Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 806 – Sunday 19th October to Saturday 25th October 2014
Good evening Madheads and a happy 35th!
As One Step Beyond’s new CD/DVD combo started to arrive with fans during the course of this week, a new archive of downloads has been released from the Fab Toones 1979 Rehearsal tape. This added new cover versions and alternate early written Madness songs into the band’s cannon of releases. See our “buy it” and features sections for details.
Celebrate 35th years of Madness record releases by voting on your top 40 here, from all the official unique songs they have released previous to this year:
The Mad Chart 2014 – www.opinionstage.com/polls/2205126
Your own tastes will then be added to the year long compilation of the 2014 Mad Chart. (Note: You don’t need to vote if you’ve previously sent us your top 40 during our fundraising earlier in the year. Your votes seeded this years chart starting positions before being opened to the public.) The Mad Chart result show will be live in Jak’s Bar at The House of Fun Weekender in two weeks. Also, at The Big one3 weekender for Specialized, and beyond that we’ll have the top 40 results in a future issue of the MIS
Now, read on with all this week’s Mad News.
Jonathan 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
November 2014
November 21st – 24th 2014 – Minehead – Earlybird tickets can be ordered here: http://www.bigweekends.com/splash-pages/madness2014.aspx
December 2014
All for the M.A.D.H.E.A.D Tour
Thursday 4th, Capital FM Arena, Nottingham
Friday 5th, Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Saturday 6th, Brighton Centre, Brighton, Matinee
Saturday 6th, Brighton Centre, Brighton * SOLD OUT *
Monday 8th, Plymouth Pavillions, Plymouth
Tuesday 9th, Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth
Thursday 11th, First Direct Arena, Leeds
Friday 12th, Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Saturday 13th, LG Arena, The NEC, Birmingham
Monday 15th, Odyssey Arena, Belfast
Tuesday 16th, The O2 Dublin, Dublin
Thursday 18th, The SSE Hydro, Glasgow
Friday 19th, Phones 4u Arena, Manchester
Saturday 20th, The O2 Arena, London
Links to purchase tickets for the above tour can be found at: http://madness.seetickets.com/tour/madness/?pre=premad&src=madnesspre
For tickets also see links via: www.madness.co.uk
The Silencerz (Featuring Lee Thompson)
November 2014
November 8th – Hertford Corn Exchange. 39 Fore St. Herts. SG14 1AL With support. The Skammers.
November 16th – Confirmed in the Sunday Lineup of bands at Specialized The Big One 3. In Dorset.
Lee will also be doing a photo signing session.
Suggs
March 2015
12th March – An Evening With Suggs and Friends, in aid of Pancreatic Cancer UK. Held at The Emirates Stadium. At £160 a ticket we’re not sure if many MIS readers will be attending! http://www.thegigcompany.org/events/pcuk2015/
Near Jazz Experience
November
November 4th – NEAR JAZZ EXPERIENCE + support & guest DJ set – Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT *Free*
Deaf School
November
Thursday 20 November, The Borderline, London
Friday 21 November, Academy, Manchester
Saturday 22 November, Trades, Hebden Bridge
Sunday 23 November, Floral Pavilion Theatre, New Brighton
The Clang Group
See this week’s outro for more information.
October
Wednesday 22 October, The Dublin Castle, Camden – part of the John Peel 10th anniversary evening
Thursday 23 October, Electric Ballroom, Camden – supporting The Amazing Snakeheads
More information and full gig details at www.theclanggroup.com
BUY IT
If money’s currently burning a hole in your pocket then perhaps we can help with your dilemma.
Madness – One Step Beyond 35th Anniversary edition CD. * Plus new exclusive downloads *
You can now order the new edition of One Step Beyond 35th Anniversary, from Salvo Sound & Vision:
This Anniversary edition has been digitally re-mastered from the original 1⁄4 inch tapes by Tim Turan, and comes with recently unearthed rehearsal recordings from 1979, including two songs that have never appeared anywhere before. “Lost my head” and “Sunshine Voice”. It’s also very interesting to see Absolutely album track “You Said” on the rehearsal tape and Grey Day B-side “Memories” as well as hearing versions of tracks that made the album some 5 months before the debut LP was recorded.
Hear previews of these tracks, and help yourself to a free download. You can even re-name the album, creating pictures you can share with people. Visit the mini site to do all this: http://www.madness.co.uk/one-step-beyond-35/
There is a DVD of videos and Top of the Pops/Old Grey Whistle Test appearances, that includes the Young Guns documentary, and a 24 page booklet that speaks to Clive, Alan and Chris about the album.
FAB TOONES EXTRA APRIL 1979 Rehearsal DOWNLOADS
* New * iTunes Exclusive Tracks. – There’s Always Something There to Remind Me. Shop Around.
Amazon.co.uk Exclusive Tracks. – Swan Lake. Rockin in Ab.
Madness.co.uk Exclusive Free Downloads. Madness. My Mates.
The M.A.D.H.E.A.D Tour T-shirt – Get it now.
What does any self respecting Madhead wear? The only true fan clothing of choice right now is surely the brand new Madhead T-shirt. Available now at least five months ahead of the tour, this T-shirt is so NOW! You can look stylish in it in a range of sizes, you can promote this summer, the forthcoming tour and help your heroes and of course in this day and age by buying the bands official clothing you are putting your money into the future new album project pot etc of the band who exist these days on their own self produced record label.
Available here… Via See Tickets and Madness.co.uk
Cathal Smyth – A Comfortable Man – Limited Vinyl
Numbered 1 to 1000, this is a limited edition vinyl of “A Comfortable Man”, with a download code for the mp3 album. Available end of September from Cathal’s website. The album will also be available from Amazon and iTunes soon.
Nick Woodgate – Morning (Tracklisting revealed)
Pre-order Nick Woodgate’s solo album on iTunes from September 22nd.
Tracklisting: Morning / Magic Carpets in the Sky / Eloise / You Can Get It / I Can Hear The Music / Call Me… / Bus / Let’s Spend Lots of Money / On Her Majesty’s Secret Service / Summer Nights / The Magic Dawn / Show Me / Magic Brothers / Night
SPECIALIZED: Mad Not Cancer. 4CD covers album for Teenage Cancer Trust
Over 70 tracks. 4 CDs. Cover versions of Madness by not just Ska bands but lots of young up and coming acts of many genres including a few famous pop stars and Bedders on one track, too. All for Teenage Cancer.
http://www.specialized-project.co.uk/#!shop/c1atu (remove hyphen from URL)
SIGN OF THE TIMES / LIVE INTENSIFIED
CD Reviews: Madness
ONE STEP BEYOND – MADNESS (Union Square Music: Christmas is coming and the pop world is full of goodies like this 35th anniversary combined CD/DVD edition of the debut album by Suggs and company. It’s hard to dislike Madness as their music is transparently exuberant and good-humoured. The stand-out track on this 29-collection is Bed and Breakfast Man which well demonstrates the band’s eccentricity and joviality. British ska has never had such good champions. 10/10.
Win 35th Madness Merchandise at Amazon
To celebrate the release of the 35th anniversary edition of Madness’ One Step Beyond we’re giving you the chance to win the CD signed by Madness plus a goody bag full of merchandise consisting of a ‘On Her Majesty’s Service’ t-shirt; a Madness Camden bag; Madness “Est. 1979” Fez hat; Madness bottle opener key ring; House Of Fun Frisbee; and a ‘Keep Moving’ mug. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends 29 October, 2014.
I REMEMBER WAY BACK WHEN
This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby, goes back in time to report on what was going on in the world of Madness 5 years, 10 and 15 years ago this week.
5 years ago…
Issue 546 – Sunday 18th October – Saturday 24th October 2009
We got this issue of the MIS off to a flying start with the news that The Liberty of Norton Folgate Silver Edition, including DVD would be out on the 9th of November.
The DVD was rather special, including director Julien Temple’s film adaption of The Liberty of Norton Folgate, shot in part at the band’s first live performance of the new material at London’s Hackney Empire. Between songs, Suggs and Chas Smash would take you the viewer on a delightful theatrical jaunt through the underbelly of London’s past. This was much more than a mere Gig Film… it was the perfect visual embodiment of the album.
Moving on, and those of you visiting his cupboard over the previous week or two may have spotted this gem, but for those who didn’t we included a transcription of Chrissy Boy explaining the origins of his “showtime” catchphrase.
“The Showtime thing..oh dearie me. What happened was, we did a gig last year and I was a bit ‘refreshed’. I looked at the set list and something occurred to me which was related to the Matrix film. We went to see the first one in New York in 1999 and there was this guy sitting in front of us with his girlfriend and he was quite excited and animated. [us being Suggs, Chas, Thommo and me].
During the scene when they ask for ‘guns lots of guns’ this bloke was rubbing his hands with glee and anticipation and he turned to his date and said quite matter of fact, calmly, with no shouting, ‘showtime’.
Meaning some a** was about to be quite righteously kicked. Which of course it was, he was totally right.
So back to the gig, I thought this is the last part of the set here, it’s all killer, no filler, all thriller, just House of Fun, Wings of a Dove..er…and ..er.. what’s some of all the other big hits what we have had? Baggy Trousers etc..in other words……SHOWTIME!!!!
Suggs always makes me do it and the brass boys seem to be quite amused by it. I ask Suggs not to give me the mike but he always does.
PS I think the gig where I had this epiphany was the O2 in 2008.
Thanks
Chrissy Boy”
Next it was over to Paul Rodgers with another one of his Madness chart lowdowns. This week Paul revealed that the album had been in the top 100 for 13 weeks, making it only 6 weeks behind 1984’s Keep Moving.
Paul also brought us news for Total Madness, which was now sitting at number 27 in the album charts after entering at 11, then going to 15 for two weeks before dropping to its current position.
Following Paul’s updates we jumped across the Channel and over to Jean-Pierre Boutellier who, with Madness travelling to Paris this coming week, revealed that the band would be performing Dust Devil on French TV and radio, along with an un-named Kinks cover.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that the November issue of Revolver magazine had given Total Madness a three out of five rating.
10 years ago…
Issue 284 – Sunday 17th October – Saturday 23rd October 2004
We started off this week’s issue with a heads-up to those readers who were fans of both Madness and No Doubt, as the No Doubt track “Everything in Time (London)”, which featured Mike Barson on keyboards, was now available to download from iTunes. Weighing in at 99 cents, this was the cheapest (legal) way for those interested in hearing the track to finally get hold of it.
Music piracy was all over the news back in 2004, and this issue we covered the latest story, which revealed how the British Phonographic Industry was suing 28 people who it claimed were illegally swapping music over the Internet. This was the first prosecution of its kind in the UK.
“These are not people casually downloading the odd track. They are uploading music on a massive scale, in effect stealing the livelihood of thousands of artists and the people who invest in them.’ ‘said BPI’s chairman, Peter Jamieson.
Further on in the issue we published details of Camden’s second Youth Question time, which was due to take place on the 18th of October. Hosted by Suggs, the event would give young people a chance to question local politicians about the issues most important to them.
Moving on to something a little sedate now, and we had some exciting news relating to a new three-piece outfit going by the name of ‘Jag’.
Jag were due to play at the famous Bull and Gate, Kentish Town, on 14th November at 8:00pm. Why were we reporting on this unknown band? Well, it turned out that the band were being minded by the almighty Lee Thompson, and lead singer Dan was in `Like Father Like Son`.
Naturally, we hoped to have more information about this startup in the coming weeks and months.
It’d been a while since we last checked the messageboard over on the official Madness web site, so this issue saw some of the best messages posted to the site re-printed in the MIS. Simon Roberts enquired as to the possibility of some ‘Perfect Place’ samples, whilst another fan wanted to know if a Madness calendar 2005 was in the pipeline.
Chris was non committal to the ‘Perfect Place’ samples, and explained that the calendar had not been approved by the band, and was subsequently withdrawn.
Elsewhere, and following last weeks’ review of legal Madness music downloads from Apple’s iTunes service, this week we looked at Napster, with again some reference to the Madness Music that could be downloaded from the service. Selling around 75% of the current Madness back catalogue, we gave Napster a thumbs-up.
15 years ago…
Issue 22 – Sunday 17th October to Saturday 23rd October 1999
As we got ever closer to the release date of `Wonderful`, further snippets of information seemed to be springing up left, right and centre. This week’s news is that Madness would be releasing the new album on not just CD and cassette, but also mini disc (remember those!).
However, before Wonderful hit the shelves of music stores up and down the country Monday would play host to the second single from the forthcoming album – `Johhny The Horse`, a sad tale about a down and out mourning the loss of his dear old friend.
Meanwhile, promo copies of the new album were continuing to land on the desks of those in the music industry, and this week Capital FM gave the album a thorough going over. After a lengthy review it rounded off with;
“if you’ve ever found yourself tapping your foot along with ‘It Must Be Love’ or singing ‘House Of Fun’ to yourself as your wander into work, then ‘Wonderful’ won’t disappoint”.
Subscriber Suzanne Gilmour continued to keep herself busy, as this issue featured part 2 of her radio transcription of a recent Radio Two interview. With part 3 due to appear in the next issue, we were sure Suzanne could finally see light at the end of her typing tunnel!
These days our favourite band have a number of DVDs for sale online and in the shops, but fifteen years ago things were much different.
None of the Madness back catalogue was available on the VHS killing format. However, that was all due to change, as on Monday the 18th of October would see the release of the first ever Madness DVD. The release would be “Madness at Madstock”, recorded from the previous year’s Finsbury Park concert. Weighing in at a whopping £18.37 (RRP), it would be a few years before discs would drop to more sensible prices.
Rob Hazelby
MIS FEATURE – THE FULL FAB TOONES
The full Rehearsal Tape from 1979, known as Fab Toones, Is now all available with 6 downloads adding to the tracks released on the new CD edition of the album One Step Beyond. Read on to find out where to get them and where to order them via your music player software to listen through in the right order to the full tape of rehearsals.
16. Nutty Sounds CD
17. Mistakes CD
18. Sunshine Voice CD
19. My Girl CD
20. Memories CD
21. Believe Me CD
22. Lost My Head CD
23. Razorblade Alley CD
24. Land Of Hope & Glory CD
25. Mummy’s Boy CD
– My Mates MADNESS.CO.UK FREE
26. In The Middle Of The Night CD
– Swan Lake AMAZON
27. You Said CD
28. Stepping Into Line CD
– Madness MADNESS.CO.UK FREE
– Rockin in Ab AMAZON
– Shop Around iTUNES
– (There’s) Always Something There to remind me. iTUNES
29. Bed & Breakfast Man CD
Amazon UK tunes available here.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NIG4QL2/ref=dm_ws_ap_tlw_alb7
iTunes available here.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/one-step-beyond-35th-anniversary/id915591234
Free Downloads Available Here
http://www.madness.co.uk/one-step-beyond-35/
Shop Around is Smokey Robinson Cover that fans have heard before at gigs, (as recently as 2005) and loved also for it’s appearance on a radio show in the 80’s. Previously it’s been available only in live bootleg form, and this release marks the first version Madness have ever released officially. There’s Always something there to remind me, which has a wonderful vibe to it. Discovering the early pub band feel of this rehearsal tape is a joy to hear where Madness matured out from with their music. This track is a Sandie Shaw number from the 60’s, but more much upbeat in Madness’ hands.
My Mates, which is the latest free download, turns out to be a song written by Barson and Bedders. Lyrically it tells a story of being let down by friends. Here are some of the lines.
Standing in my mohair suit
They are gonna be late again
Second time they’ve done it
Oh how I wonder why
I tried to make friends with you
Saturday’s just dying
Sunday wont be long
The weekend’s nearly over
Oh where have all my mates gone?
Standing here all alone
Feeling now maybe I should’ve phoned
Or take a night bus home
I caught you all in the chip shop
You said I could be one of the gang
Shouting as you ran down the high street
But empty vessels make the loudest noise
You could have told me you were not coming
Most fans will recognise parts of the tune though. The intro and chorus were reworked into b-side and later album track “In The Rain”. Fascinating stuff. With most of these songs it’s easy to side with the decisions Madness made in altering them or dropping tracks. Certainly passing over cover versions when One Step Beyond already had enough of them. But it’s interesting to hear a bit more heart in songs like Sunshine Voice, and Always something there to remind me, that only shines through perhaps on My Girl, on the finished album.
What a treat it is to now grab the full tape of the earliest formation of the band, with 5 new songs into the Madness collection of songs, 3 in house, and 2 more covers. While quality is as expected its been a great peak behind the curtain back to the formation of the band 35 years ago as a reading force set to enter the studio.
Jonathan Young
LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
The Silencerz, Sunday 5th October – Chandos, Colindale
It’s Sunday night and I’ve moved across London town fresh from seeing West Ham v QPR to get to Colindale. Tonight at The Chandos pub The Silencerz are playing. My mum and late dad used to drink here back in the 1950s and ’60s so for me it’s an extra special trip.
Upon arrival, Daley is the first person I see. “Well done for Thursday! Superb – pitch perfect. I bet you enjoyed it mate!”. Daley responds: “To be honest with you I’d been told I could get up and sing that and it was 50/50 whether I wanted to go up but I’m glad I did”. I tell Daley it’s a little milestone for him to play not only in front of a bigger crowd but also in front of less familiar faces. Daley agrees.
Moving on to tonight’s gig, Daley shows me the set list which he is responsible for in terms of running order and tracks played. It’s different from usual in terms of running order and looks good to me. I comment that it’s his dad’s birthday which Daley scribbles down a reminder to himself for when he’s on stage later.
I join my mate Tony; this venue is a proper music venue pub a proudly the organiser announces the mini festival that they’ve had the last few weeks and how privileged they are that Lee Thompson is here playing live.
Onto the music and although Wake Up starts as usual a lot of the remaining set is shifted around and makes for a great evenings entertainment; there are people standing on tables and chairs to get a vantage point. Not bad for a Sunday night! Hearing Callie Road for a 2nd time was what I was waiting for – a mid-paced lilting tune definitely in the vein of Madness/Dury and is well received by the crowd. Hello Josephine is adored by the crowd; the build up then the quicker show-tune style ending has even the the bar staff dancing and serving drinks at the same time!
Thommo is on his usual top form. One of the organisers is wearing a lumberjack shirt and Thommo says to him through the microphone “Did you pay for that by cheque? Check – geddit?”. It’s an old gag but groaning and grinning ensues amongst us punters.
We get to sing Happy Birthbay for Lee although a request to give him the bumps thankfully didn’t materialise! :o) After the gig I get a set list – in fact it’s the one Daley scribbled on earlier with the words “Happy birthday dad! 57! Milkman’s son?”. Daley’s a chip off the old block gags wise isn’t he?!
It’s a great gig and I’m left wondering…could there be a slot for The Silencerz at the House of Fun Weekender?
Set List
Wake Up
Stuck In The Middle With You
Prince
My Girl
Clever Trevor
No Lights
In My Life
Midnight Rider
Freedom St
Callie Road
Mother & Child Reunion
Fu Man Chu
Hello Josephine
No No No
Bangarang
Rudy
Soon You’ll Be Gone
Encore
Sunny Afternoon
Daren West
SPECIALIZED – MADNESS SIGNINGS & NO MORE MAGIC BROTHERS
Ladies and gentlemen.
Specialized The Big One3 announced the Madness signing sessions for the weekender, as being.
WOODY – Saturday 15th of November. 12 Noon.
LEE THOMPSON – Sunday 16th Of November. 12 Noon
As well as good news of the signing events they also announced the news given to them by notice, from The Magic Brothers band that sadly as things are now working out The Magic Brothers Live band is no more.
“It is with great regret that we have to announce that the Magic Brothers will not be bale to play at The Big One 3.
This is strictly out of our control and the band wish to express that they have not come to this decision lightly”
It is a culmination of the illness suffered by Nick and other matters. The band have tried to rehearse with a new vocalist but it is seems this has not come to any fruition. They wish to send their sincerest apologies to you all.
Their other dates have been cancelled as a result of the decision. We wish Nick, Woody and the band well.
Have no fear, we are working hard to resolve the gap left and you are still in a for a treat. Where there’s Specialized, there’s a way.
Thank you.
Specialized.
MIS, having spoken with the Magic Brothers team, no recording is now due from The Magic Brothers either. So no second album it seems. The Birmingham gig has been cancelled now also we see, and we expect to now not see the band at House of Fun either, but we expect future song writing from The Brothers, and we also expect future music releases and live ventures from solo Woody are possibilities that could happen in the longer term future. We wish Woody well with it all, and expect nothing now until after the next phase of Madness activity.
Paul Willo / Jonathan Young
TIME…
That’s almost it for this week, but in this 35th One Step Beyond anniversary special of the MIS we’d like to pass the baton over to Paul Rodgers to help close this issue.
Over to you, Paul…
On the occasion of its 47th reissue to mark its 35th year One Step Beyond… hits the UK album chart again. It is now Madness’ album with the longest chart span, having first appeared on 3 November 1979 at number 15.
This is actually the 4th issue of One Step Beyond…. to chart (the other 43 just missed out). The first on Stiff Records Seez 17 vinyl and Zseez17 cassette peaked at number 3 and managed five weeks in the top 5, nine in the top 10, a whopping great 42 in the top 40, 71 in the top 75 and 77 in the top 100. Back then (1979-1982) there was no top 150 or top 200. Had there been I am sure One Step Beyond… would have many more lower chart weeks to add.
The first runs of reissues on Virgin all failed to chart. The OVED series of vinyl, cassette, CD and the short lived Strinkbaum™ never troubled the chart compilers.
The next issue to chart was the 2000 remastered issue. Curiously this didn’t chart until 2005. Entering the chart at 100 on 30 July 2005, it then dropped to 146 and 192. The same week it last charted (13 August 2005) it was massively overshadowed by the number 11 debut and peak of the then new ‘Madness’ album The Dangermen Sessions Volume 1. Part of the reason why One Step Beyond… charted again at this point would have been the top 39 success of Shame And Scandal (which peaked at number 38), which attracted half decent radio play and the tour of British forests the band had recently completed. At these gigs (and intimate indoor ones as The Dangermen) the band had played tracks from the new album AND a couple or three cuts from One Step Beyond…. The ska feel would have been fresh in the minds of many punters. Incidentally I wanted to check the dates for the forest tour and all I could find in Google was a post on some forum by a bloke called Rober Thazelby. Whether he is a reliable sauce I do not know, but he lists the tour as starting on June 11 in Thetford and ending at Sherwood Pines somewhere in the midlands on 25 June. I was lucky/unlucky/muddy/drunk/soaked through* enough to attend 4 of those 6 gigs, bumping into many old and new faces along the way. Hello Biggsy! *delete as.
My little digression there is because of Madness’ announcement of the Friday night Dangermen vs The Invaders set at Butlin’s in 5, fiver, Five, FIVE!!!! Weeks time. I had a little chat with Mike Barson on Facebook last night and asked him a few questions about Minehead and the December tour. If you do not want to hear the results, please look away now….
….Actually I’d better not quote him as I didn’t ask his permission. He only got in touch to tell me he’d signed the Save Ian Dury’s Bench petition (http://www.change.org/p/warner-chappell-music-uk-save-ian-dury-s-memorial-bench) as per my earlier request and here I was asking him about Cathal/Chas Smash, whether he and Chrissy Boy might be handling any lead vocals and the likelyhood of hearing Mistakes. If anyone wants to know his answers, please come find me on Facebook and I’ll PM you the relevant answers if I can get Mike’s agreement.
After Madness signed their back catalogue over to Union Square Music/Salvo they released a 30th anniversary issue in 2009. This was the first comprehensive reissue including B sides, Peel Sessions, live tracks and an albatross. It hit number 67 on the charts on 7 November 2009 then dropped to 139 and 182.
Adding in the 3 weeks the 2000 reissue managed on the charts One Step Beyond… had thus had 83 weeks on the top 200, 79 in the top 100 and 72 in the top 75. Positions in the top 40 and higher have remained the same since 1982.
The latest reissue, which I reviewed last week (before discovering that the strange You Said intro was actually the end of Swan Lake segueing into it) got off to a brilliant start in the midweek charts, catching me totally off guard. Jon Young let me know it was number 25 on Wednesday (based on strong pre-orders at Amazon.co.uk and the like). By Friday it had dropped to number 40 (on all sales Sunday-Thursday), but Music Week magazine were still predicting a top 75 entry for it today.
It reaches the dizzy heights of number 8 on the indie chart and number 54 on the main album chart, thus One Step Beyond… is at its highest position since 6 June 1981. You can all add one to the figures for top 75, top 100 and top 200. At this rate it might make the top 40 in 2021 or more likely 2028!
Finally I cannot go without giving a plug to everyone’s 8th favourite band Half Man Half Biscuit. They have a new album out on 20 October, called Urge For Offal. It’s their thirteenth album of a career that dates back to the mid 80s. It’s also their thirteenth album for indie label Probe Plus. I’ve not heard any of it yet (apart from maybe one track live ages ago) but I can recommend it simply because their albums are always sure to be good.
See you at Minehead…
Paul Rodgers
Many thanks for that, Paul.
If you would like to help keep the Ian Dury Memorial Bench, in active service join this Facebook group who have recently begun petitioning for it’s refurbishment.
Having gained the required attention they are working with Ian’s Daughter on the future needs of this project. Keep updated here…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1559185147638185/
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With special thanks to Daren West, Ed Stebbing-Allen and Paul Rodgers)
The Author
