The magazine contains a free cover mounted CD with a live version of “Before we was we”, which was taken from last year’s Roundhouse gigs.
Alongside this is a cover feature about Paul Weller. Paul’s new album “On Sunset” is out now and features the one and only Lee Thompson on one of the tracks.
Next, and thanks to the power of YouTube and generosity of uploader Matthew Sigley, a recording of Suggs performing “I am” on Australian TV was made available for our viewing and listening pleasure.
The recording was aired back in 1998 on TV show “Hey Hey It’s Saturday”.
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.
In Before We Was We Madness tell us how they became them. A story of seven originals, whose collective graft, energy and talent took them from the sweaty depths of the Hope and Anchor’s basement to the Top of the Pops studio.
In their own words they each look back on shared adventures. Playing music together, riding freight trains, spraying graffiti and stealing records. Walking in one another’s footsteps by day and rising up through the city’s exploding pub music scene by night.
Before We Was We is irreverent, funny and full of character. Just like them.
Record Store Day – Work Rest and Play ** confirmed release date **
Release date: 29th August
Format: Double 7″ single
Cat No. BMGCAT430DSV
Overview:
Fortieth anniversary re-issue of Madness’ “Work Rest & Play EP” – the follow-up to their debut album, 1979’s “One Step Beyond…”
Limited edition Record Store Day 2020 release on double 7” format with a triple gatefold sleeve including photos from the time of the original release.
Track listing:
Side One
Night Boat To Cairo
Side Two
Deceives The Eye
Side Three
The Young And The Old
Side Four
Don’t Quote Me On That
Record Store Day – Dance Craze 40th Anniversary Edition ** confirmed release date **
This is a new half-speed master exclusively for RSD and part of the Two Tone Records 40th Anniversary celebrations. This is a soundtrack to the live movie of the same name featuring exclusive live recordings by The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers. This is also first vinyl repress since its original release in 1981.
Tracklisting:
Concrete Jungle
Mirror in the Bathroom
Lip up Fatty
Razor Blade Alley
Three Minute Hero
Easy Life
Big Shot
One Step Beyond
Ranking Fullstop
Man at C&A
Missing Words
Inner London Violence
Night Boat to Cairo
Too Much Pressure
Nite Klub
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, 10, 15 and 20 years ago this week.
5 years ago…
Issue Number 841 – Sunday 21st June to Saturday 27th June 2015
Last week the MIS team (well, Simon!) launched a brand new web site for the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra. We felt Lee was pretty pleased with the finished product as he got in touch with us to say;
“Gents got to see the Scorch site today at my leisure, It looks fantastic. Really chuffed. Street’s ahead of the one cobbled together prior that I was responsible for. Let me know what you think I could do to make it interesting…”
We suggested that if you had ideas for anything you wanted to see on the site or had any questions for Lee to get in touch via the Ska Orchestra web site.
On to our “Live Intensified” section, and with the band currently on tour this part of the bulletin was unsurprisingly lengthy. Our very own Jonathan Young penned a fantastic article entitled “From the Grandslam to the Laundrette”, which covered the Chelmsford gig on the 3rd June and then proceeded to cover the Deaf Scholl gig on the 5th which was held in Islington. Mr. Young certainly got around!
The big news this week was our review of “In Your Mind”, the new album crafted by one Daniel Woodgate. This was due to be released in a mere two weeks’ time, and the review appeared in our “MIS Feature”.
Jonathan gave the album a resounding thumbs-up, commenting;
“Overall while it’s slightly less original than the first outing of the magic brothers, it’s more consistent as an album. […] While Madness fans wont immediately think it’s Madness sounding as a record, it is in the mode of many previous Woody contributed album tracks and is full of melody with vocal harmonies a little more reminiscent of his 90’s pop career”
We brought this issue to a close with the news, courtesy of Paul Rodgers, telling us that “Cathal Smyth’s Do You Believe In Love? is number 197 on this week’s radio airplay chart, based on 9 (NINE) plays.”
10 years ago…
Issue Number 581 – Sunday 20th June – Saturday 26th June 2010
Madness continued to line-up yet more live performances for 2010, as the contents of this issue showed. On the 27th of July, the band were billed to be supporting pub landlord Al Murray for an evening of comedy and music, while on the 11th of September the band were due to perform at the Fete De L’Humanitie Concert, France.
Paul Rodgers made a welcome return to the MIS this week with another one of his (at the time) weekly round up of Madness’ progress in the music charts. So, had the recent promotion by supermarket giant made a difference? Well, it turned out that it had. Both One Step Beyond and Complete Madness had re-entered the Indie chart at numbers 48 and 50, respectively. Meanwhile, Ultimate Madness had risen to 27 in the main UK album chart, and number 3 in the Indie chart.
With current sales numbers it had now overtaken Utter Madness and Our House in turns of peak chart position.
Next, it was on to competition news. We had a whopping 46 entries for our Rise and Fall, Keep Moving and Ultimate Madness giveaway. We had one copy of each remastered CD to dish out, and we were now able to announce three lucky winners.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that Big 10 had been booked to play the legendary Dublin Castle on Saturday 17th July.
15 years ago…
Issue Number 319 – Sunday 19th June to Saturday 25th June 2005
We started off this week’s issue by giving a warm welcome to those fans who had subscribed to the MIS since attending the recent Westonbirt Arboretum gig, and who had picked up one of the cards we handed out at the event.
For the benefit of those who had only just joined, and missed our gig announcement special we’d sent out earlier in the week, we gave a repeat of the Scala Dangermen gig scheduled for the evening of the 4th of July.
Meanwhile, Lee and Chris were planning to appear with their off-shoot outfit, Crunch, on Friday 15th July at the 100 Club.
Elsewhere, and Simon had been busy beavering away over the past week or so, meaning that the guestbook and photo album were now up and running over on the MIS web site. The photo album already had a good selection of photos there, but we were always after more. The latest additions to this section were a few mobile phone snaps taken by Jonathan at the Westonbirt gig, as well as a photo of him on a Space Hopper! You could find out just why he was pictured on one of those in section six of this issue.
On to the articles, and we kicked off with a detailed article covering Suggs new show “A picture of London”, which ran alongside a new series called “A Picture of Britain”, which was going to be broadcast on BBC One from June.
Following the news on that Suggs BBC show, a picture of London, that he and Lee Thompson had been working with the Audio Bullys, Jonathan Young tried to see if there was any info surrounding the release date when these tracks might be see the light of day. At the time the issue went to press he’d not found anything.
With all the news arriving in our mailbox last week it was inevitable we’d forget to put something in, and a mass of news from Jean Pierre Boutellier was unfortunately one of the casualties. Sorry JP!
Here’s what he had to say…
“Hello,
Madness recorded a session last night (8th June) on a French TV show called `Taratata`. It’s similar to `Later With Jools Holland`.
The show, recorded last night near Paris, will be shown on French TV channels France 3 and France 4 sometime in early September.
Madness played 3 live songs: `Girl Why Don’t You`, `Chase The Devil`, and `One Step Beyond`. It was a great performance. On stage were 6 members of madness plus Segs Jumming on guitar and a 3 piece brass section.
Before the show we recorded a 45 minute interview, and asked Lee Thompson, Mark Bedford and Daniel Woodgate if they’d answer our questions. Here are a few highlights:
– The Forest Tour is a `Madness Tour`, so Madness will play some Madness hits, plus old tracks from Absolutely etc, and perhaps 1 or 2 songs from The Dangermen sessions, but we’re not sure.
– A new guitarist will play with Madness on The Forest Tour.
– The next live performance will be on the 28th June at London’s Kings Cross where they will play under the name of The Dangermen, with small gigs similar in style to the one’s Madness staged in 978/79”.
Moving on, and with both Jon and Rob attending the recent Westonbirt gig, it probably came as no surprise to the MIS readership, that the two of them teamed-up to produce one lengthy review – not just of the gig, but the going-on before and after, too.
The day after the Westonbirt gig saw the band take a small trip down the motorway to the seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare, where they performed at Channel Four-s T4 Beach Party Concert.
The set consisted of a mere two songs; the forthcoming single, Shame and Scandal, and One Step Beyond.
Although not present ourselves, going by Andy Clayden’s post on The Madness Trading Ring, it seemed as if the short set was a mixture of live vocals with a mimed playback.
20 years ago…
Issue Number 57 – Sunday 18th June to Saturday 24th June 2000
“Above and beyond the call of duty”. That’s how we would described the actions of a certain number of the Madness Online community after returning from a fun-packed weekend filled with Madness and remembrance for a certain late singer and songwriter.
Since it’s birth 5 years ago, the regular `Madmeet` had grown and grown. From the early days back in 1996 when a few Mads met up in Camden Town to Friday’s huge bash in the Dublin Castle and at a number of venues all across London. The so called Madmeet had finally come of age.
It was impossible to name everyone who contributed to Friday’s bash, but we felt special mention must surely go out to Madness who kindly donated and signed a cornucopia of Madness items, Simsey – the keeper of law, order during the auction, Vince Carden and Chris Carter-Pegg for spending so much money (which all went to charity by the way!), Vince Foley who many said looked remarkably like a certain Madness frontman, and finally, the chap who without his tireless effort none of the day’s events could have taken place, Mr Paul Scatt who pulled out all stops to make the day an enjoyable and memorable occasion for all who turned up.
We’re sure there were many others who we should also have thanked for making the day run so smoothly. If you were one of those people not listed, we were sure we spoke for everyone by saying that your efforts were no less appreciated.
During the course of the day, we managed to speak to a fair chunk of those present and all agreed that this could surely be an annual event. Obviously an annual Ian Dury Tribute Concert would be out of the question, but we were sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to get the assistance of a Madness tribute band or two.
Onto other things now…
News in from One Step Behind’s Brendan Phipps was that the band were filmed by BBC TV last Friday at their gig in Sidcup. The BBC were making a programme on TOP TEN TRIBUTE BANDS and went to great lengths to get hold of them. Three different agents approached the band about the same show!
Brendan continued by saying that he didn’t know if the band would definitely be on, as they were filming a selection of bands, but the researcher was spotted putting his camera away and dancing, so things were looking good on that front.
Some re-release news now, and Vince Foley told us that the recently re-released version of `Divine Madness` was now currently 59 in the DOTMUSIC charts. Since the original release way back in 1992 it has now sold over 900,000 copies in the UK.
If you were lucky enough to get along to the Rhytmstock auction, you’d already know that The famous Dublin Castle was due to close.
If you were paying attention, you’d also know why. For those who were not able to make the meet or were too drunk at the meet, we explained. The landlord of the Dublin Castle had recently bought the pub from the brewery, meaning that the pub was now theirs and would be a free house. The pub was closing for some major renovations this Sunday week which would mean no more beer being served the next 5-6 weeks whilst the alterations were being made.
One of the more bizarre alterations required the widening of the corridor leading down to the toilets by a mere 3 inches!! Something to do with EU rules apparently.
We thanked Vince Foley for the news, and looked forward to going back into the pub – this time with some decent furniture!!
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature
Ages of Madness
Tune into the Specialized Facebook page on Saturday June 27th, from 7pm till 11pm.
Why? For the Masters Remastered’s event “Ages of Madness.” Four hours of classic Madness streamed covering the pantheon of four decades of the band.
We’ve just about reached the end of this weeks’ bulletin, but if you’d like some further reading we can certainly point you in the right direction.
The below article was originally published back in October of last year over on the Audio Media web site. It cover the 40 years of Madness gig over at Kenwood House, but this is from the eye of a monitor engineer and audio liaison technician.
