This week Suggs appeared in The Times newspaper where he discussed writing new lyrics. Two songs were mentioned. The first, a song about a Soho beggar called Pam who used to make £200 a day but spend it all on fruit machines, and a second called “He’s Not a Gangster”, a tune about a wide boy who became respectable and how has a mortgage and pension plan. (Thank you to Lindsey Davies for digging this one out).

We checked back through the MIS archives, and back in 2010 Suggs spoke to the Bristol Evening Post about a song called “Pam The Hawk”.

“She’s about 4ft 3in tall; she’s a beggar really, but she’s great at making money and it all goes in a fruit machine at the end of the night.”

This failed to make it onto the Do Not Adjust Your Nut tour that year or the following album, so it’s great to hear that it’s now in the pot for the new album supposedly in the works.

Enjoy the read,

Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams

SHOWTIMES

See below for all forthcoming Madness and Madness related gigs and events. If there’s something we’ve missed off or you feel should be added then please let us know.

Madness

June 2014

June 28th, Night in the Park, Den Haagm Netherlands, http://www.nightatthepark.nl/
June 27th Jiwapop Festival, Montcada, Spain
June 29th, Tivoli Utrecht, Netherlands http://tivoli.nl/

August 2014

August 12th Mallorca Rocks
August 13th Ibiza Rocks
August 18th, Kubana Festival, Krasnodar, Vesolovka

November 2014

November 21st – 24th 2014 – Minehead – Earlybird tickets can be ordered here: http://www.bigweekends.com/splash-pages/madness2014.aspx

For tickets also see links via: www.madness.co.uk

Suggs Live

April 2014

2nd – Newbury Corn Exchange
3rd – Loughborough Town Hall
4th – Wakefield Theatre Royal
5th – Southport The Atkinson Theatre
6th – Runcorn The Brindley
8th – Mansfield Palace Theatre
9th – Stamford Corn Exchange
11th – Isle of Wight Shaklin Theatre
12th – Aldershot Princes Hall
13th – Wimborne Tivoli Theatre
15th – Bury St Edmonds The Apex
16th – Tunbridge Wells, Assembly Hall
17th – Stroud Subscription Rooms
22nd – Chelmsford Civic Theatre
23rd – Stevenage Gordon Craig Theatre
24th – Redditch Palace Theatre
25th – Malvern Forum Theatre
26th – Margate Winter Gardens
27th – Northampton Derngate
29th – Bolton Albert Halls
30th – Darlington Civic Theatre

May 2014

1st – Newark Palace Theatre
2nd – Redhill Harlequin Theatre
3rd – Watford Colosseum
4th – Yeovil Octagon Theatre
10th – DUBLIN Olympia Theatre
13th – Harlow Playhouse
14th – Lowestoft Marina Theatre
15th – Eastbourne – Royal Hippodrome
16th – Leamington Royal Spa Centre
17th – Jersey Opera House
19th – Milton Keynes The Stables
20th – Winchester Theatre Royal
21st – Epsom Playhouse
22nd – Kettering Lighthouse Theatre
23rd May at Cardiff College of Music and Drama
27th May at Bury St Edmunds The Apex
29th May at Derry Millennium Forum
30th May at Belfast Ulster Hall

June 2014

1st June, The Garrick, London

The Magic Brothers

Thursday 3rd April, Dublin Castle, Camden, London
Thursday 24th April, Dublin Castle, Camden, London

Ticket info at: http://www.bugbearbookings.com/dublin-castle/

*** NEW *** Magic Brother Friday Headline set:
November 14th. The Big One 3. Park Dean, Sandford Dorset.

The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra

May 2014

May 25 Strummer Camp Manchester

June 2014

June 1st, Wychwood Festival
June 29th Glastonbury Festival

July 2014

July 19 Summer Breeze Fest Swindon
July 26th Wickerman Festival

August 2014

August 31st, The Big Feastival, Alex James’ Farm, Cotswolds

More festival dates to follow.

Ska Orchestra web site: www.ltso.mis-online.net

Lee Thompson DJ

Saturday 5th April, Ska Night, Guest DJ Lee Thompson, Wilsons, Runcorn, Cheshire

The Lee Thompson Band (Lee’s other band, with Daley)

April 25th. The Hop Poles. Enfield
https://www.facebook.com/events/1387868218100592/

April 26th, The Black Horse, Barnet

Deaf School

August 10th, Rebellion Festival, Blackpool

For details of future gigs keep an eye on http://deafschoolmusic.com for more information.

Near Jazz Experience

April 29th, Indo, Whitechapel, London

BUY IT

If money’s currently burning a hole in your pocket then perhaps we can help with your dilemma.

*** NEW *** New Official Crunch Merchandise

Crunch! Magic Carpet Record Polo shirts. £17.99 large only (More sizes soon)

Crunch! Beanie hats one size £ 8.99 limited stock + £3 p&p on shirt – beanie free!

To get yours, send a message to the official band facebook page to order:

https://www.facebook.com/crunchbandofficial

The Specialized EP Featuring Lee Thompson

A 4 track vinyl EP featuring Lee’s track from the first specialized album and tracks by the Valves, Rhoda Dakar and Nick Welsh.

Should be in stock this coming week.

Thanks go to Chuck Wren and Jump Up Records, Stan from A&R Texas (pressing plant), and Mike Schneider of Indigo Iguana (design).

LOOK SO GOOD YA COULD LICK EM…. Will be available via

www.specializedproject.co.uk

The Specialized Big One 2. Live DVD.

For those wanting a copy of the DVD of the Big One 2 event we can reveal that you can now pre-order your copy. This will be limited edition and available into the new year. As is the normal spec with Specialized, all proceeds go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

We are very pleased to say that the Specialized Big One 2 DVD has gone to production! So, those of you have ordered a copy, yours will be with you very shortly. Thanks for your patience. The film makers did it all for free, including the editing of over 60 hours of footage. There will be also a small bonus DVD included

Welcome to Specialized Project official website

LTSO, Bangarang, Featuring Dawn Penn

*** Revised Date *** Single release date moved to April 28th.

The Magic Line Album * Out Now! *

Signed T-shirt packages and a deluxe edition.

http://www.magicbrothers.com/topspin-store/all/

A range of Magic Brothers T-shirts, Polo Shirts are now available to buy.

The CD album is available via Amazon and the download via iTunes contains an interview with Phil Jupitus talking to Woody about the album. But if you buy the album via the official band site you can choose a signed option or bundle.

If you’ve a spare £75 and are really into the magic, then there are 25 packs going fast that include all of this….

The Magic Line Collectors Pack – Limited Edition of 25 includes; The Magic Line Signed CD Album. The Magic Line Digital Download. The Magic Line T Shirt. Woodys Drumsticks Signed. Nicks Guitar Paick Signed. Copy of Album Lyrics. “Thank You” Phone Call From Woody & Nick.

Our thanks go to Paul Smart for the above

Suggs “The Close” Signed Book

Suggs is one of pop music’s most enduring and likeable figures. Written with the assured style and wit of a natural raconteur, this hugely entertaining and insightful autobiography takes you from his colourful early life on a North London council estate, through the heady early days of Punk and 2-Tone, to the eighties, where Madness became the biggest selling singles band of the decade. Along the way he tells you what it’s like to grow up in sixties Soho, go globetrotting with your best mates, to make a dead pigeon fly and cause an earthquake in Finsbury Park.

Suggs is a singer, songwriter, DJ, actor and TV presenter. He is perhaps best known as lead singer with Madness, who have had 24 top-twenty hits and continue to tour. Suggs lives in Camden, London.

– Features unseen and exclusive lyrics.
- 352 pages.
- Hardback.

http://www.recordstore.co.uk/search.html?term=suggs

Louis Vause – Midnight in Havana

“Oh dear. I’m alive..!” Pianist Louis Vause has always said that his albums are “Gouged out of him by circumstance” but his third album ‘Midnight In Havana’really is a case in point.

Recorded as a valedictory set, a swansong if you like, after he was told that the onset of cancer meant that he had mere months to live, the completion of the work coincided with his liver transplant and the all clear. He was in the pink. The same could not be said for his credit cards which had covered Louis’ uncharacteristically cavalier spending on recording costs.

http://www.cadizmusic.com/2007/index.php?location=/web/Catalogue/CADIZCD119

Mark Adamson of the Deaf School Website gives us an exclusive quote or two from Suggs, on the forthcoming Deaf School Book.

Deaf School – the story is told at last!

“For me, the gigs Deaf School have done recently have been some of the best I’ve seen by any band.”

So writes Suggs in his foreword to a book, published this month amid a flurry of Deaf School gigs and other Book Launch events, charting the creation and career of a band that influenced so many artists that followed – and that still fills venues 40 years after their debut at the Liverpool School of Art Christmas Dance.

Deaf School had a huge impact on Madness (Suggs: “Back in my youth I met some characters who were a right bunch, but what we had in common was that we loved Deaf School.”) – not least, of course, because guitarist Clive Langer’s became Madness producer and because Suggs married Deaf School singer Bette Bright!

Written by leading rock music writer, author and broadcaster Paul du Noyer, a lifetime Deaf School fan, Deaf School: The Non-Stop Pop Art Punk Rock Party, is published later this month by the Liverpool University Press, priced at £14.99. Accompanying the publication of the book is a Deaf School exhibition, featuring original art works by band members, posters, photos, rare films of live performances, band stage costumes and much more.

The book is available from Deaf School’s website at www.deafschoolmusic.com

MIS FEATURE

In The Meantime – The Songs Crunch! Left Behind for far too Long

Compiled by The Crunch! website runner and band team man Mr Lee Swandale, here is a list of Crunch! songs that were not on the band’s “Nutty Boys” debut album in 1990, or their two single releases. Many of them made it to various live gigs from the 90’s through to the late 2000’s.

While demo and studio work that began at the end of The Madness, then continued after 1990 (at times), the band never released a second full album. The band then slid into a long hiatus from full band gigs around the time of Norton Folgate with Madness taking off,.

Last seen in full at Brighton, (though last year brought a private record company set)

1) Featherhead

2) Mistress mistress

3) Sunshine Boys

4) One Man Tent

5) Ticket Too

6) Your Driving me

7) Super Highway Woman

8) Champion of the world

9) Far too long

10) Ready (band intro)

11) Going solo

12) Given the opportunity

13) Hot time ahead

14) Feed the little quack, quack, quacks (2p a bag)

15) Can’t touch us now

16) Don’t let them catch you crying

17) Cant keep a good thing down

18) Raindance

19) Prove me right

20) For the best

21) Boy in the box

22) Lady Lighthouse

23) Saints and Sinners

24) Trust in me

25) Mainline

26) Never turn your back

27) Times and places

28) Moon over le mantra

29) Everything is Tuesday

30) I’m feeling lazy

31) Motown anthem

32) Big time sister

33) S.I.L.C

34) Baby Jane

35) In the meantime

36) How can u expect me

37) Round trip

38) Be good boy

39) Tap dance

40) Nothing

41) My obsession

42) Sneaking suspicion

43) 4 the best

44) You’re gonna die

Tracks 17, 32, 41 metamorphed by the full Madness band between 2010 and 2013 appearing on the deluxe last album.

Track 38 in the list had a former life in The Madness. Track 34 was musically reused for That Close in parts for Norton Folgate.

While Track 20/43 may well allude to leaked demo’s from The Madness era of similar titling. Fans continue to Watch This Space on the reuse of any more of this tune stash in any form.

Here is a video to the track – Roundtrip: http://youtu.be/mSA6Z_eAJXk

Jonathan Young

LIVE AND INTENSIFIED

Reviews of live performances and gigs.

Lee Thompson’s Bee Band

On the night of Wednesday 25 February I find out that Thommo is apparently playing on Saturday 1st of March in my home town of Barnet. Not only that but playing at the Durham Suite, Underhill at Barnet Football Club, the former home of my team.

Not having access to social media, where it was also advertised, I contact Lee’s son Daley who sure enough confirms the gig is indeed taking place with the band due to be on stage for 8.30pm. There are flyers advertising the gig around the exits of High Barnet tube station. Indeed as I approach the former ‘Home of Football’ on the night of the gig, many more small posters are strategically placed to entice you in.

Upon arrival I pay my £20 entrance fee which is in aid of Rett syndrome and Huntingdons disease, 2 very worthy charities. I also remark at the door that “Thompson is spelt wrongly on the ticket and all the flyers. You can’t take the ‘p’ out of him!”

I find it surreal that one of my heroes is playing where Barnet FC used to. Tonight’s venue is a room that would usually have previously hosted supporters for a pre-match meal and a pint. The walls are adorned with Barnet FC memorabilia including former players shirts worn by supporters like myself would have sponsored players for the season then given the players shirt at the end of the season. This included the number 9 worn by Guiliano Grazioli who won the Golden Boot during our title winning 2004-05 season which our sponsor group donated back to the Club for all to enjoy. Tonight, the room has a good number of seats and table near the bar. The split level room makes it ideal for a makeshift stage although there is a large pillar obscuring where Daley will be standing! The area in front of the stage is ‘standing only’. The DJ is playing classic ska tracks and eventually the band turn up at around 9.30pm and take to the stage at 10pm.

The band personnel is mainly local musicians, although I think Mex Clough on drums, I also recognise the guitarist from the last local gig plus bass player and keyboards. The brass section is Bob The Bone on trombone of course & Stephen White both also from the LTSO. They are joined by another local musician. Daley will assume vocal duties alongside Lee naturally on sax.

“Tonight we will be doing 2 sets each of around 45 minutes”, we are promised by Lee as the band get ready to play. Thommo and the boys open with Bangarang.

The sound is of a surprisingly good quality. I say surprisingly probably cos I’ve been let down a good many times by Barnet FC in years gone by!! So we have good acoustics and the band are playing well moving next to Ali Baba. It’s a strong couplet to start a Thommo gig that’s sprinkled with a selection of LTSO tunes.

As mentioned, vocal duties are shared between Lee and Daley and works very well. For example, There’s no light on the Christmas Tree Mother has Lee starting the vocal with Daley ably assisting. To fit tonight’s band Lee changes the way he usually plays Fu Man Chu, ever adaptable and effectively helping his band showcase this great cover.

So what else have the Bee Band got in store for us? Well, having named his group after an insect – The Bees being the nickname of Barnet FC – we have The Beatles. Hey Bulldog gets more Thommo treatment as it is a regular feature of these local gigs. The Paul McCartney tune C-Moon is also played – it’s not a song I’m familiar with but it sounds good to me!

In My Life gets an outing; by my reckoning I’ve not heard Thommo play this before. Fellow Madness and Barnet FC fan John Hunt is at tonight’s gig. I’ll leave him to sum up what he thought: “It was great hearing In My Life – with the poignant lyric ‘There are places I remember, Some are gone but some remain’ – considering where we were”. Again, Thommo does it justice. Once more our favourite sax man starts telling one of his jokes; he points at me asking me not to interrupt as he knows I know the punchline!

It’s a really good gig and it’s a massive set finishing at the strike of 12 with – yup – Midnight Rider. I briefly get to speak to Daley who is proud to have adapted to singing some of the LTSO songs. My mate John Hunt also commented “The highlights of the evening were There’s no light on the Christmas Tree Mother, and Sunny Afternoon by the Kinks”.

Set list (not in running order )

Bangarang

Ali Baba

One Step Beyond

My Girl

The Prince

You’re More Than Fair

Clever Trevor

Hey Bulldog

C-Moon

In My Life

There’s no light on the Christmas Tree Mother

Sunny Afternoon

Monkberry Moon Delight

Fu Man Chu

Hello Josephine

Soon You’ll Be Gone

Midnight Rider

In the frenzy of a high number of songs did they play Monkberry Moon Delight though? They had it on the Bull Theatre set list in December however it got dropped – my mate John equally can’t remember. I see Thommo a week or so later at the 2nd Magic Brothers gig, so I ask him. “Yeah we played it – do you like it?”, he asks before singing a couple of lines of lyric to me. “So you did play it then?”. Thommo just winks and smiles and I’m still none the wiser!!

However having attended the 3rd Magic Brothers gig last night (Thursday 27 March) I get to ask Daley in person who categorically stated it was definitely played so it’s staying in my set list!!

Daren West / John Hunt

SIGN OF THE TIMES

A collection of articles that have caught our eye over the course of the past week or so.

Life Section Talks to Suggs
Source: The Times

“Heroin tempted me, sure. I could have been a junkie easily. There was a lot of it around when Madness became successful but thankfully that’s the one lesson I learnt from my dad: heroin will destroy you.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article4047712.ece
“What made me saddest of all was his death certificate said he was a photographer. But I don’t think he was. I think that’s what he’d like to have been. He’d have loved to have seen the world the way I did with Madness.”
…
A new song called He’s Not A Gangster about a wide boy who became respectable and who now has a mortgage and a pension plan. “It’s not me exactly no, but we all change. I still go to the football on Saturdays but I readily admit I’m one of the prawn sandwich brigade”, he says, referring to a Roy Keane jibe about corporate hospitality at football matches. “Gangsters can’t afford to get in any more.”

Beyond Madness in Aldershot for Suggs

Source: www.gethampshire.co.uk

Madness frontman takes a different kind of show to the Princes Hall

Madness frontman Suggs takes to the stage at the Princes Hall, Aldershot, on Saturday April 12 with his hilarious, yet emotionally moving, one man tour-de-force show which examines every aspect of his life, from where it began to where it is today.

Full article at: http://bit.ly/1lfwJeK

The Nutty Bar – Opening April 4th & April 12th

MIS subscriber Wandsworth Harry was recently spotted talking on MIJAS TV in Spain.

Long term fan (and band team worker in the 80s) Harry Wandsworth, will see his dream to open a Madness Themed Bar in Spain come to a reality on April 4th. The first night is for locals and Rhoda Dakar who sang with Madness on “On the Town” will be DJing at the bar’s soft opening.

Then on Saturday the 12th Lee Thompson will be there for the official opening day as master of ceremony.

Check out the above video for photos of Harry at the Bull ring concert with Madness, plus more news about the bar.

Marbella port. 2nd Line. Come to the Nutty Bar next time you’re in Spain. If you are there, come to the opening nights.

SPECIALIZED – MEET THE ARTISTS!

The Magic Brothers are Looking Forward to Headlining Friday night at Specialized The Big One 3.

Welcome to Specialized Project official website

Here we go with a Specialized double whammy. Anyone who knows their music at all will recall The Riffs- one of the ska bands that spearheaded the late 80s boom in British Ska again. They had Aidan Sterling as their vocalist but just before The Riffs came the nigh-on legendary The Feckin Ejits!
Specialized are very pleased to announce that The Feckin Ejits will be performing on Specialized 3 – Mad Not Cancer! They will entertain us with their… unique tale on ” Cardiac Arrest”.
AND WILL PLAY AT THE BIG ONE 3! BLIND DATE? MONDAY MORNING? oh yes- YOU LUCKY SANDFORD BOUND PEOPLE WILL HEAR IT ALL IN ITS GLORY.
The feckin Ejits were formed in 1982, amidst the full on punk skinhead scene in Aylesbury. England. The main venue in town being Friars had a regular stream of the top punk and 2tone bands coming through, so it only felt natural a local band should get involved.
The explosion of Oi in 1981, saw punk move into a more aggressive street sound than the earlier Punk, so over a few beers, a few mates decided to form their own band, well it sounded like more fun than doing your dole cheque every week on someone elses gig. Des Bhatt- bass, Neil Ledbury- Guitar, Alex Morison – Guitar, Dave wood on drums and Aidan Sterling Lead shouter agreed that the time was right to show the punk scene how to do it
The musical influence based purely on the stuff they liked to hear themselves, meaning 100mph punk, but with catchy sing along choruses, a sprinkling of psychobilly and a pinch of Irish folk.
After the sad passing of Alex this year The Ejits have decided to take to the stage at The Great Skinhead Reunion in Brighton, to pay tribute to him and to have a good jolly up with loads of old friends and will follow that up by playing The Big One 3 for Specialized at Sanford
…..
Specialized are extremely chuffed to announce that all the way from New York,USA, RUDE BOY GEORGE will be appearing on Specialized 3 – Mad Not Cancer! – These guys have taken on performing that Madness classic ” Driving In My Car” .
Rude Boy George is a NYC-based band that performs ska, rocksteady, and reggae versions of New Wave and post-punk classics. The band is motivated by their shared love and respect for ska (reflected in the reference to 1960s and 2 Tone rude boys) and the extraordinary amount of good music produced in the late 70s and early 80s New Wave/post-punk era (Boy George). Rude Boy George formed in January 2013 with members drawn from several popular and long-standing NYC area ska bands: Bigger Thomas (vocalist Roger Apollon, drummer Jim Cooper, bassist/Marco on the Bass blogger Marc Wasserman), Across the Aisle (singer Megg Howe, guitarist Jesse Gosselin and saxophonist/singer Jackie Chasen), and Funkface (guitarist Jeff Usamanont) —plus a ska blogger/former indie ska label guy (Steve Shafer on backup vocals) thrown in for good measure.
….
Specialized again bring out a flavour of the continent with the news that we are very chuffed to announce that from Spain, we give you THE SMOGGERS! These guys will be appearing on Specialized 3 – Mad Not Cancer with thei…r version of “You’re Wonderful”!
From Seville, The Smoggers are definitely one of the most exciting bands in the Spanish garage scene. they have drawn the attention of underground connoisseurs both in Spain and overseas with a fresh personal sound that mixes fuzz-driven 60s punk aggression and a dance-compelling primitive beat with the 80’s and 90’s Garage-Punk. Be advised: no claims accepted for damaged boots!

I REMEMBER WAY BACK WHEN

This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby, goes back 5 years to issue 517, and the week of Sunday 29th March to Saturday 4th April 2009, and then back 10 years to issue 255 and the week of Sunday 28th March to Saturday 3rd April 2004.

5 years ago…

Issue 517 – Sunday 29th March to Saturday 4th April 2009

The day we thought may never come finally arrived this week, when the Madness box set started landing on the door mats of Madness fans up and down the United Kingdom. Unsurprisingly, the reaction from fans was a mixture of relief and excitement.

To celebrate the occasion we selected the best emails posted to the Madness Central mailing list that had cropped up over the past few days, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

Next, and we received news in from Chris Carter-Pegg, revealing that the forthcoming Madstock 5 concert may be suffering a date change, from Friday 17th July to Monday 20th. For those who had booked accommodation and/or travel, this was rather worrying.

With the band recently performing Down Under, we featured reviews from the performances at Luna Park Sydney, and the V Festival on The Gold Coast. For many Australian based fans, this was the first time they’d ever seen the band live, and it was an extremely memorable occasion for them.

Naturally, though, with the final release of the Norton Folgate box set much of this issue was devoted to that, with MadTube exclusives and an explanation of certain English slang words featured on the tracks that many of our overseas readers may have struggled with.

We brought this issue to a close with the news that Dust Devil had been introduced at the recent Sydney gig as “Our new single”, and it would be appearing on radio playlists from May 11th.

10 years ago…

Issue 255 – Sunday 28th March to Saturday 3rd April 2004

This issue kicked off with the news that another 13,000 copies of The Business booklet had recently been re-printed. Did this point to a possible re-issue, and more importantly, how on earth did we get hold of this information in the first place?

Well, it turned out that a certain Dutch subscriber, who asked to remain nameless, worked at the printers where the re-issue work was taking place. Along with the report we were treated to photos of the original plates used for the re-prints – something you would normally never get the opportunity to see.

So, were we about to see a slightly re-jigged re-issue of the box set, or were store supplies getting low, and merely required a top-up?

Unfortunately it was the latter. Ah well.

Moving on, and recent visitors to the official Madness web site were concerned to find that the message board entries had been removed, leaving a completely empty page. Thankfully Chris was quick to calm our fears, and explained that this temporary removal of the messages was down to a site revamp.

We first ran a BU8 discography back in MIS issue 133 (Dec 2001), with the re-released BU8 album then being reviewed in MIS 193.

With a new Terry Edwards compilation CD now featuring a newly released track we thought it was a good time to bring things up-to-date, with a full Butterfield 8 discography.

We finished off this issue with the news that a high quality rip of Madness’ performance Hammersmith Palais gig on the 19th December 1981 was now up on www.suprnova.org for download. Time to warm up those broadband connections.

Rob Hazelby

TIME…

We’re almost done for this week’s edition of the MIS, but before we go there are a couple of last minute bits we need to pass under your noses.

First-up, and if you share and like Merc Clothing’s page on Facebook you could be in with a chance of winning 2 tickets for the Madness “Take it or leave it” screening in London on Sat 19th of April as part of The London International Ska Festival!

Simply point your web browsers over to: https://www.facebook.com/Merc1967

And finally…

We were hoping to bring one final piece of news to you, but it hasn’t reached the MIS mailbox in time for publication. We’re expecting to receive it within the next day or so, so expect a special mid-week issue of the newsletter in the next few days,

Until then, take care,

Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams

(With thank to Darren West, John Hunt and Lindsey Davies)