Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 931 – Sunday 12th March to Saturday 18th March 2017
Hello, and a very warm welcome to this week’s edition of the MIS Online newsletter.
News in from Stav, over in The Invaders group is that a House of Common poster near Camden’s Roundhouse shows legendary hip hop group “De La Soul” as appearing on the bill at this year’s one day festival in August.
This poster has been produced in a rather trippy and differs slightly to the usual House of Common design. It’a certainly been designed to catch the eye of people going to The roundhouse this weekend where De La Soul were playing. Naturally, it lists Madness and also David Rodigan, who this year will be headlining his own stage.
On to gig news, and we have news of the first sold-out gig of the forthcoming Australian tour. Tickets for the Monday 10th April date at the Fremantle Arts Centre in Perth have now all been snapped-up. If you were planning to attend the gig but weren’t able to get a ticket before they’d all gone you’ll be pleased to learn that a second Fremantle date has been added for the following day (Tuesday 11th April).
Suggs will also be keeping himself busy in Australia, as when he’s not gigging with the band he’ll be taking his “One Man Show” on the road. You can catch the show on the following dates and venues:
Thursday 20th April – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Saturday 22nd April – Astor Theatre, Perth
Monday 24th April – Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
With a new gig date and three “One Man Shows” added to the tour down under, the band’s Australian visit is really starting to turn into something special! Get booking those tickets!
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 ** Sold Out **
Tuesday 11th – Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Australia ** New **
Thursday 13th – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia
Saturday 15th – Hordern Pavillion, Sydney, Australia
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/
Saturday 19th – V Festival, Hylands Park
Sunday 20th – V Festival, Weston Park
Friday 25th – Portsmouth – Victorious Festival Opening Party
https://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk/buy-tickets/
Monday 28th – House of Common, Clapham ** Tickets now on sale! ** More info here: http://www.madness.co.uk/houseofcommon/
November 2017
17th – 20th November – The House of Fun Weekender – Minehead
Suggs – My Life Story – Australian Performances
Thursday 20th April – Enmore Theatre, Sydney ** New **
Saturday 22nd April – Astor Theatre, Perth ** New **
Monday 24th April – Comedy Theatre, Melbourne ** New **
The Silencerz
Saturday 1st April – The Bull Theatre
Friday 23rd June – Mill Hill Festival
Saturday 22nd July – The 100 Club. Featuring Lee Thompson with support from The Skapones and MIS DJs
CLANG
Friday 14th April (Good Friday Bank Holiday) – The Islington, London
Voice of the Beehive
Saturday October 7th, Indie Daze. All Dayer from 1pm. Kentish Town Forum. NW5 London
http://louderthanwar.com/shop/tickets-2/indie-daze-4-festival/
Near Jazz Experience
Tuesday 14th March – The NJE + Support + DJ @The Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT – 8.30pm, free entry ** New **
BUY IT
Madness – New Album – You Can’t Touch Us Now
** Out Now! **
16 Track CD, 12 Track Vinyl
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…
Madness Frontman Suggs Announces ‘My Life Story In Words & Music’ Shows (In Australia)
In town for Bluesfest this year, frontman of English ska legends Madness, Suggs, is filling out his schedule with some one-man-shows this April.
The ‘Suggs: My Life Story In Words & Music’ shows are partly stand-up, partly-theatre, partly-music and partly-whatever he damn well pleases, with Suggs looking back on his life in a hilarious yet touching set of shows.
With “musical accompaniment and uncalled for interjection from Deano his loyal manservant-cum-pianist” (as the press release states), Suggs will be heading to Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.
MIS FEATURE – MIS – ME, MADNESS AND I
Grammy Award winning group De La Soul, Are heading to The Common, with a full live band, following the release of their latest album And The Anonymous Nobody.
And The Anonymous Nobody, the group’s first album in 12 years, features contributions from Damon Albarn, David Byrne, Little Dragon, Snoop Dogg, 2 Chainz, Usher, Estelle, Jill Scott and more.
De La Soul is an American hip hop trip formed in 1987 on Long Island New York. The group is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop a ubgenres. The members are Posdnuos, Dave and Maseo. The three formed the group in high school. With its playful wordplay, innovative sampling, and witty skits, the band’s debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, has been called “a hip hop masterpiece.
The album that saw the group spread a message of peace and love. Second album De La Soul Is Dead, released in 1991 was a much darker album, featuring skits that criticised the direction that hip hop was heading at the time.
Buhloone Mindstate(1993) and Stakes Is High (1996) saw the group evolve a new sound and cement their position as mainstays of the alternative hip hop movement.
Four years later, De La Soul announced that they would release a triple album series entitled Art Official Intelligence (or AOI). All three albums were intended to be released within a year, beginning with the release ofArt Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump. This was followed by AOI: Bionix in late 2001.
In 2004, De La Soul released a new full album, The Grind Date on Sanctuary Records. Although it was not the new AOIalbum their fans had been anticipating, it was released to some critical acclaim and was well received by most fans. The album also receives recognition for being the seventh studio album from the group.
In 2005, they were featured on the Gorillaz single, ‘Feel Good Inc.’, which won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration.
Wikipedia/Band Biography
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 670 – Sunday 11th March – Saturday 17th March 2012
We’d been spending the week running up to this issue either counting up all the submissions to the previous issue’s Forver Young competition or putting the finishing touches to the new, all singing, all dancing MIS web site.
The site sported a sleek dark look, and swapped the old style layout to a more blog and tweet based format. It was hoped that this new setup would enable those visiting to access the latest nutty news quicker than before.
According to web site maintainer, Simon Roberts;
“The old web site was ill. It’s been sent to bed with some cough mixture and Vic’s rubbed on it’s chest”.
The old web site served fans well for years, but things move quickly on the internet, and so Simon decided it was time to start beavering away on his next creation.
Next, it was on to Suggs as we reviewed a rather wonderful DVD that featuresd two unique and rare renditions from the great man (and a short interview), as well as many more delights, including the opportunity to get to hear Suggs’ Mum singing in Soho.
The DVD and concert were the brainchild of Suggs Mother Eddi McPherson and two of her leading socialite friends in soho, a joint effort to raise money for children in both Africa and at the local soho parish school. The three soho ladies roped in TV star Stephen Tomkinson to present the DVD and evening, and Lisa Stansfield and David Mcalmont also sing, alongside some great vocal Soho based performers.
With Clifford Slapper present on the piano it was clear that this secret concert was the 1st step on the road to Suggs as a Solo performer playing in his current style of jazz club inspired bare essentials that had wowed audiences across the UK the year in a near sell out.
The reason this DVD was a delight, was the inclusion of as unique cover version of Jimmy Cliff’s – Many Rivers to Cross, which opened the DVD.
Suggs’ performance was laid back but masterful on a sweet song that was full of hope during times of trouble.
With a mere 14 days until the first Mexican Madmeet the organisers were getting more and more excited. At the time of typing over 50 people had confirmed their attendance to the event via Facebook. Impressive!
We continued with Suggs for our next article, as we reported that he’d be appearing in a series of short BBC films about London’s history. Entitled “Sounds of London”, the programmes were due to air in the run-up to the forthcoming Olympics on the 21st June.
This issue drew to a close with details of those who were lucky enough to win our Forever Young – The Ska Collection competition, courtesy of Union Square who were kind enough to donate the prizes.
The lucky winners were as follows:
Shaun Kelley
and
Colin Hinchley
10 years ago…
Issue number 410 – Sunday 11th March to Saturday 17th March 2007
According to eFestivals website and Teletext’s Planet Sound, Madness were booked to play at Glastonbury, Bestival (Isle of the wight Festival in September) as well as headlining Guilfest, as part of a tour that would also include five nights at London’s Hackney Empire.
Suggs told Teletext;
“We hope the new album will be ready in time to put out there when we start touring. It’s looking like it might be close, but either way the gigs will be great.”
Guilfest would take place at Stoke Park, Guildford from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th July.
The first official announcement was expected in the next month or so. Despite the above quote, the websites of Glastonbury, Guilfest, Bestival and the Hackney Empire still remained without news of any gigs and no tickets were yet on sale.
We promised to keep a close eye on this and see what developed over the coming weeks.
On to the articles, and we kicked off with news that Madness would be playing at the Clapham Grand, Clapham, on Wednesday 28th March.
Unfortunately, tickets had no gone for this old time music hall style event, and you were advised to join the reserve list.
The chance of you getting along to this if you didn’t already have a ticket? Minimal.
Next, and with numerous versions of “Sorry” now doing the rounds, we decided it was time to take a look at all of them and give you some brief background information behind each.
The only version we were unable to review was one we were given the heads-up on by Chris Carter-Pegg. Chris revealed that there was a one track Langer and Winstanley mix doing the rounds. How it differed from the other mixes doing the rounds we weren’t able to say.
Moving on, and earlier this week Suggs, when interviewed, spoke about the possibility of the Glastonbury festival appearance happening. This was still filled with a vague uncertainty. Teletext re-mentioned the rumour as fact and the official Glastonbury website still claimed no line up would be confirmed before April 1st when tickets were due to go on sale.
We continued with the Suggs coverage for our next article, as we reported that Suggs was the latest addition to what was shaping up to be a monumental live event.
The renowned club night Guilty Pleasures, was being staged at London’s Hackney Empire later in the month, with artists backed by a 40-piece BBC Concert Orchestra.
Artists including The Magic Numbers, The Specials’ Terry Hall, Les McKeown, Chas’N’Dave, Bananarama’s Siobhan Fahey, Cerys Mathews and Ed Harcourt were due to sign the classic 70s, 80s and 90s songs that had made Guilty Pleasures such a successful nightclub. More artists for the one-off event were still to be announced.
It was interview time next, as we featured a huge transcript of an interview with Suggs, taken from a recent ILikeMusic.com article which we’d, umm, borrowed from them. The interview focussed on the recently released ‘Sorry’ single, and Suggs explained how this song came to be.
Some amusement now, and you may remember a few weeks back where we ran a story that originated on Brian May’s blog, and then appeared on internet sites and in tabloid papers, reporting on a comment he had made about Suggs. Mr May of Queen fame, expressed his disappointment about the unoriginality of a joke Suggs made about his hair, when introducing him during the music production awards.
Feeling that the press exposure of the comment had made a bigger issue out of the incident, he recently added the below to his webblog…
“A consequence of Brianmay.com getting into the papers has been that the Suggs thing has got blown out of all proportion, through being quoted out of context.
So, Mr. Suggs, I apologise for this. The original comment was only on the spur of the moment, and meant to be tongue-in-cheek anyway.
I’m sure most of my ‘readers’ understood that perfectly, although those strange journalist people seem to have mis-read me as ‘furious’. Maybe their misunderstanding was on purpose, because it made better press, or maybe they just don’t know me.
Anyway, I had a moment of discomfort that night, but it’s nothing important. It was not an easy job that you did, compering that event, with nobody really listening! And you did it well.
I fully understand that it’s not that easy to stand up there and be witty about everything, all night. And what a great oeuvre you are responsible for The Madness catalogue of hits and live shows is something unique, totally and definitively British, and full of innovation.
I salute you! And the other Madness guys. There are certainly no hard feelings here, and I hope you will forgive me for inadvertently dragging you into the tabloids. It will not happen again.”
It was back to the subject of Glastonbury next, as we featured an article from the Virtual Festivals web site, where they mentioned in their interview with Suggs, that they’d heard that Madness would be performing at this year’s World famous music festival. Suggs replied that he believed so, and that it the last time they played there was way back in 1986.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that you could catch Spider and Tad of Crunch game in their Dubweiser guise at the Mau Mau Bar, 265 Portebello Road, on Friday 16th March.
15 years ago…
Issue number 148 – Sunday 10th March to Saturday 16th March 2002
We started off this issue with an apology. The MIS Gremlins had decided to make an appearance, resulting in the previous issue failing to make it’s usual Sunday night landing in the mailbox of any subscriber. (Thankfully the problem was resolved, and the issue went out on Monday evening instead).
News in from Liz Maher informed us that;
“‘Driving In My Car’ was used for the Club Singing Round on Shooting Stars with Vic and Bob on BBC Choice last night (Sunday 3rd March). It sounded nothing like the original when it was first sung to Damon Hill. Nobody guessed it (not even me)! Then it was sung a second time and sounded more comprehensible, complete with ‘beeps’ and ‘honks’ between the lines”.
Other news was that Like Father, Like Son were in the middle of recording for a new project. The band were spotted in the studio with non other than John Hasler, who we reported had been spotted at a recent gig.
This coming week also saw the launch of the BBC’s new digital radio station, 6 Music (has it really been going that long?!). Phil Jupitus was given the task of being the opening presenter, and Suggs had been lined up as one of the station’s other presenters.
Elsewhere in the issue we covered a large story on MIS subscriber John Thorpe, who had been working on a new Madness book. It certainly sounded promising, but to date it has yet to appear.
The biggest item of news this issue was the announcement that Madness would return for three live shows. The band were strongly rumoured to be performing for three nights on the 18th, 19th and 20th April at the Heineken Music Night, Rotterdam. The rumours became cold, hard fact when a certain Mr Smash took time out to confirm that the band would indeed be performing. Naturally, our Dutch subscribers quickly snapped up tickets.
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
THAT FACEBOOOK / TWEETS OF A DOVE
Mark Bedford @I_be_MarkB
“Did you know: Spotify are thinking of releasing a version for teenagers called Spotiface?”
TIME…
That’s just about it for this week’s edition of the MIS.
If you’re planning to catch Madness during one of their Australian gigs and have yet to purchase a ticket then please don’t delay. We’ve already seen one of the Fremantle Arts Centre gigs sell out and we’re certain others will follow soon.
And finally…
We’re still really enjoying David Rodigan’s current Radio 2 series covering Ska, Rocksteady and Reggae, and urge you to take a listen if you’ve not already done so. The show airs on Monday evenings and previous episodes can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012rw60/episodes/player
Enjoy the show.
Until next week, have a good one!
The Author
