Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 927 – Sunday 12th February to Saturday 18th February 2017
We had a very strong feeling that further dates would be added to the band’s Australian gig line-up this coming April. This week our assumptions were confirmed with the band adding three new Aussie dates, bringing the current total to four.
The new dates are:
Monday 10th – Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth
Thursday 13th – Festival Hall, Melbourne
Saturday 15th – Hordern Pavillion
These three are prior to the previously announced appearance at the Bluesfest in Byron Bay on Sunday 15th April.
With the band rarely performing in Australia you can be sure that tickets for the above gigs will be quickly snapped-up. If you want to attend then get your tickets as soon as you can!
Also this week, a new animated video for the next single, “Another Version of Me” has appeared online. Similar in style to the Monty-Pythonesque “Herbert”, this is a very polished and impressive video from the band.
If you look closely you might be able to spot some familiar identikit faces… https://youtu.be/2cR7c_6ckGc
Now, on with the issue.
Enjoy the read!
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
April 2017 – The Overseas Leg
Monday 3rd – Ex Theatre, Tokyo, Japan
Thursday 6th – Hong Kong, China, Rugby Seven’s Opening Concert.
Monday 10th – Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Australia ** New **
Thursday 13th – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia ** New **
Saturday 15th – Hordern Pavillion, Sydney, Australia ** New **
Sunday 16th – Byron Bay, Australia http://www.bluesfest.com.au/schedule/detail.aspx?ArtistID=873
May 2017 – Back in the UK
Friday 19th – Wirral Live, Tranmere Rovers stadium, Birkenhead
Sunday 28th – Bearded Theory Spring Gathering, (Pallet stage headline), Derbyshire
http://www.beardedtheory.co.uk/
June 2017 – The Cornish Leg
Friday 16th – Eden Sessions, Eden Project, st Austell, Cornwall ** SOLD OUT **
http://www.edensessions.com/lineup/madness/
July 2017
Saturday 29th July, Camp Bestival – Headliners
August 2017
Thursday 3rd – Scarborough Open Air Theatre
http://www.scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/
Friday 4th – Falkirk Football Stadium
http://www.falkirkfc.co.uk/madness-in-falkirk/
Saturday 5th – Lytham Festival, Lancashire
https://www.lythamfestival.com/events/madness/
Saturday 12th – Kent County Showground
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Maidstone/The-Kent-County-Showground/Madness-in-Kent/12902396/
Friday 18th – Hardwick Hall
http://www.hardwicklive.co.uk/madness-live/
Friday 25th – Portsmouth – Victorious Festival Opening Party
https://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk/buy-tickets/
Monday 28th – House of Common, Clapham ** On Sale Wednesday! ** Sign up to the ticket registration site here: http://www.madness.co.uk/houseofcommon/
November 2017
17th – 20th November – The House of Fun Weekender – Minehead
The Silencerz
Saturday 18th February – Burton on Trent ** New **
Saturday 25th February – Saracens Rugby Ground – Note: Poster does not mention Lee Thompson at this event ** New **
Saturday 22nd July – The 100 Club. Featuring Lee Thompson with support from The Skapones and MIS DJs ** Corrected details. We had this as Thursday 22nd June **
Near Jazz Experience
Thursday 23rd February – Kino-Teatr, Saint Leonards Square, East Sussex, TN38 0EQ – Supporting the band “Blurt” ** New **
BUY IT
Madness – New Album – You Can’t Touch Us Now
** OUT NOW! **
16 Track CD, 12 Track Vinyl
30 Track Box Set Edition (with demos) ** SOLD OUT **
Total Madness Cherry Red Vinyl ** Out 17th Feb **
180 gram vinyl, gatefold sleeve. Limited edition: only 2,000 copies being released.
More info at: http://www.musiconvinyl.com/catalog/madness/total-madness#more
SIGN OF THE TIMES
It’s always nice to see our favourite band in the press, so below are just a few of the articles featuring Madness that have appeared over the past few weeks…
You are my Valentine
Mike Barson has put together a great clip for ‘You Are My Everything’ which you can find here:
https://www.facebook.com/10158317006150624
Madness are going to make another video for this song in time for Valentines day, and they want you to nominate the special person in your life you would call ‘Your Everything’ to feature in it!
If you haven’t already sent one in, send a photo of that person to
They’ll include as many as they can!
Send photos of just the person and not group photos with both of a couple or all the kids.
Smoking at the Palace
Suggs added that the band may have pinched a couple of toilet rolls and ‘Maybe a “please turn off the light” sign’, but, unlike their contemporaries, stopped short of any recreational drug use.
Suggs added: ‘And unlike The Beatles, I didn’t have a joint in there, but I did have a fag. I remember sensing a laser dot on my forehead as I was leaning out the window. Shadowy figures on the roof, having a laugh.’
MIS FEATURE – THE RISE AND CRAWL
This week tickets for the forthcoming House of Common festival have been selling like hot tickets of all kinds. Earlybird tickets have ranged from standard adult and free kids to collectors lanyards and friends sharing discounted tickets. Now, where’re into the first stage of general ticket sales.
We can’t wait for August or to hear who is playing this year.
Last year, on the day before Clapham, MIS staged a massive all-day gig in Camden, and as you may have already seen online, we have announced that we won’t be doing that this year.
Don’t panic. We’re doing something else on Sunday 27th August, though. This year we’ll be hosting a Pub Crawl tour past some Camden sites of Madness, of Music and Heritage note, with a few antics sprinkled during the day.
Darren Jones of All Things Madness is also hosting his band, Special Kinda Madness, for his big birthday gig at the Dublin Castle.
Our pub crawl, “The Rise and Crawl”, starts 11am sharp at Primrose Hill, as we mark 35 years of that Madness album.
If you went to last years MIS event you’ll have already been invited to take part this year. Don’t fret if you didn’t attend last year but would like to this time. Anyone can contact us this week if you want to join in the fun.
Between 4pm and 8pm on the Sunday our tour will be stopping at The Dublin Castle and The Spread Eagle in Camden. If, during those hours you’d like to attend the Special Kinda Madness gig you are welcome to.We’ve given Mr Happy as DJ to the event to add to the fun.
So, what do you need to do? Get your tickets before they sell out. All the details here are here https://www.facebook.com/events/1663334943966597/
Places are limited for the pub crawl, and once we have enough people involved who can definitely make the 11am kick off time, we will keep those people updated only.
Many thanks and have a fun bank holiday August weekend whatever you are doing.
Contact now to join “The Rise and Crawl”.
Jonathan Young
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 666 – Sunday 12th February – Saturday 18th February 2012
To many, 666 was “the number of The Beast”. Yes, we knew that was Iron Maiden not Madness. But there had been plenty of Devil’s in Madness’ music, too. Most prominently Dust Devil, and Chase the Devil, which appeared in song titles. Whereas Suggs’ solo track “I am” told the tale of a man who “cannot hide from the Devil in me”.
Shadow of Fear from the Absolutely album might have had a devil lurking around, and videos have seen Mike sporting the horns and pitchfork look. There had also been a few other demons running around in various guises, and there was a demon in Give Me a Reason.
One more song to mention might have been Bedazzled by Suggs. This obscure B side was modelled on the film by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, which saw a man selling his soul to the Devil. It was one of Suggs’s favourites and well worth a listen.
On to our articles, and we got proceedings off to a stinking start with news in from Paul Tadman who reported on Lee’s solo re-working of that Prince Buster classic “Madness”. What was special about this was that it was a soft jazz arrangement for the worthy Teenage Cancer Trust album Specialized.
Here Paul Tadman told us more about the approach…
“The idea was to give it a Havana /Caribbean Jazz Club feel from the 40’s – A well respected nod to pre-ska when Jazz & Mento. Mento ruled before the population of Jamaica tuned into their crackly radios to pick up the faint R’n’B sounds blaring 90 miles away on mainland America…. and then combine the two… this is a nod to the times before Ska was even invented.”
We moved on to Blockhead related news for the next article, as we were pleased to report that the Ian Dury stage show; Reasons to be Cheerful, would be returning to the New Wolsey Theatre on the 18th of February.
Next, we hopped back to more Madness news with a transcript from the Coventry Observer, who revealed that Suggs had visited the 2-tone village in Ball Hill, which was dedicated to the genre of music he helped make popular all those years ago. He then nipped over to the Warwick Arts Centre to perform his One Man Show.
We continued on a Suggs related note for the next article, as we reported that cable channel Yesterday, had commissioned a second series of shows hosted by the great man. In the first episode, Suggs took a look at post-war Britain in the 50s where the word teenager didn’t even exist.
10 years ago…
Issue 406 – Sunday 11th February – Saturday 17th February 2007
With a mass of news to get through we dispensed with the waffle, and passed things straight over to Andrew Langmead, who got the issue underway with news that Suggs had mentioned the Al Murray show on his radio programme.
What was so special about this? Well it would seem that an MIS subscriber (who we initially thought was Graham Clark), had sent our favourite frontman an email about the show. Graham got in touch to confirm that he wasn’t responsible for the email to Suggs, and we never did find out who sent it.
Next, it was over to Queen guitarist, who, it seemed, wasn’t too impressed with Suggs, as a post from his blog showed;
“**Tue 06 Feb 07**
DISAPPOINTED
Bri tired and disillusioned tonight – just went to a lot of trouble to speak at a dinner to honour our tour manager, Robbie Williams. But nobody listened. They just drank and jabbered and smoked their sh*tty cigars.
Yuk. I came home with clothes stinking of smoke, and throat all messed up, eyes sore … And the guy who wasMC-ing the event (Suggs, the singer from Madness) introduced me with a sad old joke about my and Anita’s hair. Ha frigging ha. How disappointing people can be.
It really makes you not want to bother. For Robbie, it was worth it. But next time … I’ll stay home.
Bri”
Single news now, and last week Radio 2 played a third version of Sorry on the Jonathan Ross show, whilst interviewing cold feet and fast show comedian John Thompson, who admitted he liked a bit of Madness and had just recently bought some of the old Specials albums.
“Do you want the original radio edit or do you want one with Sway and Baby blue? who are apparently a couple of rappers”
Asked Jonathan’s side kick, Andy, on the show.
“I’d go original”
said Rossy, much to the delight of any fans that have found the rap version of this track not to their liking.
“No disrespect to Mr Baby Blue or Mr Sway, but I think sometimes you know…”
The MIS team felt that this version of Sorry was so good and so different from the official single version, that we all posted our thoughts on the track. Our verdict was that THIS should be the version that saw release.
Next, we had some tourist news, as it was revealed that this week saw the release of a new tourist map of the British Isles featuring 200 of rock’s greatest locations. The new VisitBritain map was to provide a comprehensive guide for rock tourists including obvious locations such as the zebra crossing on Abbey Road, the Oasis album cover of Berwick Street …and will also include Chalk Farm tube station as being the location for the cover of the Madness album Absolutely.
We were told that details of the map would feature on visitbritain.com (when they could next be bothered to update the site!)
The Daily Express Saturday Magazine was our next port of call, as we featured an interview they conducted with Suggs for publication in their 3rd February issue.
In the interview Suggs answered questions on a possible third series of Disappearing London, hosting Suggs’ Party Classics, the best place for afternoon tea in the capital, and much more. It proved to be an interesting and light-hearted read.
It was over to Chris Carter-Pegg next, as he was here with the release details for the next Madness single – Sorry. Due for release on the 5th of March, it would be distributed by Vital and on Lucky 7 Records.
We kept Chris on for the following article, where he broke the news that an announcement was to be made for a series of massive concerts across the world on 7th July 2007, intended to be bigger than Live Aid with an intended audience of 2 billion, to raise awareness of climate change.
On the basis that one of these concerts was to be hosted in London, Chris felt it extremely unlikely that ITB would be wanting to promote a Madstock for the same day.
We brought this issue to a close with a stack of “Sorry” reviews from a stream of web sites and music publications. If you wanted to know what the music press thought of the forthcoming single, this was the section for you.
15 years ago…
Issue 144 – Sunday 10th February – Saturday 16th February 2002
We started off this issue with news in from Chris Carter-Pegg, who highlighted an article which originally appeared in the Metro newspaper relating to artists who had yet to collect their royalties for previous performances.
The report mentioned that even those who have so much as played a triangle in the background on a hit track could be in line for a share of the £10million of royalties that still lies uncollected.
One such artist still to collect his royalty payment was a certain Michael Caine, who still hadn’t picked up his earnings after his voice was used in Madness’ 1984 hit ‘Michael Caine’!
The big news flash this week was undoubtedly the news that top fanzine Madness Unsugged was back, after a year long hiatus, with issue 6. This latest issue turned out to be yet another cracker.
While he wasn’t performing or recording with the rest of the band, Suggs could often be found providing voice-overs for numerous TV and radio commercials. Thanks to the efforts of MIS subscriber, Andy Carlisle fans could now download a selection of Suggs voice overs, for there own (and possibly bizarre!) listening pleasure.
We finished off this week’s issue with a lowdown of all the gigs Madness tribute outfit, Complete Madness had planned for the rest of February.
Rob Hazelby
DANCE CRAZE SCREENINGS
Two exclusive screenings of 2Tone’s legendary film at The London International Ska Festival 2017
13 April – Prince Charles cinema, Leicester Sq
Screened from film cinematographer Joe Dunton’s own 70mm copy!
16 April – Islington Assembly Hall (gig screening)
+ Rhoda Dakar, Phoenix City All-stars (Dexys set), The Equators and more tba!
Tickets selling fast at www.buytickets.at/hotshotscorcher
TIME…
That’s almost it for this week’s edition of the MIS, but before we go there are a couple of last minute bits we want to fire in your general direction.
First-up, and if you’ve rushed on past our gig section you may not have noticed a date correction for an upcoming Silencerz gig. We’d previously listed their 100 Club booking as being on the 22nd June. It should have read 22nd July! Our thanks go to Adrian Beeforth for pointing this one out.
We can now also reveal that the MIS DJs at this event will include the return of Swanny on the decks! All profits will go to the Specialized Charity. See you there!
And finally…
You may be interested to learn that David Rodigan has returned to BBC Radio 2 with a new show for the winter season.
Here’s the BBC blurb;
“Reggae legend David Rodigan returns to Radio 2, bringing a spot of Jamaican sunshine to the cold British nights. Showcasing his love for all types of reggae music David will have an hour of classic roots, ska and reggae music from the ’60s to the present day. Expect to hear a carefully selected a mix of evergreen classics and glorious obscurities to brighten up your Monday evenings.
In this first show of seven David charts the evolution of Jamaican music from Ska to Rocksteady with records from Jimmy Cliff, Prince Buster, Alton Ellis, John Holt and many more.”
We’ve listened to and really enjoyed the first show. The selection of tunes is first-rate, and David’s passion is infectious.
For more information, and a chance to “Listen Again”, pop along to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012rw60
Until next week, take care!
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Adrian Beeforth)
The Author
