IN THIS ISSUE ...

1 - THE EDITOR WRITES - This weeks news and information in brief.

2 - ONE STEP BEHIND - Latest tour dates and contact details courtesy
    of Brendan Phipps

3 - THAT MADNESS/VIRGIN PROMOTIONAL THING... - Mark Bedford gives us
    some background information regarding the recent Madness and
    single releases, and looks towards the forthcoming release of
    `Drip Fed Fred` and the music minefield up ahead.

4 - DRIP FED FRED - CD SINGLE REVIEWS - As the release date for the
    next Madness single gets ever closer, one or two early releases
    seem to be finding their way into the grasp of one or two online
    Maddies. Here's Peter Gardner and Chris Carter-Pegg with reviews
    of two `Drip Fed Fred` singles which should be appearing in a 
    music store near you soon...

5 - NUTTY SOUNDS VOLUME 4 - Once again the fourth and final 
    instalment of the `Nutty Sounds` has arrived, and like its 
    predecessors it does not disappoint. A wide range of music is 
    covered here ranging from live to remixed, solo to spin-offs and
    a bit of Madness thrown in for good measure. Vince Foley reports.

6 - THOSE BLIKIN' BLOCKEADS! - Wozza is back with a listing of 
    updates to blockheads.co.uk and news that it's finally been
    recognised as `The Official Fansite`.

7 - THE SCOTTISH FRED CAMPAIGN TRAIL, AND A TUBE OF PRITSTICK - TMML
    subscriber Wee Stoo reports on the first Scottish Madmeet which
    was combined with a mammoth `Vote for Fred` advertising campaign,
    a major booze-up and a near-legendary tube of glue!

8 - GOODNIGHT, GOD BLESS YOU ALL... - Thanks and closing words.

[1] - THE EDITOR WRITES

The `Drip Fed Fred` bandwagon continues to rocket along, with news
just in that the boys are to perform on ITV's `This Morning` with
Richard and Judy on Monday 28th of this month and the new video will
be aired on CD:UK on Saturday 26th. Thanks to Alan Cahill for the 
information.

Elsewhere, Madness fans are taking to the streets with their own DFF
advertising campaign. A certain MIS Online subscriber who I assume
wishes to remain nameless tells me that `somehow`, the main Ministry
of Defence building in Whitehall, London has decided to help the
boys out by displaying 4 posters announcing `Vote for Fred.... It's
Madness`, in their windows. What sort of person would do something
like that?! Information continued to flood in and it was revealed 
that not only were the posters being displayed in the MOD, but one
of the posters was almost opposite Downing Street!!! Could old Tony
Blair have caught sight of these banners as he was whisked to and
from meetings? A nation needs to know!! It is not known at this
moment in time if an investigation is in progress, but I'm sure that
the nameless Madness fan will keep us informed!

Continuing with the ever-growing Madness campaign, and on Wednesday
16th, approximately 25 Maddies met up in Camden Town for a `Drip fed
Fred` poster blitz and advertising campaign. Total Madness Mailing
List subscriber, Chris Mountain reports that "457 million (a possible
exaggeration?) `Vote For Fred` flyers were stuck all over the place,
whilst `Fred` sandwich boards were lofted above the heads of a number
of people. Apparently spirits got a little out of hand at one point
and the local police made a brief appearance due to the gathering
behaving a little `too naughty`!

A certain Mr Chas Smash appeared later on and handed Adele Hargreaves
a gift to say `Thank you` for helping to organise the DFF rendezvous
whilst everyone else was treated to a free drink. Bedders also 
managed to pop along and various photo opportunities and chats got
underway. Chas then proceeded to phone his manager and a few members
of the lucky party were put on the TFI guest list for last Friday's
show. 

Some people have all the fun eh?! Many thanks to Chris Mountain for
the news.

If you've not caught a glimpse of the forthcoming DFF video, then
get along to the official Madness website at: www.madness.co.uk
where you'll find a short clip and lots of behind the scenes goodies.

Keep your eyes peeled to your television screens too. A flu and bed
ridden Vince Foley reports that the video for `Drip Fed Fred` has
started to receive screenings on VH1 Europe. A large number of
`Total Madness Mailing List` subscribers feature in the low budget
video which Mr Foley reports as;

     "It is indeed a class shoot and well worth
      the look in. I won't spoil it for anyone.
      I only hope that it does the trick. It 
      reminds me of how great the band were at 
      making videos with such a small budget."

If it's got the `Foley Seal of Approval`, it's got to be good!!

Those of you Mads out there currently practicing the guitar may
appreciate some help in the form of Madness guitar chords to make
that difficult and time-consuming `brushing-up` that much more
enjoyable. Pop along to:
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/OLGA/all/madness.html
Where you'll find chords for a number of classic Madness tracks
including; Night Boat to Cairo, Stepping Into Line and The Young
and The Old. Thanks go to Piergiorgio for the info.

To finish off the week, Madness were once again present on Chris
Evan's Channel Four show, `TFI Friday` where they were of course
performing the forthcoming single, `Drip Fed Fred`. Here's Jerney
with the details;

     "All of the guys were there, except Lee who went 
      on holiday with his family, so that is the 
      reason why he wasn't at the recording of the 
      show.

      They were really nice and they all gave us the 
      chance to get as many autographs and photographs
      as we liked. Chrissy Boy even posed in front of 
      a nice green bush for us and the pics turned out 
      beautiful! 

      Their gig was superb, wasn't it?! I even think 
      Suggs recognised me from December, because when
      he took his pic with me he looked at me and 
      said "hey ya?! How are you, are you ok?" 
      Nice bloke!

      What I found a bit sad was that (I think!) Mike 
      came all the way from Amsterdam in the morning 
      and he had quite some trouble finding a parking 
      place with his (rented????) Vauxhall car. Then, 
      when he finally found a place and he went inside
      to do the show he wasn't shown on TV at all, not 
      once!

      Don't you think that is a bit unfair? They might
      have saved him the trouble of coming all the way 
      over for just one song and then not being on TV 
      at all, they could have got another keyboard 
      player instead, to play in his place, like they 
      did with Lee.

      But there you go, people who work for TV just 
      don't think!"

Wise words indeed!

Well, with all the various bits and pieces that have been going on 
this week, we've got a truly bumper issue of the MIS. First up is
Brendan Phipps with the latest batch of tour dates from the excellent
Madness tribute band, `One Step Behind`. Mark Bedford has kindly
been tying away in the effort to give us all a swift beginners course
in record producing by explaining how and why the Madness single and
album release dates have been changing. 

Further on in, and Peter Gardner and Chris Carter-Pegg have managed 
to get their hands on the promo and single releases of `Drip Fed 
Fred`. Read just what they thought of the tracks and what have to 
look forward to.

Vince Foley returns with a superb track-by-track review of the 
recently released rarities CD, `Nutty Sounds 4, Wozza is here with
news that blockheads.co.uk has finally been awarded the accolade of
`Official Ian Dury Fansite`. And if all that wasn't enough, Wee Stoo
is here with a blow-by-blow account of the first ever Scottish 
Madmeet!!

And with that, lets get started!

Enjoy the read.

Robert Hazelby (MIS Online Editor)

[2] - ONE STEP BEHIND!!!

I already know that many of you need little or no excuse to get 
yourself down to your local pub or club! But to make the task
easier for those of you who require more persuasion, here's the
current listing of forthcoming gigs for the excellent `One Step
Behind`...

FEB     Fri 25th  Westminster University, Area 51, Harrow.
        Sat 26th Harlow, The Square

MAR Thu 16th Canterbury University

APR Sat 8th Walthamstow, The Standard.
        Sat 22nd  Gosport
        Sun 30th The Plough, Harrow

JUN Fri 2nd  Sidcup
        Sat 10th Dursley Cricket Club, Gloucs

DECEMBER Fri 15th South Shields

There are also a number of dates pencilled-in for France and Holland
which should be announced just as soon as they are confirmed.

In the meantime, should you wish to contact `One Step Behind` for any
reason, please get in touch with them via their new E-mail address at:

m_m_management at hotmail.com

Or visit the official One Step Behind Website at:
http://www.onestepbehind.co.uk

Many thanks to Brendan Phipps for the info.

[3] -  THAT MADNESS/VIRGIN PROMOTIONAL THING...

I thought that I might jump in and comment a little bit about the 
whole Madness/Virgin promotional thing. 

In some of the mailouts I've noticed that there has been alot of 
rumblings about the promotion, by Virgin Records, of 'Johnny the 
Horse' and 'Wonderful'.

As always, the band are really appreciative of the support shown by
everyone on the various lists and their determination to get Madness
records heard. We are all close to the band and the way it works - 
but when it comes to 'promo', it is the convincing of people who 
aren't so close that really matters.

Maybe, by example, I can give you some background as to how decisions
are made to promote our records.

I know that we have all been puzzled by the constant changing of 
release dates for various singles. Well, let me try and explain by 
telling you that 'Drip Fed Fred' will be released on Feb 28.

This was finally decided on for a number of reasons: Firstly, record
releases are now totally governed by appearances on TV! None of us 
think that the Lottery Show is great television but it does reach 17
million people! This gets record companies very excited. So the 
Lottery wanted us to go on, originally, Feb 12. So that, by rule of 
thumb, sets the release date for two/three weeks later.

But then the Lottery turned around and said, we want you on Jan 28! 
Now, that puts us in a terrible position. We know that if we turn it
down - they won't ask us on again. Tell them to get lost, you might
say but if we don't do it someone else will. And consequently their
single will get a jump. So if you follow the above formula - release
date February 14th.

But this doesn't coincide with the poster campaign! Slots have 
already been booked for the original release date, with different 
posters going up over three weeks. So the release date gets moved to
February 21st.

Now those of you with children will know that that is the week of
half-term! And, consequently, every boy and girl band on the planet 
will release a single that week. (Hoping to take some of the poor 
little mite's pocket money from their sticky hands).

Did you know that there will be 40 major releases on February 21st 
alone? 40 is not alot, I hear you say! But we are taking about 40 
records with big budgets for promotion from big bands that are 
current, who are fighting for the same space in an ever shrinking 
pool. (This is not forgetting all the dance and Indie label stuff 
that will come out as well).

So with all this in mind that is why the single landed the release 
date of February 28th!

But I've left the best to last. The reason why records really sell 
is that they are heard by alot of people 6, 7, 8 times a day, 
nationwide. Yes, RADIO!

To be honest we have had alot of trouble getting our records played
on the radio! I think people at radio stations are finding it very 
hard to fit Madness into neat little playlists. 'Johnny the Horse' 
suffered badly from this. Was it in the style of an old Madness song?
Was it a new direction? That has been the dilemma.

I can honestly say that the people at Virgin Records who work with 
Madness really are fans and want all the records to do well - 
hopefully you can see some of the problems that we/they are up 
against.

Kindest regards, Mark

[4] - DRIP FED FRED - CD SINGLE REVIEWS

As the release date for the next Madness single gets ever closer,
one or two early releases seem to be finding their way into the
grasp of one or two online Maddies. Here's Peter Gardner and Chris
Carter-Pegg with reviews of two `Drip Fed Fred` singles which
should be appearing in a music store near you soon...

I have had my own piece of very good fortune up here by getting my 
hands on an advance copy of one of the CD singles of Drip Fed Fred. 
How excited was I when unpacking it???;-) So here's the round up.

Track 1.
Drip Fed Fred (The Conspiracy Mix) (4min13s) - Well we've all heard 
bits and pieces of this now. Lots of extra percussion to beef it up 
a bit. Has all the lyrics intact from the album version. The only 
edit is the removal of the final instrumental bit (and fantastic 
Barson piano-playing) to give a longer sing-along chorus of "We want
Freddie...." to the fadeout. Class!

Track 2.
Elysium (3min55s) - Exactly as it is on the album, ie. completely 
brilliant!

Track 3.
We Want Freddie (3min40s) - This would appear to be the original 
demo version of the DFF with Lee doing all the vocal parts (to the 
original lyrics). This is even more bizarre than the version we all 
know and love. It's a bit slower and has that eastern sounding 
Barson organ in it. It also has lots of scratchy vinyl noises 
through it. Lee actually *sings* the Ian Dury parts rather than the 
spoken manner Mr Dury delivers it in. I prefer them to record new 
tracks as B-sides but this is odd and different enough (and also a 
good production) to make it worthwhile having on CD.

The cover is a slightly crumpled "We Want Freddie For Our Leader" 
poster plastered on a wall full of other crumpled blue posters. It's
a great picture which I'll have scanned in a matter of minutes. So 
if anyone wants to see it send me an e-mail (offlist). One  
disappointing thing (for me) is that the front cover makes no mention
of "Elysium", giving the impression that it is simply a B-side rather
than a AA-side, which is criminal if you ask me. I always thought 
DFF would get all the attention and it was a waste of a classic to 
put "Elysium" on the single but it's even more of a waste if it 
doesn't get listed as a AA-side. Hopefully CD2 will have an "Elysium"
front cover to balance things up.

Cheers for now,
Peter Gardner (Total Madness Mailing List Maintainer)

Found the general release version of Drip fed Fred for sale in a 
shop in London last weekend, no, its not one of the promo versions,
it seems to  be the real thing, catalogue number is VSCDX 1768, 
and is bar coded.  Can't think what it was doing on sale two weeks
early! 

The CD design and the sleeve graphics are much the same as for 
Lovestruck and Johnny the Horse, the cover of this one has the now 
familiar 'Vote For Fred' poster on the front, stuck on an Evening 
Standard display board. Title is "Drip Fed Fred - Madness featuring
Ian Dury*" there's no indication that Elysium is a Double (AA) side.
Background is mainly blue in colour. The inside of the cover is red
and contains the Drip fed Fred lyrics. 

The tracks on it are Drip fed Fred (the conspiracy mix) - this is 
basically the album version plus a few extra drum and symbols parts 
(don't think they add that much to it to be honest, can't quite see
the point). Track 2 is Elysium, album version I think. Track 3 is a
new one - 'Light of the Way', written and sung by Carl, a real kind 
of rock gospel anthem, quite different to the usual Madness style 
but still has a familiar feel to it all the same. A great sing-a-long
song and very catchy - quite a refreshing variation on the more 
tradition Madness styles. 

Chris Carter-Pegg

[5] - NUTTY SOUNDS VOLUME 4

Hey Now!
Once again the fourth and final instalment of the `Nutty Sounds` has
arrived, and like its predecessors it does not disappoint. A wide 
range of music is covered here ranging from live to remixed, solo 
to spin-offs and a bit of Madness thrown in for good measure. 17
tracks in all, a few have been seen before, with a few more a bit 
more obscure, all in all though another fine collection for the 
collection.

1. Our House (Madhouse instrumental Dub)
A similar mix appears in Nutty Sounds 3 and I now know that they 
originally appeared on a Geffen release 12 back in 1983. As I 
mentioned about the other mix, they far supersede the UK mixes of 
the track and are a sheer delight to listen to. It is my favourite
track from the entire 4 CD series and worth purchasing for this mix
alone. 10 out of 10.

2. Listen to Your father (Live 31/12/85)
This was first seen on the bootleg Blue Vinyl release of the Mad not
Mad Party on Jump Records (or else lifted off a BBC recording from 
the Hammersmith Odeon). It was the end of the Mad not Mad tour, and
Mr. Teenage kicks, Fergal Sharkey joined the band on stage for this 
rendition of the classic track. The live version follows the studio,
a bit faster in pace perhaps but quite enjoyable. Its Lees sax that 
is the best part of it which thankfully drowns out the backing 
vocalists at times. I'm sorry but I never took to the three voices 
the Maddies employed for that tour. 

3. Patience (The Madness)
Not the first time this has cropped up on CD, it previously appeared
on I Pronounce You CD single, however the chances of getting that 
are very slim indeed. It was also featured on the 12 and was perhaps
the most different track the band ever did. A futuristic 
instrumental, with only the words patience and television while the 
synthesisers that made the The Madness sound are ever-present. I
actually love this track, its so damn moody and so bloody different.
There is some cool brass too to complete the great sound.

4. I'm Only Sleeping (Suggs Live Danny Baker After All BBC1 1993)
I remember seeing this performance and thinking that I was taping it,
the tape never came out and I looked for this track for years. I 
am delighted that this track is on the CD. It is a lot nearer to the
Beatles own version of the track (Revolver 1966) than the 
over-produced version that appeared on the Lone Ranger in 1995. The 
backing band by the way were called the Bow-Town Bottlers and this 
was such an impressive performance, that Warners actually approached
Suggs about a solo career as a result. The rest as we say is history.

5. Saints & Sinners (Crunch Demo)
This begins to a wobbly start with a church organ, but soon livens up
in a confident beat with Mr. T starting his thing with fast paced 
lyrics leading into a catchy and dynamic chorus of Sinners and 
Saints. It's one that will stick in your head immediately and you 
will be humming this for weeks. Again it baffles me that this stuff 
never got mainstream release, but such is life.

6. My Girl (Suggs Live Don't Forget your Toothbrush)
One of Suggs own covers of Madness tracks and this is perhaps the 
nearest sounding to the original. The band here and that sax player 
actually do not sound too off the Madness sound. What can I say about
this song that you don't know, only there a few sprinkling of Suggs 
talking during the song, besides this, its very similar to the 
sound you are already familiar with.

7. Moondance (Live Birmingham 1992)
I remember Chas talking about this track in a Select Magazine 
interview back in 1992. If Madness were to release new material back
then, it would be the kind of sound they were aiming towards. To be 
honest, I am glad this never happened. I am sorry, but of all the
post-Madstock material, this would be my least favourite. It simply 
plods along at a slowish pace with a repeating and heavy bassline 
with an almost jungle sounding backing track. Chas does give his
utmost with roaring lyrics and that is perhaps the best part, but to
be honest it doesn't resemble the classic sounds we are so accustomed
to from the guys. Wise choice guys to leave this one slip.

8. Sunshine Boys (Crunch Live 1993)
This track again starts off slow in its keyboards, but build faster 
and faster, almost like a Turkish dance with the words move your body
shouted at the audience. It doesn't remind me of any Madness track, 
its just a very Crunch-like track. I think thats a compliment to 
the band in edging their own sound for themselves. The piano though 
does have certain Barson-esque qualities, which surely cant be a bad
thing, now can it?

9. Going Solo (Crunch Live 1993)
Taken from the same concert in London, this track is sheer class. In
contradiction to the last one, you could actually see the seven doing
a great version of this track, not that the Crunch one isn't. The sax
break is very Thompson (well done Steve!). The only fault here is 
that the sound quality could be better. I hope one day they get into
the studio and do this one justice and get it out for the masses.

10. Culture Vulture (Live 22/6/1996)
I remember hearing this one live at Madstock 3 in 96 and thinking how
bloody Madness. Another Thompson/Barson composition, which guarantees
greatness, the track, is simply fab. It ranges in its chorus, verse 
and instrumental break. All are on top form, especially Mikes piano. 
I love the whistling in the instrumental bit as well as the Saxes. 
The lyrics themselves are quite cool, too deep to go into here, I
will leave it as a surprise. This track should have been on 
Wonderful, or at least made B-sides status, Mr. Langer, what were 
you thinking leaving this one off?

11. It Must be Love (Suggs Live on Gerry Kelly UTV)
>From a few year back, this acoustic version is not a million limes 
off the original Labbi Saffri one. The single guitar accompanying 
the Suggsmeister makes an interesting chance from the anthem of 
the seven-piece. There is an equally sexy alto-sax break during the
instrumental, which compliments the smoothness of the vocals and 
the strumming guitar. Ah yes, love is the best!

12. Blackberry Way (Suggs Live BBC1 1998)
I was in a mates house in London the night before Madstock 4 the 
night this was first shown on the great Ben Elton show. I'd love 
to know who had this song first, as its a classic. The backing band
in that of  the Eltones delivers a great brass section with female 
backing vocals to compliment the great one. Reminds me of the 
version he did of I'm Only Sleeping on Bakers show a few years 
back. Its one of those oldies that you'd just know from somewhere
the minute you hear it. The only problem with this one is the 
length, at under 2 minutes, it is a pity as I was just enjoying 
him sing this one!

13. House of Fun (Utter Madness & Suggs Live)
Taken from the Channel 5 Night Fever programme he hosts, the 
tribute band Utter Madness help out, or try to here. The fake Suggs
sings most of this and sounds more like my dead gran, how did 
these guys get on? The man himself only pops on for a few lines to
save the day. Still though, nice to have.

14. Lovestruck (Live 1/7/99 Channel 4)
This performance has such good memories for me, and I was delighted 
to get it onto CD. The first time on TV with this track and it,
slightly shorter than the original, finds the guys in top form. I 
can picture them all now as they were giving it their utmost with 
all simply note perfect. A triumphant return to form, with Evans 
even saying that song has to be number one. As the song finishes out,
listen to the Smash shout Arsenal before it goes back to Chris.

15. The Prince (Wubble U No Dubs)
As I can never tell any difference with re-mixes, here is what I said
about the other mix on Nutty Sounds 3, the same applies here: After 
the debacle that was the Paul Gottel Night Boat to Cairo versions 
back in 1993, I have been very dubious to listen to this sort of 
stuff. I really don't like modern mixes of Madness tracks, but it is
actually the most bearable of them all. You can actually still hear
semblance of the original track here, mixed amongst the 90s beat and
toasting done throughout the song. Very ragga-based stuff.

16. One Step Beyond (RIPS Mad Ska Radio Mix)
17. One step Beyond (RIPS Get Saxy Instrumental Mix)
Again, little for me to say on these versions, not really a fan. 
Last weeks words say it all: To be honest these are not to my 
liking. The original and the best still rule. To be honest there 
is simply very little trace of the original track here on both
these, very similar tracks. Chas Smashs shouts of Madness would 
only suggest so, as the rest completely veers off the Madness sound.

So that is the lot, the fourth and final group of Madness rarities,
for the time being. Another eclectic mix as you can see with 
something for everyones likes and dislikes. If you come across 
them, buy them. They are well worth having. If you don't see them
you could email the Madness Unsugged guru (dripfedvin at yahoo.com)
and he will let you know the details. 

I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I have listening to the CDs.

All the best,

Vince Foley!

[6] - THOSE BLIKIN' BLOCKEADS!

Dear all,

Thanks to the guys and gals at EastCentralOne, blockheads.co.uk has 
now been named the `Official Dury Fansite`. This means we get loadsa
help from Dury's record label, and even (possibly) Dury himself. Of
course iandury.co.uk is known as "Ian's site" which in some ways is 
THE official site, but in someways isn't.

The latest news on blockheads.co.uk are as follows: -

Lyrics - we now have 36 lyrics up. Some of them have a few gaps, but
we hope to fill them in soon. If  you can fill in some gaps, please 
contact me ASAP.

Discography - Added some more stuff basically!

The rest of the sections are deadlined to be up by 14th March, so 
stay tuned! The site is available at http://www.blockheads.co.uk

All the best,

Wozza.

[7] - THE SCOTTISH FRED CAMPAIGN TRAIL, AND A TUBE OF PRITSTICK

Afternoon all,

As I take a welcome seat in my own room after a very hectic week I
don't have to think back too far to remember the end of the first 
ever Scottish madmeet (it ended only a few hours ago in fact).

Unusually, I turn up at the appropriately named 'Lauders' bar ever 
so slightly late as MrG, Peter and bro and Rob W sit in glorious 
'Vote for Fred' T-shirts whilst tucking into chips... while our man
Iain (on lunch break) puts the rest of the pub goers to shame in his
Armani threads! ;o)

Poor young Rob shows us his cut hand thanks to a bit of dodgy 
driving by a bus driver and a pair of scissors, and the poor 
barmaids couldn't go anywhere without being under the watchful gaze 
of MrG and Peter. I honestly felt sorry for her. ;)

So as a full size jazz/stage band begin blattering out hits of 
yestermillenium, we head off...not before a few `Vote for Fred` 
leaflets find themselves onto the toilet walls, and the desk of the 
bemused sound guy.

And onto the street, with Drip Fed Fred blaring out of a bag we 
begin our leafleting campaign. I find my tactics in this (as used 
in london) very clever indeed.

Glasgow's latest shopping development, The Buchannan Galleries was 
next on our hit list. Whoops. We thought it would be a good idea 
anyway....but the security guards didn't. Especially the one that 
followed us up the escalator and told us off. Did that stop us? Did 
it f....

Another pub is visited, Peter sets off on a private mission, returns
and we head off to the streets yet again. A great Glasgow place, 
13th note was dropped into. I think this one gets the award for 
'Most Vote for Fred leaflets in one place'. Cos at this point, we had
had a good few and were beginning to frequent the toilet a little more
than usual. On every trip, another handful of leaflets were taken...

Then we set off for food, `Abrakebabra` the destination. However, 
Rob was almost treated to a free dinner courtesy of HRH. No sooner 
had we got have way up the sauchie, a meat wagon sweeps round the 
corner, two of Strathclyde's 'finest' swoop on poor Rob.... MrG gets
told to stand aside as the 'polis' mens hands squeezed into the 
latex gloves......no, i am just joking. He wasn't subject to ruthless
violation such as that...but he was questioned and forced to give 
details and threatened with being booked for breach of the peace, and
told not to do anything with his flyers. His crime? Putting a tube of
prit-stick to his forehead.

So , eventually we made it to the fine abrakebabra where we then 
fired cash into the Jukey and the place rocked to a rousing rendition
of `Lovestruck`, with 4 Scottish singers .

More leaflet hand outs as we make our way to O'henrys. A spilt lager
and an increasing premature divorce from mind and body later, in 
comes Mr Mason with a couple of mates and his good lady. For some 
reason I found myself in central station on my tod, handing out 
leaflets to some girls in an extremely surreal conversation which 
centered around how sexy Fred was, and if I was Fred. Still, as long
as the message got through..

Back to the pub as we head to the final establishment of the night, 
`The Drum and Monkey`. After chucking out time, Rob's bus didn't turn
up and so Colin offered us space to crash at his house. So more 
leaflets as we went to the taxi rank, and almost a fight between 
one or two of our members and the chippy owner..and also the odd 
shouted swear-word from one of our number who shall remain nameless
but who has a thing for a lass called Faye from a certain singing 
and dance routine group. 

And so, a good nights kip at MrG's and a read of the News of the 
World later, off we went on our merry way, the first Scottish 
Madmeet, and one which was extremely effective. A good number of 
people took a great interest in it, Madness fans of old, TFI 
viewers, lots of folk now know that there is another top class 
Madness single on the verge of hitting the shops. As Rob says "If we
only get one person to buy it cos of this stunt, it'll have been 
worthwhile!"

So, a mammoth event and a mammoth review.

I bid you all good day,

Stoo

[8] - GOODNIGHT, GOD BLESS YOU ALL...

Many thanks to all who have contributed to this edition of the MIS
Bulletin. I was hoping to cram in a review of the recently released
issue 8 of `Ska-Mad`, but due to time constraints and a rather heavy
weekend of boozing in and around Camden, that will be appearing next
week.

If he's feeling particularly generous, we'll be starting a seven-part
series hosted by the MIS and TMML's very own `Scatty`, entitled,
`Chatting up Women, the Madness way`. Then again, perhaps not! ;-) 

Thank you to everyone who sent me bits and pieces for printing in
this issue, and thanks to all who's work has found it's way into this
edition of the bulletin.

And to finish with. Following the beer-gut-creating Scottish Madmeet,
here's what readers of Scotland's Edition of `News of The World` were
face to face with whilst munching their Sunday breakfast...

     NEVER MIND THE BALLOTS...

     SHOPPERS gawped yesterday as a horde of 
     Madness fans brought chaos to Glasgow city
     centre with a special election rally. The 
     nutty devotees waved placards and plastered
     shops, cars and windows with hundreds of 
     posters urging people to 'Vote For Fred'. 
     The wacky stunt was to promote the band's
     great new single, Drip Fed Fred, which 
     features the talents of veteran Ian Dury 
     and is released on February 28. Fan Rob 
     Wardlaw, 34, said: 'We wanted to let people
     know that they should vote with their 
     wallets and buy the single next Monday.''

     For your info, the ''horde'' was Rob W, 
     Peter Gardner and brother, Wee Stoo, MrG 
     and yours truly (when he got off work and 
     had finished writing the above article).

     Stay nutty,
     Iain Mason

Until next week.

All the nutty best,

Robert Hazelby