1 – THIS IS WHERE THE MADNESS BEGINS – The obligatory intro.

2 – RESPONSE TO OUR NEVER KNEW YOUR NAME SPECIAL EDITION – Shortly
after our special mid-week “Never Knew Your Name” edition of the
MIS was blasted out across the internet feedback a few fans got
in touch to voice their opinions and concerns.

3 – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS – This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby
goes back 5 years to issue number 456, and the week of Sunday 27th
January to Saturday 2nd February 2008, and then back 10 years
to issue number 194 and the week of Sunday 26th January to
Saturday 2nd February 2003.

4 – TWEETS OF A DOVE – LATEST BAND TWITTERING – This week we bid a
warm welcome to the return of our semi regular tweets round up
article, featuring the latest musings from the band, via that
famous character-limited messaging system, Twitter.

5 – MADNESS ON TARATATTATATATATA & BBC BREAKFAST – As well as repeats
of The Jonathan Ross Show, Madness this week appeared on BBC
Breakfast television, and the recorded appearance made last year
for French pop show TARATATTATOUILE also aired.

6 – SUGGS AND WOODY WITH MAYO – Suggs and Woody appeared with Simon
Mayo on Radio 2 this week, where Simon urged them that Misery
should be the next single, from what he Calls “The Yes Album”,
(with him already championing it to the station and industry.)
Jonathan Young reports

7 – WE WANT MORE OF THE DUBLIN CASTLE – Support the best pub on the
planet, as they apply for later licensing. The legendary Dublin
Castle would like you to support them here…

8 – SUGGS LIVE – PROMOTION – The latest promotional wording for Suggs
Live show was sent to us direct from the theatre managers this
week. Here’s the latest promo text for his one man show…

9 – IN THE MIDEM OF THE STREET – Last night Madness performed in a
tent in France, at MIDEM, the industry showcase for music in
Canne. Here are reviews, videos and set list.

10 – JIM’LL FIX IT SIGNED MADNESS GUITAR – A tale of childhood dreams,
prime time television, time marching on, growing up, death, shame
and scandal, MIS, and ebay. It’s the story of Jim’ll Fix It and a
guitar signed by Madness.

11 – THAT’S YER LOT – A few last minute words before we finish for the
week

[1] – THIS IS WHERE THE MADNESS BEGINS

Evening all,

Madness have a new Number 1. The album tops the indie chart right now, returning to an impressive second high at number 16 in the main UK album charts this evening. There’s that positive then that Suggs keeps going on about in interviews. Brilliant news yes! yes!

The single trudged to 88. So thanks for any help to our enthusiasm mid week, (it’s an apt 7 on the indie chart thanks for that one!) and you can read views on the death of the Madness singles market in our opening article.

Next week the French get additional bonus tracks on the redistributed Sony Edition, and we also excitedly await the arrival of the Deluxe Album edition. The anticipated release is believed to be a pack containing two CDs and one DVD, due April/May.

Section four of this very issue indicates that work is indeed progressing on the project, and when asked in the cupboard this week…

“What is the plan for Big Time Sister, 1978 and Can’t Keep a Good Thing Down?”

Chris replied…

“They are “on their way” in a deluxe version of the album.”

Chris also commented elsewhere about The Butlins 2011 footage possibly getting a release.

All this is excellent news for the die-hard collectors out there, who may be missing B-sides and physical formats, but we’re living the highlife with the bonus track editions with these last two albums.
Let’s hope the deluxe pack contains enough new material to encourage those who don’t usually add both standard and special editions of Madness releases to their collections to stump up the cash.

Enjoy the read,
Jonathan Young, Liz Maher, Simon Roberts, Rob Hazelby
Email us at: jonathan, liz, simon, robert @mis-online.net

[2] – RESPONSE TO OUR NEVER KNEW YOUR NAME SPECIAL EDITION

Shortly after our special mid-week “Never Knew Your Name” edition of the MIS was blasted out across the internet feedback a few fans got in touch to voice their opinions and concerns.

Here are two of those responses.

First-up, it’s Chris Carter-Pegg…

“Whilst I would love the new Madness single to get into the
Top 75 this week, at the same time part of me hopes that it
only get’s as far as No. 76, which might finally give a
clear message to their record company that many of the
80,000 fans who’ve bought the new album would also be happy
to buy a physical single, especially if it has a couple of
new B sides, but why would any of these 80,000 buy a
download for a track they already have?

If the single doesn’t chart, radio stations will stop playing
it, Madness loose kudos and albums will stop selling, its a
downward spiral. Surely it’s not rocket science, so why can’t
their record company see this?”

Chris’ email was shortly followed-up by this from Mikel Echeberria…

“Dear MIS,

I have read your NEVER KNEW YOUR NAME special edition
issue.

As some of you may know, I am a LPs, singles, merchandise
and anything Madness related collector. However, regarding
this NEVER KNEW YOU NAME “single” download, I disagree. I
am not going to buy it. Why?

– It is exactly the same song that I already have on my
Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da CD
– It is exactly the same song that I have on the promo CD
that I already have bought on Ebay
– It is probably going to be the same song that I will get
when I buy the “de luxe” edition of OOSSJJDD later this
year.
– I have no physical tangible thing to collect.
– There are no new songs like in the good old days (any
Madness 7″ or 12″ had a new version, instrumental or song
to add to your collection, which was the reason why we
bought the singles.

What is the point of having 2 or 3 identical songs on your
computer? Helping the song to reach a higher chart position?
Then why don’t they (Madness managers) give us something
else? (such as a 7″ vinyl, a new song, a new version, a 12″
version, a demo…).

I think that it is too mean to ask us to buy 3 times the same
thing.

So: NoNo, nein nein, pas pas… until I get a physical release
or a NEW version to download.

All the best,

Mikel (a collector)”

If any other readers have opinions on this do please let us know. If we get enough of a response we’ll print the best ones in a future issue.

Our thanks go to Chris and Mikel for taking the time to get in touch.

Rob Hazelby

[3] – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby goes back 5 years to issue number
456 and the week of Sunday 27th January to Saturday 2nd February 2008, and then back 10 years to issue number 194 and the week of Sunday 26th January to Saturday 2nd February 2003.

5 years ago…

Issue 456 – Sunday 27th January – Saturday 2nd February 2008

It’d been a confusing week, as countless numbers of chart statistics were either sent to us directly or posted over on The Madness Trading Ring.

We knew that Madness charted in the official UK music charts at a not to be sniffed at 24, but we’d since learned that they managed to hit the coveted number one slot. Admittedly, this was in the official UK Indie music chart. The Scottish charts saw the band come in at a very impressive number 3.

On a more worrying note, Madness Trading Ring subscriber, Andrew Langmead reported that NW5 didn’t even enter the top 100 downloads on iTunes. With digital music distribution becoming an ever larger way for bands to sell their latest tunes, this seemed to indicate that those who were going to buy the single already had.

As most of us Madness fans were no longer buyers of singles, it could mean that most are instead holding back for the forthcoming album release. Whilst the singles coming from the Dangermen Sessions failed to set the charts alight, the album itself actually did rather well.

On to the articles, and things kicked off with the exciting news revealing that Madness were rumoured to be appearing at the Coachella Festival, California, on the 25th of April. Stateside fans were already hoping that if this proved to be true, that the band would make the most of the trip by scheduling in other gigs during that time.

Next, we looked at the latest episode of Suggs’ current TV series, “Survivors”, which this week looked at a Dinosaur Park, featuring concrete versions of long extinct animals. The fascinating thing about this was that these dinosaurs were based on what Victorian scientists thought they looked like, so they were like no dinosaur you’d ever seen.

Also in this episode Suggs visited the location of the original Crystal Palace glass building, which in many ways was a millennium dome style project from 100 years previous, the show also visited the Electric Palace, one of the first cinemas or picture houses as they were called, in the uk.

It was over to Dicka next, who’d stumbled upon an article from The Times Online, covering Suggs’ recent visit to his old school to give the pupils a spot of his songwriting magic. This came in the form of a GCSE music lesson, hosted by the man himself.

The majority of this issue, however, was taken up with a massive transcript of Pete Mitchell’s Radio 2 interview with the one and only Suggs. Some five years on it’s still an interesting read, and I hate to think how long it took to transcribe!

We brought this week’s issue of the MIS to a close with the latest roundup of tour dates for tribute outfit, One Step Behind, and news that the Independent newspaper were giving away two 10-track Stiff Records CDs that were well worth adding to the old collection.

10 years ago…

Issue 194 – Sunday 26th January – Saturday 2nd February 2003

We started the issue off with an article from MIS subscriber, Sarah Beamish, who attempted to educate the rest of us heathens in the art of making your mobile phone as nutty as possible. This mobile magic seemed to be carried out by installing backdrops, screensavers and ringtones from various free and commercial sites.

At the time the MIS team had phones that just weren’t able to perform the tasks required, and even now. with our up-to-date phones we’re still not sure how to set all these things up.

A sign of old age? Quite possibly.

The forthcoming week was certainly one for Madness fans wishing to catch the group on UK TV, and it all seemed to take place on Monday the 27th for some reason. This night in question saw Suggs appear on the latest episode of Salvage Squad, Chas appear as guest on music quiz show Nevermind The Buzzcocks, and all of the band appear on BBC comedy show The Kumars at Number 42.

Elsewhere in the issue we reported on the fact that although the Christmas tour merchandise was now online and available for viewing, you couldn’t actually buy any of it. Each item was priced at a very reasonable zero pounds and zero pence, and if you added bits and pieces to your virtual ‘basket’, and then proceeded to the checkout, the site threw a wobbly, declaring that the item(s) you had chosen were out of stock.

Fans were keen to purchase the goodies. Unfortunately they just weren’t able to.

The issue continued with a transcript of Ska Patrol’s interview with Lee Thompson, which took place after the Cardiff International Arena gig back in December. In it Lee spoke about the band, Crunch, and his stint in Australia.

With the South West somewhat lacking in the Madness tribute band department, the exciting news came in that Bristol was to have it’s very own tribute outfit in the form of 1st Step Below. Due to play their first gig this coming Saturday, the MIS team would be attending, and reporting back to the readers once they’d recovered from a heavy night out.

Rob Hazelby

[4] – TWEETS OF A DOVE – LATEST BAND TWITTERING

This week we bid a warm welcome to the return of our semi regular tweets round up article, featuring the latest musings from the band, via that famous character-limited messaging system, Twitter.

MIKE

This week Mike Barson Tweeted…

“Doing photo session for album deluxe version, going to be good I think.” Later replying after the event that he thought the session had gone well. So it looks like some artwork internal or otherwise is in the works for the deluxe album, we had previously heard rumours it might be song inspired like the brilliant Rise and Fall cover.

More intriguing than pictures, was a tweet to an old record producer of the band. We will continue to wonder what the search of old audio might lead to.

“..Mayfair Studios. u remember? Were looking for the old audio!”

After last week’s Chris Packham compilation video featuring moments where he’d slipped Madness songs into Winter Watch live on BBC1, (that we then put up on our youtube and showed to the band) it’s nice to see Mike tweeted the man, slipping some references of his own into his tweet…

“Ha ha Nice one Chris Believe me, that was Absolutely Wonderful!
x Mike”

CHRIS

Meanwhile Chrissy Boy has been explaining away the look that got him called “Elton John” on the Jonathan Ross Show…

“I asked tailors (Gresham Blake) for a punk suit, not pink! Predictive text…”

While he blamed his lack of ability to do any backing vocals on Tesco Burgers…

“I had some of these last night, my voice is a bit hoarse”

Where as Suggs broke his 6 month tweet silence today to tweet from the early hours of Canne in France.

SUGGS

“When the ship goes down, you better be ready! Aye aye! X”

Quite why Cypress Hill Lyrics were on his mind at early AM French time, we don’t know. An event scuffle, band politics, too much substance, or just a moan about the state of the early ferry home?

LTSO

“I shall play on” tweeted the LTSO account, in reply, on the poop deck, to the above.

For the majority of the time the band are mostly twittering more horse burger jokes, while the album release stays under wraps.

Meanwhile, talking about their 2013 album, The Magic brothers replied about the influences on it…

MAGIC BROTHERS

“Bit of Beatles, bit of Steve Hillage, bit of rock bit of pop, film music and brotherly love”

And they commented that soon they would have some songs from the completed mastered album up on their website, and that they are now into the album artwork stage.

BEDDERS

As we reported last week, when asked about race course gigs for the summer. Mark replied “Not sure what’s what yet…”

Compiled from Twitter.

[5] – MADNESS ON TARATATTATATATATA & BBC BREAKFAST

As well as repeats of The Jonathan Ross Show, Madness this week appeared on BBC Breakfast television, and the recorded appearance made last year for French pop show TARATATTATOUILE also aired.

You can visit the page for show 444 of TARANTINOTATA here…
http://tinyurl.com/afkvvs4

All being well you should see a video of the show. A small pop up set of videos will appear overlaying the bottom of the video player, this allows you to scroll right and choose the two videos around the middle of the show.

The first is a picture of Suggs. It’s Madness playing Never Knew Your Name on Taramasalatatatata,while following it is an interview. The interview is conducted in English, with French subtitles. This leads to the amusing moment where Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da is translated live by Suggs into “Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes” only for the subtitle to take it back to “Oui Oui Oui Oui Oui Oui Oui Oui!”.

The presenter says the French are proud that Madness choose Oui Oui to start the title.

The best thing said in the interview is that Madness are getting quicker at doing albums, so the next one which they are happy to work on, will be out in Two years! And that the band are in a good place.

When trying to describe the Jubilee and Olympics experiences to the French, Suggs compared the experience to LSD, to which the presenter smiles and mumbles “English culture” as the reason for this!

If you click on the picture below the video of the artist Madness you will be taken to a biog page, where the video tab will also let you watch the 2005 appearance on the show Taranshulatatata. Here the band played Iron Shirt, Girl etc. Indeed, a clip of One Step Beyond from an earlier edition of the show Tarapalmerthompkinsontatatata is also aired on the live show before the interview.

The host asks about The gap in the 80’s. They talk about the new album and artwork. Very nicely the host praises the poetry of the lyric Madness have written on the album. He also asked if they are frightened of being out of step with the pop world. Suggs replies that Madness are never in fashion so never out of it.

Beethoven symphony within Misery is pointed out, with Suggs not quite understanding at first, but then singing it when he realises the mention, and the host compares the use of Swan Lake in the past on One Step Beyond to this latest classical Madness moment.

——

While over on the BBC here…

Woody and Suggs talk yet again about The Jubilee and Olympics, the album artwork, with Woody taking over the much heard anecdotes.

Suggs is asked by the divvy presenter if he’s a pensioner. He jokes about popstars being able to get £500 quid pension once they are 40, going on to say the album is sponsored by Saga holidays.

When asked how you choose tracks for an album, are you democratic?
Woody replies. “No, we fight!”, before going on to talk about Chelsea kicks.

Jonathan Young
With thanks to French MIS and Dicka

[6] – SUGGS AND WOODY WITH MAYO

Suggs and Woody appeared with Simon Mayo on Radio 2 this week, where Simon urged them that Misery should be the next single, from what he Calls “The Yes Album”, (with him already championing it to the station and industry.)

We like Simon Mayo we do.

If you missed the show and can’t access BBC iPlayer we have mp3ed the appearance and you can hear it direct from MIS here.

“Great album”, proclaims Simon. Woody recounts the album title and artwork, the beautifully crossed out names. Simon reads all the titles, liking “Dollaly” the most. They discuss the slow process of Madness thinking. Suggs says that management were nervous of them revealing this side of their indecision. Suggs saying if you put your foot down then it does stop the band going forward.

Woody talks more about his writing for the album, and his brother writing with him, and the Magic Brothers is mentioned. “Maybe I’m getting pushy in my old age.”

They talk about putting all the songs on the chalk board at the start of making an album. Suggs mocks Woody’s songs, saying that they started with 30 or 40 songs, which are not finished songs by any stretch of talk. Woody’s are only good once Suggs has finished with them.

Suggs talks about Never knew your name, being about a time before texting.

Suggs talks about Bedders being back the day before yesterday and he hadn’t noticed he had been gone for six months. (That’s sort of true he jokes).

We’ve never had deps says Woody about him and Suggs. (Forgetting the day of Ron the drum Machine or Suggs the Pebble mill dummy! he’s
right.)

It can get like the one top, says Suggs jokingly, referring to the four tops if three of them left.

Woody talks about how many bands have folded completely in the last
30 years while they still are going.

They talk about the longevity of Madness and the Jubilee and festival effect on the five generations now of Madness fans.

Woody jokes of the irony of Buckingham Palace being our house, cus publicly it is a state building belonging to all the people technically etc.

Where they play on the summer race courses is discussed with Suggs joking they once went on and the race wasn’t finished but they avoided all the horses.

“You win each way”, says Woody. “We either drown your sorrows cus you’ve no money left after the races, or we help you celebrate your winnings”.

Woody calls Suggs’ show very moving and entertaining, before playing Misery, Woody calls Simon God.

“Instant familiarity, even if you’ve never heard it before”, says Simon of the song Misery. Now there is a quote for the promo CD sticker!

Jonathan Young

[7] – WE WANT MORE OF THE DUBLIN CASTLE

Support the best pub on the planet, as they apply for later licensing.

The legendary Dublin Castle would like you to support them here…

http://www.facebook.com/SupportTheDublinCastle

“In order to compete with the pub-chains and corporations
that own the late bars and venues in Camden Town, we’ve
requested a later licence from Camden Council.

All we want is a level playing field. We asked for 5am
but whilst considering residents’ concerns 3am should
help us. Please support our application by liking this
page. Let the show go on!”

We’ve got 15 objections including a Lib dem Councillor
saying No! Please “like” and share our page. The main
objection seems to be customers “singing” going home
(NOT FIGHTING !!!!) whilst walking down the
A4201 also know as Parkway (yes the main road).

So in future, no being happy going home from the Dublin
Castle OK!!!!!!!

Please “LIKE” and don’t forget to “SHARE”.

The Dublin Castle”

Jonathan Young

[8] – SUGGS LIVE – PROMOTION

The latest promotional wording for Suggs Live show was sent to us direct from the theatre managers this week. Here’s the latest promo text for his one man show…

Suggs
MyLifeStory
In words and music

I’ve just turned 50, the kids have left home, and my cat just died.

In Suggs: My Life Story the Madness frontman takes to the stage in a hilarious, yet moving, one man tour de force playing to rave reviews.

The death of Suggs’ beloved cat on his fiftieth birthday triggers a personal quest to discover what happened to the father he never knew.
Stunned by what he learns Suggs is taken back to his childhood on the tough streets of 1970’s Soho and his first appearance on Top Of The Pops at the age of eighteen…

Is it a play? Is it stand up comedy? Is it Music Hall?

Whatever it is hold on to your seats as Suggs goes on to stumble and plummet through the trap door of failure. Then trampoline back up to catch the passing trapeze of show business success!

WITH MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT AND UNCALLED FOR INTERJECTION FROM DEANO HIS LOYAL MANSERVANT-CUM-PIANIST

“Very funny, and delivered with a sense of timing and phrasing that many common-or-garden comics could learn much from”
4 stars Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph

“Suggs has natural comic timing and tells his story with wit and grace in this hugely enjoyable evening”.
4 stars Dominic Maxwell, The Times

“It is impossible not to be charmed by this one man show”
4 Stars Jessica Hayes, Time Out

“Suggs is an effortlessly engaging raconteur”
Simon Price, Sunday Independent

“The charisma of an accomplished actor the timing of a veteran standup”
Mark Lawson, The Guardian

“One of the most original and engaging shows I’ve seen”
Mark Lawson – The Guardian.

“Funny and moving Suggs has made his life story into a great night out”
Simon Price, Sunday Independent

www.suggslive.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Live-Suggs/198787250159643

[9] – IN THE MIDEM OF THE STREET

Last night Madness performed in a tent in France, at MIDEM, the industry showcase for music in Canne. Here are reviews, videos and set list.

One Step Beyond
Embarrassment
The Prince
NW5

My Girl
My Girl 2
Take It Or Leave It
The Sun & The Rain
How Can I Tell You
Never Knew Your Name
Shut Up
Bed and Breakfast Man
Misery

Leon
House Of Fun
Baggy Trousers
Our House
It Must Be Love

Death Of A Rude Boy
Madness
Night Boat To Cairo

After 3 hours driving, here we are in Cannes, small but brilliant venue, just near the festival palais.

With sponsors NRJ Virgin Music and posted everywhere, and a giant billboard on the rear facade of the palace, fifteen artists including Rihana were playing, and a huge crowd gathered outside that watched the appearance of “stars”.

A round venue, called The Mirror Place, with mirrors all around, about 3/400 people, just by invitation or competition by Midem festival.

After Asaf Avidian show its Madness time, at about 11pm, unusual time…

No kix tonight, I’ve asked, the reply, he was away…. There was a stand in Sax player beyond the three brass section. But for the first time for years in Europe we had Bedders for a full time concert!
Welcome back mr. Bedford!

There was the usual show time announcement but no song, a rap.

The audience was maybe too young to appreciate the new songs tonight, but the reaction was enthusiastic to the classics, good gig. Finally a kid called Matteo and another came on stage and danced with Suggs and Chas Night on Boat …

Alessandro Trevor Baiardi

Thanks also to The French MIS

[10] – JIM’LL FIX IT SIGNED MADNESS GUITAR

A tale of childhood dreams, prime time television, time marching on, growing up, death, shame and scandal, MIS, and ebay. It’s the story of Jim’ll Fix It and a guitar signed by Madness.

And so it came to pass that in MIS 353 we wrote an article called “Jim’ll Fox It.”

I genuinely wrote in MIS in February 2006…

“As any child of the 1970’s or 80’s knows Jimmy Saville was a wonderful cigar chomping, jewellery rattling, wizard of the impossible. Or so it seemed to our naive minds at the time…”

How ironic such an introduction seems now.

But back in 2006 all that was on our minds was how great some of the old TV clips featuring the band were, that we were discovering thanks to fans online, and the birth of youtube or the old MIS video site uploads we were working on.

The fact that Madness appeared on Jim’s show, and let a little girl sing with the band, seemed just a unique mix of their generosity and a pop song dream coming true for a lucky fan.

Being Madness they topped the dream with a gift. They gave Natasha Fox a guitar signed by all seven of the band, and she no doubt showed it to all of her class mates at school the next week, lucky as pie.

“Lets hope you write some songs on it”, quips Mark, and Suggs adds…

“Maybe we can come on here with you in a few years time.”

And so watching the 1983 clip, filled with wonder we at MIS wrote that we were seeking Natasha Fox.

Are you still so into Madness, “the best band in the world”, as you wrote in your letter?

Are you into music, that you play at whatever level?

Do you still have the guitar? Or did it go up on ebay?

Were some of the questions we thought it would be fun at the time to ask if we could find her, 23 years on. We put out the article, asked people to help and did a little bit of online searching.

Nothing happened.

For Seven years.

…

Jimmy Saville Died.

Jimmy Saville turned out to be more into fixing things for himself. As a mountains of covered up sexual scandal allegations involving young victims hit the press over a number of weeks recently. Unavoidably taking the focus of all headlines.

…

And then. This week. Friend of MIS Mark Bowen said…

“Hi, just to let you know that someone is selling the signed Madness guitar from Jim’ll Fix It when they sang with the girl Tomorrow’s Just Another Day.

The seller states it was signed in 1983 on that program and on the clip of the boys on the programme they did indeed give her a guitar that they said they would sign for her. The seller bumpkin246.”

Was this Natasha?

It seems some of our questions were finally being answered. For what ever reasons, here was a pictured guitar matching the video footage, lovingly signed by the band. No longer required. For sale.

30 years on. It may have been treasured for a long time, by the original owner, but that joked about song moment doesn’t seem to be coming from the endeavour then.

Mark Investigated further…

“The seller of the guitar said she was the girl but that it was irrelevant that she was selling the guitar due to the Jimmy Saville scandal”

All these facts leave me in the swim. And so that’s the end of the tale then. Yes it did end up on the online auction site.

There is one last question perhaps. Will anyone buy this? At £800?
There is 15 hours left on the auction, no bids.

Well we need a moment, to reflect, (no not upon those lives he might have wrecked…)

Just upon the closed door.
You, don’t want this guitar any more.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261158816817

I hear them say tomorrow’s just another ebay.

Jonathan Young/Mark Bowen

[11] – THAT’S YER LOT

We’re almost done, but before we go we’ve got a few last minute bits and pieces to pass in your general direction.

First-up, and over on Facebook, Madness fan Paul Quinn cleverly pointed out that the current T-shirt http://tinyurl.com/agp9agl on sale during the Mad store’s 15% off sale, is a clever parody of the “refer madness” information film poster – a cult anti drugs information film from America’s past that was re-adopted as mockable by youth culture.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/249838181711283

Moving on, and news courtesy of Chris and his much-loved cupboard is that Madness.co.uk is being overhauled. There’s currently no timescale on when the new look might launch, but he says…

“The whole site is getting overhauled, that bit M Section will
go into the ether.”

The M section has been up for around 4 years now which is fair enough for a 2009 album bonus. So, if you are a Liberty of Norton Folgate Box set owner now might be a good time to make sure you’ve got all the
exclusive tracks available there before it disappears.

And finally, if you’d like to see Suggs and Carl interviewed on RTL France Radio point your web browsers over to:

The audio’s in English, but there are French subtitles, so hopefully the majority of MIS readers will be able to enjoy this.

And with that, we’ll draw this issue to a close.

Until next week, take care,

Jon, Rob, Simon, Liz
(With special thanks to Alessandro Trevor Baiardi, the French MIS team, Chris Carter-Pegg, Mikel Echeberria, Paul Rodgers and Dicka)