IN THIS ISSUE ...

1 - THE EDITOR SPEAKS - Latest news in brief.

2 - THE CASE OF THE VANISHING SITE - Many of you have mailed me asking
    what has happened to the official One Step Behind site. Finally,
    all is revealed.

3 - DON'T WATCH THAT, WATCH THIS! - Not only have we got the
    forthcoming re-mastered `Divine Madness` to look forward to. But
    Virgin Publishing are also beavering away behind the scenes and
    are in the early stages of putting a new Madness book together.

4 - NUT INC - IT'S BACK! - After what seems like an eternity. Issue
    15 of the excellent Madzine, Nut Inc is finally here. Was it
    worth the wait? You'll have to read the review to find out.

5 - WE CALL IT BADNESS - Latest news and tour information for the
    wild and wacky Madness tribute band.

[1] - THE EDITOR SPEAKS

Greetings Madsters!

Here we are with yet another edition of the MIS, painstakingly put
together by myself and all those kind people who have sent in items
for publication.

Things seem to have been a bit quiet on the Madness front this week.
I was hoping that things may pick up over the weekend, but there has
been very little Madness traffic on the Total Madness Mailing List,
and only a few bits and pieces of Madness related info has fallen
into my mailbox.

Over the past few weeks and months, everyone has been gearing
themselves up for Madstock 2000 and the rumoured US tour which would
coincide with the Stateside release of `Wonderful`. Now that both of
these events have sadly been shelved things have gone all quiet on
the fan side of things.

Well, you've no need to fret. Things are far from quiet on the
Madness scene. There's an ever growing collection of Madness tribute
bands out there, and with Scatty beavering away with his Madness
and Ian Dury day, the scene is very much alive and we have lots to
look forward to over the coming months.

"What about Madness?" I hear you cry. Well, whatever they have
planned, it's not yet public domain. We'll just have to wait and see
what they want to do.

In the meantime, I think that many of you may find this news from a
certain Mr. Vince Foley of interest;

     "Hey Now!

      I have some good news here for ye all...
      I have known this for a while, but have
      held off until the right mo....spoke to
      the man himself literally a minute ago
      and I got the go-ahead to let you all
      in on something.......

      Cathal J Smyth will be playing at the
      Fleadh festival at Finsbury Park London
      on June 10th...

      As he quoth himself..... "getting the
      band together in two weeks.....its only
      half an hour on stage two and early at
      12:45 but still .....humble thyself and
      ye shall be exalted......"

      The 'Velvet Ghost' shalleth ariveth.....

      All the best
      Vince!"

I'm sure Cathal would appreciate any Maddies popping along to cheer
him on and show their support. Thanks go to Vince for the news.

Onto other news now...

Here are a few items which may be of interest to all you collectors
out there who will buy anything to add to that already massive
Madness collection. Vincent Carden reports that The Vinyl Exchange in
Manchester have the following items for sale;

 - Autographed copies of JTH and L'struck promos for 30 each.
 - Ghost Train sheet music signed in full.
 - Lovestruck promo pack (15 pounds)

The Vinyl Exchange can be contacted on: 0161 - 8340248

On a slightly different note, and following the recent passing away
of `Uncle` Ian Dury a few weeks back, a recent edition of `The Sunday
People` newspaper reports that Robbie Williams is organising a
tribute album to Ian with the proceeds going to cancer. We wish him
well. Many thanks to Vince Carden for the above.

Following last week's unfortunate news that the much anticipated
Madstock 2000 will not be happening, Colin Hinchley has come up with
one possible solution for brightening up the summer months;

     "So, no Madstock 2000 then.

      Well, why not come to Morecambe in June
      for the Ska Fest. It is being held
      at the Empire arena from Friday June 16th
      - Sunday June 18th. Bad Manners, The Specials,
      The Selecter, The Beat, Laurel Aitken and The
      Hotknives are all playing.

      Go to http://www.pulped.com/gigs.htm#June to
      see the full line up.

      Tickets are £55 for the weekend. Book on:
      01524 401552.

      Anyone up for it? There will be record fairs
      and DJs as well".

More record collecting news now. The excellent Complete and Utter
Madness website (www.nuttyboys.com) have recently secured it's
second sponsorship deal with an online retailer, Vinyl Disc Records
(www.vinyldisc.com). Any orders placed over the next 30 days (from
12th April) for MADNESS/SUGGS/CRUNCH material will receive a special
5% discount. You must mention Complete and Utter Madness to get
this discount.

Right, enough of me. Lets get underway with this week's selection of
articles.

See you at the end.

Robert Hazelby (MIS Online Editor)

[2] - THE CASE OF THE VANISHING SITE

A number of people have mailed me asking where the Official One Step
Behind site at www.onestepbehind.co.uk has got to. There have been a
few problems with the people providing the web space, so for the time
being the site will be moving back on to the same server as MIS
Online. As soon as the pages are moved over I'll let you know the
address.

In the meantime, to keep you all up-to-date with the ever growing OSB
gig list for the coming months, here are the list of dates the band
have booked for the remainder of April:

       20th  O'Neill's, Watford.
       21st  Doral Casino, Le Touquet, France.
       22nd  Gosport Community Halls.
       27th  Dickens Inn, Middlesbrough, (TBC)
       28th  Club Y2K, Darlington. (TBC)
       30th The Plough, Harrow.

For up-to-the-minute One Step Behind information, the band can be
contacted at the following address:

m_m_management at hotmail.com

Many thanks to Brendan for the details.

[3] - DON'T WATCH THAT, WATCH THIS!

Time to save those pennies again. Not only do we have the re-mastered
and souped-up version of `Divine Madness` to look forward to, but I
have just received details from Virgin that they're also busy putting
together a book about the lads!

Details are sketchy at the moment. It's early days so that's to be
expected. The book will be titled `Don't Watch That, Watch This`,
and will be released by Virgin Publishing. The current release date
is pencilled-in for November and Virgin are hoping to run some
kind of promotion nearer the launch date.

I've sent off a small batch of questions to the marketing people at
Virgin, and as soon as they get back to me with some answers, I'll
hopefully be in a better position to give you some more details.

Watch this space!

Thanks go to Jake Stavrinides at Virgin Publishing for the info.

[4] - NUT INC - IT'S BACK!

After what seems like an age, issue 15 of the excellent Madzine,
`Nut Inc` arrived through my letterbox on Friday morning. For
unknown reasons, it's been months since the last issue was
released, and I'm sure the question you're all asking is `Was it
worth the wait?`. Well, you can all calm down. Of course it was
worth the wait!

Sporting a shot of a certain legendary barbers shop on the front
and the famous `Madness - nut..nut..nutty!` D.I.Y advert on the
back, the cover is up the usual standard we expect from the Nut Inc
stable.

Flicking the page and we're face to face with `A Word in Yer
Lughole`. Here's where the editor, Stuart Wright gives us a brief
intro to the current issue and sends out his thanks and greetings.
Issue 15 is packed from cover to cover so Stuart has decided to keep
this issue's `A word...` very short.

Moving on, and Stuart has managed to dig out the original promo ads
for the video edition of `Complete Madness`. Note the appearance of a
Betamax release! On the opposite page `The Madness Story` continues
its journey with part 14, this issue charting the release of the
classic `One Step Beyond`, and how Woody's mum who was a floor
manager for Top Of the Pops at the time was transferred to another
department so that there would be no bias when the boys appeared on
the show.

Those of you after more information on the forthcoming Madness
documentary, `Young Guns` will find Stuart's report of the day's
filming alongside Scatty, Hazzer, and other assorted Madness
die-hard's essential reading. Stuart tells us that around 40 hours
worth of footage was shot for the 40 minute show. It's not known at
this point in time if any of the material shot on that day in and
around Camden will be part of the finished product, but it's great
to read about what went on during that day last November.

As this is the first edition of Nut Inc since the release of last
year's `Wonderful` album, Stuart gives us a track-by-track review
of each song backed up with detailed and informative information that
makes you think `I never knew that`. You've probably read many
reviews of the new Madness album since it's release. I can safely
say that you need to read this one!

Over the page and Stuart has kindly reproduced an article which
appeared in the Daily Record towards the end of October where Suggs
tells us `I'm haunted by my lost Scots father`. His father, William
Rutherford McPherson left Suggs and his mother when he was just
three years old. Since then Suggs has hoped that his father, a known
drug addict would have tried to contact him, but alas, nothing.
Suggs says that he has attempted to track his father down on numerous
occasions over the years but feels that his father may now be dead.

On a slightly jollier note, Nut Inc's regular look-back over the
Madness back-catalogue in `Madness Record Library` looks at the
chart-topping `Complete Madness`.

Some of you may recall Madness were once in the process of putting
together a TV show. Details about this have always been sketchy. One
or two people have even attempted to track down the elusive pilot
episode, but nothing has been found. Well, the pilot episode it still
an unearthed treasure, but to keep you going, Stuart has dug up a
wealth of information about the show.

As a little treat Stuart gives us a `Madness Record Library Extra!`.
So, not only do we get a review of `Complete Madness`, we're also
given another walk down memory lane with a review of `House of Fun`
and its accompanying B-side, `Don't Look Back`.

Moving further on and we're given a lowdown on the recent Madness
TV appearances over the past couple of months. Whilst further down
the page Stuart has kindly put together a mini review of `Millennium
Night Fever` saying that "After a dodgy start, `Night Fever` has
steadily developed into an exciting celebration of music in all its
form and has become renowned for its party atmosphere".

Flicking on again and we're treated to the results of the `Nut Awards
2000` which charts the top 20 singles, B-sides, Albums, Album tracks,
videos, sleeve designs and best gig. I won't spoil it for you by
revealing the results, but it's interesting to see some new entries
this year.

Finally, Stuart gives us the lowdown on some of the best fanzines
currently doing the rounds. From Madness and Ska, to the Small Faces,
they're all here.

You'd certainly be mad to miss this issue. It's equally as good as
any that have gone before and full to the brim with Madness news,
info and more. My only request to Stuart is "Any chance you can
make the releases a little more frequent. Perhaps once a quarter?"

For more information please write to:

     NUT INC,
     C/O Stuart Wright,
     29 Hollidge Way,
     Dagenham,
     Essex, RM10 9SP
     ENGLAND

or visit the fanzines section at the MIS Online site at:

http://www.jabba.demon.co.uk/mis/

[5] - WE CALL IT BADNESS

Amongst the recent Madness threads on the TMML concerning Madness
tribute bands, a number of people have been asking `What are
Badness like?`. Well, why not find out for yourselves? Thanks to
Mike Watts, here are the dates and venues the band will be playing
for the remainder of April;

     MON 17/4/00 BRANNIGANS (CROYDON)

     TUES 18/4/00 BRANNIGANS (ROMFORD)

     THURS 20/4/00 HARVEY'S BAR (BELPER,DERBY)

     FRI 28/4/00 NITE OUT BAR (PORTHCAWL)

Want to see the lads in action? Point your browser at:
http://www.chaney.i12.com/badness.htm for a selection of live action
shots from late last year.

For more information, please contact the band at the following
address: taz at mikewatts.karoo.co.uk

More dates as and when we get sent them.

[6] - ANOTHER CLOSED DOOR

That's yer lot for another week. Hope you found something of
interest and amusement.

I'm still after reviews of any of the numerous Madness tribute
bands in action. If you're recently been along to a tribute gig,
please get tapping away at that keyboard and send in a review!!!

If anyone has suggestions about what we should cover in a future
edition of the MIS, please get in touch and I'll see what I can
arrange.

In the meantime, I'd just like to thank everyone who has sent me
kind comments of support and encouragement. I'm glad you're enjoying
your weekly dosage of Madness.

Just before we close this edition of the MIS, this amusing snippet
caught my eye whilst thumbing through the latest `Nut Inc`.

When asked in `Q` magazine recently about who comes in to the `Men
Behaving Badly` category in the Chelsea executive boxes at Stamford
Bridge, Alan McGee (owner of Creation Records and the man who
discovered Oasis) replied;

     "Suggs always does. He's a total fanatic.
      When Chelsea go one nil down, you feel like
      telling him to shut up".

Until next week.

All the nutty best,

Robert Hazelby