Hello and welcome to this week’s issue of the MIS. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin with this tale of a certain Mr. Woodgate, as our favourite drummer releases his first solo single (beyond previously appearing under group names).
Woody Woodgate – In your Mind
http://youtu.be/xwOoSQdDtNw
Share and repost this new video if you like Woody’s solo debut single featuring Dan Shears on Vocals. But first, hear the music in your mind, in this video that features animation influences ranging from Monty Python, Yellow Submarine, Peter Gabriel’s Sledge Hammer, 70’s superman movies, Nutty Madness Videos, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, to John Hurt as the storyteller & Jackanory. The sounds feel Lightning Seeds to our ear, but probably have a more 70’s ELO era influence common to both.
Woody told us this week that the “tyre” moment was copying something in a previous video by the same director where a girl and a basketball are seen in a shot, but Woody’s version is somewhat a twist on that. Check it out.
The Single is available at Amazon to download and on iTunes.
You can buy the track here…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-Your-Mind/dp/B00YICU1C8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1433759154&sr=8-4&keywords=in+your+mind+woody
The track & video garnered a lot of positive reviews online…
“Dan Fossard Great video. Love the comedy tyre bouncing!”
“Steve Farthing Great animation! I love the video and the song”
“Paul Gunton Cool song Woody madness should do a video like this I miss your fun videos”
The above are just a few of the comments we’ve seen. The ending of the video caused Meganffonso to ask. “Oh, and which one are you? Eric or Ernie..?!”
“Eric?”, replied Woody.
The debut album will follow in about three weeks time.
Enjoy the read of the rest of this week’s news, and also check out the new website we are launching this weekend. There are more details in our feature below.
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
2015
GRANDSLAM
“Sporting theatres jumping with joy is the goal. Grandslam Madness – the greatest open air tour in the history of Rock & Roll…”
June
26 – Newmarket Racecourses
27 – Doncaster Racecourse
28 – Hove, Sussex County Cricket Club
July
2 – Silverstone Circuit
3 – St Helens, Haydock Park Racecourse
4 – Carlisle Racecourse
5 – Montrose, East Links, Scotland
9 – Epsom Downs Racecourse
10 – Chepstow Racecourse
11 – Rhyll Outdoor Events Arena
September
6 – Gibraltar Festival
11 – Canterbury, Kent County Cricket Club
12 – Bristol, Gloucester County Cricket Club
13 – London, On Blackheath
18 – Leeds, Yorkshire County Cricket Club
19th Newbury Racecourse.
25 – Wolverhampton
26 – Chester-le-Street, Durham County Cricket Club

November 2015
November 20th – 23rd 2014 – Minehead – The House Of Fun Weekender Five
Early bird tickets on sale now
http://www.bigweekends.com/the-weekends/specialist-music-weekends/madness-house-of-fun-weekender.aspx#ico=OB_Madness

Near Jazz Experience
June
16th – NEAR JAZZ EXPERIENCE + Bad Cats Blues + DJ Set
Indo 133 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT *Free* 8.30pm BST
Visit: https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience

July
**NEW** 17th – NEAR JAZZ, LOUIS VAUSE, WENDY MAY DJ – Kino Theatre South Leonards at Sea, Sussex
http://kino-teatr.co.uk/index.php/event/near-jazz-experience-aftershave-louis-vause-and-wendy-may-dj/#.VXy5BpVFDIW

The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
July
24th Llangollen Town Hall, Denbrighshire, Wales (Fringe Festival Event)
August
1st The Garage Highbury, London

Cathal Smyth
More events coming. Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July could be joining the “Other Voice” section of the festival.
Other dates in October and Dublin are future plans. No confirmed dates yet.

Deaf School
September
5th – Bingley Music Festival (Headlining Stage 2)

The Clang Group
19 June – The Islington, London N1

The Silencerz
August 15th – Chados Arms, Colindale 8pm

BUY IT
The Grandslam Sporting Tour Programme
Once again Gavin Martin, a vetran of writing Madness Tour Programmes steps up to the podium in first place when it comes to delivering a quality item.
Like the tour itself the Grandslam Programme takes inspiration from the world of sport, and the easy to hold A5ish sized glossy booklet compiled by “Talking Music Revolutions” this year resembles the kind of programmes you get at Football stadiums. Decked in the green theme of the tour, the massive amounts of inside writing starts with an amusing piece by a fictional groundskeeper of the event you are attending, in tone like that of a slightly disgruntled parkie.
A four page chat with Suggs, begins in general, before venue specific questions are asked. Each of the six band members are graphically made superimposed as sporting heros in great artwork in with the booklet, over double page spreads, interviewing them with a plethora of match stats like statistic on life, and both music and sporting opinions. There are some amusing photoshop jobs too that we wont spoil but they are a must see. Clive Langer appears via the photo back drop shots of last years Mad Head tour. A number of parents proudly get their little wonders into a Mascot corner (Well done to Kev Crowther, Carol Escate, and Sheena Robert and families to name just three there.) While all the current solo albums, Chas, Woody, and forthcoming LTSO are all give a shout out advert. All this comes at the price of £5 that’s the kind of value Stirling Moss would approve of, or George Best raise a pint of Gladness to. It gets the MIS trophy of best conceptual design layout.

The Grandslam Tour T-Shirt
http://madness.sandbaghq.com/
The Grandslam is now well and truly underway, and you can get the latest official Madness T-shirt here…
http://madness.sandbaghq.com/home/charcoal-grandslam-t-shirt-online-exclusive.html
The charcoal grey T-shirt (available in small or large sizes) costs £20 and is exclusive to the Madshop. It’s also available in advance of the tour, which is nice

In Your Mind – Woody Woodgate solo album.
Pre-Order Now on Amazon. – *** Released July 6th ***
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TZEMCMQ
OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE A SIGNED ALBUM INSTEAD http://www.propermusic.com/product-details/Woody-Woodgate-In-Your-Mind-Ltd-Autographed-Edition-188454
Album released June 1st. 13 tracks with new band line up and vocalist Dan Shears.
www.woodywoodgate.co.uk
The first single from the album will be “In Your Mind”. A release date for this is to be confirmed. Shooting for the video will commence shortly.

Lovestruck & Night Boat – Madness Beers – And Win Grandslam Tickets
https://youtu.be/XeqkFQNWA_A
Find out where to buy the beers here…
http://www.madness.co.uk/2014/10/30/madness-brewing-company/

SIGN OF THE TIMES
News and info from online and offline media sources. This week we begin with 5 different ways you can win meet and greets.
Win a Meet and Greet With Madness at Doncaster
Just enter your details here…
http://www.hallam2.co.uk/win/win-a-meet-and-greet-with-madness/
Another draw is also available to ticket buyer who buy their gig tickets from https://tickets.ee.co.uk/ or through https://funfinder.orange.co.uk

Get On The Newmarket Guest List From Heart Fm Breakfast Show Monday Morning
Listen to Heart Breakfast with Matt Jarvis (in for Kev and Ros) just after 7:30am from Monday 15th June to Friday 19th June to get on the guestlist. Requires a timed text message to enter. And must be Cambridge radio area based.
And stay with Heart for more chances to win Premier Enclosure tickets to Newmarket Nights.
http://www.heart.co.uk/cambridge/win/win-madness-newmarket-tickets/#wBORFr6IsuZcpZYL.97

Meet Madness Before The Show In Leeds.
http://yorkshireccc.com/news/view/3514/win-meet-madness-before-their-headingley-show
Please note that none of the above competitions have anything to do with the MIS.

Interview Suggs on Keeping Madness Alive – and the Medical Benefits of Tequila
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/13316422.INTERVIEW__Suggs_on_keeping_Madness_alive___and_the_medical_benefits_of_tequila/
So how will you keep yourself match fit for the tour?
“It’s like preparing for war, a war of fun y’know? A war of fun and frolics but, unlike the Romans, we are going to unleash heaven.
I have a suspicion that if I didn’t have a few tequila shots before I went onstage I wouldn’t be quite as lubricated in the joints.
Tequila and orange juice is the secret of keeping those limbs loose.
I suppose our rituals are now so ingrained that I don’t notice what the rest of the band are doing.
We can change the setlist nightly if we wish. The main thing is to keep it exciting for yourself, that’s the way to ensure the audience is kept excited too.”
How does it feel to be playing football stadiums in a band after years of attending as a fan?
“It’s always an odd thing, you keep expecting someone to tap you on the back and say: ‘Where’s your ticket son?’ It’s happened to me enough times in my life.
It’s great we are playing places that aren’t just major capital cities, this is what we did for years in the early days. It will be nice to go back to places we haven’t been in a long time.”

Woody Talks to..
Garry Burnet of Express FM talks to Woody. Hear the interview back in full from the soundcloud here.

Channel Four – Cathal Talks to the news.
https://youtu.be/C5CJlEkY1Fo
Carl performs some piano sounds from his album, and talks to Cordealia Lynch.
Including playing a Madness like new Song Carl has demoed, (played from his phone), demonstrating he is still writing tunes with Madness angles too. Dueting with daughter Eloise on “are the children happy” at the end of the film.
Video by Dicka.

LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
Chelmsford review in Essex Chronicle.
http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Crowds-mad-Madness-Chelmsford-City-Racecourse/story-26634853-detail/story.html
Madness are as British an institution as swigging lager, queuing and wearing silly hats, and there was plenty of all of those things going on as the evergreen ska band took to the stage at Chelmsford City Racecourse.
Madness emphasised their quintessential Britishness at the start of the show with a montage of video clips, splicing together films like Goldfinger and The Italian Job with various sporting endeavours including footage of that famous 1966 World Cup win.
Then it was straight into a two-hour set of ska-infused sing-a-longs which made you realise just how many great songs Suggs and co turned out in their heyday of the early 1980s.
It’s only the third date of the band’s Grandslam tour of sporting venues but they’re a well-oiled machine live which I guess they would be after more than 35 years in the business. It may be a long time since their Two Tone days and the release of debut single, The Prince back in 1979 but Madness still know how to get a party going.
A crowd of race-goers in a field in the Essex countryside couldn’t help but dance along to brilliant pop songs like Embarrassment, My Girl, House Of Fun and a blistering version of the anthemic Night Boat To Cairo.
And it’s not just dads in their Fred Perrys reliving their youths here either – everyone is skanking along to the songs, from teens to OAPs, which gives you an insight into Madness’s universal appeal.
With frontman Suggs offering cheeky banter and joke asides between tunes, Madness play a smattering of more recent songs from their oeuvre including My Girl 2 and Dust Devil (accompanied by the video featuring Jamie Winstone and Alfie ‘Reek’ Allen) as well as some lesser-known early tracks like Bed And Breakfast Man and Take It Or Leave It, both of which sounded great.
But Madness really come into their own when they’re playing old favourites like House Of Fun, Wings Of A Dove and The Prince which all have the crowd dancing and singing along. A rousing two-song encore of One Step Beyond and Madness ups the intensity of the dad-dancing to new levels before Suggs and co bid us a fond farewell and we all head our separate ways with a rocksteady sping in our steps.
…
If you’re attending any of the gigs this Summer, and you’ve got more fan passion in you than just the length of a one finger typed tweet send us in your reviews of Madness’ biggest ever outdoor tour. Your review doesn’t have to be massive. Just a sentence, a paragraph, or a set list, or a video link, or a full blown account of your Grandslam. It’s entirely up to you. Whatever your experience let all our readers know how your day was, what were the best bits, and make Madness proudly a band
people truly talk about. We’ll publish your efforts in a future MIS newsletter, in our Live and Intensified regular section, and also on our website blog. There may even be a prize or two given out come September and tour end!
Be a sport and send us your post match analysis.
Send whatever you madly muster to Jonsmad@hotmail.com
Jonathan Young

MIS FEATURE – NEW LEE THOMPSON SKA ORCHESTRA WEB SITE
With The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra nearing completion of their second album, currently going by the working title “Bite The Bullet” (named after a new instrumental tune by Bedders in the set), it’s time to launch a brand new website for the band.
Venture over and bookmark www.leethompsonska.com
This should be live by the time you read this.
You’ll find:
* A summary of the band’s history and story during the first few years.
* Links to their TV and Radio Sessions and guides.
* A guide to present and past personnel in the band.
* New photos by Simon Ager.
* A music player of their songs, and even a new instrumental early mix of Fu Man Chu for you to enjoy.
* A page for gigs past, and future events see the band at the garage this august.
Keep it here and also official band twitter and facebook to hear more about the forthcoming album as reports come in.

Here’s a teaser video for the band’s second album mission…
https://youtu.be/uebgCLm3moM, and you can check out a recent studio rehearsal right here – https://youtu.be/Tf4-BETEWQw
Website built by Simon Roberts.

MIS FEATURE – BE A KING OR QUEEN OF THE GRANDSLAM
The Massive Madness crown sits proudly above the stand in the touring Grandslam stage design.
So, it’s time for a selfie or for you to get a mate to crown you Sir or Dame, become a King or a Queen of the Grandslam by wearing the crown.
Position yourself midfield and turn away from the stage until your camera line of sight put your heads appearing underneath the logo and click away.
Post your pictures on your facebook and twitter and share them with the group over at All Things Madness, where Karen started the new craze.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/249838181711283
Join the ranks of royal fans. Bring back the, we want the, Prince and Princesses of the Grandslam to take a bow.
We will add you to our Grandslam Gallery at www.madnesss-mis.com
Feature Started by Karen Manktelow

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 580 – Sunday 13th June – Saturday 19th June 2010
With the UK enjoying some unusually warm weather news was a tad thin on the ground. Thankfully, what we weren’t able to provide in quantity we were certainly able to provide in quantity.
The issue kicked off with a Rise and Fall, Keep Moving and Ultimate Madness giveaway. Those lovely people at Union Square had given us one copy of each to dish out as a prize. All you had to do was email in with your contact details. Three winners would be chosen at random and a random one of the three albums would be sent out.
We moved on to Camden news next, as we learned that the fantastic work of the borough’s foster carers had been regognised at a special, star studded awards ceremony. The event, which was attended by acting legend Sir Derek Jacobi and our very own Suggs, saw Camden’s foster carers rewarded for long service of five, ten and twenty years.
Suggs commented: “My mum was a foster carer and I saw how hard she worked to welcome youngsters into her home and make them feel safe and wanted. I have been extremely lucky to have a mother like her and understand better than most the difference that having a secure home can make. All of the foster carers honoured tonight deserve our praise and our admiration and I am proud to be here to celebrate them.”
Next, it was over to Paul Rodgers, who this week gave us an in-depth look at the first week chart stats for the latest Madness compilation “Ultimate Madness”.
So, how did it do? Well, the album was a new entry at number 5 in the indie album chart, number 48 in the official album chart and number 65 in the combined album chart. This made Ultimate Madness by far the highest charting album of 2010 for Madness. Previously we had Absolutely Deluxe and 7 Deluxe chart at 87 and 107 respectively in the chart dated 24 April 1010.
Paul also brought this week’s issue of the MIS to a close with his research into the budget re-release of One Step Beyond.
“The One Step Beyond… budget release will be of interest to completists as it is a different release to the Deluxe one, comes in a jewel case, has a new catalogue number (SALVOVCD02) and is purely an audio CD. There is no DVD or enhanced video element.
Despite this being a budget release USM/Salvo have clearly listened to requests from fans, in that there don’t appear to be any of those annoying little spelling mistakes in titles that have crept into previous Madness reissues.
That’s another double thumbs up from me at least.”
10 years ago…
Issue Number 318 – Sunday 12th June to Saturday 18th June 2005
We started off this issue by giving a big warm welcome to the new subscribers who had joined us following the Thetford gig and our card-handing-out exercise.
As readers would have been able to see from the contents listing, this week’s edition of the MIS was a behemoth of nutty news. So much had happened over the past seven days that we were sure we’d missed one or two bits. It really had all kicked off!
With most of the Madness fan base stuck at work, it came down to Jon Young and Emma Southerby to get along to the filming of the “Shame and Scandal” video, in an effort to let the rest of us know what went on during the day long session.
Jonathan commented at the time;
“It’s a slow process filming a pop video, I learnt that much. The final product is the entertainment. The full days shooting can be exciting in bursts with lots of hard work for the crew and plenty of quiet moments and weird moments of set up that only make sense when edited, just like the old days of headcounts on Top of The Pops, with the band being in the bar! I saw the management walking around and saying ‘where are they, they are needed on stage!’.”
Moving on, and with release dates of the album and single seeming to change on an almost daily basis we’ve trawled through the numerous emails in an effort to put together the current set of release dates for France, the US, and the UK, as well as vague info for Japan.
The dates we’d managed to come up with were:
France:
– Single (Shame and Scandal) – Monday 27th June
– Album – Monday 27th June
North America:
– Album – Tuesday 19th July
United Kingdom:
– Single (Shame and Scandal) – Monday 25th July
– Album – Monday 1st August
Japan:
– Single (Shame and Scandal) – End of July, with 2 bonus tracks.
We were still a little unsure as to why the UK are getting the album and single last out of the three territories, but if this was the case it was safe to assume that a large number of the dedicated Madness fan base would be ordering the album on import instead. In fact, with links already being posted on the MTR for Amazon France, it was safe to say that a fair proportion of people would be doing this.
Next-up we went over to Chris Carter-Pegg, who was excited to receive news that the Shame and single would be released not only on CD, but also a limited edition 7″ vinyl. He was no urging us all to ensure that we not only bought both versions of the single for ourselves, but bought extra copies for friends and family, in a bid to get the single the chart placing it deserved.
Further into this issue we reported that the band would be making a bit of a weekend of it down in the South West, as they would now be performing at Weston Super Mare, the day after their Westonbirt Arboretum gig, which was part of the Forest Tour.
On the subject of The Forest Tour, thanks to the typing prowess of one Jonathan Young and Corinne Hill, we had an in-depth review of the Thetford gig, complete with a full set list and encore.
Jonathan’s generosity shone through in the next article, where he was offering two free tickets to the forthcoming Westonbirt Arboretum gig. All you had to do was come up with some Dangermen related tree puns. The winning entries would bag the tickets. Simple, eh?!
We finished off this week’s issue by thanking Dan Burdett for the heads-up on the Shame and Scandal video shoot, as if it wasn’t for him the Madness fanbase probably wouldn’t know it was happening. Our thanks also went to V2 and the video company for allowing spectators on the day of the filming when they didn’t really need to.
15 years ago…
Issue Number 56 – Sunday 11th June to Saturday 17th June 2000
In Issue 56 we started off by apologising that this MIS was a little shorter than the one before it. The reason being was that the main hard disk containing all the MIS back issues as well as the current issue in progress decided to go belly-up, meaning this issue had to be put together in record time.
With regards to the back issues. Well, issues 1 – 40 could be found over on the MIS web site, but it was looking like issues 41 to present would be lost forever. Thankfully, Total Madness Mailing List subscribers Simsey and Brio got in touch, and offered to send over the required issues. What legends!
Onto the issue itself, and we had Vincent Carden giving us his views on Virgin Records, the numerous mistakes they’d made, and how they just didn’t seem to be able to get the whole Madness promotional machine to work properly.
With a number of you lucky enough to get along to the first public performance of `The Velvet Ghost`, the rest of you would probably have wanted to find out more. With that in mind, the MIS team popped along to the recently uploaded www.velvetghost.com to give you all the lowdown and to tell you that you needed to visit this site now and keep a watchful eye on it over the coming weeks and months.
Many of you would have probably noticed that the MIS Online website was rather out of date and ill-updated. With this in mind, we put out a rather special request.
Further in this issue, Barzo (no, not THE Barso) and Simon Roberts gave us all the lowdown of Saturday’s Velvet Ghost appearance with song recommendations, track listings and a general review of the day. If you couldn’t get down to North London on the Saturday, you needed to read this just to see what you missed. It was enough to make you sick!
And if all that wasn’t enough, we had news that Simon Roberts’ excellent `Not the Madness Mailing List` website had changed ownership, but would still continue to provide the best collection of Madness material for the Madness die-hard.
Rob Hazelby

TWEETS OF A DOVE / THAT FACEBOOK

Dan Shears @danshearsmusic
“The New video for ‘In Your Mind’. by Woody Woodgate. Featuring me… dancing like a tit :D”
Daniel James Shears (facebook) “My little boy loves it, Woody Woodgate. He now thinks I’m famous coz he’s seen me in a cartoon and he calls me “Daddy Trumpet””
Chrissy Boy @CBoyForeman
“Pompey 1 Saints 0: Blue-turn over Spinnaker Tower colour change via @YahooNewsDigest. Yeah!!!!”
Mark Bedford @I_be_MarkB
“Listening to the lovely backing vocals of @sumudutweets on the Ska Orch LP. Beautiful.”

TIME…
TFI Friday returned from the 90’s this week, and while Madness weren’t part of the anniversary special show they did feature on there during its heyday.
So, with that in mind we thought we’d finish this week’s issue with a YouTube link –
https://youtu.be/jwyHz603x2s
Have a good week!

Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Darren Dixon)