Our thoughts are with Suggs and his family at this sad time.
Moving on to happier news, and this week it was announced that Madness would be performing at the 3 Arena on Saturday 28th July. With appearances at the Galway Arts Festival on the Friday and Car Fest. North on the Sunday, the band are in for one busy weekend!
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.
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
Thursday 19th July – Bellaria Igea Marina, Beky Bay, Italy
Either Friday 20th or Sunday 22nd July – FIB Benicàssim Fest, Spain
Saturday 21st July – Perpignan (South France / North Catalonia)
Friday 27th July – Galway International Arts Festival – More Info
Saturday 28th July – 3 Arena, Dublin. With The Lightning Seeds ** new **
Sunday 29th July – Car Fest. North
August 2018
Friday 3rd August – A Summer’s Tale Festival, Westergellersen, Germany
Friday 10th August – Strijp-S, Eindhoven, Netherlands
November 2018
Friday 30th Nov – Monday 3rd Dec – The House of Fun Weekender
Ticket hotline 08450261274 / http://www.butlins.com/madness
Suggs
September
6th – 9th – Festival No:6 – Portmeirion
November
1st – Suggs & Friends – Porchester Hall, London. Annual Charity show for Pancreatic Cancer UK
Terry Edwards / Mark Bedford
Wednesday 4th July, Dublin Castle. Q&A & music from Tony Bugbear
Near Jazz Experience
Friday 20th April – The Prince Albert, on stage at 8:00pm
Saturday 21st April – Vinyl Frontier, record store day. Appearance and gig at the store in Eastbourne
Friday 11th May – The garage Islington (Supporting – Adrian Sherwood)
Wednesday 8th August – Varanger Festival – Norway
Buy It
Madness “I do Like to be B-Side the A-Side”
Out for Record Store Day 2018; 21st April
Fans of Madness have been requesting a vinyl release of their B-sides for some time now. ‘I Do Like To Be B-Side The A-Side’ contains the B-sides for the first eleven Madness 7 singles.
Collated on a 12 LP on heavyweight black vinyl, the album’s packaging has been designed by long-time Madness collaborator Paul Agar and features a wonderfully surreal black and white image of the band on a diving board at a holiday camp, 1950s style.
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.
£9.95. Limited to 250 copies. A5 paperback photo-zine. 36 pages.
Hanging Around Books’ tenth release (HA010), “Kimono Our House: Madness In Japan 1982” features rare and previously unseen photographs of the Nutty Boys taken by Andre Csillag at various locations during the band’s 1982 tour of Japan.
As Andre writes:
“In May 1982 I was asked by the manager of Madness, the late and sadly missed Matthew Sztumpf, to accompany the band on their first Japanese tour. These shots were taken over a period of a week in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya and on bullet trains inbetween.”
“It was an intense week of gigging, travelling, promotional work and making history. While in Japan, the band had their first number one on the UK singles chart and were filmed live via satellite from Tokyo introducing the video for that week’s chart topper, “House Of Fun” — a first for the BBC and Top of The Pops.”
“Thanks to Graham “Suggs” McPherson, Cathal Smyth, Lee Thompson, Chris Foreman, Mike Barson, Mark Bedford and Dan “Woody” Woodgate for their time and the enjoyable madness.”
Andre Csillag, February 2018.
MIS Feature
Madstock Memories Wanted
As you may have seen, the latest instalment of the excellent Seven Ragged Men website is now live – and we’re up to the momentous events of 1992.
Telling the story of the year in the band’s own words, it reveals the reluctance of some members to reform, the pre-gig rehearsals and the nervousness that anyone would actually turn up.
Of course, it culminates in an emotional blow-by-blow account of the events of August 8&9, when the skanking of 36,000 jubilant fans saw an earthquake erupting in Finsbury Park.
It’s a cracking read – and for the many of us who were there, it brings back plenty of happy memories. As Lee himself says: “It gives me goosepimples just thinking about it.”
Were you there? If so, Seven Ragged Men curator Iain Mason would like to hear from you, as he’s planning to add a special section with fans’ memories about the weekend.
Iain says: “The feedback on 1992 has been fantastic and it’s clearly struck a chord. Loads of people who were there have offered up their memories and I’d like to collect as many as possible and add them to the mix in a special Madstock Memories section. Who knows? At this rate, we might get 72,000 quotes from everyone who was there.”
If you’d like to add your memories – however long or short – email Iain on info@sevenraggedmen.com
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 727 – Sunday 14th April – Saturday 20th April 2013
We began this issue by reminding you that tomorrow would see the release of the Oui, Oui special edition album. Comprising of a whopping 4-discs there was certainly a mass of content to listen to.
Continuing on the release news, and we were pleased to report that the Ska Orchestra’s Sister Mary Ignatius album was now ready to pre-order on Amazon.
The 12 track debut album from the Ska Orchestra was due out on June 3rd. On it’s first day on Amazon the album went to number 1 in Ska, on the sites’ sales listings.
Moving on, and a week or so back we’d spotted a Facebook post from Steve Farthing, moderator of the Mad Chat Facebook group, commenting on their surging member numbers. Intrigued by this massive increase, we asked for more information. Steve told us;
“I can’t believe how many new members that we have had over the weekend. I read your post, asking where all our new members have come from. We are now approaching 1,000 members and over 200 of them are new members. It has been mad.
Noggsy on the Suggs From Madness Appreciation Page has also experienced a surge in new members and has reached the 6,000 plus mark of likes on his page”.
Impressive stuff!
Next, it was over to food news as we reported (courtesy of reprinting an article from Shropshire Live) that Suggs would be visiting the Amazing Woodfired Pizza Company during his trip to Shrewsbury as part of his My Life Story tour.
Kim Ford, manager of The Amazing Woodfired Pizza Company, said: “The first I knew about it was when I got an email from his agent, asking if he could come over after the show. It said that Suggs, was so impressed with the pizza he had here last year, that it was the first thing he mentioned when he knew he was going to be in the area”.
Elsewhere, and you may recall that a number of issues back we reported on Dan Fossard’s now and then look at Park Avenue, a road featuring near the start of the Madness movie Take it or Leave it.
Since then, Mike Barson had commented on one of Dan’s photos – Mike’s Bedroom…
“Yeah that’s right, used to live there. That’s where we auditioned old Suggsie Boy… well young Suggsie boy then! Should never have given him the job!
…and where we wrote ‘Mistakes’ our first song…
And where Carl played the bass guitar blew up my brother Ben’s – amp finished him off as a bass player ha ha.
Also where I largely learnt to play the piano too, remember learning Sad Lisa by Cat Steven’s on my brother’s piano playing the record at half speed!.”
The big article this week was our review of the Oui, Oui special edition album. Compiled by Jon Young, Lee Thompson, Judge Freed and Sharon Staite it was a comprehensive review.
10 years ago…
Issue number 467 – Sunday 13th April to Saturday 19th April 2008
We kicked off this issue with an XFM exclusive interview with Suggs and Chris, just prior to their performance at this year’s Teenage Cancer Trust gig. The two of them told the radio station why taking part in concerts meant to much to them, and revealed that they were working on a concept album.
In gig news we revealed that the band would be performing at Aintree Racecourse on Friday 13th June. Tickets were priced at an amazingly reasonable £16 for adults.
Back to the Teenage Cancer Trust, and we featured a nice write-up by Ruth Barnes of the BBC Radio 6 web site, who gave a detailed lowdown of the band’s performance on the 8th of April.
Suggs and Co were in fine form as they literally rocked the hall to the core, with the audience up and dancing from the very first note of One Step Beyond.
The band were supported by The Holloways and The Metros, all jangly guitars, skinny jeans and catchy pop tunes. They unfortunately felt the effects of punters not being allowed to bring drinks into the hall as many chose to stay in the bar until the headliners took to the stage.
At which time the hall came alive with the crowds chants of ‘Ole, ole, ole, ole…’ in fact the band had a standing ovation before they had even begun.
Moving on, and while Chris and Suggs spoke to XFM about the Royal Albert Hall gig, Suggs took part in a short solo interview with MSN.
Next, it was over to the Daily Mirror web site, with a review of the Snowbombing 2008 Festival, which Madness performed at. Taking time out, Suggs spoke to the newspaper, and gave a nice video interview which we linked to.
It was back to the Teenage Cancer Trust gig next, as Virgin Radio DJ Sarah Champion caught up with Suggs about the event, and about how Gwen Stefani is mad about him.
Great news for our Spanish news landed this week, as it was revealed that the band would be appearing at the the 3rd Bilbao BBK Live festival in Kobetamendi, Spain, on Sunday, 6th July.
Dublin based Maddies were also in for a treat, as in this issue we announced that the band would be performing for two nights at The Tripod, on the 17th and 18th June.
15 years ago…
Issue number 205 – Sunday 13th April to Saturday 19th April 2003
Well, you couldn’t say that we were short of Madness gigs at the moment. Just like double decker busses, new of 3 came along in one weekend!
First, we had a reminder from Carl of the forthcoming gig in Bon, Germany, then we had news in from Steve Chapman revealing that the band would be headlining the Guildford Festival on Saturday 5th of July.
What we were all most excited about though was news that Carl was suggesting we ought to look London bound for the 6th. Could this be the next Madstock? Only time would tell.
Moving away from Madness for the moment, and we took a look at the next round of Like Father Like Son gigs that were due to take place over the next month or so. The band’s touring plans would take them to Brighton and stopping in for a gig at Biggin Hill on the way down.
It was over to the official Madness web site next, where we pulled out a few of the more interesting posts from non other than Chrissy Boy. The most interesting was the post that confirmed that there would be NO Madstock this year. If so, what on earth would the band be doing on the 6th of July in London?
Over to radio news, and Jonathan reviewed episode three of the Suggs’ starring show, I think I’ve got a problem. The fourth and final part would conclude at 11:00pm on Thursday.
In tribute band news we revealed that One Step Behind were about to start their 10th anniversary tour with an absolutely packed May.
If you had yet to see the band in action we urged you to get along.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that Lee Thompson had appeared on stage with Australian ska band The Brisbane City All-Skas.
Rob Hazelby
Sign of the Times
Wilko Johnson’s First Album of New Material in Thirty Years
“I’m supposed to be dead!” Canvey Island’s Dr Feelgood guitar legend Wilko Johnson was diagnosed in late 2012 with terminal pancreatic cancer. However, despite the doctors’ worst predictions, he continued to perform with a new lust for life and even made the most successful album of his career Going Back Home with the legendary Roger Daltrey.
Following that album’s remarkable success he announced that thanks to a third opinion from a doctor moonlighting as a rock photographer and life-saving surgery, he was now cancer-free. With customary humor Wilko said of this late-career resurgence, “Man, there’s nothing like being told you’re dying to make you feel alive.”
Blow Your Mind is Wilko’s first album of new material in 30 years, and is the sound of a man feeling very much alive.
To read the full article click on the URL at the top of this article.
Time
That pretty much brings this week’s issue to a close.
Before you go off and do something else, don’t forget that the Seven Ragged Men web site want your memories of the original Madstock concerts. Pop back to this week’s feature for further information and get submitting.
