Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 845 – Sunday 19th July to Saturday 25th July 2015
Hello Madheads!
A very warm welcome to this latest issue of the MIS Online newsletter, and we open with London Callling – https://youtu.be/-uupu_pe9Jo
The video is of one Suggs McPherson singing a Clash tune at a recent event with Jools Holland. It’s really nice to see this. Madness once covered the song a Strummerville, but there is no known footage of that. At least this time we have audio and video evidence of Suggs doing Strummer.
This video comes at a very appropriate time, as in this very issue we have a Specialized update detailing their Combat Cancer Clash Covers year of projects.
On to other things, and it was nice to see other members of the Madness community having a go at hosting their very own Periscope video feed. We must admit to failing to catch these as when the heads-up message landed on our phones we were busy doing other things.
Keep the Periscope broadcasts coming. This could prove to be a fun way for Madness fans to share experiences.
Now, on with the issue!
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
2015
GRANDSLAM
“Sporting theatres jumping with joy is the goal. Grandslam Madness – the greatest open air tour in the history of Rock & Roll…”
The Grandslam is now parked-up and enjoying a well-earned Summer break. The tour resumes in early September.
September
6 – Gibraltar Festival
11 – Canterbury, Kent County Cricket Club
12 – Bristol, Gloucester County Cricket Club
13 – London, On Blackheath
18 – Leeds, Yorkshire County Cricket Club
19th Newbury Racecourse.
25 – Wolverhampton
26 – Chester-le-Street, Durham County Cricket Club
November 2015
November 20th – 23rd 2014 – Minehead – The House Of Fun Weekender Five
Early bird tickets on sale now
Near Jazz Experience
July
21 – NEAR JAZZ EXPERIENCE + Support + DJ Set
@ Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT *Free* 8.30pm BST
Visit: https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
July
24th Llangollen Town Hall, Denbrighshire, Wales (Fringe Festival Event)
August
1st The Garage Highbury, London
Cathal Smyth
More events coming. Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July could be joining the “Other Voice” section of the festival.
Other dates in October and Dublin are future plans. No confirmed dates yet.
Deaf School
September
5th – Bingley Music Festival (Headlining Stage 2)
6th – Norwich – Waterfront
December
10th Liverpool – Kasimier
The Clang
August 1st – Port Eliot Festival
The Silencerz
August 15th – Chados Arms, Colindale 8pm
BUY IT
In Your Mind – Woody Woodgate solo album.
Pre-Order Now on Amazon. – *** Out Now ***
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TZEMCMQ
OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE A SIGNED ALBUM INSTEAD http://www.propermusic.com/product-details/Woody-Woodgate-In-Your-Mind-Ltd-Autographed-Edition-188454
Album released June 1st. 13 tracks with new band line up and vocalist Dan Shears.
The first single from the album will be “In Your Mind”. A release date for this is to be confirmed. Shooting for the video will commence shortly.
Deaf School – Laundarette
http://deafschoolmusic.com/#/shop/4579903328/l-a-u-n-d-e-r-e-t-t-e-cd-the-new-album—buy-now/9766251
The brand new album, a Japanese release, contains 7 brand new studio tracks from the band, a track featuring Sam singing (and Lee Thompson in the band) unreleased from 1988 and 5 live tracks (recorded at the Brighton show 2014)
Lovestruck & Night Boat – Madness Beers – And Win Grandslam Tickets
Find out where to buy the beers here…
http://www.madness.co.uk/2014/10/30/madness-brewing-company/
SIGN OF THE TIMES
News and info from online and offline media sources.
Win Tickets To Black Heath Grandslam
http://absoluteradio.co.uk/competitions/absolute-radio-live/
Listen to The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show every weekday morning at 7:30am for your chance to win. This Monday (July 20th), Madness tickets are being given away on the show.
Nightlife – Madness Events Arena Rhyl
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/review-madness-events-arena-rhyl-9639110
Madness inspired a memorable night of nostalgia and renaissance for a resort badly in need of good news.
It wasn’t the strength of their performance that inspired a fantastic night for the town – it was the people.
The locals turned up and partied in all their finery, harking back to yesteryear and times when, ever the bridesmaid of resorts, sunny Rhyl was in its pomp. Madness provided the backdrop to an eager crowd, starved of fun and good times for so long they made a supreme effort to welcome their illustrious guests. Would that they had reciprocated as eagerly as their hosts.
It augered well when a collection of 1950s and 1960s clips rolled on the big screens to the accompaniment of the old World of Sport theme tune. On entrance Suggs looked assured and had the audience in the palm of his hand. Into the first number, Grandslam, and everything looked on course for a memorable night. The band is tight, Suggs has a better voice than back in the day and the horn section gave depth to a superb sound. Yet despite the promise, the whole performance was less than the sum of its parts.
The first half stuttered so much so that, aside from the hard core at the front, a lot of the arena was to be seen in deep conversation through the opening 45 minutes.
A strange rendition of Living On A Prayer, beautifully accompanied by the 4,000 or so who made the night special, heralded the second part of the show and a medley of some of the big hitters from the back catalogue.
Baggy Trousers seemed to really kick the crowd off but at one minute and fifty seconds the boys missed a trick in keeping the magic alive. No matter though, Rhyl had turned up to party and they would have danced to a reading of the telephone directory, such was their thirst for a shindig. It Must Be Love brought another communal singsong but it was all too little too late to rescue a performance which never quite matched the fervour of the crowd.
Yes they are polished. Yes they are great musically. However it lacked the edge that everyone remembered.
It failed to live up to the irreverence that made them what they were and made Rhyl what it was back in the days.
Rhyl turned up in all its finery for the big occasion – Madness didn’t.
It was a fantastic night and it showed the potential of a fantastic town with fantastic people. For that reason alone it will live long in the memory.
Jez Hemming.
Madness Put The Rhyl Events Arena Firmly on The Map
Once Madness came to the stage the crowd went wild, with them performing all the classic tracks that the fans love, whilst I was walking through the crowd, old and young were enjoying the gig, there were loads in their fezzes, much like an eighth Doctor Who convention, and the Grandslam T-Shirts as well as the madness hats that the band were wearing.
Full article here: http://blazingminds.co.uk/madness-make-mark-rhyl/
Woody Talks To Phoenix Fm
Listen again here.
http://www.phoenixfm.com/2015/07/15/madness-drummer-woody-woodgate/
It was great to chat to Woody about his time in Madness, the current “Grandslam Madness” tour, his role as an ambassador for the mental health charity Rethink, and his new solo album “In Your Mind” which has just been released.
Talking Madness, Magic Brothers, and his new solo album.
Woody talks about working on the new Madness songs, playing them live and working in rehearsals in London between the gigs.
His favourite Madness song is Leon as the next step in Madness. From the hit singles It Must Be Love.
Talks about Mental health and Nick songwriting, and you don’t have to hide your love away is played.
On The new album Woody talks about Teaching Dan Shears, and his high vocal range. And the joy of seeing his album in HMV.
My First, My Last, My Everything
BBC Radio Suffolk’s Stephen Foster has been chatting with Woody again. This time on his Sunday morning show (19/7/2015), looking at his record collection.
[It’s] entitled “My First, My Last, My Everything”. [The] show runs from 0900 to 1200, and Woody’s on [at] about 1120 .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02w0zfq
David Button
LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
Robert Wardlaw continues his review of his Grandslam weekend. Last issue he attended Haydock, and wondered what the Scottish might make of the supporting intro. This week he’s onto Carlise the most northern English gig, and Montrose the Scottish date….
Round 2 – Carlisle Race Course
Headed up the M6…. Next stop Carlisle. Still buzzing from night before, so the Mad tunes were blaring all the way. Checked into hotel, got shifted & headed round to The Griffin pub where I met Colin Galbraith (Mr G) & his partner in crime Amanda, their friends, Meg & Alan & our resident photographer / cider drinker & all round fun loving party animal Dicka. All were in fine fettle & I knew it was going to be a day to remember. A few drinks, brilliant banter, loads of photo opportunities & a good natter about all things mad… happy days. It was soon time to think about moving so headed to taxi queue & had to wait for about half an hour … eventually we got a 7 seater & headed to the Race Course. We got in & we weren’t allowed to the stage till after the races, so Dicka took us to a nice quiet wee corner / sun trap under the stand, right in line with the finishing line… perfect. Others soon arrived… Scurf (loving being sober… Not !), Stella & Michelle who were really nice & fellow Scot, Steven fae Dumfries, who is a top bloke. We also spied Gordy from the Amphetameanies in the VIP section & he got pelters for that …. He did eventually come over beside the scum though ha ha. Great banter, more beers & Pimms were going down well & Amanda had a few winners so she was happy.
The gates opened & we all headed for the stage. Front left again, but the barrier was a bit further back from the stage than at Haydock. It wasn’t gonna be a spoiler though.
The crowd assembled in anticipation… then it was time… Grandslam intro & the boys appeared… and we were off (again !). Another brilliant set & performance…. The highlights, for me, were You Said ….. I feckin love this song and it’s even better live. It was in in place of Mummy’s Boy from the night before. NW5 & Lovestruck always pleasers for the die hards. Forgot to mention My Girl previously, I love the slow intro & tonight it was just class. Take it or leave it awesome. Girl was in in place of John Jones from night before & went down well. The other new song was Mumbo Jumbo & while not immediately jumping out at me, I’m sure it will grow.
The banter in the crowd was brilliant & after Karaoke with Chris, the place jumping during show time & the encore, again finishing with Madness & Night Boat to Cairo. All in all, another brilliant performance from the Nutty Boys. We & many others, continued to party during Always look on the bright side of life with loads still dancing & singing …. Safe to say it was enjoyed by all. Then it was over… an absolutely brilliant day, spent with Mad friends old & new… this is what Madness gigs & Madmeets are all about. Dot & I headed to the bus queue & our bus into the centre was the party bus with the whole bus singing madness tunes & others at the top of our voices, all the way …. Great end to a brilliant night.
Round 3 – Montrose, East Links (Bonny Scotland !)
Next morning, after a hearty breakfast, we headed home to Fife. Now, at this point, I had no intention of going to Montrose, even though it was the only Scottish gig of the tour & only 1 hour from home. But…. the enticement invited me along a path of mad… Still buzzing from an awesome weekend & the fact that Colin Ross & his partner Nicki were there & had been at me to go…. I buckled…. 1 hour from home I said “f*ck it, were going”, Dot said “woo hoo”. Got home, threw in the bags, quick change & off we went.
Got there & the arena was already very busy… met Colin & Nicki then bought tickets at the gate….then in…. couldn’t get near front of stage, so settled at front to left of stage in front of big screen, not best view, but could still see Thommo’s antics … hilarious ! We missed the first support band & the second were By the Rivers, who were decent & easy listening. The atmosphere was amazing & the sea of fezzes & pork pies was a sight to behold… another cracking night was coming…Then it was Madness time…
The intro, as I thought, got a few light hearted boos at the England football & rugby clips… especially Johnny Wilkinson. When Madness appeared on stage, Suggs immediately, with tongue in cheek apologised saying they’d need to get that bit fixed for us next time.
The sound was spot on for this gig & the performance was just as good. The crowd were up for it & all round the atmosphere was brilliant. The only down side was me being sober (felt your pain Scurf !!). Grandslam Montrose was under way …. Thommo was at it from the start, throwing chocolate bars into the crowd & doing his thing with the crowd. He really does crack me up with his antics.
The set list was pretty much the same as the previous nights with Grandslam, hits & album tracks, another new song, show time & encore.
The changes were the new song on this set was “Herbert”. I really like this song… it’s gonna be a classic in my opinion. It Mek was in as the Dangermen track with Girl dropping out & Believe Me was in place of You Said. Highlights for me were Believe Me, Herbert & the encore.
A piper appeared on stage & played Scotland the brave & Flower of Scotland …. The atmosphere was amazing as the whole crowd sang along… it was hairs on end stuff … then straight into Madness & Night Boat …. The whole place was bouncing … reminded me a bit of the T in the Park gig. It was mental. A brilliant ending to a brilliant gig … this was indeed a proper f***ing party. The crowed headed home happy & for me, they had just seen one of Madness’ best performances … it was spot on all round. I’m sure there will be a good few new McMaddies after this one. After the gig we said our goodbyes to Colin & Nicki then headed home to Fife tired but very happy Madness fans.
Well that’s me done folks, My Grandslam weekend…. My plan is ahead of schedule… 50 Madness gigs before I’m 50 is now guaranteed & will be the Saturday night at Butlins, the night before my 49th birthday… will I stop, will I f*ck… That would be madness !!…. Till next time….STAY FOREVER MAD !!!
Rob Wardlaw
Madness At Chepstow
Mixing Madness and horse racing is a humorous mixture for a fabulous day out , because arriving at this great Welsh venue the first thing I noticed was the funny mixture of ladies in jimmy choo heels with hats on dressed in their finery for the racing, together with ladies in two tone pork pie hats and braces and Dr Marten boots ! However they both had the same reason for being at the venue …MADNESS !
A very rare one off sunny day in Wales brought out a huge crowd and the atmosphere was electric.
The band came on around 9.15pm at the same time the rain decided to arrive ! However that did nothing to dispel the atmosphere and crowd participation .
The band arrived on stage looking the part as always but I thought Mike Barson looked particularly dapper sporting a sharply cut suit and matching Navy Fez with yellow tassel .
The set list kicked off with Grandslam which the crowd seemed to enjoy although not know however the next song “Embarrassment ” soon had them going .
I was lucky enough to be watching from stage side behind the brass monkeys and there was a lot of funny banter going on between the band as they played through their set of an impressive 25 tracks .
The charming Christopher Foreman was granted his usual “show time ” slot and chose to delight the crowd with a rendition of Bon Jovi’s living on a prayer ….. He would have been better off sticking with his Tom jones song which I’ve witnessed him doing in Wales before but the crowd still seemed to enjoy it and joined in with enthusiasm.
As they ploughed through the set list the atmosphere built up, helped greatly by the unpredictability of Mr Lee Thompson who was on top form and dare I say a little more crazy than usual ! …. To prove my point he adorned himself with a welsh flag and Welsh Lady black & white frilly hat from the Welsh national dress costume which he preceded to wear for the remainder of the gig (ive no idea where it came from ! )
The band coped well and as remained professional as ever by continuing to play even when some idiot decided to invade the stage after giving security the slip and proceeded to grab Suggs and make a nuisance of himself, but he was soon thrown out!
The usual finale of night boat to Cairo was delivered and received with enthusiasm and it was all over far too soon but 25 tracks was a great effort and delivered flawlessly.
The crowd dispersed and descended On the very small town of Chepstow to continue the party and party we did until the wee hours of Saturday morning to a ska fest which had the pubs full of happy revellers dancing to Madness & a variety of other ska bands, the atmosphere was electric .
A fantastic day & night out for all ages .
Helen Harvey Bennett
The Grandslam resumes in September .
If you’re attending any of the remaining Grandslam gigs, please join the ranks of fans who’ve reviewed this tour with us so far. Our Thanks to all of them. All you need is a little more fan passion in you than just the length of a one finger typed tweet then send us in your reviews of Madness’ biggest ever outdoor tour. Your review doesn’t have to be massive. Just a sentence, a paragraph, or a set list, or a video link, or a full blown account of your Grandslam. It’s entirely up to you. Whatever your experience let all our readers know how your day was, what were the best bits, and make Madness proudly a band people truly talk about. We’ll publish your efforts in a future MIS newsletter, in our Live and Intensified regular section, and also on our website blog. There may even be a prize or two given out come September at tour end!
Be a sport and send us your post match analysis.
Send whatever you madly muster to Jonsmad@hotmail.com
Jonathan Young
MIS FEATURE – THE LEE THOMPSON SKA ORCHESTRA DUB MIXES
Newly uploaded now to The Lee Thompson Ska Orchetra Website Music player is a brand new unheard mix.
http://leethompsonska.com/soul-serenade-dub-mix/
Soul Serenade Dub Mix.
This is the third and final Dub mix of tracks from The Benevolence of Sister Mary sessions.
Producer Mike Pelanconi aka Prince Fatty was on the desk and at Lee’s and Louis request chose 3 tracks from the album to dub out through his echo machines, and Mike added movie quotes from the film he watches during days when he is mixing albums.
The previous two mixes to this were Hot reggae. This appeared as Hot-Rub-A-Dub on the You Lucky People EP.
Bangarang was the other. This appeared as Bang-A-Dub a free download around the time of the singles release.
Now you can hear the third and final mix of Mike’s first album trilogy, over on the band’s new website.
Website built by Simon Roberts.
Track, From Lee Thompson.
SPECIALIZED UPDATE
Join The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra in Wales **Ends Wednesday**
We are very chuffed to announce that Specialized ambassador Lee Thompson of Madness will be writing the sleeve notes for Specialized 4! Many thanks El Thommo.
….. Specialized 4 – Combat Cancer
In January 2015 we announced that The Clash would be the focus of our fourth annual campaign. Specialized Four will see the compilation of ‘Combat Cancer’, a four disc compact Disc box set featuring the works of The Clash & Joe Strummer. The album consists of 70 clash cover versions donated from bands around the world. All of the tracks will be exclusive to the Combat Cancer album and all have been recorded in 2015 specifically to appear on the album.
The actual release date will be announced in July.
Combat Cancer is the accumulation of the work of over 400 musicians, engineers and producers. It contains tracks from ten countries and includes guest performances from Mick Jones (The Clash) Horace Panter, Lynval Golding (The Specials) Susan Cadogan, Dreadzone, Dennis Bovell and Black Slate. As with all of our compilations Combat Cancer is an insight to current ska scene and champions some of the best new talent in the UK.
All money goes to Teenage Cancer Trust. And The National Youth Music Trust.
You can order the album now.
http://www.specializedproject.co.uk/shop/
….
The Big One 4
THE BIG ONE 4 IS AVAILABLE TO BOOK NOW! 13th/ 14th / 15th NOVEMBER 2015 2015 will be the forth Big One . It will still be the cheapest ska festival in the UK. Again it will be hosted by The Parkden Holiday Camp in Sandford Poole. Three days of quality live music, DJ’s, stalls and more. . PARKDEAN SANDFORD DORSET – UNPRECEDENTED BOOKINGS ALREADY TAKEN! SEE YOU THERE!
BOOKING HOTLINE 03443353501
Friday 13th November
Horace Panters Uptown Ska Collective
Cartoon Violence
The Kubricks
Hometown Hi-Fi
Western Promise
The Great Eskape
aftershow with The Special Brew
Saturday 14th November
Black Slate
King Hammond
The Simmertones
The Cut Throat Razors
Big Fat Panda
Counting Coins
Bluebird Parade
Broken 3 Ways
The Feckin Ejits
The Reggaskas
The Strike
aftershow with The Skapones
Sunday 15th November
The Melodians
The Equators
New Groove Formation
Meow Meows
Kingston Ska Orchestra
The Erin Bardwell Collective
The Almighty Uprisers
Spooky Jefferson’s Ideal Lunchbox
3minutewindow
aftershow with London Calling
Acoustic Stage
Lynval Golding
Roddy Byers
Jona Lewie
Martin Black
Billy Brown
Plus STRICKLY ROCKERS RECORDS SHOWCASE
Featuring RUTH AUGILERA * JERI SUMNER * MIDNITE
….
Graham Yates. Specialized Twitter.
“Massive thanks to Nicky Evans whose Madness banner has just sold on ebay for £91 – part of which will go to Specialized.”
Paul Willo.
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 Number 585 – Sunday 18th July – Saturday 24th July 2010
Here at MIS Online we always enjoyed the video clips produced and uploaded to video sharing web site, YouTube. They’ve made us laugh, or at the very least, have brought a smile to our faces.
Well, it turned out that Mick Jenner had been hard at work in his editing suite/back bedroom, and had now released what was without a doubt his most impressive piece of work to date.
Weighing in at just over 5 minutes in length was the professional looking “Madness… Camden Video Locations” video, which, as the title suggested, detailed various places in and around Camden where Madness video shoots or performances took place.
Unless you saw it you couldn’t begin to appreciate just how much time and effort had gone into this. We were treated to a lovely animated London Underground tube/street map, which explained how to get to each location, a great voice-over by Rudie Ruthie, and, something that musthave taken an age to do – wonderful transitions from video footage of each location today, fading gradually into the footage from the original.
On to comedy next, and this week we discovered that UKTV’s Gold channel had turned to Suggs and the rest of Madness to promote their Summer schedule.
The campaign was due to revolve around the Madness song ‘House of Fun’ which would be the theme for all of Gold’s summer promos and branding elements from the Friday following this issue of the MIS going out until the end of August.
A spokesman for UKTV said the campaign was borne out of the idea that the behaviour of Brits during the summer is “Madness” as the British public get out their bad tattoos, wear socks with sandals and men take their tops off at any opportunity.
The four ads, which were made by Red Bee media, featured Suggs and Madness in front of a graphic of the Gold mind map and featured the new tagline “Stick Something Funny On”.
On the weekend of the 9th to the 11th July the annual T in the Park concert took place at Balado, Kinross-shire. This week, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we were pleased to announced that the BBC had made 11 minutes of Madness’ performance available for viewing online.
House of Fun seemed to be the highlighted track on the BBC web site, but you could also listen to NW5, Forever Young and It Must be Love.
Both picture and sound quality were excellent, making watching/listening to this footage well worth your time.
We brought this issue to a close with a review of the T in the Park gig from the Herald Scotland web site, and news in from subscriber ‘”Gordy”, who revealed;
“There was a wee BBC crew following the chaps about for a separate documentary thingy, which will also surface on BBC3/4 in the autumn.”
10 years ago…
Issue number 323 – Sunday 17th July to Saturday 23rd July 2005
We started off this week’s issue with a rather pointless silly space filling interview from the latest edition of the NME. Apparently, NME writer Peter Robinson took this kind of approach with most pop people he ends up interviewing. Once you’d wasted your time reading that piffle we recommended you went out and bought MOJO magazine. It proved to be a far more interesting read.
Next-up was Jon Young, with his review of the recent Rise Festival, an anti racism event, which played host to such artists as Suggs, Carl and Billy Bragg.
With plenty of reggae music being played on the main stage and records by the Specials early on, Jon Young commented at the time that it felt like it was early in the day at a Madstock concert.
Suggs and Carl played a short set, which consisted of:
- My Girl
- So Much Trouble in the world
- It Must Be Love
- One Love (Drop the Debt).
Jon Young’s reporting coverage continued in the next article, where he gave us a hazy review of a recent Crunch! gig (with JAG on support) where he’d had far too much cider for his own good.
The 19 track gig featured the following tracks:
- Pop My Top
- Here He Comes
- Birthday Girl
- Can’t Keep a Good Thing Down
- Going Solo
- Whistle
- Boy In The Box
- Fur Elise
- Always (The Innocent)
- Saving for a rainy day
- Daydreamers
- Roundtrip
- Pipedream
- Tap Dance
- It’s OK I’m a Policeman
- Saints and sinners
- People
- You Got It
- Magic Carpet
There was even more gig reviewing goodness from Jon Young in the next article (does this man sleep?!), where he reviewed the third and final Dangermen gig at The Scala, which took place on July 12th.
Jon noted that this gig saw a slight drop in numbers, ad this was probably down to the recent London bombing troubles and related transport problems the tragedies had caused.
The band managed to knock out the following 16 tracks during the course of the evening:
1 Danger man (High wire)
2 It Mek
3 Shame and Scandal
4 You Keep me hanging on
5 Girl (why don’t you answer to your name)
6 Skylarking
7 Taller
8 Lose a Good Thing
9 The Prince
10 Lola
11 So Much Trouble
12 The Israelites
13 John Jones
14 Chase The Devil
15 Night Boat To Cairo
16 Papas got a Brand new Pig Bag
Jon commented at the time;
“There has been a small amount of shouting for “Madness songs” at these Dangermen gigs. The odd shout for One Step beyond, Sun and the Rain and even Night boat to Cairo even just after they had already played it! But most bizarrely tonight were the shouts for “Blue Day” I can only think there was a party of Chelsea fans in.”
With the promotional bandwagon now in full swing, we took a look at what TV and radio appearances the band had lined-up over the coming weeks. Coupled with a number of magazine appearances, the new album was certainly getting a fair old push!
We finished off this week’s edition of the MIS with the sad note that on Sunday 17th July, the ‘Godfather of Ska’, Laurel Aitken, died of a heart attack at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester.
Aitken was born in Cuba on April 22, 1927 and moved to his father’s homeland of Jamaica in 1938. In 1957 he began his recording career with the single “Roll Jordan Roll.” The double A-side “Little Sheila” / “Boogie in my Bones” was the first single released on Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, one of the first ever ska records, and the first Jamaican recording ever released in England. Aitken relocated to the U.K. and recorded numerous hits throughout the 60s.
He was later acknowledged as “an elder statesman to the Two Tone ska revival movement of the punk era” (AllMusic).
The 2-Tone era saw Aitken performing with the English Beat, touring with mod band Secret Affair, and backed by punk/reggae act the Ruts.
In the 80s Aitken regularly toured the U.K. and recording with British act Potato 5. In 1986 appeared in mod film Absolute Beginners alongside David Bowie. Throughout the late 90s he performed with several third-wave ska acts, including the Toasters and the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble. Most recently, 2002 saw the release of Live at Club Ska.
15 years ago…
Issue number 62 – Sunday 16th July to Saturday 22nd July 2010
We’d had Suggs presenting the Channel 5 karaoke show ‘Night Fever’, heading a 3 person team on the BBC’s `A Question of Pop`, and a Christmas or two back the Madness frontman was even mucking in with the animals in `An Animal Adventure`.
Well, it looked like Graham McPherson was once again trying his hand with yet another venture, this time as a presenter of ITV’s `The Real Car Show`.
“The following was taken from the current issue of the Radio Times.
Monday 17th July, 8.00PM ITV The Real Car Show – First of a six part series telling real-life car stories with a twist, presented by Suggs and Julia Bradbury. Including the experience of Charlotte, whose broken down vehicle led to a whirlwind romance with the recovery man and a chat about autos with celebrity guest Toyah Wilcox
The show’s trailers on Tyne Tees also had `Driving In My Car` as the soundtrack”.
Calling all Specials fans. Yes, we knew it wasn’t Madness, but we were certain this would interest more than a few of our readers. The Open University had recently aired a programme about problems faced by residents living in both rural and urban communities. Nothing too exciting about that you may add, apart from the fact it was presented by ex Specials frontman, `Terry Hall`. Since he left the band many years back he’d given Coventry the boot and instead had settled down in the countryside. Apparently the city life was making him very depressed and the escape to the country was just what he needed.
Now he was back in the city in an attempt to persuade his girlfriend (who is about to marry) to move with him out to the countryside to enjoy the way of life he has become familiar with. We didn’t actually see the future Mrs. Hall, but instead a number of university lecturers chatting with Terry and discussing the pros and cons of city and countryside life.
The whole programme was interspersed with clips from classic Specials videos making it a light-hearted but educational 30 minutes. Could we expect to see future `Open University` programmes featuring other well known pop celebrities? We’d have to wait and see.
Next, we passed the MIS reigns over to subscriber Christian Munk, who wanted to know what had happened to the 12″ versions of the songs that were missing from ‘The Business’.
Once Christian had chance to get that off his chest we dived in the latest fanzine round-up, which this week looked at Record Collector’s short but sweet review of Stuart Wright’s fantastic Nut Inc fanzine.
The review didn’t sound very informative, but it did get across a few of the basic contents on offer.
How did the prospect of bagging a fully signed Ian Dury tribute concert programme sound? Well, if you were interested, Cancer Bacup were now taking bids. The auction started at £100. We’d have to wait to find out what the final closing price would be. Those who didn’t have deep pockets to bid on the signed version could instead bag themselves an un-signed one for a mere £5. With all profits going to the extremely worthwhile Cancer Bacup charity, it would have been rude not to.
We finished off this week’s MIS with a short review from subscriber Andy Thomas, of the Crunch! gig which took place at the Camden Underworld on the 14th of July.
Andy told us at the time;
“Crunch! played all kinds of favourites like: Fur Elise, Magic Carpet, People!, Birthday Girl etc.
The gig only lasted for an hour or so, but the atmosphere was very good and the whole audience seemed to want more all the time!
The band was in great form and although Lee didn’t remember all the lines, I think he had some great help from the members of the audience who sang along to most of the songs. Thanks Becky and Madame Barso for your vocal support!”
Rob Hazelby
TIME…
That’s almost it for this week’s issue.
If you get a chance and fancy sharing some of that Nutty love across the globe then have a go at broadcasting your own Periscope feed.
As mentioned last week, you’ll need a Twitter account to use Periscope, and you can find further information relating to the service here: https://www.periscope.tv/
And finally, news in from Darren West is that Madnss will be appearing on Top of The Pops 1980, on BBC 4, this coming Thursday. We think it’ll be the band performing Night Boat to Cairo, but we can’t be certain.
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Rob Wardlaw, Helen Harvey Bennett,
David Button and Darren West)
Don’t Leave The Past Behind
This is all inspiration
I’m flyin closer to sun
Don’t look where you’ve come from
You might just come undone
Don’t leave the past behind you
But let us all move on
There’s a new horizon
Where life has just begun
Sweep away all that’s before you
Put aside all that has been
‘Cus your a fine manipulator
Of all the things you’ve been and seen
Don’t leave the past behind you
Let us all move on
There’s a new horizon
Where life has just begun
Don’t leave the past behind you
But let us all move on
There’s a new horizon
Where life has just begun
Don’t leave the past behind you
But let us all move on
There could be a new horizon
Where life has just begun
The Author
