Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 887 – Sunday 8th May to Saturday 14th May 2016
We begin with the new that this week Madness revealed with which acts would be appearing on the main stage with them at House of Common.
The line-up displayed in a video animation of the poster is shown to be…
Madness
Toots & The Maytals
David Rodigan
Hot 8 Brass Band
Norman Jay (MBE)
Toddla T
Spring King
Kiko Bun
Reggae Roast
With Special Guest Lee Scratch Perry
The remaining acts are due to appear on a second stage dubbed “The Our House Stage”.
If you’d like to view the video yourselves you’ll need to point your web browers to the following Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/HouseOfCommonFestival/videos/632487546889967/
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
May
Saturday 21st – Hastings, The Pier
Saturday 28th – Dauwpop Festival, Netherlands (headliners)
More info at: http://www.dauwpop.nl
June
Weds 8th – 100 Club, Oxford St * New *
Saturday 25th – Glastonbury Festival, Main Stage
July
Saturday 30th – Kendal Calling, Penrith http://www.kendalcalling.co.uk/information/ticket-info/
Sunday 31st – Y Not Festival, Matlock
http://www.ynotfestivals.co.uk
August
Thursday 4th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange *** Sold Out ***
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Friday 5th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange
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
Friday 19th – Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/37005067CAE570E4?tpab=-1
Saturday 20th – Titanic Belfast, Belsonic * New *
http://www.ticketmaster.ie/Titanic-Belfast-tickets-Belfast/venue/461375
Monday 29th – House of Common, Clapham Common
More info at: http://www.madness.co.uk/houseofcommon/
September
Sunday 4th September -Jersey Live Festival, Jersey
Friday 30th September – Sweden, Grona Lund Amusement Park
November
Friday 18th – Monday 21st – Madness Weekender 6, Minehead
Suggs
May
1st – Crewe Lyceum Theatre
3rd – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
4th – Sheffield Lyceum
5th – 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire * Postponed * Venue undergoing restoration
7th – Brixton Jam Rock – Suggs plus guests. Suggs slot confirmed as DJ set.
Tickets: http://bit.ly/TheNextmenSuggs
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
July
Friday 22nd, Hampton Pool Picnic, Supporting The Selecter
August
Thursday 18th, Newham Free Festival
November
House of Fun Weekender * New *
Rhoda Dakar
June
Saturday 18th – 100 Club London
(Also appearing at The London International Ska festival, Glastonbury, & European festivals this year)
The Silencerz
June
Friday 10th Bull Theatre, Barnet (note, this does not list Lee Thompson as appearing)
The band have also recently set up their own Twitter account. Follow the, @The_Silencerz
WIN IT
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/
BUY IT
Deluxe edition of The Lone Ranger.
https://www.discogs.com/Suggs-The-Lone-Ranger/release/8172245
A Deluxe Edition release of Suggs’ first solo album “The Lone Ranger”.
Originally released in 1995 this much requested reissue is the most comprehensive collection available of the original album and all the related bonus material.
Other bonus material includes the b/sides – ‘Bedazzled’, ‘Animal’, ‘When You Came’ and ‘I Feel Good’. The CD booklet features the original artwork, a UK Discography, lyrics of the original album tracks all in a 16 page colour booklet.
Out now!
Buy it if you don’t have the original classic album or want those original collected B-sides together or if you want Suggs to consider another solo album in future support this release, but if you want it for all the remixes please stop taking E and consult a doctor. Some were as dreadful as the Macarena.
Dance Crazy – The Best of Specialized Ska Live
A little nod and appreciation as we at Specialized celebrate the 35th birthday in 2016 of the 2Tone movie & soundtrack “Dance Craze”
This album Features original acts & covers bands paying respects to the Dance Craze phenomenon.
All recorded live.
The same song as Dance Craze by new bands 35 years on. (Including live covers of Madness) pre order now £10 (£2.50 p&p)
http://www.specializedproject.co.uk/shop/
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Suggs Pops Into Drummonds
http://m.worcesternews.co.uk/news/14467075.Madness__Suggs_pops_into_Drummonds/?ref=arc
He said: “Suggs (Madness) spent a few hours in Drummonds last night.
He was performing locally and dropped in to the New Street venue with his friends and crew.
He told us that Drummonds was the best pub he had been to in ages!
He had been performing his one man show at Huntingdon Hall.
Afterwards he wanted to see/hear some live music so he took his friends and crew to Drummonds.
He stayed for an hour and half and happily allowed customers to take selfies with him.
He was seen dancing and chatting with locals before heading off on the next leg of his tour.”
Madness Man’s Musical Influences
Review: Suggs at the King’s Hall, Ilkley
PROBABLY best known as the front man for the 80s group Madness, Suggs (Graham McPherson) is currently on tour with his one-man show which last week played to a capacity audience at the Kings Hall in Ilkley.
He started the evening talking about his recent 50th birthday and discussions he had just after this with his mother about his upbringing in the East End of London and his father who had left them when he was three years old.
Full article at: http://www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/leisure/leisure_ents/14477552.Madness_man_s_music_influences/
LIVE INTENSIFIED
Suggs My Life Story Review
Very few people can command an audience for two hours while making it feel like ten minutes, with storytelling, and a bit of music, all of it utterly top class.
Accompanied by Deano on piano and guitar, we were treated to solo renditions of See You Later Alligator, interspersed with Chelsea football chants and tales of his days at the Shed end, Cecilia – with a very funny anecdote about Chris Eubank struggling to pronounce his and the song’s name on Top of the Pops, and the wonderful “Shut Up”, after a hilarious story about nicking LPs from friends’ houses being the equivalent of modern day music downloading.
It is impossible to sum up just how fun and entertaining this evening was, and what a huge variety of tales we heard, yet it was not all about humour, as the touching story interlacing the evening was about his discovery that his dad was a heroin addict, finding out via Wikipedia that he had died, and his quest after this to find out what had happened to him.
MIS FEATURE – WIN TICKETS TO MADNESS AT THE 100 CLUB!
We’re sending musical ripples throughout the UK on Wednesday 8 June 2016 with gigs great and small taking place across the UK for Get Loud.
Enter the Get Loud Sessions ticket draw, by donating £3 to Nordoff Robins to enter. Winners receive 2 tickets.
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/232089
You’ll need to get a ticket web account.
POST: You can enter for free by sending a postcard to the Nordoff Robbins free post address below. Don’t forget to tell us which gig you are interested in and to include your email address so we can contact you if you win! Freepost RRLS-BGRS-GKSL, Get Loud, Nordoff Robbins Fundraising, 20-21 Spectrum House, 32-34 Gordon House Road, London NW5 1LP
Closing date is Thursday 26th May 5pm. winners will be notified the next day and must claim tickets by the 30th. Photo ID is required on the day.
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 626 – Sunday 8th May – Saturday 14th May 2011
This issue got underway with the news that Suggs had decided to join Twitter. How did we know this? Mark Bedford confirmed;
“We in a moment of Technological clarity, managed to help Suggs use a modern device.”
And the gadget pioneering ever online presence of Chrissy boy broke the news in capitals too, tweeting “SUGGS has joined Twitter”.
Exciting times!
Elsewhere, and we reported on a new version of Baggy Trousers. On BBC6 Radio Lee Thompson described the new version as..
“it’s a real acousticky, folky, erm, different, exciting. I don’t know if that’s being shown in England but we’re off to do a little clip for it.”
When we asked Mark “Still semi retired” Bedford, about the track he said he’d been “Flown in especially just to do double bass for this version”
And on Judge Fred’s Excellent blog, he commented that…
“Louis Vause… He revealed us that last week, he played accordeon on a “download” version of Baggy Trousers, a slower one, a bit of waltz, he sang us a bit ! Classy man”
This news version was all part of a new advertising campaign for Kronenburg 1664, called “Slow the Pace”. This new version of Baggy Trousers would appear in both 30 and 90 second versions of the commercial.
Moving on, and we reported that you were being asked to vote for Camden’s Dublin Castle. Why? Well, the NME were on the hunt to find Britain’s best small venue – the grass roots pubs and clubs that were at the beating heart of the UK music scene.
All you had to do was name the venue and explain in 100 words or less why you thought the venue should be nominated.
It was on to radio news next as we covered the story that Suggs was to start in a lead role in a new BBC Radio 4 drama. The drama, called Deep Down And Dirty Rock’n’Roll, was to be aired on May 14. Suggs’ role would see him playing an aging musician whose rock and roll lifestyle has left him in serious debt and in the midst of a “mid-life meltdown”.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that there were plans to stage create the World’s longest Nutty Train before the band’s Paris concert on the 7th of October.
10 years ago…
Issue 366 – Sunday 7th May to Saturday 13th May 2006
We knew it was too good to be true.
After we’d praised the the fantastic amount of airplay the forthcoming tour had been receiving we were quietly hoping that this marked a turnaround in the Madness promotional bandwagon, and that publicity for the band could only get better and better.
That, unfortunately this wasn’t the case.
Someone, somewhere had unfortunately missed a vital piece of information off of the initial batch of tour adverts which had started to appear in the press.
The tour name was there, the dates were there. The only problem was, the month the tour was taking place was nowhere to be seen!
We’d already received emails from a number of people who, after seeing the ads in the papers had been trying to find out from us just exactly what month the tour would be taking place.
We had a feeling that a number of people were feeling slightly embarrassed for this ‘feature’, and we expected a new revised batch of tour ads to crop-up in the papers shortly.
On to this week’s articles, and we started with a short interview with Suggs, which appeared on the Chris Evans section of the BBC web site.
Every guest Chris had on had one minute to answer a number of questions that they should really know – especially as they were about themselves! After the session, Suggs ranked fifth, with 9 guests above him (some in joint places), and 11 below him.
We moved away from Madness for the next article, and looked at a band by the name of The Dualers. A group who had gone from being two street buskers, to getting to number 21 in the UK music charts, with their own blend of ska, soul and reggae.
MIS band spotter Duff Kelly sent us the news that he had been out to see the Dualers busk it up and sent us;
“I made the treacherous journey to Croydon today to see The Dualers busking and it was well worth the journey despite the rain that started up in the last hour… really good show, great mix of music and some good banter in between.
There was an excellent busked version of “Taller Than you are” in the show”.
It was back over to Suggs and Chis Evans next, as we had a full transcript of the section of Chris’ Radio 2 show called SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? In which (while the clash plays) the guest had 20 seconds to decide whether they will stay on the show or go.
Suggs chose to stay in order to promote his new book.
We finished off this issue with the news that Madness would be supporting Depeche Mode at the forthcoming Spanish gig on their Euro tour.
15 years ago…
Issue 104 – Sunday 6th May to Saturday 12th May 2001.
This week, we were up to issue 104, meaning that the MIS had been running every week for 2 years. The bulletins had gone from strength to strength during that time, and with Jonathan Young recently stepping on board as deputy ed, and reminding us of important dates like this, the future of your weekly batch of Madness news was looking very rosy indeed.
We also had some other celebratory news now, as we were pleased to announce that Jean-Pierre Boutellier, editor of France-based Skazine – “Skanews” had just become a father. MIS Online wished the new arrival (Arno) and mother all the best for the future.
On to the articles, and we kicked off with a small snippet from Graham Whitfield, who hadn’t quite forgiven The Sun’s Gary Bushnell for likening Suggs’ presentation of Night Fever to “a sheep asleep”).
He then saw he was (as usual) lamenting TV’s poor support of St. Georges Day (apparently because “nobody despises their own country with as much stale bile as the English middle class left”).
He then went on to suggest “devoting one night to England’s glory”, giving a long list of examples, such as Iron Maiden, Monty, Francis Drake, Henry Cooper, Isaac Newton, Stuart Pearce………and Madness!!
Next, and after having a week off to recover, subscriber Iain Mason emailed in to tell us that it had been a hard slog, but he eventually completed the London Marathon in a very respectable 4hrs 25mins – in front of Sir Steve Redgrave but behind numerous Bob the Builders and Wombles.
“I was nearing the 17-mile mark – when it REALLY starts to hurt – when a familiar sound reached my ears – a distant pounding which made me pick up the pace to get closer. I finally rounded a corner to be greeted by a H-U-G-E sound system set up in someone’s front garden, blasting out ‘Baggy Trousers’. As I passed by my feet seemed lighter and there was a huge grin on my face.
A moment of sanity in 26.2 miles of madness”.
Thanks to a fantastic support from everyone who pledged sponsorship to Iain, Cancer Bacup would soon be over £1000 better off.
The issue was passed over to Jonathan for the next article, where he gave us the lowdown on all the Madness singles that had appeared in the latest edition of the Rare Record Price Guide 2002. The book aimed to include every UK release, with the following exceptions: singles below 4 pounds in value, EP’s below 7 pounds in value, CD singles below 8 pounds in value, LP’s below 10 pound in value and CD albums below 15 pounds in value.
Following this we had some exciting news in from Swanny, who revealed that Crunch were booked to play at The 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, on the 1st of June.
Ticket prices were expected to be a very reasonable £8.
It was over to the PushPosters web site next, as we listed some of the reasonably prices Madness posters, t-shirts and keyrings they currently had in stock. With prices starting at £1.49, there was something for every pocket.
Moving on, and we took a look at this month’s ‘Mimics of Madness’, as we listed forthcoming gigs for Badness, One Step Behind, Utter Madness and The Los Palmas Six. With a mass of dates listed, it was hoped that there was at least one of the bands playing in your next of the woods over the coming weeks and months.
We finished off this issue with the exciting news that Jerney, one of the editors of Crunch fanzine, `Saints and Sinners`, had been in touch to tell us that their forthcoming fanzine had been declared OFFICIAL by none other than a certain Chrissy Boy Foreman!
Rob Hazelby
MIS FEATURE – THE SIMMERTONES
The Simmertones are heading to the house of fun this year. Check out the band’s latest single ….
Run for your life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFGLLIUUA1k
Ghost Town was a ska track that famously built on a mood of bending brass riffs to haunt and paint a picture of desolation in city and town centres across the UK, and the lack of investment in an underclass and the youth of its day.
Now, in 2016, the fear and social commentary of The Simmertones Run For Your Life single has a much wider small world global focus on a similar smouldering ska mood. It’s not just a look at the state of our backyard. It’s a look at everything; the news online, the wars we entangle in and cause.
Referencing Bob Marley, there is still so much trouble in this world and the question of humanity and our worth is even called to question. Are we the plague?
When such lyrical concerns are sincerely sung over slow but powerful Ska, this is thinking you can still dance to. It’s no lecture it’s a lament and an emotional frustration released. A great trombone solo features, and by the song’s end the message and words are over and the fast pace kicks in to the end fade creating a flourished finish, as you run away from the previous list of threats we are facing in the hope of living on.
Well, it’s quicker if you run.
Catch The Simmertones at The House of Fun.
Jonathan Young
HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHRIS’ CUPBOARD
“Hi Chris,
in the Guardian its quoted that London has found us a place where for one day every year we can have our very own festival. Is Clapham going to be an annual event then? I hope so!!
Mick carter.”
“Hold on Mick we haven’t done it yet!”
CB
———-
“Is there any song you’ve recorded that you wish was released as a single?
Steve Coyle”
“Dear Steve
“Benny Bullfrog””
CB
———-
“Hi Chris
I’m trying to get hold of the album you guys did in 88 The Madness as it’s the only one I don’t have. The problem is that it’s only available for silly money. Do you know if there are any plans to re-issue it?
Thanks – Billy beatnik”
“Dear Billy
There are no plans to release “The Madness” at present, sorry”
CB
———-
“Hi CB,
When do you hope to release the new LP
Paul”
“We have to select the songs and producer and studio etc. All going well, though. Some time this year!
Thanks”
CB – February 2016
(note: Since this reply some studio work has commenced)
TIME…
Those of you attending the Swedish gig on the 30th September may be pleased to learn that official tour DJ Darren Bennett and Bangarang HiFi are hosting a both pre and post gig events. These run from 4pm till 8pm and then from 10pm till 2am.
It could be a long day/night!
More info at: http://tinyurl.com/h5n6f2p
And finally…
A heads up to remind you that you can catch Paul Willo in a documentary about Two Tone on Sky Arts this coming Friday at 9pm. If you miss it then it repeats on at Saturday 11.45pm, Sunday at 8pm, Tuesday at 3am, and Wednesday at 12am.
It’s all part of The Trailblazers of Two Tone series narrated by Noddy Holder.
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
The Author
