Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 880 – Sunday 20th March to Saturday 26th March 2016
We begin this week’s issue with news in from Hazel Foster, who tells us that a Great night was had by all at The Dublin Castle on Thursday, as part of their St Patrick’s Day celebrations
The Silencerz played the gig at a last minute request for the week, and among newly chosen tunes to cover was this timely Toots song, also previously covered by Madness at Madstock 98 – 54 46.
Check it out at http://youtu.be/_AGTyKK5nCU and then dive into the issue!
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
Friday 19th August – Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/37005067CAE570E4?tpab=-1
Monday 29th – House of Common, Clapham Common
More info at: http://www.madness.co.uk/houseofcommon/
November
Friday 18th – Monday 21st – Madness Weekender 6, Minehead
Suggs
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
Near Jazz Experience
March
22nd – Indo, 133 Whitechapel Road, London *** New ***
Rhoda Dakar
June
Saturday 18th – 100 Club London
(Also appearing at The London International Ska festival, Glastonbury, & European festivals this year)
WIN 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/
BUY IT
Deluxe edition of The Lone Ranger.
https://www.discogs.com/Suggs-The-Lone-Ranger/release/8172245
A Deluxe Edition release of Suggs’ first solo album “The Lone Ranger”.
Originally released in 1995 this much requested reissue is the most comprehensive collection available of the original album and all the related bonus material.
Other bonus material includes the b/sides – ‘Bedazzled’, ‘Animal’, ‘When You Came’ and ‘I Feel Good’. The CD booklet features the original artwork, a UK Discography, lyrics of the original album tracks all in a 16 page colour booklet.
Out April 22nd
Buy it if you don’t have the original classic album or want those original collected B-sides together or if you want Suggs to consider another solo album in future support this release, but if you want it for all the remixes please stop taking e and consult a dr. Some were as dreadful as the Macarena.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Suggs reveals how he wrote a song about growing up in Wales
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/suggs-reveals-how-wrote-madness-11012482
I’m telling Suggs about how, aged 10, I had a little denim jacket covered in Madness patches that I loved more than anything.
Unfortunately, my attempt to look cool was thwarted a bit, because my mum had also sewn a few Shakin’ Stevens ones on it too.
“Nothing wrong with a bit of Shaky,” laughs the 49-year-old ska legend, attempting a Welsh accent that sounds suspiciously more like Geordie.
It’s odd because, as the evergreen Madness frontman is keen to tell me, he actually did have a West Wales twang once.
“Yeah, I lived with my auntie Diana for three years in Port Lion, Haverfordwest , when I was just a kid,” says Suggs, who spent much of his childhood moving from one pokey bedsit to another with his Welsh-born jazz singer mum.
“But tell you what though,” he chirped, “I did write a song about my time down there in West Wales, running through the fields and that, but I’ve never found a home for it on one of our records.
“The majority of Madness’ stuff has always been London-centric – but, who knows, maybe one day.”
MIS FEATURE
Suggs Stand-in Required
Due to having loads of gigs coming in we at Los Palmas 6 are looking to appoint a second singer to cover gigs abroad and gigs our current singer Kurzy can’t make. The applicant must be available, sound, move and look close to Suggs and be able to travel for gigs – oh and obviously be a thoroughly nice chap.
See www.lp6.co.uk for info on the band if you’re not familiar with our work and contact Steve Turner at info@lp6.co.uk if you have any questions or are interested.
Auditions will be held in Brighton in May.
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 619 – Sunday 20th March – Saturday 26th March 2011
With a short intro this week, we were soon onto our articles, which kicked off with a House of Fun Weekender article taken from the Sun newspaper. The article was full of fluff and featured very little information at all. If you wanted an update on how the weekend plans were coming together then this wasn’t the article for you.
Next, it was over to Clive Langer news. Why? Well, in a poll published in the April edition of Q Magazine, Shipbuilding, the song written by Clive and Elvis Costello, was voted number two in the “50 Ultimate British Songs” rundown.
Moving on, and it was time to hear from Mark Bedford via his Twitter feed. Mark told us that he made a record that very morning, and it took him only 30 minutes. Why? Well, it was all part of the Analogue Exhibition in London.
More on the record…
“This was a ‘near jazz experience’ with Mr Terry Edwards & Mr Simon Charterton. Two 7 min. sides”
When asked more about the disc Mark said…
“I forgot that I would have to explain the concept of vinyl. It was cut direct to disc. Now that even out-dates me.”
“Two instrumental tunes. Around 7 minutes long each. One take per side – one record.”
Asked if the record would get a release Mark replied…
“Not sure yet? There’s only one disc.”
10 years ago…
Next, and during the 2009 tour Down Under, Suggs appeared on comedic panel and music quiz Spics and Specs. Now, thanks to the wonders of MISTV we were pleased to be able to bring you the footage.
Our thanks went to Mike Gillis for the footage from ABC1.
We brought this issue to a close with two final bits of Minehead Weekender news. The first snippet was that although it was early days the MIS team were already laying down the tracks to stage the longest ever Nutty Train.
Heading up the team was one Fiona Linnel, who would be taking photographs of the team in action.
Finally, we reminded readers that the 10% discount scheme for the Weekender would end the day after this issue went out, so you were urged to purchase your ticket if you’d not already done so.
Issue number 359 – Sunday 19th March to Saturday 25th March 2006
We got this issue of the MIS underway with two interesting tidbits from a couple of subscribers. First-up was Jean-Pierre Boutellier, who told us that ‘Europe 2’ (apparently the most famous pop/rock radio station in France) had announced that Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley would be producing the next Madness album, what was due to hit record shop shelves this coming Summer.
Continuing with the rumours, and it was the turn of subscriber Suggsylia to contact us with the news that according to www.britishrock.cc, Madness would possibly be playing at the Pepsi Sziget festival in Hungary, which was due to take place in Budapest between the 9th and 16th of August.
On to the articles, and we got them started with news that on June the 18th comedian and MIS reader Dave Gorman, was to cycle from London to Brighton in aid of the British Heart Foundation.
As Dave was a reder, the MIS joined the list of ever growing sponsors, and he sent us a short thank you message, that proved his was thinking of the same track we were, for a little extra inspiration;
I went riding on my bike
With spanner, pump, back and front light
That’s all I need to run in
A marathon I’m entering
I’m raising for a charity
Sponsors come running to me.
It was freebie time for the next article, as top Madness tribute band One Step Behind, announced that their album ‘Absolutely Both’ was to be made available as a free download.
Due to copyright reasons this album could never go on sale, and as such, the material was available to only a few people who were lucky enough to get hold of their live CD.
The download featured a whopping 16 tracks. However, we recommended ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Market Trader’ as the two standout tracks, particularly as they weren’t Madness covers.
Next, we took a look at North London band MOT, and reported on their recent guest appearance on Talksport Radio, which took place on Thursday 16th March.
The session was so interesting, that we decided to feature a full transcript of the interview for MIS readers to plough through.
It was on to Crunch’s very own Tadman next, where we took at look at what he got up to when he wasn’t performing with the rest of the band.
Well, it transpired that he took part in a lot of television commercial work, and so, after some digging, we managed to find a number of his clips online for your viewing pleasure.
We brought this week’s issue to a close by recommending you visit the new Crunch! MySpace pager, where you could stream a number of the bands’ best-loved tracks.
15 years ago…
Issue number 97 – Sunday 18th March to Saturday 24th March 2001
Was there no end to this Madness? We started off this issue with the news that not content with stealing samples of the classic `Our House` to use in one of his releases, the awful`Eminem` was back at it again, with a new abomination entitled `Drugs Freestyle`, this time sampling the classic One Step Beyond.
On to some better news now, and it was Pete Gardner who gave us the heads-up on a forthcoming Comic Relief charity auction, which would see Peter Blake’s print of the cover of Dury Tribute album ‘Brand New Boots and Panties’, together with the signed Polaroids, go under the hammer. The auction was due to run for one week, so it should have given you enough time to enter your bid.
Brand New Boots And Panties was due to be released on April 9th.
Next, and on Thursday 15th March the legendary Suggs appeared on Talksport Radio in an hour long interview. Suggs said in the interview that MADNESS would still be together doing something even when he was 50. Even if its just playing the local pub.
We got this week’s collection of articles underway with the news that all tracks by Madness had been removed from file sharing site ‘Napster’ (remember them?). However, it seemed as if the block only worked on specific keywords, as a search for ‘Madnes’ (with one S) pulled up files from the band’s back catalogue.
The exclusion was a little too over-protective really, as it even blocked Price Buster’s classic ‘Madness’, but non of his other tracks.
It was on to ‘other bands’ next, as we reported that ‘Mr Johnson’, an outfit from Derby, had been in touch, as they felt they were of a similar style. We were also encouraged to vote for them on the Dodgy web site, as enough votes would mean that ‘Mr Johnson’ would get to perform with Dodgy on their tour.
Rod Warne took the MIS reigns for the next article, when he gave a detailed account of his weekend at a Butlin’s 80s weekend. Upon his return he phoned the Butlins management to find out if another 80s weekend was in thee works, and was told;
“they said that this was the first time they had tried it and it had surpassed all expectations, beating the 60’s and 70’s weekend into a cocked hat.
They ran out of drinks and underestimated the popularity of Bad Manners. Suffice to say if it made them a lot of money it will be on again”
Another review followed, and this time it was Fiona Linnell, with her write-up of the recent Suggs performance at the Hackney Empire.
Fiona commented at the time how well Suggs looked, and that out of all the celebrities who performed that night, Suggs got the best reception and greatest number of camera flashes.
Following this it was over to Vince Foley for a review of Suggs’ appearance of TV series ‘Jumpers for Goalposts’, starring Paul Whitehouse;
“The Suggsmeister was looking fresh and well, and offered some good moments to the programme on a whole.
It was easy to see that he was one of the most popular guests of the night.
I must admit I always find it both fascinating and great that Suggs is held in such high regard by the masses (outside of the usual Madness fold).”
We finished off this issue with the news that on Sunday 15th and Sunday 22nd of April there would be no Madpost, as a trip to Cuba by the editorial team (Well, Rob) would mean that there was no one around to produce the bulletin.
However, readers were told to worry not, as the MIS prior to the temporary outage would be an extra lengthy one.
Rob Hazelby
LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
Suggs and Friends 2016
Anne-Marie’s soothing voice and rhythmic undertones peaked the dance floor’s interest and her stunning performance proved that she is an artist to watch.
The remaining the bands kept up the high spirits in what was a perfect conclusion to a successful evening. This is a charity event to keep on the radar. Expect the fifth edition of An Evening with Suggs and Friends in 2017 to be as equally upbeat and fruitful.
TWEETS OF A DOVE
Asked by fans on Twitter, about Wales in December, the possibility of playing Birmingham soon or Christmas appearances in Brighton replied tweets were…
Woody Woodgate
“How would Cardiff suit you?
Hopefully December?
Simple answer Yes.”
Sheffield was also given a question mark reply for an end of year tour, but none of this is an official confirmation at this stage.
TIME…
And finally, for a bit of fun. See if you can spot the cameo in this young band’s music video; http://youtu.be/UOswZ82z0Qc
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
The Author
