Hello, and a very warm welcome to this week’s issue of the MIS.

We kick off this edition with some important news for those of you attending the Ally Pally concert on September 28th.

If you’re planning to be in London earlier than the event you now have an opportunity to register at Madness.co.uk and be involved in a video re-creation event the band are playing. The band need your involvement, so the more people who attend the better.

The event starts at 3:00pm, and more information will be sent out to you once you register.

To be part of this one-off event you’ll need to point your web browser over to:

http://www.madness.co.uk/2013/08/05/be-a-part-of-something-mad-at-ally-pally/

Once this video session has finished the bars of the Ally Pall will open, and will be serving the legendary Gladness ale.

Get yourselves signed up now, and then get back here to continue the read.

Jon Young, Liz Hazelby, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts

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

August 31st, 2pm, Blackpool Lights Weekend

September 14th, Madness play Free at Applepop Holland.  21.25pm at The hoofdapodium – http://www.appelpop.nl/

September 15th Rockhal, Belval, Luxembourg
September 16th L’Olympia, Paris, France
September 22nd Northants CCC, UK
September 28th Alexandra Palace, London, UK

October 12th Esprit Arena, Duesseldorf, Germany

November 22nd – 25th House Of Fun Weekender, Minehead, UK

For tickets see links via: www.madness.co.uk

Suggs Live

Suggs My Life Story, the West End of London December Run.

http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/garrick-theatre/suggs_my_life_story_in_words_and_music

December 1st     – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.
December 8th     – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.
December 15th  – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.
December 22nd  – Garrick Theatre, London’s West End.

The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra

August 16th Belgium (Brussels Summer Fest)
August 25th Craig Charles Weekend, Bristol

September 7th, Meatopia, Wapping (www.meatopia.co.uk)

October 2nd Brighton, Concorde 2
October 3rd Cardiff, Globe
October 4th St Albans, Arena
October 5th Norwich, Waterfront
October 18th Ipswich, Corn Exchange
October 25th Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
October 31st (Halloween)  Jazz Cafe, Camden Town.

November 8th, headlining the Friday of Specialized, The Big One 2, Parkdean, Sandford, Dorset

See ticket links via: www.ltso.mis-online.net

Deaf School

August 23rd  – Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
August 24th –  St Helens – The Citadel
August 25th – Aspatria, Cumbria – Solfest
August 26th – Liverpool, Sefton Park – Intl Music Festival

Thursday 24th October. Jazz Cafe, Camden Town.  Book launch gig

More info at: http://deafschoolmusic.com

BUY IT NOW

If money’s currently burning a hole in your pocket then perhaps we can help with your dilemma.

The Liberty Of Norton Folgate – Reissue on Salvo

This edition is retailing at just over £5.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Liberty-Of-Norton-Folgate/dp/B00DB51OTM/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1

***NEW*** Pre-Order Available.
Take it or Leave it Re-release With Soundtrack CD

Following the sell-out of the Gogglebox box set, the Madness movie has been sadly unavailable. From October 7th it’s back, thanks to those lovely people at Salvo sound and vision.

This is being re-released for the first time with a nearly complete soundtrack CD of all the tracks from the movie, including a couple of old rock and roll numbers by the original artists. Namely Fat’s Domino, and The Four Tops, along with all of  Madness’s tracks which are heard throughout the movie.

There’s new packaging for this re-release which will be available from music stores and online outlets, for under a tenner. This release also and contains a booklet containing information about the film.

Tracklisting of the CD.

1. Don’t Quote Me On That – Madness
2. The Business – Madness
3. I’m Walkin’ – Fats Domino
4. On The Beat Pete – Madness
5. Don’t Look Back – Madness
6. Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops
7. Embarrassment – Madness
8. Mistakes – Madness
9. That’s The Way To Do It – Madness
10. Rocking In Ab – Madness
11. Day On The Town – Madness
12. Swan Lake – Madness
13. In The Middle Of The Night – Madness
14. Razor Blade Alley – Madness
15. Madness – Madness
16. Steppin’ Into Line – Madness
17. Night Boat To Cairo – Madness
18. Sign Of the Times – Madness
19. Solid Gone – Madness
20. One Step Beyond… – Madness
21. Bed & Breakfast Man – Madness
22. The Prince – Madness
23. Baggy Trousers – Madness
24. Grey Day – Madness
25. My Girl – Madness
26. Take It Or Leave It Madness

The more observant of you will notice that unfortunately See you Later Alligator doesn’t feature, and Sunshine Voice has also failed to surface from the Madness archives.

We understand the compilation will be celebrated with an event screening at The House of Fun Weekender later this year.

New Madness T-Shirts

A conga line “One Step Beyond” T-shirt, a blue nutty train, and hearts “It Must be Love” design are new to the Mad shop.

http://madness.mamstore.co.uk/

*** New *** Mad Not Mad Fanzine – Summer 2013 Edition

Reviewed in last week’s edition of the MIS, this latest edition of Ian Taylor’s Madness/Ska-zine spans a whopping 70 plus pages and features a CD covermount in the form of “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”, by Too Many Crooks.

Priced at a mere £5 delivered (for UK readers. Those oversees will need to check), this is amazing value for money and is absolutely bursting with content.

For order enquiries and more information, you can contact Ian Taylor of Mad Not Mad at bige70@blueyonder.co.uk

Hopefully, the bigger response Ian gets the less of a wait we’ll have until the next issue surfaces!

MIS FEATURE

Woody Interview – Koast Train – 19th June 2013

GS: Mr Woody Woodgate, how’re you doin?’

WW: Very good, how are you?

GS: I can hear you comin’ through loud and clear, welcome aboard The Koast Train!

WW: The Ghost Train?  I’m not aboard that, I’m at home in my lovely garden!

GS: Is it nice and sunny down there?

WW: Well it’s clouded over, because we’re in the South East and expecting thunderstorms soon but it’s still nice and warm.

GS: Do you know why it’s clouded over?

WW: Why is that?

GS: Because I’m flying down there on Fri and I’m going off to Ascot for a day at the races.  It’s gonna lash it down isn’t it?

WW: Of course it is, you’re gonna bring the clouds with you, I’m sure it’s not always like that is it……come on.

GS: The weather forecast’s been wrong before, John Kettley used to cock it up.

WW: That’s true, yeah, they all did didn’t they?

GS: Certainly, anyway, thanks for coming on the show, we’ve got loads of listeners tuned in with loads of questions for you, so you’re gonna be with us for the next three hours by the sounds of it…..

WW: (laughs) Three hours?!  That’s way past my bedtime!

GS: Well Thommo managed to keep going for an hour the other week so….there’s loads of stuff to get through but I really want to pick up tonight on the Magic Brothers.  It’s important that we start to get that message across, but we’ll also have a chat about all things Madness as well.

WW: Lovely, Garry.

(Woody wishes one of the listeners a Happy Birthday and then talks about his days running marathons)

GS: Okay, thanks again to Jonathan Young for preparing all this….

WW: Oh yeah, he’s a good man…..

GS: Yeah, he’s a good friend to me.  I have to share a room with him every year at the House of Fun and bloody hell he snores….

WW: (laughs)

GS: What was the first drummer that inspired you?

WW: Well, when I was growing up, I liked all the really flash drummers.  You know the really mad ones, like Billy Cobham and Narada Michael Walden, you know these way out drummers that all played with people like John McLoughlin.  Billy Cobham had a solo album and if they had an album with a million drums, I used to love them, especially if they were really flash.  But I changed my tastes over the years, I did love Simon Kirk who played with Bad Company.  There was something just lovely about him, I dunno, it was just simple but I began to like simpler drummers, the older I got, because I realised just how bloody hard it was to do!

It’s actually easier to go manic and go berserk all over the drumkit.  You know, like Keith Moon, as fine a drummer as he was, I think there are some finer components of the drumming art than him.

GS: (laughs) He had some assistance…..

WW: Yeah!  He certainly didn’t bother about playing it straight did he….

GS: On the subject of drumming, what’s the hardest Madness track to drum on, you know, what do you absolutely dread coming up?

WW: Well ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’ was really hard, it was a nightmare because Mike Barson taught me how to play that beat.  If you listen to ‘Tomorrow’s Just Another Day’, that beat is the same as ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’.  If you’re left-handed you’ve got to start with your right hand, and it’s really complicated.  Clive Langer actually said that it was a beat that was originally played by the Bay City Rollers’ ‘Bye Bye Baby’ which is a bit of an interesting one.

There you go, you see, it’s those beats that really did my head in but nowadays it doesn’t bother me.  I would absolutely dread to do some of the kind of off-the-wall tracks like that song off ‘Rise and Fall’.  What’s that instrumental track that’s really out there?  Oh, I can’t bloody remember now!

(Garry goes off to look at the track listing for the album)

WW: Yeah, because they’re actually really complicated.  ‘Sunday Morning’, the one that I wrote, oh my goodness, that’s a killer!  We tried to get more and more complicated, people have said ‘oh why don’t you do what Sparks did and play all your albums’ and you’re going ‘yeah right, I’ve gotta learn them first!’  We stitched ourselves right up on some of those songs.

GS: You mentioned Sparks there, they’re actually friends of the show.  We had the original drummer on Harley Feinstein about six or seven weeks ago and he’s kept in touch with us ever since.  They were in London and he did a bit of work in Soho with Nicky Forbes from The Rezillos, another drummer and they formed a small band called Crash 74, with Steve Strange playing and that seemed to go down well.  This show attracts drummers, I don’t know what it is….

WW: I don’t know whether that’s a compliment or whether I should be slightly alarmed actually…..

GS: Anyway, here’s another question, Madness have just launched Gladness, a lager ale and it’s said that half the band love lager and half the band like ale, but you’re not drinking now are you?

WW: No, I don’t drink!  It’s just a lifestyle choice of mine, I just decided I can’t drink.  I mean I can’t have one, so I might as well have none.  One is too many and ten is not enough.  The beer looks great, I have to say but we wanted it to be a really good quality product.  But I mean it is a beer with some lager bits in it.  The band worked on it for a very long time, you know, a lot of tasting, and got it to the majority of the band’s taste.  It’s a serious business getting the beer right, Mike Barson said he took it home and drank it over a couple of weeks, just because he said you can really get bored of a beer or lager after a while and he said he genuinely likes it so there’s a test really.  The look of the beer’s good, you know, artwork wise.

GS: The profile looks absolutely tremendous and the brewery’s done really well.  I’m sure there’ll be a few hangovers as a result of it……..

WW: You don’t have to drink that much!

GS: Anyway, you’ve just entered onto Facebook ‘cos Steve Farthing of the Madchat page has just been asking how you’re enjoying the social network experience…..

WW: It’s kind of nice because I’m meeting some really genuinely lovely people and some people take it far too seriously and you know that’s their thing, but I just try to engage when I can.  Sometimes, it’s difficult to break away, because I like to nip in, say hello, answer as many people as I possibly can and then get on with my life.  Sometimes, you feel like you’re offending people by only quickly answering but I’ve just got to get used to it.  I suppose people have got to get used to me, and I mean well, I don’t want to offend anyone on Facebook…..

GS: I don’t think anyone takes it that way Woody, to be honest with you, they all realise you’re gonna be absolutely bombarded with the private message thing at the bottom of the screen and before you know it your computer’s going ‘what the hell’s going on?’

WW: Yeah well, I mean every ‘like’ that I do is genuine from me and you know I get a load of ‘thanks for adding me Woody’ and I put a thumbs up because I’m quite renowned for putting my thumb up.  I’ve noticed I do it in all the photographs which is really mad.  I also like Twitter as well, that’s a good little gang of people on there.

GS: Okay, let’s have a look at some of the bands you’ve been in.  I’ll reel them off, Madness, Starvation, Dangermen, FAT, Voice of the Beehive, Camden Cowboys, is there anything else I’ve missed off there?

WW: Bedders and I did a little session for Strawberry Switchblade and also there was a chap from Soft Machine called David Bedford that actually did the string arrangements for classics like ‘It Must Be Love’.  He had a mad synthesizer project going on and Mark and I went along and did a session for him as well.

GS: Oh and Steel Erection!

WW: God yeah, how could we forget my first band!  The band I put together with my brother and a very good mate of Nick’s called Johnny Croucher and Steve Bartlett.  We did covers like ‘Long Train Running’, ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, things like that.  We wrote a few of our own songs, there was a classic song called ‘Bartlett Bass’ I remember, because Steve came up with a great bassline.  When you’re 14, you do the craziest things!

GS: Yeah, they’re the best days in life, when you’re a young lad but Madness are gonna go on forever, I mean we’re gonna have to dig you up to do a gig…..

WW: Well look at the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts is a fantastic drummer and still as fit as a fiddle, you know the saying, a band is only as good as the drummer so I suppose as long as I stay fit and healthy, we should do alright!

GS: Right, favourite tracks from ‘Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da’?

WW: My favourite track, well I’m very proud of ‘Leon’ and ‘Small World’, they came out really well.  I wasn’t even expecting ‘Small World’ to come out on the album but people seem to like it.  There are some classics on the album, I love some of Carl’s songs, like ‘Misery’.  What is good about the album is that we’re not shying away from archetypal Madness tracks, we are what we are and I think that’s one of our great strengths really, to be able to say ‘this is what we do’ and we do it very well!

GS: What’s your general format for songwriting, is it like a ‘lock yourself away in the cupboard’ or you do it with other people around you, or is it just a flash of inspiration, a dream that happens?

WW: Talking about Madness, it’s every combination you can think of, people bringing in music, lyrics, two people who have already collaborated on a song bringing it in.  You name it, any collaboration of songwriting and Madness do it, but for me personally, it was always lock myself in a room and come up with music because I wasn’t a great lyricist.  You then hope that a band member picks up the tune and writes lyrics to it.  What has happened over the years is that people like Lee, who has been absolutely brilliant in the past, being very generous with my songs, giving them the time.  That’s why most of the songs I’ve written have been with Lee because he actually gets inspired by my music and comes up with mad lyrics.  More recently though I thought I could actually do this myself and my brother’s given me a lot of confidence, Nick sends me songs and I get inspired by them and we work 50/50, the combination continues there.  We do both music and lyrics.

GS: There’s a track on the Magic Brothers album called ‘Part 2’, what happened to ‘Part 1’?

WW: Well ‘Part 1’ Nick released by himself on an album he did years ago and I always loved it so what we did was take some of the elements, and Nick wrote some lovely lyrics about the two of us growing up, you know, playing football in the park and Dad coming home and things like that.  It had the same kind of structure as ‘Part 1’ but it was a different song.  We called it Magic Brothers ‘Part 2’ seeing as we’d written half and half of it.

GS: What’s your favourite track on ‘The Magic Line’?

WW: There are various tracks I really like, and I know you’re yet to hear it, any of you but that track in particular, ‘Part 2’ I think is really sentimental, it’s very emotional and I’m really attached to that.  ‘You Don’t Have to Hide Your Love Away’, which is all about someone who watches the world go by and has never ever been able to say sorry and pays the price for it by being alone.  If only she’d shown her love in her life then she wouldn’t have been left alone and miserable.  The one that I’m most proud of is the last track, ‘The Magic Line’ which is an orchestral journey and could be like the soundtrack of a Harry Potter film, but with drums and guitars.  It’s got loads of soundtracks of 1970’s railways and police sirens and slamming doors.  There’s a real atmosphere.

GS: House of Fun Weekend, have you been asked to do anything on there?

WW: If it looks possible to do, I’m sure we might do it but nothing’s been planned yet.  The line-up for that weekend is yet to be decided and we’re still working on it.  I think the answer to Magic Brothers live is never say never.  We’re putting together a band as we speak and trying to work out how we’re gonna play this really elaborate album, it’s so rich, it’s got everything in there.

GS: Well we’re gonna be abducting Jack’s Bar there on Sun night, MIS & Koast Radio, I’ll be doing a DJ set there and fooling around for a number of hours with the Madness fans.  If Magic Brothers are playing however, we’ll be cancelling all that……anyway, Jonathan Young has asked how nice has it been on the Friday to have the room to do something different with the setlists?

WW: It’s been very rewarding but there’s a hell of a lot of work that goes in to trying to get one show done.  People say to us ‘why don’t you do the first two albums’ and that’s all very well but we’ve got to learn them.  It takes quite an effort to remember them all, you know, apart from being old and not having very good brain cells anymore, it’s actually tougher than you think.  A hell of a lot of effort goes into that one show on the Fri.  You would like to take that Fri show on into other shows because you’ve put all that effort into it and then a song you’ve never played for years you might never do again.

(The interview then goes back to the track from Rise and Fall that Woody couldn’t remember earlier and ends up being ‘The Opium Eaters’ which was actually from the ‘Seven’ album)

GS: Right, back to Magic Brothers, ‘Tysea Hill’ is a track on the album, is that North Romford?

WW: I don’t know!  You know what, that’s one question I’ve really got to find out the answer to because I don’t know where Tysea Hill is, that’s a question for Nick, it might be a place he’s made up in his head.

GS: Beatles and Pink Floyd influences on the album?

WW: Yeah, I love Pink Floyd.

GS: What’s your favourite tracks from those two bands?

WW: Well the Beatles, I love the Abbey Road album, everything that’s on it really, ‘Here Comes the Sun’, absolutely beautiful, stunning.  Nick is very influenced by all those ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ that go on and he does a lot of it.  You’ll find a lot of that stuff in the Magic Brothers, the lovely harmonic backing vocals, oohing and aahing away.  Generally, with Pink Floyd, well ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ – classic and ‘Wish You Were Here’.  Nick’s solos often remind me of David Gilmour, in the style that he plays.

GS: Okay, here’s a good one, you slowed down ‘Baggy Trousers’ for the Kronenberg advert, but you’re a fan of faster rock music so which song do you think Madness should rock up for a one-off performance into the style of Foo Fighters or Chilli Peppers?

WW: Ooh I dunno, I mean can they handle it?  What you mean take an original Madness track and thrash it up?

GS: Yeah, let Chrissy Boy go on the distortion pedal and see what happens…

WW: That is a very tough question, what can we do?  I know, ‘Bed and Breakfast Man’, there you go, that’s almost there!

GS: Woody, before you go the Magic Brothers have a website don’t they?

WW: We do indeed, it’s www.magicbrothers.com and you’ll find free downloads, you’ll find out how to contact us on Twitter & Facebook and a contact page for anything a bit more personal that you want to know about.  We’re onto everything and try and keep up-to-date, we’re just about to get some merchandise, t-shirts and stuff which will be forthcoming to our fans.

The website is the centre of our universe really, because from there is a hub of every form of communication.

GS: So when will we expect to see the Magic Brothers’ album?

WW: It comes out on the 16th of September (this has now changed to the 30th) and we’re taking pre-orders in August.  We might just release a little bit more of a taster later on, just to get people’s juices flowing.

GS: Woody, from all the boys here and everyone listening online, thank you for coming along and having a chat with us, you’ve been fantastic.

Transcribed by Looby Loo

I REMEMBER WAY BACK WHEN

This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby, goes back 5 years to issue 484, and the week of Sunday 10th August to Saturday 16th August 2008, and then back 10 years to issue 222 and the week of Sunday 10th August to Saturday 16th August 2003.

5 years ago…

Issue 484 – Sunday 4th August to Saturday 16th August 2008

We had loads of Madness news for you this week, but surely what had to be THE big story of the past seven days was Madness’ performance at Newmarket with two thirds of the gig minus Mike, who was late back from his holidays.

The interesting thing is, while some of you were a little miffed regarding Mike’s absence, others out there commented on just how impressed they were that the rest of the band mucked-in, and managed to keep the show going despite being one man down.

Elsewhere subscriber Graham Whitfield reported on taking his five-year-old son Harry to his first Madness gig, when the two of them saw the band at Aintree, Doncaster.

“The only problem was, Harry insisted on sitting on my shoulders for two whole hours of solid jumping up and down at each gig, so that he got the best view. I’m visiting an osteopath on a weekly basis.”

It was over to Dance Brigade news next, as we reported that the band had been fortunate enough to be asked by photographer Jules Annan to take part in their first ever photoshoot at Little Dean Jail in Gloucester.

“Using the original scooters from the film QUADROPHENIA. The jail is now a museum run by Andy his hospitable wife Nicola and fabulous daughter Kirsty Jones and they spent the whole day looking after us all brilliantly. The museum houses some of the strangest things seen to man, it has memorabilia from the crime world, weird ancient animals some with two heads, some seriously horrific stuff, torture equipment, the list is endless.“

Following this we moved on to Dury news, as we gave you the lowdown on all dates for the new Ian Dury play The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury. Alongside the dates we were told that the show featured very strong language. Did we really expect anything else?

It was over to Jonathan Young and Jackie Read who kept the issue content flowing with their reviews of Chrissy Boy’s recent birthday party gig – AKA Newmarket.

“Set wise a good long clutch of expected hits, including Tomorrow’s Just another day. No grey day. Danger men’s Taller than you are and Iron shirt. Newer’s NW5, Forever Young, and Dust Devil”

We passed the issue over to Looby for the next part as she detailed the mass of recent updates to the In Print section of the Madness Trading Ring web site. Articles ranged from those published in early 1981 all the way up to April 2008. Someone or some people had certainly been busy!

Wristbands were the subject of our next article when Jonathan Young reported that the USB audio wristbands from the recent Newmarket gig would sadly be unavailable. The blame was put down to a technical error. A real shame, especially for those who had put up money upfront and now had to wait for a refund.

10 years ago…

Issue 222 – Sunday 10th August to Saturday 16th August 2003.

Continuing on from last week’s issue where we had a real drought of Madness related news, it was once again very slim pickings. However, although we had little to report on it hadn’t dried up totally.

We’re not sure how he did it, but MIS subscriber Graham Whitfield seemed to dig out Madness related news no matter what. This week he reported on the release of a new compilation album `One Step Beyond` and also on on Madness’ appearance on `Pop Years: 1980`.

This ‘One Step Beyond’ album contained a whopping 45 tracks, three from Madness, and numerous from The Specials, The Beat, The Selector, and more. At the time the RRP was £17.99. However, a number of online stockists were selling it at a more wallet friendly £12.99.

Mr. G returned with news of a string Edinburgh appearances by Madness/Bad Manners tribute outfit, `Badness`, and if that wasn’t enough, we also had news on Chris Foreman’s recent birthday, courtesy of Madness Trading Ring maintainer, Steve Bringe.

So, what was the news? Being the obvious Madness fans that they are, online music stockist eil.com offering a 10% discount on all orders for a limited time.

There were no hidden catches. The only criteria was that your order had to contain at least one item from the Madness back catalogue.

You couldn’t say fairer than that, could you?

Rob Hazelby

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Various articles that have caught our eye over the past week or so…

Young Madness fan goes ‘one step beyond’ by taking centre stage at gig

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/young-prestatyn-madness-fan-takes-5380411

A young  Madness fan went “one  step beyond” the barrier to dance on  stage with his favourite band.

Four-year-old Cai Roberts from Prestatyn even signed off the record-breaking gig at Haydock Park  by bidding goodnight to a  20,000-strong crowd.

Since then, the youngster has  whipped up a social media storm  after being tweeted about by funny  man, Johnny Vegas, who took a  shine to him and let him into the VIP  area.

Madness star Suggs launches Whitstable lifeboat’s 50th anniversary

http://www.canterburytimes.co.uk/Madness-star-Suggs-launches-Whitstable-lifeboat-s/story-19562106-detail/story.html

Suggs said the lifeboat was a key part of the town and should be supported.

He said: “My wife Anne’s family have lived in Whitstable for two generations so I know the area well and the great thing about the Whitstable RNLI is that it is a great reflection of the spirit of community as much as it is also about saving lives at sea.”

Night Fever to Return?

Noooooo! Don’t do it, Suggs!

Channel 5 considering Night Fever return

TWEETS OF A DOVE

Random wafflings from the Twittersphere, Facebook and Chris’ Cupboard…

Bedders.

Mark Tweeted an obscure list of 10 Madness tunes, choosing…

“Mistakes, The Perfect Place, All I Knew, Walking With Mr Wheeze, Prospects, Pac-a-Mac, Overdone, I’ll Compete, Behind the 8-ball… and, a new version of John Lennon’s, Oh My Love”

He also stated “Rise and Fall” as the most underrated track.

Mark stated that “Sunshine Voice” was recorded by the band, later on, and that he might add some more NJE grooves to his Bedders Junk Website.

Meanwhile, both Mark and Woody tweeted about Compressor Head, a Robot programmed band playing Ace of Spades.

“Looks like I’m redundant? Love the comment, ‘Bass player has no stage presence, very realistic!” Mark.

“Reminds me of my bass playing on the Young Ones” Woody

CHAS

“Since I have got back from the last show I have been having a bit of a much needed rest. Whilst live performance is my favourite part of being in Madness it certainly takes it out of me physically but I have to say the joy that I can see in the faces at shows makes it so worthwhile. I was seriously blown away at the amount of people who came to the shows. Quite a phenomenon. Thanks to all of you and you have made it an amazing summer. Be well and spread the joy x”

“Last night we played Brest in Brittany France. What an amazing night. the audience who seemed mostly in their teens and twenties were quite frankly incredible. So enthusiastic and up for the dance it really surprised me. The atmosphere was electric and happy faces beamed up at us from all round. What a night. Quite frankly stunned at the response. Thank you Brest. you rocked.”

CHRIS

In the Cupboard.

Just wondered what the VIP package included for the Blackpool gig on 31st Aug? See Tickets are advertising it for 3 times the price of the general admission but not stating what you actually get for the extra money…..? Do we get to see you all dancing around a pole backstage, or maybe an acoustic personal rendition of New York, New York by your good self?  Looby.

“Dear Looby
Hello there. I would avoid at all costs. Probably better seats, a meet n’ greet etc. I have not been asked to pole dance or otherwise. I live in hope, though.
CB”

Just wanted to say thank you from Cai. He had the best time on stage with you and Johnny Vegas at Haydock Park. One very happy 4 year old madness fan and a very proud nannie x  Sheena

“Dear Sheena
ah – so he was with you then? We nearly took him with us, to work on the T Shirt stall.
CB”

It was nice to hear a crisper guitar sound on the last album,  Nutty Toffee.

Dear Nuttytoffee
I was pleased but it should’ve been louder on “Circus Freaks”, though.
thanks, CB

Hi. Are there any old album tracks you’d like to play live more?

Dear Blarney

Yeah, I always moan about that. However, I always moan about everything. For example, “Lovestruck” I’d love to play that instead of say, “Bed and Breakfast Man”. It’s hard as a lot of people want to hear the old stuff. Recently we were playing “Death of a Rudeboy” as the first encore which I thought was great, a quite cool moody song that is new, very catchy and recognisable title, maybe some people will look it up online and hey! – buy the new album? It suddenly got dropped and we now just have “Madness” and “Night Boat”..
thanks, CB

Suggs

“Dear all, firstly thanks for hangin on. I have been finishing a book and dragging myself into the 23rd century. New wbsite etc coming very x”

TIME…

If you read the intro to this week’s issue (if not, do so now!) you may be wondering about what’s happening with the planned Dublin Castle Madmeet also planned for the same day as the Ally Pally gig.

Due to the official event now taking place the meet at the Dublin Castle will still take place but it will run for a much shorter length. We’ll still be starting the day’s festivities there from opening time, and will be lining up the jukebox with Madness tracks, along with a few tracks from The Magic Brotheres. Not only that, but we’ll also have a Magic Brothers album as a giveaway.

We’ll be leaving the DC around 1pm (we did say that this would now be a short visit!), and making our way to the Ally Pally as a gladness march of mad fans, ready to join the ranks of fans for the announced video event. See you there

And finally, if you’ve not done so already, get yourselves over to www.madness.co.uk where the band have not only recently re-vamped the web site, but they’ve also started a “Chance to Win 52 Bottles of Gladness” competition. Entry is free, and all you need to do is submit your name, email address and telephone number.

Good luck!

Until next week, take care,

Simon Roberts, Jon Young, Liz Hazelby, Rob Hazelby

(With thanks to Looby Loo)