We’ve had one-day Madness festivals, Weekenders and even woodland tours which took in arboretums up and down the country. Now, the band’s management are looking into the viability of putting on a cruise for Madness fans. Yes, you did read that right.
On Thursday, the following message appeared on the official Madness Facebook Group;
“We have been approached with the possibility of hosting a Madness European Cruise event in Summer 2019. Imagine 2,500 fans, friends and families alike for one Mad Holiday…. great bands, sun, sea, sand, fun and Madness!
This getaway would give you the opportunity to relax and mingle with like minded fans, enjoy exclusive shows, collaborations, movie screenings, beer tastings and family friendly activities with some of your favourite artists…all while enjoying the luxurious atmosphere and full amenities a cruise holiday has to offer.
We would like to know what you think about going on holiday together on an adventure curated by Madness – let us know.”
Fans were then urged to complete the below survey:
The questions gave brief details of the planned cruise and predicted prices, with a departure of Barcelona, Spain, and costs ranging from:
£910 – £2,120 (plus £180 taxes) per person for a 4 night cruise to
£1,055 – £2,260 (plus £180 taxes) per person for a 5 night cruise.
Prices would differ depending on the type of room you booked, and would include food, access to amenities, but not alcoholic drinks.
Reaction we’ve seen from the fans has been extremely mixed. Many have complained that the high prices and the fact that you’d need to fly to and from the ports put it out of the financial reach of many. Others, meanwhile commented that it was great to see the band celebrating their 40th year by doing something special, and that they’d be saving up to go.
If you’ve yet to give your feedback then please click on the above link and just spend a couple of minutes answering the online survey. The greater number of people who respond will give the band and management a clearer idea of what the fans think.
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
July 2018
The Stately Madness Tour
Friday 6th July – Englefield House, Reading – More Info
Saturday 7th July – Euston Park, Suffolk – More Info
Friday 13th July – Ragley Hall, Alcester – More Info
Saturday 14th July – Alnwick Castle, Northumberland – More Info
Friday 27th July – Galway International Arts Festival – More Info
July 28th/29th – Car Fest. Announced on Chris Evans’ Radio Show!
November 2018
Friday 30th Nov – Monday 3rd Dec – The House of Fun Weekender
Ticket hotline 08450261274 / http://www.butlins.com/madness
Suggs
What a King CNUT Tour 2018
A life in the realm of Madness.
Tue February 13 2018 – SALFORD Lowry
Wed February 14 2018 – BUXTON Opera House
Thu February 15 2018 – LEEDS Town Hall
Fri February 16 2018 – STOCKTON Princess Alexandra Auditorium
Sun February 18 2018 – BRIGHTON Theatre Royal
Tue February 27 2018 – MERSEYSIDE Floral Theatre
Wed February 28 2018 – DUNFERMLINE Alhambra Theatre
Thu March 01 2018 – GLASGOW Pavilion
Sat March 03 2018 – HULL City Hall
Sun March 04 2018 – YORK Opera House
Tue March 06 2018 – PRESTON Guild Hall
Wed March 07 2018 – NORTHAMPTON Royal and Derngate
Thu March 08 2018 – SOUTHAMPTON O2 Guildhall
Sun March 11 2018 – BIRMINGHAM Alexandra Theatre
Tue March 13 2018 – AYLESBURY Waterside Theatre
Wed March 14 2018 – POOLE Lighthouse
Thu March 15 2018 – CHELTENHAM Town Hall
Fri March 16 2018 – BATH Forum
Sun March 18 2018 – NOTTINGHAM Theatre Royal
Mon March 19 2018 – IPSWICH Corn Exchange
Tue March 20 2018 – CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
Thu March 22 2018 – LONDON Palladium
The Silencerz Featuring Lee Thompson
Sunday 1st April, Dublin Castle, Camden
Lee Thompson
Sunday 25th March, The 100 Club. Part of the Sound Screen Festival. This is a performance plus a screening of One Man’s Madness
Director Julien Temple (The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners) takes a stage show, adds some drama, archive, animation and music, then shakes it all up for MY LIFE STORY where Suggs, takes a hilarious, yet moving, look back at his life in a musical form.
Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Or a music hall dream? Whatever it is hold on to your seats as Suggs goes on to stumble and plummet through the trap door of failure; then trampoline back up to catch the passing trapeze of show business success.
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 718 – Sunday 10th February – Saturday 16th February 2013
The band already had a massive number of gigs lined up for 2013, but this list had grown yet further with details reaching us that Madness had now been booked to play at à L’Olympia de Paris on Monday 16th September.
We had no doubt that the French MIS team would be out in force for that one!
This week Thommo appeared to play a DJ Set in London’s trendy Hoxton area. The MIS team popped along to check out the set at the club night hosted by Scroobius Pip.
Co-editor Jonathan Young commented at the time;
“A rare type of night, but for all that was in it, it was a mix I very much enjoyed, with talk of Southend or events alongside Lee Scratch Perry being bandied about afterwards. This probably isn’t the last time Lee Jay the DJ will be out and about this year.”
Moving on, and we reported that The Liberty of Norton Folgate Radio 4’s Saturday Drama, aired this week. For those that missed it we posted the BBC iPlayer link so you could hear what you’d missed when it aired live.
Of the show, Jonathan told us;
“Certainly check this play out and decided for yourselves, it’s great that so much effort has been put into making something around Madness’s music.
While some of the music cues match the transition of the drama, it does get a bit jukebox random too at times.
It captures Madness’s generosity of spirit, in the way the characters help out, given the truth of their involvement in the light bars own profile fight back in 2009, and ends with some joking pointing towards the current album title, of oui oui si si ja ja da da, that maybe they asked for as a link to 2013 when this airs.”
Further on, and we had some rather sad news courtesy of the NME. Apparently London music venue The Bull and Gate was to shut down in May before re-opening as a gatropub.
Releasing an official statement, promotors Club Fandango revealed that gastropub chain Youngs would reopen in the summer. The statement read:
“The Bull and Gate, that north London bastion of alternative rock and indie-pop rumblings for over 30 years, will cease operating as a live venue on Saturday May 4 2013. The entire building has been sold to the Youngs chain and will be closed for refurbishment. It is expected to reopen as a pub restaurant in the summer.”
Towards the end of this issue we briefly went off Madness and on to Man Like Me, who were about to release a new album.
This issue drew to a close with the news that a certain Lee Thompson would be appearing on local Barnett internet radio station EN5 on the 26th Feb.
10 years ago…
Issue number 458 – Sunday 10th February – Saturday 16th February 2008
With a terrible fire hitting Camden Lock Market only the day before this issue went out it came as little surprise to many to see that much of this week’s content covered the disaster.
News was still coming in as to how bad the damage was, and we passed on the news with articles from the BBC – one from a reporter for the national institution, and another from eyewitnesses who saw the carnage first hand.
Although the fire was big news we still managed to cover other topics and these included “Madness Fruity and Nutty”, an article from the Feb/Mar edition of Clash Magazine, which had been painstakingly transcribed by Looby.
We also reported that Life on Mars star Philip Glenister was a big Madness fan, and that in the latest episode of Suggs’ Survivors, the big man was visiting the Great Yarmouth rollercoaster, made famous in the House of Fun video.
15 years ago…
Issue 196 – Sunday 9th February – Saturday 15th February 2003
We started the issue off with news that March could prove to be an expensive month for Madness fans, as not one, but two Madmeets centered around specific events were being planned.
First up, and on Saturday the 8th March a Madmeet had been planned to coincide with a visit to `Our House`, the Madness musical. At the time this issue went to press about 15 Madness fans had put their names down to go, and more were expected to come along.
The day promised to feature the usual antics – extended stay in the Dublin Castle etc, and if you lived in London then you certainly had no excuse not to come along.
If that wasn’t enough, news broke earlier in the week that Madness were due to play a one-off charity concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 29th March!
The event was entitled Madness plus special guests. We were lead to believe that the `special guests` was a comedian, but were unable to confirm this at the time the issue went out.
Tickets went on sale on Friday 6th February, and were already selling very fast indeed.
Less joyful news came in the form of the What’s on Stage Awards where it was announced that despite being the House of Fun musical being nominated for a whopping 5 awards, it had failed to land any at all when the big crunch came.
Moving on, and we had a request in from Jermaine of Madness bible Tour Madness. At the time of typing he was busy typing-up the entries for 2002, but was missing a couple of reviews for Madness spin-off Like Father, Like Son, and hoped that MIS subscribers would be able to fill in the gaps.
Elsewhere, and it seemed as if work was still very much underway on the official Madness web site, with numerous test messages appearing on the site’s message board, but most of them being complete gibberish.
Madness lead singer Suggs will be sharing a few surprises when he visits Derbyshire on Valentine’s Day.
He will be at Buxton Opera House on the night of February 14.
Suggs will be disclosing the surprises which awaited him when he reached the dizzy heights of stardom.
Expect tales about vertigo on the roof of Buckingham Palace, nearly blowing the closing ceremony of the Olympics and watching his underpants fall to earth on Bowie’s driveway.
Fame is a tightrope and Suggs has fallen off many times.
But for all the near-death experiences he takes great solace in the words of the Greek philosopher, Blondie: ‘The tide is high, but I’m holding on…’
A quick plug for our return to play some music at Reading Specialized this coming May.
The all-dayer event is once again raising money for Teenage Cancer and Tonic music for Mental Health. Featuring a headline set from Millie Manders & The Shut Up, late set by The Skapones, support slot by The Launchers, and performances by The Dekkertones, Erin Bardwell Collective, Rage DC, The Corsairs, The Highwasters, Red tape resistance and a Fijah DJ set. From 1pm till 1am.
MIS once again take over the alternative Room 2. We are looking forward to launching out own Chas-less band called “Dave & Dave” as we spinoff Dave Roy Smith & David Hardman from The Launchers into a cover band of some lesser heard Choice Madness song covers.
We will be DJing all day, plenty of Madness from some fave album tracks, a couple of unheard rarities, obscure tunes and the more crowd pleasing top 40 of fan voted Madness favourites to crown the evening.
There will be some Britpop too, reprising our set from the recent House of Fun Weekender, and further guest asides as we present “Saunders Surprises” & oh dear “Mandy Boybandy” too.
Lastly, we will be show casing tunes from “With a word” by Nick Woodgate. A Tonic Music For Mental Health album.
Buy 2 tickets between now and the 14th, and also get entered into a free champagne prize draw.
