Madpost June 1997
The Monthly Madpost
June 1997
Contents
| [1] Welcome to my House … Anytime – Introduction. |
| [2] The Big Fella – Suggs on Channel Five. |
| [3] Suggs’ Chelsea Single |
| [4] Suggs and ‘No Doubt’ |
| [5] Dance With a Madman – Subscriber Article. |
| [6] Suggs Info From Mags and Papers. |
| [7] Suggs Under The Moon – TV Appearance. |
| [8] Record of the Week – Suggs’ Single. |
| [9] Results of the Second Top 10 Songs. |
| [10] Suggs on TV Again. |
| [11] Chelsea’s Most Famous Fan. |
| [12] Suggs and ‘Nut INC’. |
| [13] Special News For US Maddies. |
| [14] Cairo East has Moved. |
| [15] Suggs’ New Album. |
| [16] Mailing List Fave Tunes on the Web. |
| [17] The Madquiz Returns. |
| [18] Darren Bowen’s Updated Website. |
| [19] And so, to bed – Final Words. |
Welcome to my House … Anytime
Well, as usual, things never seem to slow down on the mailing list.
This month has seen a huge avalanche of publicity around Suggs, with his single for Chelsea Football Team, and numerous TV appearances. Perhaps this should be renamed the ‘Suggs Mailing List’.
Now that there are also rumours that Suggs has a new album in the pipeline I can’t see the Suggs talk dying down for sometime to come.
On a Madness-related note, the lads have finally got themselves a presence on the net. It’s a simple 2 page web site at the moment, but we are promised that there’s more to come.
The address is: http://www.madness.co.uk
Anyway, enough of me, enough of me. I’ll let you get stuck into the latest issue of the ‘Madpost’….
Robert
The Big Fella
Here’s a little something from Stephen Hewitt regarding Suggs’ appearance on Channel Five…
Well, he’s done it again – turn on my tv to channel 5 this morning and who’s there ? – The big fella himself, Suggs 
It was an interview on a kiddies program called the mag and he was there all morning, so here are a few bits (how I can remember them) from the program…
Q. Which football team do you support ?
A. Chelsea, since he was about 7 years old
Q. Are you about to do any new tours ?
A. Nothing is planned, but Madness have had a few ‘goodbye’ concerts so there may be more to come.
Q. Which did you prefer Madness or your solo career ?
A. Well, without madness there would be no solo career. Things are more organised now and less hectic, with Madness he couldn’t remember a lot of what happened because it was all so hectic. Saying that, he said he liked them both a lot.
Q. How did you pick the name Suggs ?
A. When he was at school he picked up a jazz encyclopaedia and stuck a pin in it and Suggs was what he hit, so from then on everyone has to call him Suggs.
Thats about as much as I can remember at the minute but he did a few other things like show the new song for Chelsea – it was great, real get up and go madness style (and no, i’m not a Chelsea fan) and I really enjoyed it. He also talked about presenting ‘Night Fever’ (Saturdays, 6:55, Channel 5) and said it was a good laugh, although he can’t manage without the autocue.
Oh yeah – Night Fever was one of the funniest to date last night – Suggs was in a real funny mood cracking jokes and having a real laugh and I did see him singing one of the songs, although he was drowned out by the rest of the boys team.
I’ll post more as I remember it – oh yeah, they did a phone in to ask him any questions but I could’nt get through 
Cheers.. Steve.
Suggs’ Chelsea Single
Chris Byrne is back for more Madness and Suggs related gossip. Here’s something he posted up to the list earlier in May…
Hi everyone,
Saw this in 90 Minutes footy mag:
Run for the hills! Chelsea have recorded their FA Cup single, the heinous ear-basher ‘Blue Day’. Ex-Madness singer and keen Blues fan Suggs fronts the song, after both Damon Albarn and David Baddiel turned down invitations to do so.
“The song really catches the team spirit, and we had a great laugh recording it,” beams skipper Dennis Wise. “But it’s a good job we play football and don’t sing for a living.”
For once Dennis we have to agree.
They also have a picture of Suggs with the players with the following caption: “I thought we’d be singing ‘Embarrassment’…”
Also in the Mail on Sunday Night & Day magazine there was a favourable review of the Suggs assisted Chelsea single.
Chris
Suggs and No Doubt
And here’s another article from Chris. Does this lad ever stop?!
Hi everyone,
Saw this about Suggs and No Doubt on teletext the other day:
Former Madness frontman Suggs has spurned offers to meet his most famous fans – US chart-toppers No Doubt.
Suggs says he has been bombarded with requests to collaborate with the self-confessed ska-lovers: “I have had more offers to do things with No Doubt than any other work”. “It’s all very flattering. But of no use to me whatsoever. What am I to say to them? ‘Yes, I am awesome, it’s true?'”.
Chris
Dance With a Mad Man
Here’s a bizzare little request from Cori that she posted to the list sometime during May. I thought I’d include it in this issue of the Madpost to help her in her quest…
Okay…so I was thinking (yes I do that occasionally).
Lately, lots of people have been writing in with their fave lyrics, video clips, etc. and I thought it would be fun to set up a little poll in which each mailing group member writes to me about which member of Madness they would like to meet the MOST. (In other words, someone puts a gun to your head and says “Alright laddy, you can only talk to ONE of the boys, who’s it gonna be?”)
Now I don’t necassarily mean your Favorite member (that’s like picking your favourite child,you know). I mean, I would love to meet Carl, but I know if you get me alone with him…well we won’t go there.
So anyway, I think I would want to meet Chris. He’s the only one that’s really been around in every formation of Madness. Plus I get the impression that he’s truthful and easy to talk to. There’s my two cents…tell me what you guys think.
(Please send to CVARGAS@scuacc.scu.edu)
Who knows, after a couple weeks, I might annonomously post the results!!!
Stay Mad..mad…madItellyoumad!!!
Cori
PS, Of course I’d LOVE to meet all the guys, but remember, I’m promoting VIOLENCE here!!!! There’s a GUN at your head!!!!!
Suggs Info From Mags and Papers
And what a surprise, Chris Byrne is back with more gossip and rumours…
Hi everyone,
Saw these in the following mags:
90 Minutes:
They don’t waste any time, do they? No sooner has the final whistle gone at Highbury, than Suggs and Co are down at the studio recording the FA Cup song. To be honest, they shouldn’t have bothered. ‘Blue Day’ lacks the sophistication of ‘Ossie’s Dream’ or the musical artistry of ‘Come On You Reds’.
The tune sounds vaguely like the old Jim’ll Fix It music, and with lines like: Now even heaven/Is blue today, and You should hear/The Chelsea roar, it hardly inspires the heart and soul. But in order to be fair, we asked a true blue fan what he thought of it. “It’s deeply horrible,” he said. “It sounds like Let Loose pretending to be The Move.” We assume that means it’s not very good – which it isn’t. But it’s sure to be bought by Chelsea fans in the cartload and played at Stamford Bridge for the next three years.
News of the World:
Chelsea’s Gianfranco Zola is not just a first-rate soccer star. Ex-Madness man Suggs, who helped out on their Cup Final single, says: “His harmonies are amazing, he could sing for a living.”
The People:
“I don’t want to jump the gun but if Chelsea do the business I’d love to touch the trophy.” – Former Madness singer Suggs after agreeing to record Chelsea’s FA Cup Final single this year.
Chris
Suggs Under The Moon
Here’s a little snippet from Dominic Kearney. Take it away…
Hi everyone
Suggs was on a TV programme called “Under the Moon” last night. It’s a phone in sports programme and one of the topics being discussed was football songs. They played a bit of Suggs Chelsea FC video and also they had a rival group Bon Geordie (Bon Jovi covers band from the north east, geddit?) singing a song for Middlesborough.
I think, as football songs go, Suggs’ song is pretty good. Someone said it was Beatlesesque, and I agree. Someone phoned in complaining about “extreme” sports which gave Suggs the opportunity to explain how he fractured his elbow while “parabolic skiing” which apparently is skiing on these really little skis. He demonstrated that he could not straighten his arm because of this. I wish I’d phoned in and asked him when Madness would release some new material.
Later,
Dominic
Record of The Week
After what seems like an age since we heard from him last. Pete Gardner is back with some (may be out of date now) Suggs related info…
Hello all you Maddies,
Just a quickie to say that the Suggs and Chelsea FC Cup Final song got Record of the Week in this week’s NME !!!??? They reckon it is the best footie song ever and described it as “a good Madness song with chants of CHELSEA thrown in”. I bet the reviewer was a Chelsea fan;-)
You can check it out at:
http://www.nme.co.uk/
Cheers for now,
Peter
Results of the Second Top 10 Songs
Hello all,
The results are as follows:
| 10. Michael Caine = 43 Votes |
| 9. Bed and Breakfast Man = 44 Votes |
| 8. My Girl = 46 Votes |
| 7. House of Fun = 56 Votes |
| 6. Night Boat to Cairo = 59 Votes |
| 5. It Must Be Love = 60 Votes |
| 4. The Sun and the Rain = 67 Votes |
| 3. One Step Beyond = 70 Votes |
| 2. Baggy Trousers = 77 Votes |
| and the Number One song for 1997 is…. |
| 1. Our House with 111 Votes |
Rich (the one who spends half a year compiling the results and then mails them incorrectly!)
Suggs on TV Again!
Here’s a little Suggs related article from Madster – Yvette Reader.
Hi all you groovy people out there,
Yep, Suggs was on TV again recently: he was on ‘Light Lunch’ on Channel 4 on friday – did anyone else see it?
There was a phone-in part where someone rang in and asked Suggs if Madness were going to do any more concerts, to which Suggs replied that it was highly likely, then he started talking about how Madness needed to get some new material out instead of just playing all their old songs all the time. He was just about to elaborate on the ‘new material’ aspect when the presenter cut him off, saying he’d waffled for too long already – aaarrggghhh!!! Pesky woman!
Suggs didn’t say much else as he was only on the programme for about 5 minutes; he was just talking about Chelsea and how he hoped they’d win the cup and how he’d enjoyed recording the single with them etc.
Where will Suggs turn up next?!
Grooviness,
Yvette
Chelsea’s Most Famous Fan
More Suggs related antics, this time from Ed, the Maddie from Manchester. Perhaps we should rename this as the Suggs Madpost!
Hiya all,
Someone last week sent in a posting from some newspaper about the Suggs song for Chelsea, and described Suggs as “Chelsea’s most famous fan”. On Saturday, I saw something in the express that made this all the better. It was a team lay-out of a Chelsea B-team, consisting of all their famous fans. Here’s how it went.
Seb Coe Michael Crawford Alec Stewart Tony Banks
David Baddiel David Mellor
Not a bad line up, considering that ‘Boro only had Stephen Tompkinson(from Ballykissangel) Chris Rea and Bob Mortimer!
Stay Cheerie
Nut-U-Like
eD, the Maddie in Madchester
Suggs and Nut Inc
Well, after a gap of at least 2 articles, Chris Byrne is back…
Hi everyone,
Suggs was on VideoTech with ‘Blue Day’ on Thursday, with a couple of Chelsea players.
Also this in the News of World: “Suggs has knocked his own Channel Five show Night Fever, saying: “I’m sure we only have five viewers.” The Madness singer, who fronts the celebrity karaoke show, adds: “It’s difficult because we have to have ten guests on every show. We’ve stooped low-we’ve had a hairdresser from Emmerdale and a hairdresser from EastEnders.”
Also, I have this new contact address for Nut Inc.
Stuart Wright
29 Hollidge Way
Dagenham
Essex
RM10 9SP
Chris
PS This might be my last mail to the list – no more Uni e-mail ever. Thanks to everyone for a great list and see you again one day in heaven or hell.
Special News for US Maddies
Here’s a quickie from Darren Bowen that should me of some use to all the US Maddies out there…
May 27, 1997
KEEP MOVING
(Catalog 4022)
MAD NOT MAD
(Catalog 24079)
Darren (http://www.mindspring.com/~bowendp)
Cairo East Has Moved!!
The new address is:
http://www.yi.com/home/LeighJordan/index.html
or you can contact Jordan on:
As well as the website being moved onto Jordan’s web space. The mailing list archives can also be found there. So, if you missed out on anything, you can probably find it in there!
Suggs’ New Album
As ever, I’ve been scanning music papers everywhere for anything Madness-related…
I don’t know if anyone else noticed ‘The Black Hole’ yesterday (UK teletext music page), but someone wrote in asking for an address to write to Suggs. All they printed was the address of the record company, but also quoted the record company as saying Suggs would receive all letters as he is always calling in, especially as he is now working on his next album (!!!!)
I had no idea a 2nd album was this close ! I don’t know how this reflects on a possible new Madness album, but it’s definitely better that nothing !
Bye for now,
Paul
Mailing List Fave Tunes Now on The Web
After a bit of work Richard Pountney has finally got round to putting up his own web site and displaying the results of the recent ‘Fave Mailing List Tunes’ poll.
Also on his site are a collection of magazine articles and interviews about Madness and Suggs. Richard tells me that with time more will appear.
You can get to Richard’s sit at: http://www.chut.demon.co.uk/madness
The Madquiz Returns
Well, after a gap of around 4 or 5 weeks Kevin Tizzard is back on the list with a new e-mail address and an all new Madquiz.
The latest (Madquiz 10) quiz has been posted to the list. If you want to take part all you have to do is MAIL YOUR ANSWERS TO HIM and he’ll compile the results.
If you’d like to help Kevin with questions for the Madquiz then by all means get compiling the questions and send them off to him.
Kevin can be contacted at:
Darren Bowen’s Updated Website
Darren recently mailed me telling me that his site no longer required frames and that if I’d like to take a look I’d like what I’d see.
So, taking this advice I decided to load up my web browser and take a look at the all new site. All I can say is that it’s VERY impressive. From its “Mad Not Mad’ style graphics to its diary style listing of contents, it really is an excellent site.
There are some excellent graphics there but even with a slow modem like mine they rocketed down the phonelines. One of the best things about the site is the huge archive of articles that is available for viewing. I would think that if you’re at home it’s probably best to save this to your harddrive as you’ll risk a large phonebill otherwise.
And finally, remember ‘Look in’ magazine? Darren Bowen sure does. If you want to find out what issues they appeared in then log on at once!
You can connect to Darren’s site at:
http://www.mindspring.com/~bowendp/
And so, to Bed
Just before I finish this issue of the Madpost, I’d like to thank everyone who contrinuted their articles for the latest issue. Many thanks.
If anyone out there has got anything of interest that may be worth including in a future issue then please get in touch with me at: robert@jabba.demon.co.uk
And finally, I will be on my hols from the 16th – 30th June. I’m off to visit ‘Uncle Sam’. So, if there are any problems regarding subscribing or unsubscribing, please could you let me know BEFORE the 16th June.
Stay nutty,
Robert
The Author
