the weather plays nicely!

In other band news, we urge you to check out the Silencerz facebook page for a documentary talking to Daley and Lee Thompson, shot by Bournemouth University students. It features father and son chats of Daley and Lee playing in bands together and footage of The Silencerz new track “You’re Having a Laugh”, in rehearsals earlier this year.

If you are wondering where Lee’s beard went between the Madhead tour and Grandslam this little video will answer your question for you.

Check out: https://www.facebook.com/TheSilencerzfeaturingLeeThompson

Now, on with the issue!
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams

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
2015
GRANDSLAM
“Sporting theatres jumping with joy is the goal. Grandslam Madness – the greatest open air tour in the history of Rock & Roll…”

June

3 Chelmsford City Racecourse *** This week! ***
6 – Portsmouth, Fratton Park *** General tickets sold out / This week! ***
26 – Newmarket Racecourses
27 – Doncaster Racecourse
28 – Hove, Sussex County Cricket Club

July

2 – Silverstone Circuit
3 – St Helens, Haydock Park Racecourse
4 – Carlisle Racecourse
5 – Montrose, East Links, Scotland
9 – Epsom Downs Racecourse
10 – Chepstow Racecourse
11 – Rhyll Outdoor Events Arena

September

11 – Canterbury, Kent County Cricket Club
12 – Bristol, Gloucester County Cricket Club
13 – London, On Blackheath
18 – Leeds, Yorkshire County Cricket Club
19th Newbury Racecourse.
25 – Wolverhampton
26 – Chester-le-Street, Durham County Cricket Club

November 2015

November 20th – 23rd 2014 – Minehead – The House Of Fun Weekender Five
Early bird tickets on sale now
http://www.bigweekends.com/the-weekends/specialist-music-weekends/madness-house-of-fun-weekender.aspx#ico=OB_Madness

Near Jazz Experience

June

16th – NEAR JAZZ EXPERIENCE + Bad Cats Blues + DJ Set
Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT *Free* 8.30pm BST
Visit: https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience

The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra

July

24th Llangollen Town Hall, Denbrighshire, Wales (Fringe Festival Event)

August

1st The Garage Highbury, London

Cathal Smyth
More events coming. Possibly this autumn

Deaf School

June

4th – Prince Albert, Brighton *** This week ***
5th – The Garage, Highbury, London *** This week ***

September

5th – Bingley Music Festival (Headlining Stage 2)

The Clang Group

19 June – The Islington, London N1

The Silencerz

August 15th – Chados Arms, Colindale 8pm *** New ***

BUY IT

The Grandslam Tour T-Shirt
http://madness.sandbaghq.com/
The Grandslam is now well and truly underway, and you can get the latest official Madness T-shirt here…
http://madness.sandbaghq.com/home/charcoal-grandslam-t-shirt-online-exclusive.html
The charcoal grey T-shirt (available in small or large sizes) costs £20 and is exclusive to the Madshop. It’s also available in advance of the tour, which is nice

New Accessories
Brand new Madness vinyl stickers.
Cover your pencil case, fridge, exercise book, vinyl boxes, hamster cage, wallet, picture frame, tooth brush holder, local lamppost, envelopes, passing double decker busses, birthday cards, mobile phone case or other, with new Madness stickers. In 6 piece sets of classic M’s or a union jack worded M.

Also now available – Madness Brewing Company. Bottle Opener.
http://madness.sandbaghq.com/left-menu-madness/accessories.html/

A Comfortable Man – Cathal Smyth solo album. Signed Packages Now Available. *** Out now! ***
Remaining limited LP’s, CD and download. Album available May 11th.
Signed Super Deluxe Bundles are now available, containing the Limited LP, CD and download editions. The preview track and single download instantly, and you also get a pack of 10 art postcards. The album is available in a Digipack CD with 8 page booklet.
More info at: http://cathalsmyth.tmstor.es/ Price – £28.99
If you attended the Wilton’s music hall gig and already have the LP, or if you are only interested in certain items there are a range of other buy options available. Signed CD’s separately. Etc.

In Your Mind – Woody Woodgate solo album.
Pre-Order Now on Amazon. – *** Released July 6th ***
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TZEMCMQ
OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE A SIGNED ALBUM INSTEAD http://www.propermusic.com/product-details/Woody-Woodgate-In-Your-Mind-Ltd-Autographed-Edition-188454
Album released June 1st. 13 tracks with new band line up and vocalist Dan Shears.
www.woodywoodgate.co.uk
The first single from the album will be “In Your Mind”. A release date for this is to be confirmed. Shooting for the video will commence shortly.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

News and info from online and offline media sources.

Win Tickets to See Madness at Montrose
http://www.montrosereview.co.uk/news/local-headlines/win-tickets-to-see-madness-play-in-montrose-1-3777227
Send your answer to news@montrosereview.com with ‘Madness Competition’ in the subject line,
Answer C – House of Fun, And your name, address and phone number. 
Entries must be received no later than 5 pm on Friday, June 5 – which is a month before Madness’ performance. Entries must be aged over 18. One correct entry will be picked at random.
The winner of the pair of standard tickets will be notified by phone after the draw has taken place soon after the closing date.

Kingsholm Madness – Pub BBQ!
http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Kingsholm-pubs-gearing-Madness-gig-tickets-park/story-26584137-detail/story.html
Pub landlords in Kingsholm Road have described the shows as an extension to the rugby season and are anticipating it to be a busy Saturday night.
Teague’s Bar at the White Hart will be playing classic ska before the gig and will host Gloucester band The Revolvers for a Madness-themed after-party.

Landlord Gary Teague said: “Events like this really help – it will be like an extra match day for us. It’s great to see two acts here which I would never have thought I’d see at Kingsholm.
“We’re hoping to have a lot of people through and there will be a great atmosphere. Hopefully the club will hold more events like this.”

Kingsholm Inn which, like Teague’s, is opposite Kingsholm, is also planning to hold a barbecue in its back garden where fans without tickets can listen to the gig. Landlady Mary Bryon said: “Events like these are a huge boost and make a big difference. With the rugby finished, these shows are like having an extension to the season.”

Madness concert at Sincil Bank to net Lincoln City at least £25,000
http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Madness-concert-Sincil-Bank-net-Lincoln-City-25/story-26581130-detail/story.html

Cooke is delighted with the way ticket sales have gone and expects the club to make a profit of more than the budgeted figure of £25,000

“Tickets sales have gone really, really well,” said Cooke.
“We’re trying to give it a big push to get some more tickets sold before Friday evening.
“We’re going to keep the ticket office open until 8pm on Friday, just in case there are any walk-ups.
“We’re definitely going to make some good money out of it. I don’t want to put a final number on it yet, but we’re going to do well out of it. “We budgeted to make about £25,000 and we are going to do that, in fact we’re going to beat that. I’ll have a more accurate figure in a couple of weeks”

As of Wednesday more than 7,000 tickets for the gig had been sold, including around 2,500 from the club’s ticket office alone.

Madness Superfan and ITV Reporter

Madness superfan and ITV Reporter here. I just interviewed Suggs ahead of his first Grandslam gig tonight in Lincoln. I’ve put the full report online here: http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2015-05-29/full-madness-interview/
He says they’ve written about six new songs for the album in the last few months including one called ‘Grandslam’ and they’ve even been toying with the idea of opening the shows with it!

I hope you enjoy it – always a pleasure to interview any of the boys. More pics and stuff on my Twitter feed – @AdamFowlerITV
Cheers,

Adam Fowler

LIVE AND INTENSIFIED

Grandslam – A Grand Opening

The largest Madness tour outdoors in sporting venues kicked off at Lincoln Football club with Suggs talking to ITV Yorkshire, for “Calender”, who also showed a Maddiemobile taxi car as being at the gig.
http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2015-05-29/full-madness-interview/

Our man standing next to the large crown and green Grandslam banners making up the new stage look, explained that Grandslam had inspired a song of the same name, a new tune to boldly kick off the opening of concerts called “Grandslam” and that even it was being considered as the name of the next album, (well it’s better than weeks of crossed out names perhaps!)

A second new tune landed later in the set. “Where did all the good times go”.

We can exclusively tell you that the song writers are: Grandslam is (McPherson/Foreman) & Where Did All The Good Times Go is a song written by the Woodgate brothers.

And like last years MADHEAD tour those early Invaders set tunes seem set to be happily jumping in and out at various gigs. Lincoln’s set list had Mummy Boy typed on it, crossed through with You Said written in in it’s place in pen, in a set of 25 songs in total. Great we loved hearing them at Butlins and nice to see some still popping up.
Here is Lincoln’s opening night set list…

GRANDSLAM
NIGHT BOAT
EMBARRASSMENT
NW5
MY GIRL
MY GIRL2
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
SUN AND THE RAIN
WHERE DID ALL THE GOOD TIMES GO
DUST DEVIL
LOS PALMAS 7
THE PRINCE
YOU SAID
LOVESTRUCK
BED AND BREAKFAST MAN
SHUT UP
JOHN JONES
WINGS OF A DOVE
LEON
HOUSE OF FUN
BAGGY TROUSERS
OUR HOUSE
IT MUST BE LOVE
ONE STEP BEYOND
MADNESS

The local news media reported on the gig, and here you can see a nutty walker passing in the back of the TV news crew. You can also see Suggs talking to the local news here about the band going to see the “magna carter”, and Liz Hobbs the tour promoter, talking about Lincoln being her home town, so chosen as the kick location amongst the many new places Madness picked to find new towns they haven’t played for a long time or ever.

https://www.facebook.com/bbclincolnshire

A brand new tour then, entertaining some brand new fans. The first up to join us in Grandtales, is a 15 year old teenager and her brilliant brainwashing mother. Here’s Katie Lamb and her mum Catherine.

“After being bought up with Madness music for 15 years mum decided to take me to see them at Lincoln. Their first Grandslam concert and my first Madness concert and I’ve got to say they were brilliant !!!!
I Loved dancing away and watching all the different generations enjoying themselves together !!!!

Baggy Trousers is my all time favourite, our house and it must be love I dance to too.

I Want to go again !!!!” Katie Lamb Leicestershire

“Great gig at Lincoln x but did miss Chris and Chas not the same somehow x fab night though Suggs amazing as per usual !!! Thanks Madness for great night x” Cathy Lamb

Suggs sang “Your own personal Sincil…” Depeche Moding again in jest at the start of House Of Fun. And later “Welcome to the house of fun, with smoke bombs” a reference to someone having set one off in the crowd. It was both described as a great family event everyone to together, and a bit boisterous with a few arguments, just like footballs matches lots of joy and a few slightly annoyed crowd members ever intermingle.

“Never mind the banking collapse, never mind Sep Blatter knocking the world cup, be afraid be very afraid, in the blue corner
250kilo’s or pure muscle it’s Lee Jay Kix Thomopson.” Bellowed Suggs, which drew applause from the crowd.

Local paper the Lincoln echo was running a quiz before the gig to see if you knew singers real names.

http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Madness-concert-Lincoln-quiz-know-singers-real/story-26596872-detail/story.html
After the show they posted a gallery of 127 pictures of the event.

http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/pictures/Madness-Grandslam-2/pictures-26602208-detail/pictures.html

It was Bob Dowell from The ska orchestra’s first gig standing in on Trombone. Congrats Bob the bone.
Chrissy boy is out for these two gig, due to a family wedding, so Kevin Burdett returns to the axe duty for a short while.

Support band scouting for girls. broadcast themselves on twitter app Periscope during their opening numbers.
Mark Robinson posting over at All Things Madness. Showed everyone…

“Anyone going to a Grandslam gig, and you’ve paid extra for a beer garden ticket, this is what you’ll get.”

A white grandslam tour T Shirt. A landyard. Picture of gladness in yellow with a green strap. A moulded Gladness pint glass in plastic with a large handle and on the front gladness coloured logo.

For £10 Grandslam themed “Pint Stackers” were also available, to help carry your beers, and as a keepsake.

“After an amazing first gig this is the view we had leaving Lincoln City FC. Lincoln Cathedral. Part of what makes this city special. And Madness made it even more special tonight.” Mark Robinson.

Next up Madness are off to Gloucester…
“Well the day [has] finally arrived when I get to meet the boys and the sun is shining . But I’m sick to death of seeing on my fb feed people saying I hope they don’t play any of [their] new material. …well I for one do I have loved madness for 36 years and there music is as good today as it was back in the day .Not like the sh*t in the charts today .so for all you nutty lot going today enjoy my friends enjoy.” Angela Coates

…

The Silencerz at Cambridge

Video of Clever Trevor.
https://youtu.be/-vGVNd2Kmsw

“The band were ace and on top form. Thanks to Terry Hall too – played some excellent music & a fair few unusual mixes of tracks I’d never heard before. Big fun all-round I reckon.” Jester Laugh.

MIS FEATURE – THE BLOCKHEADS: BEYOND THE CALL OF DURY

Free Seed Films have launched a Kickstarter campaign to make a definitive documentary on the legendary backing band of Ian Dury; The Blockheads.

The team are hoping to raise £50,000 in order to document the true talent and extensive careers of the 4 original band members; Mick Gallagher, Chaz Jankel, Johnny Turnbull and Norman Watt-Roy, from the beginning to present day.
Elton John was quoted as saying that Ian Dury had the best live band in England, a reputation that made them the number one session musicians in the UK, before the age of sampling and programmed music took hold. Their live performances still inspire to this day.
No one has ever told the full story of The Blockheads on film. Previous documentaries involving anything to do with the band, focused on the artists they were backing.

Working closely with the band, Free Seed Films has been gathering material for the last 18 months. There is so much untold music history to be revealed!

Over the course of six decades, collectively they have played on hundreds of records for, written with, and backed countless artists live all over the world, including:

Paul McCartney, The Clash, Kilburn and the High Roads, John Legend, The Eurythmics, Nick Cave, Roger Daltrey, Roy Budd, Madness, Wilko Johnson, The Animals, Feargal Sharkey, Peter Frampton, Lulu, Link Wray, Tim Hardin, Ian Gillan & Roger Glover, Sinéad O’Connor, Talk Talk, Dr John, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Nick Lowe, Paul Young, Elkie Brooks, Bob Geldof, Tom Robinson, World Party, Robbie Williams, Kirsty McColl, Steve Cropper, Alan Hull (Lindisfarne), Wreckless Eric, Cerys Matthews, Viv Albertine, Frankie Howerd and June Whitfield, The Selector, London Beat, Rachel Sweet, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys, Jools Holland, and Shane MacGowan, to name a few.
To complete this project we require your help! We need to fund the following things:

recording and mixing the soundtrack (including NEW songs and score by The Blockheads)
For more information on The Blockheads:
http://www.theblockheads.com
http://www.twitter.com/blockheadspage
http://www.facebook.com/theblockheadsofficial
The Kickstarter runs until 6pm 6th June 2015. Check it out:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freeseedfilms/the-blockheads-beyond-the-call-of-dury

I REMEMBER WAY BACK WHEN

This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby, goes back in time to report on what was going on in the world of Madness 5 years, 10 and 15 years ago this week.
5 years ago…

Issue Number 577 – Sunday 30th May – Saturday 5th June 2010
It was time to get the plastic at the ready, as we got this issue underway with the latest offer from those nice people at Retro Madness.
This week they had further reduced the price of the deleted hardback version of Suggs and The City. This was reduced from the retail price of £17.99, to a mere £9.99 including postage and packing. Madness indeed!
Next, it had been a fair old while since we’d heard from the one and only Vince Foley, so it was nice to see that he was still around and digging up the Madness related news and tidbits as and when he could.
This week he’d emailed in to tell us that Woody had recently been interviewed by Dave Fanning, on RTE2. Not only that, but a podcast link had been made available, so you could listen again (or for the first time if you’d missed it).
On a more exciting note, Vince told us that over the next two weeks Suggs and Woody would be getting together to work on a few songs. Not only that, but Lee and Mike were writing together, and Woody was due to do some work with Lee very soon. These tracks may appear on an album to follow The Liberty of Norton Folgate.
Moving on, and it was on to Scarlett and Viva news. It transpired that our very own MIS contributor Emma Southerby had put their new site together, and you were urged to pay the hallowed pages a visit and sign up to their mailing list. (FYI the web site is no longer running).
Ian Dury news next, and MVD Visual and Wienerworld announced this week that the release of Ian Dury “Rare and Unseen” DVD would be taking place in North America on July 27th.
This brand new DVD release – to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Dury’s death – was a collection of rare footage, featuring original film and videos of the singer, newsreels and photographs from private collections.
Featuring:
– The earliest known TV performance from the London Programme 1976
– Three great interviews with much missed Mancunian Tony Wilson who died in 2007
– Final Richard and Judy interview and live performance restored for widescreen
– Includes EIGHT live musical performances with the Kilburns and the Blockheads: ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’, ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’, ‘Upminster Kid’, ‘Rough Kids’, ‘Billy Bentley’, ‘England’s Glory’, ‘Blockheads’ and ‘Geraldine’
Continuing on a Blockhead related note, we (well, we transposed the article, The Hereford Times web site actually reported it) reported that Phil Jupitus and The Blockheads would be headlining the Nozstock Festival on Saturday July 10th.
It was on to the Our House musical next, and the news in from Ben Jaggers of the Griffin Players Amateur Dramatics Society, Luton, was that their next production was going to be be non other than the “Our House” musical.
The production was due to be staged at the Luton Library Theatre from the 16th to the 19th of June 2010. Tickets were a very reasonable £11 for adults and a mere £9 for concessions. (OAPs and children, we assume).
We brought this issue of the MIS to a close with news from Dan Fossard, who announced that the next Big 10 gig would be taking place at Camden’s Dublin Castle on July 17th. The band would be on stage for 90 minutes and entry was a mere £5!

10 years ago…

Issue number 316 – Sunday 29th May to Saturday 4th June 2005
With the advertised release date of the forthcoming album mere weeks away the promotional bandwagon seemed to have shot off the proverbial starting blocks with news of the band popping up here, there and everywhere.
Last week Suggs and Mike appeared on Radio 2’s `Drive Time`, whilst this week Suggs played two Dangermen tracks on his Virgin Radio Show; the proposed single `Shame and Scandal` and `John Jones`. OK, so it was his own show, and he did give himself a little stick for airing the tracks, but as he was in the position to do so we felt that he may as well have taken advantage of it.
What was nice to read was that the forthcoming album and initial single were not only getting mentions in the UK press, but we had also received reports from Jean-Pierre Boutellier of Ska News and Steve Bringe of The Madness Trading Ring of Madness receiving coverage in both France and the US, respectively.
This issues’ collection of articles started off with a certain Lee Thompson revealing just who would be standing in for Chrissy Boy now that he had left the good ship Madness.
Out of respect for Chrissy Boy’s wishes, Lee had gone for Boris Riffcheque (an old working partner of his father, ‘Mr.John Foreman’).
A banjo & harp enthusiast from the Baltics. Although he had a web site, little was known about him as he got out of the folk/music business in the mid 70s’
He would perform at The Forest Shows, but would leave his options open as to what he would do after the tour had completed.
Exciting news appeared in the MIS this week, detailing the proposed track listing for the forthcoming Dangermen album. According to the Virgin web site, the track order was as follows:

1. JOHN JONES (Rudy Mills)
2. YOU KEEP ME HANGING ON – (Diana Ross & The Supremes)
– Dangermen version based on an arrangement by John Holt
3. SO MUCH TROUBLE IN THE WORLD (Bob Marley)
4. DANGERMAN AKA HIGH WIRE ( Bob Leaper & His Orchestra)
5. GIRL WHY DON’T YOU? (Prince Buster)
6. YOU’LL LOSE A GOOD THING (Barbara Lynn)
7. TALLER THAN YOU ARE (Lord Tanamo)
8. SHAME& SCANDAL (Lord Tanamo)
9. ISRAELITES (Desmond Dekker)
10. LOLA (The Kinks)
11. RAIN (Jose Feliciano)
12. I’M READY FOR LOVE (Martha Reeves & The Vandellas)
13. I CHASE THE DEVIL AKA IRONSHIRT (Max Romeo)
Jon Young and myself both gave our thoughts on the proposed track list, with the two of us commenting that we were surprised that “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” failed to make the cut. Apart from that, we both felt that the album played host to a real mixture of tracks, and it was a release the two of us were looking forward to.
Next, we passed the reigns over to French MIS editor, Jean-Pierre Boutellier, who brought us news of V2 France’s Dangermen promotional efforts. The band would apparently be in the country from May the 30th and 31st, then June the 8th, 27th and 28th. A sampler album containing 5 tracks would be doing the rounds shortly.
Following this we moved over to a Virgin press release (kindly dug out by Kev Tizzard) promoting the new album. One of the more interesting pieces of the article was the words:
“The Dangermen will be playing a few selective not-to-be-missed hush-hush shows around London next month. Watch this space for details”.

In last week’s issue we asked those of you who managed to catch Suggs and Mike on Radio 2 to write in and let us know what you thought of the two new tracks aired on the show.
We had a huge response (well, one!), courtesy of subscriber Andy Balhatchet. Andy explained how he really enjoyed the new tracks, but felt that they were too raw and simply not poppy enough to succeed in today’s charts.
Andy finished by saying;
“Hate to be killjoy, but I’m gonna really make the most of this tour/album because I have a bad feeling it’ll be the last we’ll see”.
Thankfully, and we’re sure Andy agrees, his prophecies of the bands’ demise didn’t come to fruition.
We finished off this week’s issue by urging you to buy the forthcoming single, “Shame and Scandal”. We were aware that singles these days cost about half the price of a full album, but we had to try something to keep the truly terrible Crazy Frog (remember him?) off our airwaves.
15 years ago…

Issue number 54 – Sunday 28th May to Saturday 3rd June 2000

It was nice to see the MIS team weren’t alone with this one; Fans of the Saturday music show on BBC1, `A Question of Pop` were amazed when on the `guess the year` round, the classic `Baggy Trousers` video was shown and Suggs failed to get the correct year. Here’s what the Total Madness Mailing List’s Peter Gardner had to say at the time;
“I think it has been very noticeable that Suggs is shockingly BAD at that guess the year thingy. Completely and utterly useless. Very often I’ve found myself throwing things at the telly in disbelief at how bad he is as I tend to get it 90% of the time (and 100% if it’s in the 80s;-)) and at worse am only a year out. And what amazes me is when the other team have got it wrong and Suggs has a go and usually ends up further off than Noddy [Holder] was !!! Unreal”
Moving on, and we had some studio news, courtesy of Adele Hargreaves, who told us that;
“Next week Madness go into the studio to record ‘My Old Man’ for the Brand New Boots & Panties album for Ian & Cancer Bacup”.
And continuing on an Ian Dury/Madness related note Adele also revealed;
“For the 16th at the Brixton Academy, Suggs will sing with the Blockheads & Madness are scheduled to do a mini Madness set”.
If you were umming and ahhing about going along to the gig before, surely the prospect of a mini Madness set had got you rushing to order those concert tickets.
A number of issues back we’d announced Suggs’ appearance on London’s XFM radio station. Well, it looked like that this would be a permanent placement as a number of Total Madness Mailing List subscribers said that he was still presenting the weekday morning show.
And finally, Adele Hargreaves and Jenny Payne had this exciting news;
“GREAT news today (25th) …. the Ivor Novello Awards honoured Madness with a Lifetime Achievement Award for song writing.
The award is entirely chosen by the industry, for dedication, talent & song writing craft, it is a far greater & more significant award than say that of the Brits, which comes down to money & current popularity. It’s a very exciting and well deserved accolade I’m sure you’ll agree.
The award has been given today & the boys have been partying since lunchtime and will continue to do so well into the night at a second function”.
We that out of the way, we got underway with this weeks’ collection of articles, and began with the latest news surrounding Scatty’s Rhythmstock day/night. Starting at 12 noon at The Dublin Castle, this event would consist of a mad walk around Camden, an auction, the Ian Dury tribute concert, and a Ska/Two Tone/Dury disco, which would run into the early hours.
Next, we had a preview of issue 4 of the ‘Madness Unsugged’ fanzine. Although not quite ready for release, we were able to give subscribers a heads-up on the contents.
A number of issues back we announced that Virgin were well and truly underway with new Madness book entitled, `DON’T WATCH THAT – WATCH THIS! THE OFFICIAL STORY OF MADNESS`. Penned by loyal Madfan, and respected music journo, Adrian Thrills, this promised to be one of the most anticipated Madness releases of recent years when it was due to hit music store shelves in November.
Many had criticised Virgin during recent times over the lack of support given to the band during their recent batch of releases but this looked set to change with a barrage of media coverage planned in the run up to the release of the new book.
Thanks to Jake Stavrindes at Virgin Publishing, we could reveal what the company had planned to promote the book.
Next, it was over to Madness tribute band One Step Behind, and their lowdown of the gigs they had planned from now until the end of the year. With so many gigs lined-up there was simply no excuse for missing them.
We finished off this week’s edition of the MIS with news of the confirmed auction lots for the forthcoming Rhythmstock auctions, due to be held on Saturday 16th of June.
Prizes so far included “A Roadie’s Tale Documentary”, a DVD Player and DVD of The Sixth Sense, a Doctor Marten’s book, and much more.
Rob Hazelby

TWEETS OF A DOVE / THAT FACEBOOK

Mike Barson @Mikey108
Mike Barson retweeted TheBlockheads
“Reasons to be cheerful (Supporting the Blocdock campaign)”
“Honored to see Mr McCartney doing his stuff. (Picture of Mike watching Macca concert)”

Mark Bedford @I_be_MarkB
“Working with ‘Bobby’ today…” (Mark reveals a name for his Bass)

Woody Woodgate @woodymadness
“Eurovision. Looks like I got the right three countries, but not necessarily in the right order.”

Dan Shears @danshearsmusic
“I am at the secret Beckenham HQ of a certain @woodymadness to discuss the possibility of putting my head on the body of a fish for a video. (From the set of In Your Mind video shoot)”

Cathal Smyth – May 28th · Facebook.
“Do You Believe In Love? just arrived on the BBC Radio 2 playlist!”

“Thank you for all your kind words, its really something else to hear how the record has been received by you and more than that how it has touched so many. I thought some time before the album was finished that there would be an aspect of healing in this work, not only for myself but more so that the songs might trigger others personal experience and help them process their own, confusion and emotions and in turn how they might respond to events in their life. If we all learnt to be more open about our own truths in a constructive way surely we might find a better way to communicate and in turn cooperate with each other in a more healthy and loving way.
Have a wholesome weekend people and spread the
Love x Cathal”

TIME…

That almost wraps it up for this week’s issue of the MIS, but before we go there’s a few last minute bits and pieces to pass in your general diretion.

First-up, and this week’s selection of videos from Grandslam Rehearsals seemed at first more to do with cycling skill than any future Madness songs.
https://vimeo.com/129019689
https://vimeo.com/128977922

Meanwhile Chainska Brassika announced on their facebook that they are supporting Madness beyond Lincoln at 9 dates of the Grandslam. Here’s a tune by them to celebrate: https://youtu.be/sTZxeiydcUk
Beyond the opening two gigs the remaining support slots for the band are…
6th June | Portsmouth, Fratton Park
2nd July | Silverstone, Silverstone Circuit
11th July | Rhyl, Rhyl Outdoor Events Arena
11th Sept | Canterbury, Kent County Cricket
12th Sept | Bristol, Gloucestershire County Cricket
18th Sept | Leeds, Yorkshire County Cricket
26th Sept | Chester Le street, Durham County Cricket
Moving on, and earlier this week Paul Rodgers contacted Cathal with the following news…

“Hi Cathal Smyth I just saw that the promo CD for Do You Believe In Love has sold for £82 on eBay!
This is madness with a small m…If you have any left perhaps you should sell them yourself for £10 each to recoup some more of your costs!”

Cathal replied. “Wow what a surprise?” That’s a lot of love and belief in a promo CD single!!!

And finally the Grandslam rolls onward to Chelmsford and Portsmouth. We’ll be at the Chelmsford gig (Jon’s Birthday gig) and Portsmouth (Warren from All Things Madness is there so say “hello” if you see him.)

Naturally, we’ll bring you the lowdown on the above gigs over the coming weeks.
Have a good week!
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Paul Rodgers, Adam Fowler and Paul Flanagan)