Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 874 – Sunday 7th February to Saturday 13th February 2016
It’s only February, and the list of dates Madness have got lined-up for 2016 continues to increase. This week it was revealed that Madness have been booked as a headline act for this year’s Boom Town Festival.
For those not familiar with the event, the festival describes itself as a trip through “labyrinth-esque streets and plazas on a non stop weekend joyride to a soundtrack of ska, folk, gypsy, reggae, world, punk, pirate, disco, electro-swing, jazz, blue-grass, breaks, bass, jungle, techno and all in a spirit of unity and freedom!”
The band play on August 13th, which is the Saturday Night of the Festival. With a capacity across 22 stages of 50,000 party goers. Boom Town feature uniquely contrasted facades, turning the countryside into a pop up town of buildings and sites with it’s own mayor and passport entry each year, where you become a citizen for the weekend. The city is divided up into Districts.
It amuses us greatly to read that Madness are playing in the area known as The Lion Den! “Welcome to The Lion’s Den, Temptation’s on it’s way!”. Milk that line, Suggs, come the day. This is the reggae district of the event.
The festival boasts over 100 acts across the 4 days from Thursday 11th, including (as some fans have pointed out), Bad Manners, Selecter, and the Neville Staple band, who are all appearing elsewhere in the eclectic Town Centre stage at some point during the weekend. Also performing are House of Fun favourites like Prince Fatty, Craig Charles and Beardy Man, being on the line up elsewhere, too. Other headline level acts include Levellers, Damian Marley and Leftfield. The massive festival also features praised band Skinny Lister, Fun loving Criminal, So Solid Crew, Roni Size, Molotov Jukebox, and a packed poster of discovery.
Only the third tier adult tickets are still on sale at £170 for the entire four day event attendance. The cheaper level entries all selling out in advance before the line up is announced as the event itself attracts party goers. There are no day tickets.
On to Ska Orchestra news, and a new date for April has been confirmed for The Docklands area, but as it’s not yet on sale, we will bring you more news on this nearer purchase time. Lee has been in touch to say the band returned to the studio for some more overdubs and tweaking to the final cuts of some songs, with the album release date now moving towards June as the latest penciled-in plan. One thing’s for sure, it’s hotting-up and getting ever nearer as these final touches take place on the work. Also, check out the rest of this issue to see that it probably wont be Lee’s only solo release this year.
Thirdly, in Suggs solo news, a video advert is billing the current run of dates of his one man autobiographical show as “Your last chance to see”, so it’s possible that this particular solo show, entitled My Life in Words and Music, is coming to the end of it’s long run.
Now, on with this week’s issue!
Enjoy the read,
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
May
Saturday 28th – Dauwpop Festival, Netherlands (headliners)
More info at: http://www.dauwpop.nl
August
Thursday 4th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange *** Sold Out ***
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Friday 5th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange *** Second date added ***
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Saturday 6th –Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness, Scotland (headliners)
More info at www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk
Thursday 11th – Cropredy Festival, Oxfordshire. First day headliner
Saturday 13th – Boom Town Fair – Winchester *** New ***
November
Friday 18th – Monday 21st – Madness Weekender 6, Minehead
Suggs
March
17th – An evening with Suggs and Friends for Pancreatic Cancer. The Emirates Stadium
April
22nd – Scarborough Spa Theatre
23rd – Lincoln Drill Hall
24th – Carlisle Sands Centre
25th – Ilkley King’s Hall
27th – Bournemouth Pavillion Theatre
28th – Bath The Forum
29th – Worcester Huntingdon Hall
30th – Wrexham William Aston Hall
May
1st – Crewe Lyceum Theatre
3rd – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
4th – Sheffield Lyceum
5th – 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Rhoda Dakar
Saturday 18th June – 100 Club London
(Also appearing at The London International Ska festival, Glastonbury, & European festivals this year)
BUY IT
14% off in the Madstore, Ready for Valentine’s day.
It’s discount time over on the official Madness Madstore, so why not pick up your loved one (or yourself!) a nutty bargain. Check out the newly released“I heart Madness” T-shirt while you’re there.
Enter the code MAD14 when checking out to receive your discount.
Win Suggs Tickets
Like and share a post over on Suggs’ official Facebook page for a chance to win tickets to his One Man Show. At the same time you’ll will be helping the big man promote the forthcoming dates into the bargain.
https://www.facebook.com/thesuggsmcpherson/
SPECIALIZED FEATURE – LEE THOMPON ON ONE HEART
Yesterday, February 6th, Specialized marked their respect by announcing all of the artists that will appear on our One Heart Tribute album, on Bob Marley’s birthday
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” Bob Marley
One Heart, a Tribute to Bob Marley & the Wailers, will be our fifth annual tribute album, due to be released by Specialized Records in August 2015. Over three hundred musicians, engineers and producers have kindly given us their time and talent in the creation of this 4-disc CD box set.
Amongst the masses of artists announced (you can find the list on the website link) LEE THOMPSON is listed.
No news yet on which song Lee will be covering. In the past he has aired Three Little Birds and I Shot The Sheriff with his solo pub bands, as well of course being on The Dangermen’s cover of So Much Trouble in The World.
It’s possible the track may be a Ska Orchestra recording, but currently Lee is listed under his own name as was the case with his previous Specialized recorded track. More new on this as it develops this year.
http://www.specializedproject.co.uk/latestnews/one-heart-artists-announced/
Paul Willo & Specialized Projects
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Madness frontman to raise vital funds for refugees at Whitstable auction
The ska singer is a regular visitor to Whitstable, where the auction will be taking place in JoJo’s restaurant.
The event is the initiative of JoJo’s owner and chef, Nikki Billington, who has been making regular trips to France since last autumn with donations of food and other supplies for the Calais camp.
Suggs said he was “really pleased to be able to help”.
He added: “I’ve known Nikki for some time and she’s an amazing woman who’s already doing great things for the many people and children who are trapped in this no-man’s land across the Channel from us.”
The auction takes place on February 28 from 2pm at the restaurant.
Tickets for the event can be purchased from JoJo’s, 2 Herne Bay Road CT5 2LQ by cash or cheques made out to N. Billington. To donate funds or items for the auction itself – or for more details, contact Nikki Billington on jojonikib@yahoo.co.uk
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 613 – Sunday 6th February – Saturday 12th February 2011
Being a slow news week, this wasn’t what you’d call a packed issue of the MIS, but we did our best at passing you whatever nutty news had come our way over the past seven days.
We began with the news that Virgin Media had unveiled their new advertising campaign, ‘More Exciting Place to Live’, showcasing the world of digital entertainment at our customers’ fingertips.
What did this have to do with Madness? Well, the ad featured lyrics from the Madness anthem ‘Our House’ narrated over the rousing music of Dan Black’s ‘HYPNTZ’. Giving us a glimpse into every room in the home, we saw people listening to music, watching films, staying in touch, learning, sharing and living in the digital world.
Here at MIS Online, we’d always been staunch supporters of North London band MOT. The band had been hard at work over the previous 10 years, writing news tunes and gigging like you wouldn’t believe. Well, it seemed as if all that hard work had paid off, as the band’s debut single, “Between the Lines” would be available on Spotify and iTunes the day after this issue of the MIS was due to go out. The single also included the two b-sides “Love Don’t Suit Ya” and “Never Ending Dream”.
Moving on, and with the Deaf School “Listen and Learn Tour” now in full swing, Mark Adamson of the official Deaf School web site: www.deafschool.music.com had kindly offered up TWO signed Deaf School CDs for us to give away in a prize winning competition.
All you had to do to be in the running is to answer Mark’s following poser:
“After their UK tour which culminates in Liverpool on 12 February, Deaf School head off to foreign climes. In which city on the other side of the world are they playing two gigs in the middle of this month?”
We promised to put all entries into a virtual hat, and pull out two random winners.
Jon Young brought this issue of the MIS to a close, with the following;
“Kitchen Floor” and “My Girl II” were the songs played at [the re-scheduled] Hull [gig] last night, from those 5 new ones they have been doing.
[The] set list [was] pretty much the same as the tour was, with these last 2 gigs from the rescheduled dates.
There was talk about the song “Can’t keep a good thing down”, which is now in recording stages for the album, but that’s not surfaced live yet, and possibly a further song being worked on by Lee [that] may be called “Man of Steel”. It’s about a solider who’s out of his mind adrenalin junkie.
Chris’s Hull showtime was Louis Armstrong’s “We Have all the Time in the World”, and Suggs wished everyone in Hull “Happy Christmas!!!””
10 years ago…
Issue number 353 – Sunday 5th February to Saturday 11th February 2006
We kicked-off issue 353 of the MIS, with news in from subscriber Graham Whitfield, who explained that he’d been watching a television programme on BBC2 entitled ‘Balderdash and Piffle’. The show aimed to explore the origins of various well-known phrases or words, and tried to find written evidence of their usage which pre-dated the Oxford Dictionary origin.
Great, but what did this have to do with Madness? Well, a word chosen for this particular episode was Ska.
After a very brief history of Ska, where of course Madness and the Specials got a mention, we were taken to Jamaica.
A poet and Ska expert from Birmingham, explored various theories for the origins of the word.
It was possibly derived from the rapid “ska ska ska ska” noise of a guitar playing ska, said one expert, a member of the Skatellites, no less. Or was it from the distinctive ska style dancing that accompanies it, proffered another?
But most persuasive was Prince Buster himself. Interviewed on the corner of Orange Street, he claimed the word as his own creation.
Apparently, it was an abbreviation of the word ‘scat’, itself an abbreviation of the word ‘scatter’, which was a word in use at early Ska gigs.
No concrete evidence, so the official dictionary entry remained as:
“A kind of popular music of Jamaican origin, characterized by a fast tempo and emphasis of the off-beat. Also, a dance to such music.”
It was on to a much more serious note next. Over the past few months Chris Carter-Pegg had noticed the rise in fake Madness autographs cropping-up in auction site Ebay, and had decided that now was the time to warn fellow fans so they could reduce the risk of being ripped-off for a set of scrawlings that had nothing to do with our favourite band.
Following Chris’ detailed article, he finished off by saying that:
“If anyone has any doubt about the authenticity of any item they see please feel free to email me for my opinion before bidding – or ask for advice from any of the Madness mailing lists where I am sure there will be plenty of people happy to help”.
Next it was over to Andrew Langmead who emailed the MIS with the news that Wavelength Films’ ‘Disappearing London’ would be repeated on the Sky Travel Channel, starting on Sunday the 5th of February.
Now, those of a certain age would no doubt remember the much-loved BBC TV series “Jim’ll Fix it”. The show, for those of you not versed in this, saw viewers write in, asking for Jim to grant them their wish.
One such lucky child in 1983 was Natasha Fox who sent such a letter to the show, asking for sing with her favourite band, Madness. And so at an age younger than 10 years old she found herself on BBC television playing “Tomorrow’s Just another day” singing live with the band and at least attempting to show off her acoustic guitar skills.
In reality it was clearly a mimed TV piece with only Natasha’s mic being live to add her vocals to the track. An added young female vocal gave something to the song, it certainly wasn’t a mini-pop style disaster as a TV idea.
So, MIS were posing the question “What ever happened to Natasha Fox”? Did you know her? Did you know how we could find her? We were keen to interview her 25 years on and find out what went on during that special day.
It was over to amateur film production for our next article, as a fan of Madness and classic comedy had been in touch to let us know that he was currently in the process of shooting a 5 minute film in Melbourne, for a charity festival in September.
It was to be Called “Yesterday’s men and Tomorrow’s boys” and was a tribute to forgotten (at least in Melbourne) icons. It’s purpose was to pay homage to people like Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett of Steptoe and Son fame. The amateur film would contain Music by Madness.
We finished off this week’s edition of the MIS with the news that on Sunday 12th Feb, North London’s MOT would be on stage at The Barfly.
If you could get along, we asked if you’d be kind enough to knock-up a review.
15 years ago…
Issue number 91 – Sunday 4th February to Saturday 10th February 2001
This was one packed edition of the MIS. First up, and Simon Roberts had some hot news regarding the planned rebuilding of that legendary meeting point, Camden Town Tube Station, and how such famous Madness haunts as the market, what was Rock on, and Holts Shoe Shop could be under threat from town planners.
Following that, Andrew Langmead made a return for the forth week on the trott to complete the fantastic Madchart. This week, entries 15 to 1 were charted, along with a full and in-depth analysis to surprise and intrigue any self-respecting Madness fan.
Moving slightly off topic for a moment, but of obvious interest to the majority of you, we had news that Buster Bloodvessel was taken to hospital in Italy after collapsing onstage. Whilst on a jollier note, Cheryl Barzo was here with some more details surrounding the forthcoming Madness Injection weekend.
MIS online subscriber Simsey has a few bits and pieces he was putting up for sale, and if you were after a slice of live Madness tinged antics, Lee Swandale had news of a forthcoming Crunch gig for later in the month.
Alan Cahill had been digging up news from the Talksport.net website which stated that the legendary Suggs would be answering your questions on sporting passions for a future radio show.
And, if that lot wasn’t enough, Simsey had plans to put together a batch of Madness Injection 2001 t-shirts, and Brendan Phipps was here once again with the latest batch of gigs from the fantastic One Step Behind.
Rob Hazelby
MIS FEATURE – SIGN UP TO NEWS FROM THE SONGWRITER
Nick Woodgate has been in touch to tell us he’s created a new website, for news about all his songwriting.
Ever working away, Nick has a ton of new songs in various pipeline stages, be they Madness considerations, Material Woody considers of interest to work on at some point, or his own personal releases. In the past this multi level collaborating has brought forth songs like “Leon”, “You Don’t Have To Hide Your Love Away”, “Something” and “Eloise”
You can sign up for future news from Nick by subscribing at the website.
You can also preview music from his recent album “Morning” the first album released under the name Nick Woodgate.
ONE VINE DAY (Yes We’ve Got a Vimeo)
This week we introduce a new, occasional section to the MIS covering the new phenomena of Vines. (Which if you don’t know are very short video clips, just because)
Here is Mark Bedford on the Tuba!
Eb Ah Um
TIME…
A few more snippets of news this week, include many a fan spotting that Suggs is now doing the voice overs for Walkers Crisps on the snack foods Football Champion League themed tie in promotions. Our Thanks to Adam Nichols for point that one out.
Following our appeal for information last week about an old advert featuring Madness music, our own Simon Roberts added;
“Stop the Madness was an US anti-drug campaign, it ran until the mid 90’s”
We are still looking for video footage of this yahoo related visual clip though, so if you have further information please get in touch.
All the best,
The Author
