With the title of “A day at the races and other places”, Madness have now confirmed all dates for this Spring and Summer, running from May through to August.
Recently added dates since last weekend’s MIS blast out across the internet are Limerick docklands on May 31st, Dublin on June 1st, Waterford Day Tripper Festival on June 2nd and Scarborough on July 19th.
Naturally, if further dates do crop-up at any point we’ll be sure to let you know.
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.
24 – 26th – Tunes in the Dunes, Peranporth Beach, Cornwall. (Madness appear on the Sunday.)
31st – Docklands, Limerick ** new **
June
1st – Dublin ** new **
2nd – Watford, Day Tripper Festival ** new **
7th – Market Rasen, Lincolnshire
8th — Chepstow racecourse
9th – Carlisle, Bits Park
15th – Kenworth House, Hampstead. This Massive North London home coming gig for Madness XL features a full scale orchestra with the band.
16th – June – Isle of Wight Festival
21st – New Market Racecourse
22nd – Lingfield Park
28th -Franklin Gardens, Northampton
29th – Newcastle Racecourse plate day
July
5th – Port America, Galicia, Spain
6th – Vida Festival, Barcelona, Spain
12th- Taunton, Vivary Park
19th – Scarborough ** new **
20th – Doncaster Racecourse
24th – Sanddown Racecourse
August
17th – Newbury Racecourse
18th – Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
20th – Belfast Custom Square
23rd – Inverness
24th – Montrose – East Links
26th – Clapham Common, XL South London festival. With “Special” Guests.
30th – Wolverhampton
November
Friday 29th – Monday 2nd December – House of Fun Weekender 2019
Buy It
Before We Was We: The Making of Madness by Madness
The idea is a simple one, that came to us one evening back in July.
Bands as Football Teams, Football Teams as Bands.
We now have over 400 badges, working with friends and guest designers, setting up an exhibition at The National Football Museum in Manchester https://bandsfc.com/”
Bands FC have given a large number of badges to the band to give away on the Sound of Madness tour. So, if you’re buying something before or after one of the gigs don’t forget to pick up your free badge.
New Arrivals at The Madstore
If you missed the House Of Fun or you need another fix get your hands on the event range NOW at The MAD STORE with 20% OFF whilst stocks last!
NEW STOCK JUST LANDED!
2018 Christmas Sweaters, track jackets, polos, fez hats, tea towels, badge sets, dekker hats, beanie hats the list goes on….!
Lee ‘Kix’ Thompson is a most unlikely character. Early career choices had him spend a year in Borstal. He still hasn’t found the receipt for his first saxophone. Luckily, he met two other unlikely characters: Mike ‘Barso’ Barson and ‘Chrissy Boy’ Foreman, who shared his interests of graffiti, train hopping and music.
One Man’s Madness, a feature length rocku-docu-mockumentary directed by Jeff Baynes, tells the story of Madness saxophonist Lee Thompson, told by Lee and his fellow Madness band mates, his family, friends and musicologists, who strangely all look a little like him! From meeting Barso and Chrissy Boy, and later Suggs, Chas, Woody and Bedders, to becoming one of Britain’s most iconic and successful bands, this joyous and light-hearted film follows the path of Lee’s life through his lyrics and songs, including such Madness classics as The Prince, Embarrassment, House Of Fun, Lovestruck and NW5.
Two CD set. Original soundtrack to the 2018 documentary about Madness saxophonist Lee Thompson. Includes tracks from Madness, Crunch, ‘Thommosina Leigh’, Ian Dury, and the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra. Including Hidden Tracks.
Danceable and delightful, this debut album of the band’s much loved original songs pushes on through, breaking the mould of standard ska cover band. Catchy tunes and powerful brass and rhythm section make this a must-listen. Featuring Lee Thompson.
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: 772 – Sunday 23rd February to Saturday 1st March 2014
While many were still waiting for Madness to be awarded with a Brit Award, the band continued to be nominated for or listed in other awards line-ups across the globe.
The latest addition saw our favourite band inducted into the Goldmine Magazine Hall of Fame. 420 artists had already joined the hall of fame with another 280 still to go.
We weren’t quite sure how the list was calculated, as the numbers next to the bands didn’t seem to denote a final placing position – there were a number of (1) values next to 11 entries, for example.
Regardless, it was nice to see the North London based outfit receive further recognition.
Our MIS Feature this week was an exclusive chat with a certain Woody Woodgate about the forthcoming live residency of The Magic Brothers at Camden’s Dublin Castle.
Magic Monday we were calling it, of the first gig on March the 3rd that started the run. “That’s good. I’m liking that.” Woody replied.
“We are playing about just half the first album, the second album has more songs suited to being exciting in a live environment. You Know Up Tempo Stuff. We are playing more of that.” He told us.
The big rehearsals for the full live band were due to tale place the 26th through to the 28th February. “We had a great rehearsal last year to test the water.” commented Woody.
Next, it was on to our Specialized Mad Not Cancer update, and this week we presented you with a slight fresh taste to proceedings. Why? Well, it was this week that we learned of of the French MIS team getting further involved with the charity.
We brought this week’s MIS to close with the news that Lee Thompson had revealed that The Upsetters would be supporting the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra when they were next playing at Dingwalls, Camden Town, on the 13th of March.
And finally, Darren Fordham recently tweeted that he’d seen the video for Bangarang, and that it would be “coming at us real soon”. Exciting stuff!
10 years ago…
Issue 512 – Sunday 22nd February to Saturday 28th February 2009
Following the news earlier in the week announcing that Trinity Street had gone belly-up the Madness Central Forums and email list had understandably been busy with concerned fans wondering what was going to happen with their money, album and Madstock ticket orders.
At present we were no closer to finding out exactly what was going to happen, but Chris Foreman had kindly taken two minutes out of his no doubt busy (and now rather stressful!) schedule, to give us all a quick update.
The Madness Central’s Steve Bringe informed us that Madness’ management were hoping to make an official announcement as early as Monday night. If/when this did appear we promised to send out another special edition of the MIS so that you were brought bang up to date with what was going on.
Elsewhere we reported that Terry Edwards, occasional Madness member and one half founder of Butterfield 8 had turned his talents to that of author. Terry had captured Madness’ story of making the debut album One Step Beyond.
The book was party of a publishing series that focused on great albums called 33 1/3, meaning Madness were alongside many other great album makers who had been given the full treatment in the series.
On to tribute news, and we gave you the heads-up on a new album from Bristol based ska outfit The Communicators. The band had been kind enough to send us a review copy of their new album, and so we did the only decent thing and review it for you.
This week we received the news that another date had been added to the band’s already growing list of summer gigs. This latest addition would see Madness performing at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday 30th May. Having had to cancel the venue the previous year it was hoped that this new date would run without a hitch.
15 years ago…
Issue 250 – Sunday 22nd February to Saturday 28th February 2004
We decided to hold off the release of this issue until late on Sunday evening, as earlier that day we’d discovered that Channel Four were airing a one off programme entitled “The Ultimate Pop Star”.
Yes, this was yet another one of those `listing run-down` affairs that the station seems to have a kind of addiction to, but for once the chart wasn’t based on the opinions of people who voted over the phone or the internet. No. This ranking was based on the number of UK sales that the pop star or group has had.
Hosted by Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield as Smashy and Nicey, the programme gave the viewer a top 50 run-down of the best selling artists from the 50-odd years that the UK charts have been running.
With something like this, it was a dead cert that the lads would be listed somewhere in those 50 places. Initial clips of Madness videos at the start of the programme certainly added to the possibility that they’d be on there, and with it being pretty much common knowledge that the band spent more weeks in the 1980’s UK charts than any other group, we were sure the lads would be there.
Well, we’re pleased to say that we weren’t disappointed. Storming past big names such as U2, The Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Duran Duran, Madness were placed at number 31 with a whopping 5,564,459 single sales – just one slot behind Gordon Sumner and the boys (The Police, to most of you!).
Suggs was on hand during the Madness slot to explain that when the band were having a laugh in the videos it was because they were just larking around, and really were having a laugh.
We’ve got no idea who finally attained the number 1 slot, and quite frankly we didn’t care. We switched off after The Police `slot`.
Moving on to the issue itself, and we started off with a few words from Madness guru Christopher ‘Dell’ Wardell who was kind enough to give a few suggestions about what he felt you needed to put in your music collection. This turned out to be Early Bird by Kalles Kaviar featuring Mr.Symarip is available on Leech Records (LEECH 057), which is a ska label in Zurich.
Elsewhere, and no sooner did he finish serialising his Christmas tour write-up, he then returned with a Dutch to English translation of a television interview a number of the band members made back in December 1999. Who were we talking about? Jermaine of `Tour Madness`, of course.
Further on, and subscriber Mike Wille alerted us all of a rather unusual Madness related auction. We did warn readers not to get too excited though. It wasn’t that great, and was stupidly over-priced.
To finish off with, we had a rundown of tour dates for Ian Dury and The Blockheads tribute outfit, `Reasons to be Cheerful`, a band, we were told, were well worth catching.
Rob Hazelby
Sign of the Times
Scarborough Open-Air Theatre Announce Music Legends Madness as the Fourth Act Booked for Summer 2019
Now in the 40th year of their near-imperial reign over popular music, 2019 sees a raft of activity including a not-to-be-missed show at Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Friday July 19.
Talking about the band’s landmark year, vocalist Suggs said: “We’ve seen off eight Prime Ministers, 12 England managers and a nasty bout of lumbago. But, it’s not the endless achievements, not the unforgettable memories, it’s the fact we’re even still alive! (and miraculously in the rudest of health, thanks for asking.) Raise your glasses, lower your swords ‘arise sir Madness!’ Get stuck in! Here’s to the next 40!”
Fresher of face and fleeter of foot than ever, it’s hard to believe 2019 will mark four decades since a rag tag of self-proclaimed ‘hoolies and urchins’ first emerged, gloriously unreconstructed, from the back streets of Camden Town fusing reggae, punk and pop on their classic debut album ‘One Step Beyond’.
Now in the 40th year of their near-Imperial reign over popular music, 2019 sees a raft of activity including a not-to-be-missed show at Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Friday July 19.
Talking about the band’s landmark year, vocalist Suggs said:
“We’ve seen off eight Prime Ministers, 12 England managers and a nasty bout of lumbago. But, it’s not the endless achievements, not the unforgettable memories, it’s the fact we’re even still alive! (and miraculously in the rudest of health, thanks for asking.) Raise your glasses, lower your swords ‘arise sir Madness!’ Get stuck in! Here’s to the next 40!”
The Scarborough OAT date will be a glorious Yorkshire coast return for Madness who last rocked Britain’s biggest open-air arena in 2017.
The full article can be found at the above link.
Madness play headline show at Scarborough Open Air Theatre as part of 40th anniversary celebrations
BRITISH music legends Madness are bringing their 40th anniversary celebrations to Scarborough Open Air Theatre (OAT) this summer.
The Scarborough OAT date will be a Yorkshire coast return for Madness who last rocked the arena in 2017.
The show is presented by Cuffe and Taylor whose director Peter Taylor said: “Madness are quite simply one of the most successful British bands of all time and an unmissable live act.
“Over the last 40 years they have written some of the nation’s best-loved pop anthems and every gig they play is a celebration. We are delighted to be able to bring this truly unique and deeply cherished band back to Scarborough as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations.”
The full article can be found at the above link.
Time
That’s just about it for this week’s edition of the MIS.
Before we go we just want to remind you that if you’ve yet to purchase tickets to the open air gig at Hampstead Heath to get your skates on. According to the official Madness Facebook page the event has almost sold out.
Support for this event is from Squeeze’s Chris Difford!
