Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 809 – Sunday 9th November to Saturday 15th November 2014
Hello Danger Men fans!
This week, in a run up to the House of Fun Weekender, which takes place in just two weeks time, we take you back to the middle of the last decade, 2004/5 and the days of The Dangermen – Robert Chaos, Lester Bernham, Daniel Descartes, Professor Psykoticus, Christofos Formantos, Jimmy Ooh and The Unnamed, and the ska and reggae cover version song book they played to small appreciative mesmerized crowds around this time.
Turn your clock back nearly 10 years and check out their sounds, from the familiar to the rumoured.
If you’re Steven Kirk you’ll also enjoying reading the book “Be Stiff: The Stiff records story”, as you’ve just won last week’s competition to win this new book, thanks to Soundcheck Books.
Madhead promotion began as well this week as Madness appeared in Ireland.
And finally, we’re happy to announce another guest will join our live Jaks show in two weeks. The Rev Gary Toon, from The Nutty Bar will join the guests on the Mad Chart Show.
We’ll see you there in just two weeks time!
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 – Last places on sale (4 person plus) 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
2015
The 2015 House Of Fun Weekender has now been announced as prize worthy. (Venue location confirmation and dates to follow)
The Silencerz (Featuring Lee Thompson)
November 2014
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. Day tickets are now on sale.
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/
Woody
Dan Woodgate will be signing photo’s for Fan’s at The Big One3. At 12 Midday on Saturday November 15th. Day tickets are now on sale.
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
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.
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
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.
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)
BE STIFF. The Stiff Records Story. Richard Balls.
Product ID: ISBN_978-0957570061
£16.99 New
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Madness in Ireland
Baggy Trousers on the Late Late Show – http://youtu.be/50IaAS6Na1U
Suggs and Mike on RTE 10 – http://youtu.be/aCDvs–4g64
THE PEACE COLLECTIVE – The Farm with Suggs – All Together Again & Xfactor Xmas song battle
https://www.facebook.com/peaceforxmas?pnref=story The Peace Collective
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/farms-together-now-charity-re-release-8046201
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29894441
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/peace-song-targets-xmas-top-spot-30717377.html
Suggs has once again returned to the producers’ role on The Farm as the band are re-releasing re-recording their hit “All together now” for charity, in tribute to the anniversary of the war time Christmas football match that the song is written about.
The song will mark 100 years since the Christmas Day truce in the trenches, with Holly Johnson, The Proclaimers and John Power lending support so far.
The new recording is being produced by Simon Britton, and executively produced by Suggs from Madness and Mick Jones from The Clash.T he musicians involved include Alexandra Burke, Guy Chambers, Gorgon City, Gabrielle, The Proclaimers, Engelbert Humperdinck, Holly Johnson, John Power, Jah Wobble, Jane McDonald, I Am Kloot, Shara Nelson, Amelle Berrabah from The Sugababes, winner of The Voice 2014 Jermain Jackman, and The Farm themselves, with more to be confirmed.
Madhead Fancy Dress
Have you worked out which Madhead you’re dressing up as on the Saturday night yet?
The Grand Prize for the best costume is the Madhead Golden Ticket.
This year, to enter to win, we’re asking you to take a picture of yourselves on the Saturday night in your full get-up then post it using Instagram including #FancyMadhead in your comment.
Your picture will then automatically appear at mad-head.co.uk where you can all help pick the best one!
Good luck!!
The House of fun Weekender page.
Madhead Tattoos and Madhead Tour Programme Writing
Got a Madness related Tattoo?
We want to feature some in the Madhead Tour programme.
Email a picture of it along with the story behind it to: info@madness.co.uk
The Madhead tour programme, is also looking for text now from you madheads. So please have a go at answering one or all of these questions below on the bands Facebook page, they will include as much as they can in the programme…
Who would you nominate as a Madhead and why?
Could be yourself, a friend or anyone – famous or obscure, rich or poor.
If you were asked to create a Drink/Beer/Cocktail or Wine based on a Madness song or album what would it be and what would it consist of?
And as we are celebrating the 35th anniversary, tell us about the time you went One Step Beyond and what were the consequences?
MIS FEATURE – THE SONGS OF THE DANGERMEN
After nearly a decade The Dangermen will take to the stage at Minehead to do battle with The Invaders on The Friday Night. In part two of our feature we look at the history and songbook of The Dangermen.
No one is quite sure where The Dangermen disappeared to, but South America was always suspected to be their hideaway of choice.
They were, after all, hated men. Around a third or more of vocal Madness fans around in 2005 deemed them guilty of criminal records. While a much more united majority of fans happily saw Madness set up in the Victorian east end of London shortly after this period, The Dangermen were unceremoniously hounded away as light weight, cheap trick copyists during the great marmite shake up of fandom that year. They also had lost a man, Christofos Formantos, had cited “Petty time consuming bollocks” rather than “musical differences” as the standard exit route at this time, and had been replaced by Boris Riffcheque, eventually leading to a period of internal reflection by the band.
Living as alter egos of Madness, their billing was always erratic in their hey day, it’s a little hard to pinpoint the last full live appearance of the band, but this one eyewitness, saw the Hollywood billing change several times, until it was clearly just “The Dangermen” on the sign outside the legendary Troubadour club. That American tour, (including San Diego that was said by “The unnamed” to be a real shame it hadn’t been recorded because it may have been the band’s finest hour) saw Madness songs start to dominate half and half the set again. The real face of the band emerging through the made up mask. Was the crystal ballroom the last façade on September 23rd in Portland? When Madness flew home did they do so alone? If The Dangermen did make it back to the UK, and then presented their sessions live on the 5th of December 2005 Nottingham’s Rock City, does that count, that would make it two weeks shy of 9 years when they reappear at Minehead, but we are more inclined to think just echoes of them remained by then, occasionally they might guest on a song at festivals here after but the so much trouble in the world of The Dangermen had brought the full chapter or volume one to an end. A planned filmed DVD from Bill and Ben Productions never came out, and V2 dropped the band after a sexy video reimagining of the band wasn’t an instant hit.
The 2005 album of The Dangermen Sessions brought forth 12 songs.
1. “Girl Why Don’t You?” (Prince Buster)
2. “Shame & Scandal” (Sir Lancelot ) Peter Tosh version an inspiration.
3. “I Chase the Devil A.K.A. Ironshirt” (Max Romeo)
4. “Taller Than You Are” (Lord Tanamo)
5. “You Keep Me Hanging On” (The Supremes)
6. “Dangerman A.K.A. High Wire” (Edwin Astley & His Orchestra) Bob Leaper version an inspiration.
7. “Israelites” (Desmond Dekker & The Aces)
8. “John Jones” (Rudy Mills)
9. “Lola” (The Kinks), Nicky Thomas version an inspiration.
10. “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” (Barbara Lynn)
11. “Rain” (José Feliciano) Bruce Ruffin version an inspiration.
12. “So Much Trouble in the World (Bob Marley)
While “Sky Larking” and a dub version of “Dreader Than Dread” made it to b-side releases.
Over the years versions of “Vietnam”(Jimmy Cliff), “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” (Grieg), “Bittersweet” (Undertones), “Love Really Hurts” (Billy Oceon), leaked out on later single or compilation releases by Madness and were said to come from demo ideas or try outs around these Dangermen recording sessions times. Perhaps even “The Roadette Song” as it was recorded in 2005 by Madness (different studio/engineers) could be considered in that bracket too. The Bogus Man a roxy music try out was mentioned in interview at this time.
In the back room of The Dublin Castle in 2004 though is where The Dangermen first made their stage appearance, to witnesses of just a couple of hundred amazed fans. Sweat, beer, the atmosphere so heightened that captured new excitement of playing for the fun and the love of some songs you had borrowed. This was when The Dangermen were kings. A number of tunes from this time, fell by the wayside come the album work.
“Phoenix City”. “It Mek” (a fan favourite). “Big City”, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” A triumphant clarion call of “Pig Bag”.
Over the years fans of The Dangermen occasionally pop up asking “Where’s Volume Two?” showing the support for them that was always there. Maybe that’s why they can now make it out of hiding with out marmite pots being lobbed so obviously at them. The Online making their cover versions more excepted over time.
At the end of the day, with years of added context now, The Dangermen were the great warm up act, highly entertaining and energizing a pursuit, that came before the mighty Madness unveiled their self penned lauded genius. So they should be a fitting treat for a House of Fun Weekender. Warming up the Friday, before Madness arrive Saturday night with just the first shoots of greenery showing through we hope of their next written masterpieces sitting alongside their hit parade show for all Madheads.
The Dangermen rehearsal footage shown earlier this year, delighted in showing them all back in the UK playing Girl in rehearsals at the 02 arena, but it cast doubt on Jimmy Ooh’s involvement in Friday’s set. We hope he’s back, or the intro’s of Iron Shirt and Girl, will miss his gravely tones.
And what of “Ready For Love” The Martha Reeves cover? Did this ever happen. Was it just a press release mistake? Or a last minute album track change. That Mystery remains.
The Invaders Vs The Dangermen takes place in just two weeks time – The soundclash of the titans. Be there.
Jonathan Young
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 549 – Sunday 8th November – Saturday 14th November 2009
We had a packed issue for you this week, and a good chunk of that was down to the efforts of Jonathan who had managed to translate (and then have a good go at cleaning up) a recent German interview with the band. This proved to be an excellent read, and while still not a 100% perfect translation you could easily get a good idea of what was being discussed.
Over to Paul Rodgers, and this week he explained that there was less good news to report and that some of it was actually plain bad.
Total Madness slipped out of the top 40 albums, dipping to number 50 in its 7th week on the indie album chart, and number 60 on the main album chart. One Step Beyond fell from 6 to 15 on the Indie chart, meaning it was likely to fall outside the top 100 on the main charts.
The day after this issue of the MIS was due to go out, the Silver Edition of The Libery of Norton Folgate would be released. Would this see the album go top 10 again? According to Paul there was “Not a cat in hell’s chance”. Would it make the top 40? It was “possible”, commented Paul.
Regarding the re-release of Folgate Paul stated;
“Incidentally at the time of release there was some understandable criticism that a few of the lyrics were incorrect in Norton Folgate’s booklet. You may be pleased to know that the booklet has been completely re-printed for the standard CD version, with corrected lyrics, a better lay out and the park photograph enlarged. This makes the standard version (which is definitely available in HMV) worth buying again for completists.”
On to Madness off-shoots, and we passed proceedings over to ‘Spike’, who was kind enough to upload of Like Father Like Son performing The Kinks classic – You Really Got Me.
Next we reported on The Pet Shop Boys. Why? Well, it turned out that the due would be releasing a 5-track EP which included their take on the early Madness track My Girl, which they originally performed with Suggs and Carl at a charity event the previous year.
Tribute news next, and it was pleasing to see that the Madness 30th Anniversary Tribute Album was now available to purchase from the official Madness online store. Priced at £10, this was an absolute bargain.
We brought this issue to a close with a fantastic piece of work by Madness fan Mick Jenner – his self-produced version of a video for the b-side Seven Year Scratch.
10 years ago…
Issue number 287 – Sunday 7th November to Saturday 13th November 2004
The biggest item of news in this week’s issue had to be the story revealing that Suggs had been approached by the team behind TV series “I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here”. This was the show where a number of `stars` (we use that term loosely) were plonked into the jungle, and were then forced to not only survive, but to also get on with each other.
Whilst the first series was without a doubt completely dire, and up there with the truly terrible `Big Brother` it did however rejuvenate the flagging careers of Johnny Rotten and Peter Andre (thanks go to Andrew Langmead for reminding us!). Whilst Suggs was still very much in the public eye with regular TV and radio appearances, we felt that it could certainly give him some exposure in time for the release of the new Madness covers album early in 2005.
With Madness in the studio busily preparing their exciting new album, we all needed to find our fix elsewhere this year. The good news for readers in the north east of England was that there would be a special clinic held at Newcastle City Hall on the evening of Saturday 18th December, hosted by The Gangsters of Ska.
With the Gangsters of Ska including a healthy dose of Madness covers in their set, as well as songs by The Specials, Bad Manners, and a sprinkling of other classics, all served up with a generous dash of good humour, those attending would be in for one memorable night.
If you’d not been over to the official Madness web site recently we suggested that you took a look behind Bedders’ door. Like many of us Mark had found that over the course of time his hair had upped and gone. However, rather than ignore the fact and go for the bald denial look, he decided to keep his hair trimmed short.
At this point in time Mark’s full head of hair days were well and truly behind him. However, thanks to the wonders of modern technology Mark was asking the fans to come and give him a hair makeover by adding the hair using their favourite imaging packages.
A number of fans had already taken up the hair-drawing challenge, but Mark was on the lookout for yet more. All you had to do was take the template image found at the bottom of his page and then get editing.
We finished off this week’s issue with a detailed heads up on the release of the ‘Our House’ musical DVD, which had now seen the light of day. With an RRP of a wallet busting £19.99, we quickly tracked down a number of outlets selling the production at far less than that. Yet another disc to add to the collection, eh?
15 years ago…
Issue number 25 – Sunday 7th November – Saturday 13th November 1999
Just missing the last issue was the woeful news that Johnny The Horse entered the charts at a pitiful 44. We had to admit that we weren’t exactly surprised though.
Venturing into a number of music stockists in the week running up to and after the release of the new single we managed to find a massive zero items promoting the single in any way, shape or form. What happened to some nice window posters or boards? We recalled an excellent selection of advertising bits and pieces used in store displays for the release of `The Heavy, Heavy Hits`, so why wasn’t something like that used here? If the public weren’t aware that something was going to or had been released, how did the record companies expect them to buy it?
This week witnessed the release of the first `proper` Madness album since 1985. Was there a massive advertising blitz? Did we see `Divine Madness` style adverts on our television sets as witnessed way back in 1992? Nope, we had nothing like that. Did Virgin choose to allocate the same amount of money to Madness for advertising as Suggs was allotted for his `Three Pyramids Club` release? Judging from what the MIS team and everyone else has witnessed – it looked like it.
The majority of us had managed to keep an eye on the ever changing release dates and had picked up copies of the new single and of course the new album. We knew that these were fantastic releases, but getting the general record buying public to part with their hard earned cash was going to be that little bit harder.
Perhaps we’d all got the wrong end of the stick. Maybe we shouldn’t have paid any interest to how far the new album or single climbed up the UK charts. One person who had this opinion was Total Madness Mailing List subscriber, Iain Mason who in this issue put a totally different perspective on everything.
Moving on to release dates and news in from subscriber Ed Stebbing-Allen was that after asking around a number of music and video suppliers, the DVD release of Madstock 4 would be Monday the 6th of December – just in time for Christmas.
News also reached us revealing the release date for the Madness box set. Entitled ‘The Lot’, the release of this multi-disc compilation had moved from Monday the 8th of November to Monday 22nd of November.
On to the forthcoming Christmas tour, and we’d been receiving a number of emails from subscribers, keen to know who would be supporting the band during the month of December. There had been no mention of supports during recent low-key plugging of the event. Carl subsequently revealed that the support bands had not yet been selected, but stated that “I am sure it will be someone interesting”.
On to the articles, and with the release of “Wonderful” it should come as no surprise to find that this issue featured reviews from a number of magazines and music papers. The Evening Telegraph gave the new release a very respectable 4/5, as did pop paper Melody Maker and Tory newspaper The Mail on Sunday.
This week the band staged a competition that would surely get most fans entering. Simply answer 7 questions, and you could have been in line for 7 prizes – one from each member of the band.
Cathal was giving away his stage suit Suggs – his bowler hat, Lee – the plastic sax he used in many videos, Mark – had made a one off sample of ‘wonderful’ featuring different artwork to the commercial release, Woody – had signed some used drum sticks, Chris – was giving away a pack of signed guitar strings, Mike – a pair of Dr. Martins
The seven questions were found on 7 different web sites, so you had to put in a bit of work to get your answers.
With the band as a whole receiving masses of coverage following the release of the new album and recent singles it was a nice surprise when subscriber Paul Wassell announced that he’d opened the doors to www.suggs.co.uk – Suggs Online.
We finished off this issue with a request from the BBC, who were looking for Madness fans to interview as part of a 40 minute documentary entitled “Young Guns Go For it”. Sadly, with the short notice and the fact that you had to get to London on a Thursday morning, meant that only a limited number were able to take part.
Rob Hazelby
SPECIALIZED
From our associates at Jump Up Records in the USA – Exciting news. ”… It’s MADNESS! BIM SKALA BIM w/ DAVE HILLYARD of THE SLACKERS doing “Night Boat To Cairo” + THE HOTKNIVES, CRABS CORPORATION, RUDE BOY GEORGE, KING HAMMOND, and THE VAULES – the latest SPECIALIZED / MAD NOT CANCER Teenage Cancer Trust charity 7″ singles have arrived! They will be available at the big event next week in the UK
DAY TICKETS FOR THE BIG ONE3 THIS WEEK!
Day tickets are now on sale from the Specialized Store for the Big One3 Weekender
Friday, Saturday, Sunday prices have remained the same for the third year running – £15.00, and a ticket to all three dates remains at £30.00 Simply pay via Paypal and bring your receipt to the event in exchange for a wristband.
See you there!
Get yours now.
http://www.specializedproject.co.uk/#!shop/c1atu
TWEETS OF A DOVE & THAT FACEBOOK
Mark Bedford @I_be_MarkB
“A good day in the studio with @The_NJE and Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. An LP is taking shape…”
Madness facebook.
“It’s only fitting that The Dublin Castle in Camden is the first pub to stock all 3 of our beers! Starting today, Gladness, Night Boat and Lovestruck will all be available there!
Lots more pubs to follow soon!”
Lee Thompson posted an amusing picture of himself with a cardboard cliff richard in a off licence advertising wine.
TIME…
Polling has now closed on the Mad Chart 2014, with the results currently being tallied and collated. Once the counting is complete the top 40 is to be DJ’d during The Mad Chart Show at The Big One 3 and at The House of Fun Weekenders in just two and three weeks time, respectively. Issue 811 of the MIS is set aside to be a special issue for the top 100.
“The torture of having to sit through Ballet videos all for Lee Thompson” wrote Darren Dixon earlier this week, as he was editing the latest backdrop video for Lee and the Silencerz.
Reece (Darren Fordham’s band) played a great warm up gig for our House of Fun Weekender show, performing for Mad Chat Facebook group on Saturday afternoon in The Dublin Castle. “In the rain” was amongst their cover versions and a great original song was also seen in facebook videos of the event, showing fans having a good time.
The facebook group auctioned a jacket signed by Lee Thompson which Darren brought along for them, and made nearly £200.
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Soundcheck Books, and Shannan McBride)
The Author
