Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 876 – Sunday 21st February to Saturday 27th February 2016
Evening all,
We kick off this week’s issue with the news that part one of The Doctor Strangelove parody video is now online, ready for Madness’ Operation M.A.D (or Mutually Assured Dancing, as our own Simon Roberts put it earlier this week).
So, what does this video show? Well, it reveals that the event will be held this Summer, and it will be an all-dayer. From watching it we also know that it’ll be held held at a location, South of the capital city.
But when and where in South London? The Royal Albert Hall? Clapham Grand or Clapham Common? Perhaps The Barbican, Crystal Palace or Battersea Power Station? If not those then maybe Blackheath, Kew gardens, Brixton Academy or Hampton Court? There’s just so many places it could be!
We’re also none the wiser with regards to what month the event will be held in either.
Check out the link below where you can watch the first promo video yourself. Once you’ve done that don’t forget to sign-up. You’ll be first to learn more about this forthcoming event, have access to discounted tickets, and you’ll receive a free download of a new song soon.
Moving on, and to the Australian fans who got excited and contacted us following Thommo talking about something “Big Down under”, we’re sorry, but this is a smutty joke in the video. Think about it. It’s not an announcement of a gig in Sydney.
In other news, the “Suggs and Friends” is once again taking place. The event will be held in March, raising money for pancreatic Cancer charities.
The gig company have now revealed that the friend appearing alongside Suggs this year are Chris Difford from Squeeze and none other than Jools Holland. A strong line up of talent for the night.
Now, enough of the news snippets and 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
May
Saturday 28th – Dauwpop Festival, Netherlands (headliners)
More info at: http://www.dauwpop.nl
July
Saturday 30th – Kendal Calling, Penrith http://www.kendalcalling.co.uk/information/ticket-info/
Sunday 31st – Y Not Festival, Matlock
http://www.ynotfestivals.co.uk
August
Thursday 4th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange *** Sold Out ***
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Friday 5th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Saturday 6th –Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness, Scotland (headliners)
More info at www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk
Thursday 11th – Cropredy Festival, Oxfordshire. First day headliner
Saturday 13th – Boom Town Fair – Winchester
November
Friday 18th – Monday 21st – Madness Weekender 6, Minehead
Suggs
March
17th – An evening with Suggs and Friends for Pancreatic Cancer. The Emirates Stadium
April
22nd – Scarborough Spa Theatre
23rd – Lincoln Drill Hall
24th – Carlisle Sands Centre
25th – Ilkley King’s Hall
27th – Bournemouth Pavillion Theatre
28th – Bath The Forum
29th – Worcester Huntingdon Hall
30th – Wrexham William Aston Hall
May
1st – Crewe Lyceum Theatre
3rd – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
4th – Sheffield Lyceum
5th – 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
April
Saturday 16th, Boisdale, Canary Wharf, London
July
Friday 22nd, Hampton Pool Picnic, Supporting The Selecter
Rhoda Dakar
Saturday 18th June – 100 Club London
(Also appearing at The London International Ska festival, Glastonbury, & European festivals this year)
The Near Jazz Experience
February
Tuesday 23rd, Indo, 133 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DT *** New ***
BUY IT
Win Suggs Tickets
Like and share a post over on Suggs’ official Facebook page for a chance to win tickets to his One Man Show. At the same time you’ll will be helping the big man promote the forthcoming dates into the bargain.
https://www.facebook.com/thesuggsmcpherson/
Win It! Retweet and Win Suggs and Friends Tickets
The details are all here. Retweet the gig company’s tweet by midnight tonight, Feb 14th.
http://www.suggsandfriends.pen.io/
If you’re lucky you could win entry to the £160 ticketed dinner evening, while at the same time helping to spread the word of the forthcoming event.
LIVE INTENSIFIED
John Bradbury Celebration Night Camden Dingwalls
“Great night last night at Dingwalls to celebrate the life of the much missed John ‘Brad’ Bradbury who would have been 63 yesterday.
A real chilled evening with great company, listening to great music, both live and then with various DJ sets including Terry Hall. Horace on top form and loving every minute of it. Lots of guests appearances including the lovely Rhoda singing a a great rendition of Racist Friend then up popped a blast from the past with Paul Young coming on to belt out Mustang Sally.
An all Killer, no Filler DJ set from Terry Hall and it was time to depart for some much needed beauty sleep.
Many thanks to everyone involved for a wonderful night. You all did the great man proud.”
Barry Mingard
MIS FEATURE
One Step Behind Notch-up 23 Years on the Road
ONE STEP BEHIND go into their 23rd year with a host of new gigs and festival dates this summer.
The band, who started in 1993, formed in Walthamstow and within a year had begun to sell out venues in their native London.
They certainly didn’t expect to be around this long in those early days, but are extremely grateful to those who keep coming to their gigs, and of course to Madness, from whom various members have been very supportive over the years.
Highlights over the years have been their performance in front of 50000 people at Hyde Park in 2006, as part of BBC’s Proms In The Park.
Other notable dates over the years include the Palace of Versailles in France, Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena and dates in the Middle East.
They are currently looking forward to a string of festival dates this summer, but the one that stands out is Glastonbudget.
“We love this festival” says keyboardist Brendan Phipps.
“We performed on it’s first year to a crowd of about 300, however it has got bigger and bigger each year and now we regularly perform to 12000. We have done it every year since 2004 having only missed one.”
The band have a packed year ahead of them, and although it’s only mid-February, they’ve got a stack of gigs booked already.
Check out the comprehensive list below…
March 2016
Sat 5th – The Lounge, Southsea
Sat 19th – Wolverhampton Racecourse
Fri 25th – Prince of Wales, Sudbury
April 2016
Saturday 2nd – The Donkey, Leicester
Saturday 30th – SkaFest, Maidstone
May 2016
Saturday 28th – Glastonbudget Festival, Wymeswold
June 2016
Sat 4th – Drewfest, Leicester
Sat 18th – Grantham Carnival
Sat 25th – Yateley Music Festival
July 2016
Sun 10th – Rockin’ The Park Festival, Brixworth Country Park
Fri 22nd – Devizes, Wiltshire
Sat 30th – APP-FEST, Gloucestershire
Sun 31st – Hole In The Wall Festival, Kidderminster
August 2016
Sat 6th – Somerrock Festival, Bridgwater
Sat 27th – Wannasee Tribute Festival, Penrith
October 2016
Sat 29th – Bracknell Leisure Centre
December 2016
Sat 17th – Eastbourne (venue tbc)
September 2017
Sat 2nd – The Academy, Basingstoke
For the latest One Step Behind news, visit the following:
Our thanks go to Brendan Phipps for the above information.
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 615 – Sunday 20th February – Saturday 26th February 2011
With yet another packed issue ahead we decided to keep the intro to only a couple of paragraphs, and instead, get straight on with this week’s collection of articles, of which there were many.
Our articles got off to a cracking start with the news that a previously lost version of “Give me a Reason” had recently been unearthed. This rehearsal version featured cool brass stings and the band running the song through its paces.
We asked that if you wanted to hear it you gave a small donation to the BBC’s Red Nose Day charity.
Now, how would you like to front a band as part of your five minutes of fame? Well, Jennie Matthias (Bellstar, 1 stop experience) and Martin Stewart (Bad Manners) had put together a group of top quality musicians, and were looking for you to front the band for one song. Not only that, but the performance would be recorded and uploaded to YouTube. The idea was that everyone would have the opportunity to be a start for five minutes.
Next, it was back to Madness news as we reported that the band were giving you the opportunity to win a signed Gogglebox DVD box set. All you had to do was submit your name and email address. The draw would be held towards the end of the month.
Moving on, and the news in from MIS subscriber revealed that Tony Stratton, the one and only Mark Bedford would be guest on Krystal Radio, on Friday 25th February, between 4 and 6pm. The interview would be in three parts, and would be accompanied by an extended podcast.
We moved over to Our House news for our next article, as the Encore Youth Theatre were busy preparing for their forthcoming performance run of the famous musical. The show was due to begin on Wednesday 23rd of February and run for four days at the Theatre Royal, in Winchester.
Featuring over 300 costumes, handmade scenery, professional lighting & sound, and a brilliant band, we were told that this was one show that was not to be missed.
It was still some months off, but Looby had emailed in with details of the full lineup for the Ska Orchestra gig, which was due to take place on the 16th of April. The impressive group was listed as being:
Tenor/Vocals: Lee Thompson
Drums: Steve ‘Roo-b-Doo’ Rooney (LP6)
Bass: Bedders (Madness!)
Guitar: Kev ‘Born Ready’ Burdett (aka Boris) (Madness/LFLS)
Piano: Louis ‘Diamond Legs’ Vause (Crunch!)
Hammond Organ: Seamus ‘Nice Man’ Beaghan (Madness/Crunch!)
Trombone: Jacks ‘Back’ Mitchell (Violin Monkeys/Crunch!/Dance Brigade)
Trumpet: Steve ‘Chalky’ White (LP6/Crunch!/Dance Brigade)
Tenor: Steve Turner (Violin Monkeys/LP6/Dance Brigade)
Alto: Terrence ‘Individual’ Edwards
Baritone: Benjamin ‘Sunny Boy’ Sommers (TBC)
Following this we passed the MIS over to Paul Rodgers, who was back with yet another one of his comprehensive Madness stats, facts and figures articles. This past week had seen Utlimate Madness climb to 152 in the top 200. This was its fourth highest placing and it’s highest since the album was at number 80 the previous July.
In terms of comparison with other Madness albums, Ultimate now exactly matched the chart stats of the original release of Wonderful: 1 week in the top 40, 2 weeks in the top 75, 3 in the top 100 and 8 in the top 200.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that The Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow, would be staging their own version of the Madness musical, which was due to run from the 23rd to 26th February.
10 years ago…
Issue 355 – Sunday 19th February to Saturday 25th February 2006
We got this issue underway with an announcement regarding the downloads section of the MIS web site. Due to other sites leaching from us directly (and costing us a LOT in bandwidth fees) we had to implement a password system before users could get in and start downloading.
All were welcome to download, and it was hoped that this new system would help to cut hosting costs for us.
On to the articles, and we began with the news that a new Yahoo Group for Terry Hall fans had been launched by regular MIS contributor Paul Rodgers.
The group had been set up to replace ‘The Laughing Devil’, the established former Terry Hall Yahoo group.
We took a huge step back in time for our next article, when we went back to Saturday July 10th 1982. The show was ‘Saturday Live’, from Pebble Mill studios, Birmingham.
Using quotes from The Business box set, as well as clips from the show itself, we took an in-depth look at Suggs’ non appearance (due to his wife about to give birth). It was a well-known tale for many Madness fans, but with the footage now available for viewing on the MIS web site, our article hopefully added a few new elements to the story behind this legendary performance.
It was over to Paul Muscat and Chris Foreman for our next article, as we re-published a fascinating exchange between the two of them, regarding a Crunch! track Paul was trying to identify. Initially Chris thought it was ‘TapDance’, but it turned out to be the chorus to ‘House of Fun’, with some jamming over the top of it.
Now, how did you fancy testing your Madness knowledge? Well, now you had your chance. Quiz web site quiz.iplac.co.uk had recently made available a Madness quiz, which ran in Excel. PC users would have no problems running it, but the trusty MIS office Mac refused to play the sound samples, giving Mac owners a significant disadvantage in the question answering stakes.
It was anniversary time now, as on the 18th of February the Madness Trading Ring notched-up its fifth birthday. Maintainers Steve Bringe and Kev Tizzard wondered where the five years had gone, and thanked all those people who had made the it a great place to mingle with other fans.
Starting off initially as a place where Madness fans could swap rare concert and TV appearances (no commercially available material) the MTR quickly became a place where fans could not only help each other to build up their Madness collections, but where like-minded individuals could meet up and simply chat about their favourite band.
Five years on, the MTR still retained the feel it had when it started up, but now offered so much more than a friendly method of swapping live recordings with fellow fans.
We at MIS Online wished all at the MTR a very happy birthday, and looked forward to the next five years.
Over to Irish radio next, as we announced that Near FM had finally got themselves online, complete with a live audio stream. Why was this of interest to Madness fans? Well, for over 6 years radio listeners in Dublin have known that the best radio show in their neck of the woods was Ska Patrol. Now, thanks to this live feed, Madness and ska fans across the world would finally be able to listen to the show themselves.
We finished off this issue of the MIS with a transcript from a BBC Radio 6 podcast featuring Suggs, interviewed by Pete Mitchell.
Pete was standing in for Andrew Collins’ Sunday show, and he asked Suggs, his guest, how he liked to spend his weekends.
15 years ago…
Issue 93 – Sunday 18th February to Saturday 24th February 2001
With all the coverage given to various Madness tributes since the start of the year, we thought it was about time to pay a visit to the home of the Madness / Bad Manners / Specials tribute band ‘Badness’, by visiting their official web site.
Badness frontman Mike Watts was kind enough to give us a brief history of the band, and we discovered how they started, and how the band had evolved over the following years.
With tours of Israel, Germany and Spain under their belts and having played every town & city in the U.K. (well almost!) the band had built up a cult following and regularly sold out venues across the country.
Next, it was on to one of our irregular Ebay roundups, where we pulled out some of the more interesting items currently up for sale on the World’s most popular auction web site.
Amongst the goodies for sale was an Absolutely LP, signed by six of the seven members of the band. Comically, woody had signed himself “Would e?”
More exciting things were to follow in this issue, when we learned from subscriber Phil Pugh, that on a recent VH1 show Suggs had sung The Communicator, and had then revealed that he was putting his solo career on hold for a while to work on a new Madness single, album and video.
Interesting details indeed!
We finished off this issue with a short article that took us back in time a whole 20 years, as Chris Carter-Pegg reminded us all that on the 14th of February 1981, Mike Barson married his girlfriend Sandra.
Time certainly flies!
Rob Hazelby
TIME…
We bring this week’s issue to a close with a moment captured here on video.
It’s a clip we missed in our comprehensive coverage of last year’s House of Fun Weekender. Here is the moment Suggs joined band “The Lottery Winners”, fresh from their Grandslam Support slots. It must be love. Same mood, clearly different band sound.
Until next week, take care,
The Author
