Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 854 – Sunday 20th September to Saturday 26th September 2015
This week the Grandslam pulls into the station for the final time as the band play at Chester-le-Street, Durham County Cricket Club, on Saturday 26th.
With this chapter of live Madness performances out of the way all eyes now turn to November’s House of Fun Weekender, which in the latest Madness email news shot revealed sneaky tidbits relating to the band’s Friday night performance.
“We like to make the Friday night set different and unique at The House of Fun Weekender. This year, we present…
Mumbo Jumbo… something new, something old, something borrowed… and all of you!”
While the Grandslam tour may coming to an end, and the Madness Weekender a fair few weeks off there are still some alternative gigs in October that may be of interest to you.
One of these gigs is a Halloween Night on Saturday 31st October, at the Jazz Café Camden. This will feature an appearance by Rhoda Dakar who is launching the public release of her “Sings the Bodysnatchers” album on Cherry Red. Backed up with the likes of Mr Tadman, Mr Vause and Mr Edwards all familiar faces round these parts, it’s going to be a great show.
Our feature this week is dedicated to the guest Madness girl and her career in music since the 2tone days, as she spares a few words with us to talk about collaborating with the nutty boys. Not only that, but you can win 2 tickets to her show in our competition. All with just a simple email. How’s that for an easy life?
Now, on with this week’s 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…”
Remaining dates this September are as follows…
September
25 – Wolverhampton
26 – Chester-le-Street, Durham County Cricket Club
November 2015
November 20th – 23rd 2014 – Minehead – The House Of Fun Weekender Five
The Weekender also features sets by Woody Woodgate, Crunch!, Clang and much, much more….
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
January 15th 2016 – Jazz Cafe – Camden Town London
The Silencerz Featuring Lee Thompson
October 17th – Hemel Hempstead ** Postponed / Cancelled **
This October date has been cancelled, a new date end of November is provisional alternative but unconfirmed.
31st – Black Horse Barnet, 8pm **New**
With support from Reece & DJ Rebsie. In aid of Noahs ark children’s hospice.
Deaf School
November
27th – Preston 53 Degrees
28th – Newcastle Think Tank
29th – York Duchess
December
9th Liverpool – Kazimier
10th Liverpool – Kasimier ** SOLD OUT **
12th – London, Hoxton, Bar & Kitchen
The Clang
11th September London – St Moritz Club
Near Jazz Experience
SEPTEMBER
22 – The NJE + Simon & the Pope + DJ Wendy May @The Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT – 8.30pm, free entry
OCTOBER
20 – The NJE + Support + DJ @The Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT – 8.30pm, free entry
More info at: https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience
BUY IT
Madstock – CD / DVD Edition
Out on October the 9th. Just over 23 years after the famous comeback gigs, and just a month before the live album’s 23rd anniversary of release, Madstock is back.
Last available on DVD in the guided tour boxset only, and last on CD via a crappy on demand print service option many years ago. For around £12 you can now get both together.
The CD contains Razor Blade Alley as a bonus track for the first time on CD from the weekend’s concerts, and collects tracks previously only available from the concerts upon the CD single of The Harder They Come. These 4 bonus tracks have been included at the end of the album, Chrissy Boy has pointed out they aren’t part of the Live Album’s original mixing by Clive Langer being sourced elsewhere and masters are impossible to find nearly 25 years on, so appear as the final bonus tracks on the album.
The album features a new montage of photographs from the weekend as it’s cover, much like the recent CD/DVD edition of Take It Or Leave it.
Are You to Win It?
You can win the new Madstock album over on the All Things Madness facebook page. All you need to do is tell your gig stories.
More info at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/249838181711283/
Punch and Judy Madness Toy Theatre
A pop-up miniature theatre, in card form, featuring Punch & Judy. The collage by artist Peter Quinnell was commissioned by British band ‘Madness’ to celebrate their single ‘Lovestruck’ – it features characters from Music Hall, Punch & Judy and Madness videos. Folds down neatly to the size of a 7 inch single, it can be sent as a card. £8.95
http://www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk/index.php/toy-theatres/punch-judy-lovestruck-diorama.html
Jennie & The Slingers
New album from Jennie Bellstar, this time with rockabilly band “The Slingers”. Featuring on one track are non other than Chrissy Boy and Thommo.
More info at
https://www.facebook.com/Jennie-The-Slingers-1587061168226717/timeline/
LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
On Blackheath
Pre gig interview with Absolute Radio.
I arrive for the On Blackheath event later than expected and immediately take in the last 30 minutes of Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks musical; just right for a Sunday afternoon. We have a real treat when Ray Davies is introduced to the crowd to sing a cracking Lola and the all-time classic Waterloo Sunset. A perfect way to start my festival day!
Jerry Dammers is doing 3 DJ sets & I’m there for the 2nd complete set as he dedicates his slot entirely to the musical greatness of Rico Rodrigues covering hidden gems, his early work, solo stuff on 2-Tone as well as his work with The Specials. Respect to one of the greatest trombonists of all time.
I’m very keen to see Laura Mvula who I’ve heard some of her material; she’s got a great voice. She explains her surname is pronounced “Mmm-Voo-lah”! I was slightly disappointed with her style of music overall although her voice really is worth listening to.
I head to the Meantime Sessions Stage – a gazebo tucked right in the corner that could probably only house 300 or so but I hear lots of good sounding brass so I check it out…Brassroots an instrumentally led band are playing some great tunes! 2 trombonists act as ‘lead’ with also a tuba(!), sax, trumpets and drums. It really does work be it their own material or covers which includes Daft Punk with All Around The World, New Order’s Blue Monday, Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and an uplifting Never Too Much by Luther Vandross. As it’s instrumental only the crowd response was a brilliant crowd karaoke sing along!
At the same Stage, Hollie Cook is on next singing sweet reggae rhythms with her brilliant band. Cracking stuff. David Rodigan is the DJ before the headline act and plays the usual ska cuts that we expect at this type of event.
It’s 8pm and Madness are now on stage; the boys start with Embarrassment, pushing One Step Beyond further down the set as they tend to do without Chas on board. I notice at least during The Prince, My Girl & My Girl 2 and perhaps 3 or 4 others early on that the band don’t sound as brilliant as usual. Is it because we’ve lost Chas? I’m further back than I usually am for a Madness gig; could it be that? Is the PA working properly? Is the wind direction affecting the sound? Is is because Thommo is clowning around on the other side making me feel that I’m missing some Thommo time? All this and more is buzzing round my head as I feel the band are going through the motions and lacking in their usual spark and energy. The almost cod-cabaret of Los Palmas 7 adds to my cynical view even though it happens to a favourite of mine.
During this early section Suggs warmly introduces Barso’s mum on to the stage stating “she didn’t think much of us then and she doesn’t think we’ve got any better”.
NW5 and Take Or Leave It are back to the usual high Madness standards and my faith is restored playing a new song with the refrain “Don’t leave the past behind you” which I rather like.
Suggs then says sometimes you can be stuck in a pub half cut in Gloucester with a rugby player on the realisation that when the pub shuts you need to find your way home. “…and the only way to do this is by finding a lamp post. The 1st one you find is always the most important!”. Greeted with much laughter, a brilliant Lovestruck follows. Mummy’s Boy happily finds itself in the set as does a quality, suggestive Dust Devil saucily skanking it’s way in. John Jones also sounded absolutely brilliant – I’ve forgotten about the slow start; we are now on the money.
Chrissy Boy who is showing us a few of his guitar licks to give songs an extra live edge is now ready for Showtime. Pub singer? Nowhere! To be fair the verse bit was sung (deliberately, I hope!) dreadfully. He gets to the chorus and Livin’ On A prayer echoes and booms around Blackheath common!! It’s hit after hit all rousing the audience into a frenzy that only Madness and a handful of other bands who could only ever dream of achieving such a crowd response. The encore of Madness and Night Boat finish off a very enjoyable gig and using the Grandslam sporting theme very much a gig of two halves, with Madness running out easy winner!.
It’s whetted my appetite for the House Of Fun Weekender which is now only 9 weeks away!
Set List
Embarrassment
The Prince
NW5
My Girl
My Girl 2
Take It Or Leave It
Don’t Leave The Past Behind You
Sun And The Rain
Dust Devil
The Return Of The Los Palmas 7
Mummy’s Boy
Lovestruck
Bed & Breakfast Man
Shut Up
John Jones
Showtime – Livin’ On A Prayer
One Step Beyond
House Of Fun
Wings Of A Dove
Baggy Trousers
Our House
It Must Be Love
Encore
Madness
Night Boat To Cairo
Daren West
SIGN OF THE TIMES
News and info from online and offline media sources.
Madness main man Suggs on taking the UK’s biggest ever outdoor tour to the North East
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/madness-main-man-suggs-taking-10068859
“If you had told me this when I was a kid I’d have laughed so loudly my socks would have flown off. Of course it’s remarkable and a privilege to still be doing this funny old business that we do.”
Madness wow the crowds at St Lawrence Ground Canterbury
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/madness-bring-our-house-down-43070/
They started with a slinky, teasing unfamiliar one, Grand Slam, before launching into the hits.
Embarrassment, The Prince, My Girl, Shut Up…the back catalogue was given a befitting thumb-through.
For some, with the headline act up and running, it was a chance to take advantage of the emptier bars.
“I’ll go and get a drink when they play one we don’t know” shouted one bloke to his “dry” compadres.
He remained skanking in the crowded outfield for a full half-hour before making good his promise during Mumbo Jumbo, a slice of ska-based filler sung by saxophonist Lee “Kix” Thompson.
For it’s not only regular frontman Suggs who takes a turn in Madness’ stage spotlight.
During a “crazy” interlude, guitarist Chris Foreman gave a virtuoso performance of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, which, mad as it seems, set things up nicely for a finale of Camden Town classics: Wings of a Dove – which along with non-hit Dust Devil competed for man of the match, as it were – Our House, and set closer, It Must be Love.
Night Boat to Cairo, inevitably, brought the encore and evening to an end.
When Madness first reunited in 1992, the joint cacophony of band and audience fervour measured significantly on the Richter Scale. The earth moved only occasionally last night.
But, with all that’s currently wrong with the world, it was moving enough to witness several thousand respectably-aged people let go of the present to revisit their “nutty” former selves
Win Tickets To Newcastle Grandslam
http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/blog/read/2015/09/win-tickets-to-madness-b109
Which of these is a popular Madness song.
House of Love
House of Fun
House of Cards.
Send your answer via the above link before September 22nd to be in with a chance of winning free tickets.
Suggs Donates Tickets and Meet and Greet to Charity
The Central Youth Theatre has recently been donated by Madness, 2 pairs of tickets to the Madness concert at Wolverhampton Racecourse on 25th September. The tickets also include the one off opportunity to a meet and greet with the band.
Suggs who is a patron of the Central Youth Theatre comments ” I’m proud to be a patron of Central Youth Theatre and now we’re playing in Wolverhampton we’re delighted to offer support to this great cause”
Central Youth Theatre are holding a raffle in which two lucky winners will have the chance to win a pair of tickets. Tickets can be purchased through our golden giving webpage, with all funds raised going towards the CYT Heart Fund – which will secure our future at a new building in the centre of Wolverhampton.
https://www.goldengiving.com/raffle/CYTMadness
Holly Parry Assistant Director Central Youth Theatre
MIS FEATURE – RHODA DAKAR – BODYSNATCHER, DANGER WOMAN & NUTTY GIRL!
We’ve been meaning to do a feature on Rhoda Dakar for a while at MIS, after all beyond being in The 2tone bands The Bodysnatchers & later Specials line ups both of which are of some interest to a lot of our readers, she has now also guested with not just Madness but The Invaders and The Dangermen too. That is surely is a unique CV right there and one worthy of our attension to mark. With that in mind, now seems the best of times to point our spotlight her way as her new album is about to be released on Cherry Red records and it has a launch party in Camden Town imminent. So here is our compiled celebration and we’ve manage snatch a few words directly with the lady herself too, as well as set up a competition for you to attend her forthcoming show, read to the end to enter that prize draw.
Rhoda Sings The Bodysnatchers
Rhoda Dakar came to prominence as lead singer with multiracial all-girl band The Bodysnatchers on the legendary 2Tone label in 1980. 35 years on, she has recorded what is being described as “the lost 2Tone album”.
The Bodysnatchers scored two UK chart hits: ‘Let’s Do Rocksteady’ and ‘Easy Life’ on a 2 single deal with 2tone. They also appeared in 2Tone’s Dance Craze movie & in the soundtrack LP, alongside Madness and other ska bands of the era, but these were their only releases. The Bodysnatchers split up before a full album happened.
“We decided to go with 2Tone label, because of the tour (with other 2Tone acts) and all the other gigs. We worked very hard. And that contributed to the break-up.” Rhoda (Speaking to Ready-Steady-Ska.com)
Bodysnatchers – Easy Life (Dance Craze film)
Rocksteady (Top of the pops 1980)
To celebrate The Bodysnatchers’ 35th Anniversary, Rhoda assembled an all-star cast to record in effect a debut album of that era’s songs. Lynval Golding and Sir Horace Panter of The Specials star alongside members of Pama International, The Sidewalk Doctors and Intensified. Her live band for performance boasts other nutty boys Paul Tadman and Louise Vause amongst it’s numbers, and mad saxman Terry Edwards too. The initial crowd funded release of the album was a success that lead to a wider distribution deal and a release with Cherry Red records.
The new album is released by Cherry Red November 6th. Some signed copies are available here.
http://shop.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=5179
1.EASY LIFE
2.THE GHOST OF THE VOX CONTINENTAL
3.HAPPY TIME TUNE
4.007
5.PRIVATE EYE
6.TOO EXPERIENCED
7.THE LOSER
8.MIXED FEELINGS
9.HIAWATHA
10.LET’S DO ROCKSTEADY
Tickets here. For the album launch Camden Jazz Café Saturday 31st October. (See Below for our Ticket Competition.)
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/1F004F12A74C23EE?camefrom=CFC_UK_MAMA_JAZZCAFE&brand=jazz_café
Live at The Jazz Café April 2015
Here is a recent interview with Arise News, that Rhoda gave this year, ahead of appearing at The London international Ska Festival, which mentions the album.
The Specials Aka
Rhoda had guested as backing vocalist on The Specials’ More Specials album including a duet with Terry Hall on “I cant stand it”. After The Bodysnatchers she then joined Special AKA as lead singer, co-writing ‘Nelson Mandela’ as well as releasing her own single ‘The Boiler’ which was a harrowing account of low self esteem, abusive relationships which ends with a screaming rape scene. Unique and difficult subject matter, overlooked by many but loved by John Peel so impressively made the top 40 despite little airplay.
The Boiler – Here is a 16mm film shot for the song, rarely shown on TV back In the 80’s.
“I didn’t know about writing songs, but I knew how to improvise – I had originally wanted to act and had worked in the theatre on leaving school. Performing it live was acting, that’s all. A friend had been raped a couple of years earlier and I suppose I was thinking of her at the time. Recording it was a very long and drawn out process. It was released a year after it was first recorded” Rhoda (Talking to Marco on the Bass blog)
Working with Jerry Dammers in the specials aka line up included the seminal Free Nelson Mandela track.
Paul Williams remarks…
“Jerry Dammers could never recapture what made The Specials special after the 81 split. With what remained of the band he formed The Special AKA which brought its own problems. Their material was unashamedly hard hitting but what came from them was of course the anthemic track Nelson Mandela. This is probably Dammers’ magnum opus even more so than Ghost Town. It ruffled governing feathers here and in South Africa, it highlighted Mandelas plight and fight. It may not have led ultimately to Mandelas release but it certainly was one of many factors. The band werent chart friendly which hit them hard really especially as The album they made , In The Studio, had cost over a quarter of a million pounds to record but make no mistake they put out some great tunes that were by the large, ignored. Another part of the Specials colouful history…”
Free Nelson Mandela
The sessions for The Specials aka In the studio album took a painful two years to produce.
“There was a whiff of Mental Illness in the air” Rhoda (Speaking to uncut Magazine)
In Red
Rhoda crossed paths with Madness again by the mid 80’s, amongst the many pop artists who appeared on the Red Wedge Tour, Rhoda chaired the committee in the political/musical movement.
“There wasn’t much sex and drugs and all that on Red Wedge. We didn’t throw TVs out of windows. The last night, we stayed in a castle at Chester-le-Street and got around to playing Murder in the Dark. Jerry Dammers somehow got put into a large box and didn’t get out again until the morning.” Rhoda (Talking to the Guardian)
Skaville And Solo
In 2007 Rhoda released a debut solo album “Cleaning in another Woman’s Kitchen” working with Nick Welsh and Skaville uk, later following it with “Back to the Garage” album.
“Working with Nick is always fab. We have the same sense of humour (almost) and he’s very funny. Musically we’re into a lot of the same things, so I get all his references and vice versa. This is quite apparent on stage, the rapport really adds to the show” Rhoda (Talking to Marco on the Bass blog)
“Let me go is the best song I ever recorded” Rhoda (Speaking to DJ Chris Watts)
Landlord
Rhoda On The Town
In 2008 Rhoda joined the Madness project that became The Liberty of Norton Folgate…
“I got a call from the band about a song Mike wrote, asking if I’d be up for singing on a track they were recording. They sent it over for me to have a listen first. A few days later, I was in the studio. From there we went to rehearsals at the Hackney Empire, as they’d asked me to come along and sing the song at the show.” Rhoda (2015 talking to MIS)
2008 Hackney Rehearsal on Chrissy Boy’s Axecam
She appeared in Julian Temple’s film version of the bands Hackney shows…
“I stood at the side of the stage during the gigs just grinning! I was willing them on – I was really blown away. Amazing tracks, brilliant staging and a wonderful theatre! A masterpiece!” Rhoda (2015 Talking to MIS)
2009 on Chrissy Boy’s Axecam
…following this up with appearances at the 02, and Madstock in 2009. (Included in the goggle box Madstock a Fans Tale DVD release.) Rhoda last returned to perform the song on Folgate Friday in 2013 inducting her into the House of Fun way of Madness weekendering for the first time.
The Danger Woman & Invaders
In November 2014 Rhoda returned to guesting with Madness, appearing in their Dangermen Vs The Invaders show set.
“It’s always a pleasure to work with old friends.
I did like Feeling So Fine, though it took some effort to sing up there in the gods! [on that raised butlins stage].
The Dangermen track I enjoyed most was Lose A Good Thing. Lee and I had some nice harmonies going on.” Rhoda
(2015 Talking to MIS)
John Jones from The Dangermen set.
Nutty Girl
Time and again then Rhoda has proven she’s a true part of 2 tone and Jamaican ska, reggae, rocksteady music cannons, and pop and rock and roll too, in a career not prolific perhaps, but full of chapters that match intrigue with the music world through continual collaboration and some high profile moments of unique artistry. She’s tackled serious subject matters, and sang and skanked many a stage entertaining us just for pure fun, all of which sounds like our world of Madness to us. We could well conclude she’s Madness’ first lady now. But one final point to check on that score, is she a nutty girl? We witnessed a mischievous quip while on stage with The lee Thompson ska orchestra at The house of fun once that reveals we think the right level of naughty but nice antics. Arriving for just one day she ended up kidnapped somewhat for that weekend, only to return teamed up to DJ the following year.
“DJing was the usual mix of high jinx and chaos! Wendy May and me had come up with the Big Girls Blouses tag the previous year. I wanted a blouse with ‘Slocombe’ on the back! Costumes aside, we had a laugh anyway. The Silent Disco was a weird one to do – two sets of headphones, just to confuse me!” Rhoda (2015 talking to MIS)
She DJed the opening of Spain’s Nutty Bar too this last year, fun in the sun and as for a bit of mindless slapstick this clip from old Tiswas in our Miswas film, we submit as proof she’s was once game for a bath!
Miswas. Rhoda’s Moment.
https://youtu.be/8b7YnjRwnYU?t=3m26s
“Tiswas – I just remember being wet and cold for a couple of hours. Our water was freezing! It really was bonkers. I came back from Birmingham with soaking wet hair full of compost. The next afternoon, in London, many of the bands went off to a screening of the Dance Craze footage that had been shot up to that point.” Rhoda (2015 talking to MIS)
Our Many thanks to Rhoda, for help with our profile feature and best of luck with the new album release and future touring, we hope we see her in future Madness & related projects down the line in whatever capacity.
Win 2 Tickets To The Camden Town Show – Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers
31st of October – Camden Jazz Cafe.
Which Dangermen track did Rhoda enjoy singing the most with the band at The House of Fun Weekender?
Email your answer to Jonsmad@hotmail.com
Correct answers enter a random number draw for 2 entrance tickets to the concert, must be able to attend that date.
Offer closes in one month, October 20th. No transferable prizes. winner must reply in 24 hours of notification of winning email from the above address to claim.
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 Number 594 – Sunday 19th September – Saturday 25th September 2010
The Wonderful album re-issue pack was now available to purchase. We hoped that it was either already on your shelf or would be making its way there shortly.
To make things more interesting for you Jonathan Young had created another on of his Easter eggs. All you had to do was type in a URL, then go to a specific word on a specific page of the Wonderful linear notes. This would then give you the filename of at the end of the link.
What was it? Well, all Jonathan would tell us was;
“Listen to a song from this seminal album’s era as you’ve never heard it before. An acoustic performance from the early 90’s that is very different and yet recognisable roots for a song later released”
This week we (well, subscriber Mick Jenner, at least!) revealed that “It was here”, as 2-Tone Central opened its doors to the public for the first time. Not only that, but to help them do it non other than Neville Staple and his band with very special guests Pauline Black and Ranking Roger would be performing at the venue.
Tickets were available for a mere £15.
Next, and although it wasn’t Madness we knew that many of you would be interested. Remember The Eighties.com revealed that Squeeze would be releasing a new album, entitled “Spot The Difference”, on October 11th. The release would be a collection of 14 new versions of their best loved hits.
Finally, we brought this issue to a close with an auction heads-up from subscriber John Reed;
“I’m auctioning my copy of The Writing On The Wall, with photos of graffiti by Lee and Mike, on eBay.
It’s quite a rarity and I lucked upon it but we’re moving house soon and everything must go, as they say. The Auction has just started and runs for 10 days”
10 years ago…
Issue 333 – Sunday 18th September to Saturday 24th September 2005
Here at MIS Online we could recall the days when almost every week a new Madness site would pop up. Over the course of time, many of the web sites had either disappeared or had sat and stagnated due to various commitments people now had.
Originally announced many months ago, `Behind The Eight Ball` was going to be the latest web site creation from non other than Kevin Tizzard.
At the time of typing the site was still not online (although there was a nice animated splash screen up), and a few members of the Madness Trading Ring had even started a tongue-in-cheek petition encouraging Kev to get the site online.
From his previous works we knew that he wasn’t someone to release something before it was finished. The reason it wasn’t online yet was because Kev wasn’t 100% happy with what was there.
Although Mr. Tizzard’s site had yet to make an appearance, he was still busy, what with co-maintaining the Madness Trading Ring, and also creating a little something. All was revealed in section 5 of this very issue.
Before we got on to Kevin’s site, we started off the issue by welcoming back Chris Wardell to the MIS readership, where he was
kind enough to give us all a lowdown on the German ska scene.
Not only that, but he revealed that he’d been touring with Bad Manners, and assured us that Buster was doing well.
Remember in last week’s issue we encouraged you to take part in the latest ‘Madchart’? Well, it would seem as if our request had not fallen on deaf ears, as to date, Paul had received a whopping 130 lists!!!
Chart compiler, Paul Muscat, revealed that he’d so far tallied up the points, but still had a lot of work putting together the stats, facts and figures about each submission.
Although he was still beavering away on his forthcoming Behind The Eight Ball web site, Kevin had taken time out of web site creation to put together a new Windows screensaver. This simple but effective piece of work saw 15 spotlights bounce around the screen, revealing the famous Shut Up single cover.
Next it was over to Birchy, who explained that the Dangermen picture disc had been delayed. Jump Up Records USA explained that this was down to pressing plant issues that were out of their control, and shipping would now commence from October 10th.
On Saturday 17th September Suggs took part in an interview for Today FM, which was hosted by lifelong Madness fan Ann-Marie Kelly.
Some VERY interesting tidbits cropped up during this question and answer session, which were brought to our attention by MIS subscriber Birchy.
Three statements from Suggs were of MAJOR interest to any self respecting Madness fan. These were;
1) The group were writing and planning a new album.
2) The forthcoming Christmas tour would see a mixture of Madness and Dangermen tracks being played.
3) Mike Barson would be heading off for four years to join a Buddhist retreat.
In the early hours of Sunday morning we received a few text messages from our travelling co-editor, Jonathan Young, eager to send us the track listing for the Inland Invasion gig.
Unfortunately, limited to around 120 characters per text message it wasn’t exactly easy for him to get much more than a brief rundown of what tracks were played that night. However, Jon did managed to tell us that `The gig rocked`. Thankfully, for all of you waiting for a review of the gig MTR co-editor Steve Bringe managed to fire off a full lowdown of the show.
Before you switched your computer off and went to do something else, we urged you to take a quick look at the official Madness web site, where a certain Mark Bedford had updated his page.
As MTR subscriber Steve Saunders (who dug out the link for us) rightly said at the time, it’s `More “high-brow” musings from Mark!`.
15 years ago…
Issue 71 – Sunday 17th September to Saturday 23rd September 2000
The big announcement this week was that tickets for the next Crunch gig had now gone on sale. The date of the concert was Saturday 14th October 2000 at 7:30 pm. The venue was The Garage (Highbury). With ticket prices a very reasonable £7.00.
Calling all Terry Edwards fans, Mr G of The Total Madness Mailing List reported that Terry Edwards & the Scapegoats were opening for The Fall and Dick Dale at the Royal Festival Hall for a special John Peel sessions night. Drummer Ian White was unavailable for the gig, so Woody would be joining the band as an honorary Scapegoat!
Other gig news was that Prince Buster would be playing the Forum Kentish Town on October 22nd with the Selecter among the supports and Jerry Dammers DJing.
Also this week UK MIS subscribers had a double-bill of Madness TV coverage. First up, and on Wednesday 20th September at 9:50pm on BBC2 we would finally get the chance to see the eagerly awaited documentary, `Young Guns`, featuring The Magnificent Seven. If that wasn’t enough, BBC2 were also featuring the loveable Chas Smash on Saturday 23rd September 10.00pm as part of the `I Love 1970` series.
This week the show focused on 1979, and Mr. Smash appeared relating his memories of that special year.
With other news thin on the ground we decided to take a look at the latest string of forthcoming record fairs from VIP Events, and we then moved over to Ebay to look at a number of interesting items that were currently up for auction.
Next-up we passed the reigns of the MIS over to author George Marshall, who revealed that his pulped.com web site was now up and running, with over 1000 CDs, books and videos available to purchase. There was loads of Madness stuff too, including Wonderful at £9, The Lot at £21 and The Tribute To Madness compilation at £9.50 for Pulped subscribers.
Moving on, and we were able to announce that after many, many entries, Mr. Cathal Joseph Patrick Smyth had decided that the winning entry for his “name the album” competition was ….
“The Father, The Son And The Velvet Ghost”
Not only that, but as was not originally the plan, Carl has decided to use this as the actual name for the album, which was an added bonus!!!
So, who came up with this? The one and only Steve Chapman, of course.
We finished off this week’s issue with a review of “Three Minute Heroes” from Chris Mountain. Set in Coventry, this was a musical about the 2-tone era.
One interesting snippet in Chris’ write-up was;
“Rumours are about that there are plans or thoughts of a Madness musical. If this is anything to go by, it will be MASSIVE. I do think that if the play had a stint in London with music by Madness/Specials/Beat/Selecter…….etc it would easily match the likes of Mamma Mia that bloody Abba musical”.
Funny how things turn out.
Rob Hazelby
TWEETS OF A DOVE
Various snippets from the Twittersphere…
Chrissy boy reacting to a review of Canterbury, where the punter seemed of the opinion the gig was expensive, late, rushed or short songs and the band drunk.
Chrissy Boy @CBoyForeman
“Great review! It doesn’t cost £80, Songs were usual length Ok we might had some helium. Clown (video of pinky and perky playing a song)”
Chrissy Boy @CBoyForeman
“The wonderful world of Banksy and Co. Welcome to Dismaland, UK. Excellent fun for all the family. (photo of visit to UK art theme satirical theme park.)”
TIME…
We’re almost done for this week, but we have a couple of last minute bits to pass in your general direction.
First-up, and we’d like to say a big thank you to all our readers who last week signed the petition backing Chris Packham. The petition is getting masses of support and we received a number of emails notification telling us that you’d signed it after out mail out. Thank you.
Check out Chris’ moving response here on YouTube; https://youtu.be/Nq4OBmNgPGU
And finally, following the band’s recent Gibraltar gig, and prior to his Nutty Bar One Man Show, Suggs took time out to speak to Marbella TV;
In the video he mentioned that the band have lots of plans for “Next Year”. Naturally, as soon as we discover just what these are we’ll make sure they’re published in a subsequent issue of the MIS.
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Rhoda Dakar and Daren West)
The Author
