Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 847 – Sunday 2nd August to Saturday 8th August 2015
Hello Madheads!
We begin this week’s issue of the MIS with news from the Spanish Nutty Bar.
Owner, Harry Wandsworth tells us;
“Suggs is coming to Town! We are thrilled to announce that Madness frontman Suggs shall be at The Nutty Bar on the 8th of September with a one off performance of his highly acclaimed One Man Show “Suggs My Life Story In Words And Music”! He shall be visiting Marbella after the Madness Gig at the Gibraltar Music Festival to delight us with what has been described as one of the most original and engaging shows ever seen!”.
For more information, check out the Nutty Bar Facebook page over at https://www.facebook.com/thenuttybar
On to Madness Weekender news, now. Those of you who have already booked their accommodation for this November’s event may be interested to learn that you’ve been put in to the hat to win a free upgrade to one of the site’s new luxury chalets.
Butlins Minehead point out that sunshine and blue sky are not necessarily included.
And finally, before we let you dive in to the main issue, we received the following message from subscriber Dan Fossard;
“I recently discovered a Facebook page called Vinyl Junkies and saw a post by someone who had an album by a band called The Brixton Market. No, me neither. But he shared a photo of the track listing and one of the tracks was Swan Lake.
Now, obviously, we all know Madness did it and that was a cover done by The Cats which is where Barso got the idea (presumably).
I’ve never heard this version before. Have you? It’s quite similar to The Cats’ version but a bit faster”.
We’ve been unable to find The Brixton Market’s version of the song on YouTube, but we did find the original by The Cats, which you can find here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvYnRBuDWQ&list=PLIa2XPsJJEGf32I8iKJkpmVa_11FkpURM
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
2015
GRANDSLAM
“Sporting theatres jumping with joy is the goal. Grandslam Madness – the greatest open air tour in the history of Rock & Roll…”
The Grandslam is now parked-up and enjoying a well-earned Summer break. The tour resumes in early September.
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
Suggs At The Nutty Bar ** New **
September The 8th – Marbella Spain.
Deaf School
September
5th – Bingley Music Festival (Headlining Stage 2)
6th – Norwich – Waterfront
December
10th Liverpool – Kasimier
The Clang
11th September London – St Moritz Club ** New **
The Silencerz
August 15th – Chados Arms, Colindale 8pm ** Cancelled **
BUY IT
In Your Mind – Woody Woodgate solo album.
Pre-Order Now on Amazon. – *** Out Now ***
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.
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.
Deaf School – Laundarette
http://deafschoolmusic.com/#/shop/4579903328/l-a-u-n-d-e-r-e-t-t-e-cd-the-new-album—buy-now/9766251
The brand new album, a Japanese release, contains 7 brand new studio tracks from the band, a track featuring Sam singing (and Lee Thompson in the band) unreleased from 1988 and 5 live tracks (recorded at the Brighton show 2014)
Lovestruck & Night Boat – Madness Beers – And Win Grandslam Tickets
Find out where to buy the beers here…
http://www.madness.co.uk/2014/10/30/madness-brewing-company/
New Balls! *** New! ***
“After years of research, it’s become very clear that the merch item you all desperately want and need, is of course… a Madness Beach ball. Get this and some other new summer holiday items in the Madstore: http://www.madstore.co.uk “
Hmmm. Is beach volley ball entering the Grandslam?
SIGN OF THE TIMES
News and info from online and offline media sources.
Woody Talks to Richard Oliff
Masses of praise for Siobhan as a brilliant backing singer. Mike Kearsey knowing all the best musicians.
Tells a story of recording drums for the album in the old AC/DC studio, and not having a drum kit in his house.
Talks about the recording engineer who worked on Woodys album being the guy who engineered his album being the guy who engineered ship building. And the digital stem file of his drums being used today.
Lee Thompson’s reaction to Woody’s album was very positive and named tracks he likes.
…
In your mind CD review
http://www.uberrock.co.uk/cd-reviews/27-july-cd/15124-woody-woodgate-in-your-mind-dw-records.html
The “day job” inspirations show and glisten on the light ska beat of ‘Friday Night To Sunday Morning’ with hints of Madness pretty evident albeit in small doses, whilst ‘Everything Is Sunshine’ is another track laden with melancholic and psychedelia. This tune has personal significance to Woody’s brother Nick with mental health references scattered within the lyrical content and musical drive, this is a composition full of brilliance and imagination. The same vibe follows on into ‘Flower’ another psychedelic hook laden summer tune and as with every track on the record there is an obvious Beatles influence which plays a big beautiful part in this collection of songs.
‘Mother’ is another drifting ‘70s inspired song but with all the modern elements so as not to sound outdated and give it that modern shine. ‘Shaman’ and the elegantly beautiful ‘Thank You’ meanwhile, close the record, with the latter tune in question incorporating strings and horns and obviously it’s very personally soothing and intimate to the songwriter, all wondrously crafted tunes one and all.
Dreamingly beautiful…..it’s all in the madness…..
LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
The Inflatables 35th Anniversary Birthday Party. Oxford 02 Academy
We take a little time out from Madness and the solo bands now to remark next on a couple of members of The Specials and an event in Oxford held to celebrate our friends The Inflatables a ska band that have been going nearly as long as Madness, and of course they are one of the many live bands out there that covers Madness music amongst their chosen set lists.
This night began with a local covers band, playing tunes by the Jam, Undertones and the like, very pleasant they were too. King Hammond (though I’m not personally a big fan) had the crowd in Oxford in palm of his hand with his skin head reggae numbers. The crowd attentive and the venue packed with a sense of occasion. Neville Staple these days making an honest play of the age factor in his performance “I’m not as young as I was.” or “This one I love but it takes it out of me” still garners “rude boy” shouts from the crowd and mass of appreciation for his heritage and connection to this music. Songs like “Ghost Town”, more so “Monkey Man” delight and overactive crowd down the front and there is plenty of solo’s for his band members fierce trombone solo punch outs.
The inflatables always have a good local following in the Oxford area and a little beyond, (including twice packing out Jaks at House of fun for MIS shows) built up over the triple and a half decade of their following. They once performed some original songs, back in the days and their 35th birthday CD on sale contains one redone in a 2015 mix called “Carry Me Over” (The CD also contains their specialized Madness choice cover Madness’ Believe Me, Napoleon Solo, that might be also familiar from LTSO covering it, and the carol king song “Too Late Baby” we asked them to perform at house of fun in our show as Mike Barson once mentioned this song was the first cover ever tried out in his bedroom. It’s a great reggae version.) The bands choice of covers for shows these days includes a mix of classic 60s ska and reggae tunes, and 2tone era bands Specials, Madness and Selecter etc. The band are on stage about 10pm for the nights finale’ and the crowd pleasing goes from the front barrier, I am hugging, right to the back where by the exit door at the end of the night im in witness of the fact that people are dancing through out. Not just the front but line after line of people are bopping away to the sounds. A few hardcore fans chant the bands name at them standing near to the front right speakers.
What’s notably different tonight beyond packing out the large venue, is their guest guitarist. Roddy Radiation tonight joins for a few choice Specials numbers. Both on twanging guitar and lead or shared vocals. Its an uncertain marriage (no not a stupid one) at first, Roddy enters and has his back to the crowd as he tunes up his guitar. Shyness or solitary mood threaten to lume, but a few moments later he’s readied himself to be the showman and thrust his guitar with revs, engages with the crowd and the band lurch into familiar territory. Rat race. Gangsters etc. The notable memory I will take away from this gig, is the smiles this brought to the faces of the band as they got into the moment. The bands guitar/bass Martin and Howard particularly I could see transform and grin a little, a pinch moment maybe. Remembering why that music meant so much 35 or more years ago and still means something now fondly remembered. In their performance, momentarily, they find themselves in the same enjoyment of a bunch of friends first finding their instruments and spaces together many years ago as young men. Roddy Rockabilly style of guitar in one I’ve a lot of time for, I think he might be my favourite Special. It was a fitting party for a band turned 35 when so many don’t make it that far.
www.facebook.com/theinflatables
Jonathan Young
THE ANGEL OF MADNESS – HELP YOUTH THEATRE & 4 CAN MEET THE BAND AT WOLVES
Central Youth Theatre at Wolverhampton have been give 4 meet and greet band passes for Wolverhampton by Patron Suggs.
£500 – GBP – Angel of Madness!
Madness lead singer and CYT Patron Suggs has kindly offered the VIP treatment for four lucky people when he performs with Madness at Wolverhampton Racecourse on 25th September 2015. This amazing reward includes tickets, racecourse entry and a fabulous ‘meet and greet’ for your group with the man himself after the performance.
“I’m proud to be a patron of Central Youth Theatre and now we’re playing in Wolverhampton we’re delighted to offer support to this great cause”. Suggs
If you’ve £500 between 4 of you, and you can attend the Wolverhampton gig. There is just one option on the CYT indiegogo fundraising page.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cytheart-putting-art-in-the-heart-of-wolverhampton#/story
MIS FEATURE – NORTON FOLGATE SAVED
Some protesters simply stepped out from their front doors into the street. Most came from around London, while a few travelled across the country to be there. Last Sunday, more than 500 people joined hands around historic Norton Folgate neighbourhood in Tower Hamlets as a symbol of their wish to see the old buildings restored for reuse rather than being demolished.
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/21/british-land-norton-folgate-historic-spitalfields
Video of the 500 hands around Folgate event.
British Land’s current proposals for developing the area included a 72% demolition factor for the buildings of Norton Foglate.
In a strange precursor of the current situation, British Land attempted to demolish part of Norton Folgate in 1977 but were halted by a group of young conservation activitists, including the art historian Dan Cruickshank, who squatted in the 18th-century weavers’ houses to stop the bulldozers. The Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust was born and, with the help of Sir John Betjeman, it saved the neighbourhood, emerging as one of Britain’s most-respected conservation trusts through the following decades.
Now British Land faces the Spitalfields Trust in Norton Folgate again. The trust was essentially honed as a machine to stop British Land, and many of its current members took part in the first “battle”. Now they have 40 years of experience challenging developers behind them, and maintain close contacts with some of Britain’s foremost planning lawyers. Recently, the multibillionaire Troels Holch Povlsen stepped forward to support the Spitalfields Trust by providing significant funds as a war chest for any forthcoming legal battle. Thus the lines are drawn.
On Tuesday 19 July, after a three-hour hearing, Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee voted unanimously to reject British Land’s development proposal for Norton Folgate, citing the low level of social housing and the inappropriate height and massing within a conservation area as their primary reasons. The council had received 576 letters of objection, and 12 in support of the proposal.
https://www.facebook.com/savenortonfolgate
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 587 – Sunday 1st August – Saturday 7th August 2010
Following the announcement of the Christmas tour, the number of emails we’d receiving from fans has ramped-up considerably, and nearly all of them seemed to be a variation on the same question.
The one question we were asked more than any other was “Will Madness be playing the classics or only new material”. Although we knew only as much as the next person, we thought it was pretty much safe to say that the playlists at all of the gigs would be a real mix of old and new.
With many attending the concerts only aware of the classic 80s tunes it really would be madness to only perform tracks from the last couple of albums.
Could we expect airings of completely brand new tracks? Only time would tell.
On to the articles, and we began with a transcript from the Yorkshire Evening Post who reported that when tickets to see Madness in Leeds went on sale the previous year they sold out within two days.
“It’s not exactly George Michael selling out Wembley Arena in ten minutes, is it?” laughed Chris at the time.
Next, we reported on a Madness fan in need. This fan had all their tickets from the 25 Madness gigs they’d attended, apart from the Saturday gig in Margate. Although able to enter the VIP area and meet the band they’d had to give up their ticket for a wristband, and were now after a replacement. If you were able to help you were asked to drop them an email.
Moving on, and it was on to some Ian Dury news as we featured an interview with Ian Dury biographer Will Birch, which originally featured on the popmatters.com web site. Although lengthy, this article proved to be a fascinating read.
Elsewhere, Jonathan had dug out a 1984 interview with the band and had made the MP3 available for download. Originally aired on Capital FM, this promotional interview with DJ Kid Jensen came from the Keep Moving era.
And finally, we brought the issue to a close with a message from Chris, explaining what had happened to Bedders;
“Bedders has not played with the band since September last year. He is taking a break for same sort of reasons I had but without publicity.
In the past he has missed a Madstock, a major UK tour, also a tour of Australia. It’s a free country. If he doesn’t want to do the shows then so be it.
I left for two years. He’s only had nearly a year. Bushers [Bedders stand in] is more or less fault free now by the way but he pulls faces at me, so I have to watch my back all the goddam time”
10 years ago…
Issue number 325 – Sunday 31st July to Saturday 6th August 2005
We started off this issue of the MIS with an apology for getting this issue of the MIS out across the vast expanse of the internet. The reason being was that the server moved from a machine in Milwaukee to one in Ashburn, VA!
The move should have been a smooth one. However, a slight ‘feature’ cropped up during the move, and it wasn’t until we tried to send the issue out on the its usual Sunday evening slot, that it revealed itself.
Thankfully, things were now back up and running again!
On to the Madness news, and last week finally saw the Shame and Scandal single receive a UK release.
Walking into a branch of Virgin at the start of the week, it was nice to see that both the CD and vinyl releases of the single were given a decent amount of shelf space, and it was pleasing to see that only a few copies of the CD single remained. We’re hoping that was due to good sales rather than Virgin only getting a few copies in.
MIS subscriber John Thorpe contacted us to say that HMV were also stocking the single, but unfortunately Woollies were once again giving us Maddies the two finger salute.
So, how well did the single do? Not too well, unfortunately. It entered the UK singles charts at a lowly 38. Most fans were pleased that it had got into the top 40 at all, while others were puzzled as to why Madness would appear on Top of The Pops in the week of the single release, to cover the Kinks classic, Lola.
Next-up was a full transcription of a recent interview Chris Foreman gave to the Ska News team. Being the kind people they are, they were happy to let us print it. In the interview Chris talked about the band re-forming in 1992, Wonderful, The Dangermen, and also why he decided to leave the band.
Continuing one an interview related note was a full transcript of a 15 minute interview Woody and Suggs gave to Mark Lamarr, as he sat in for Jonathan Ross on his regular Saturday morning Radio 2 show.
Apparently the rest of the band were there, but were unable to speak due to them having sore throats. Hmmm.
The rest of this issue was interspersed with various newspaper and magazine reviews of the new Dangermen Sessions album. Pretty much every reviewer gave the album a thumbs up.
All we had to do now was hope that these positive write-ups translated into sales and chart placings.
15 years ago…
Issue number 64 – Sunday 30th July to Saturday 5th August 2000
It’d been a really quiet week on the net with Madness news, gossip and chat being almost none existent. We were assuming that most people had been out enjoying the summer weather, doing their best to keep away from the computer keyboards.
With that being the situation, this week’s edition of the MIS Bulletin was a little short on news. Hopefully this wouldn’t spoil your weekly slice of Madness too much.
News of yet another Madness tribute band reached us this week, courtesy of subscriber Becky Lane. Calling themselves “Cairo East”, the group had recently played a gig in Bexley Heath. Unfortunately Becky missed it, so was unable to tell us if they were any good or not.
We can only assume the group was short-lived, because as far as we can remember, this was the first and last time we heard of them.
Next-up was Bob Timm of about.com, who emailed-in to let us know that he’d just come off the phone to Chas Smash, and that we could expect a full interview relating to The Velvet Ghost and Madness very soon.
There was some exciting news for collectors elsewhere in this issue, where it was reported on the Camden Madness web site that a company by the name of “Past and Present” would soon be re-releasing the original One Step Beyond album on vinyl.
The price for this slice of retro remade goodness? Approx £15.99.
Some of you may recall that Camden’s Dublin Castle was about to receive a bit of a makeover. Well, according to subscriber Pete Bament this was now underway.
Here’s what Pete had to tell us at the time;
“I am currently working at London zoo for the summer, so I have the privilege of walking past the DC twice a day until September!
It looks in a bit of a bad way from what I have been able to see through the door, and the sign says on the window that it will be open within 5-6 weeks, although I don’t know when the sign was put up. The outside has not been touched though, so it still has the same look.
I will continue to keep you posted as things happen, and then hopefully it will be open before I finish at the zoo, so I can have drinkies there before I have to return to university”.
It would be worth the wait. However, we’d all be shocked to discover that the gig posters in the corridors, going back to the 1970s, would be removed in the process.
We finished off this week’s issue of the MIS with Chris Mountain urging us all to keep the ideas coming for the 2001 Madness Weekend.
At present, Blackpool was the early leader when it came to venues, but we were all urged to send in our preferences.
Rob Hazelby
THAT FACEBOOK / TWEETS OF A DOVE
Now that you’ve got to the end of this week’s MIS you may be pleased to learn that Woody’s latest album is now available on Spotify for your listening pleasure. If you’ve yet to hear it
graham mcpherson @suggsgmcpherson
“When you’re young you fall over, when you’re old you have a fall.”
Woody Woodgate “Pete Ring @ Ringmaster review. Thanks for the great revue. It’s refreshing to have someone describe my work so eloquently”
When asked “Will you be gigging the album, Woody?”
Woody Woodgate “November. Watch this space”
TIME…
That just about wraps it up for this week’s, but before we go we urge you to get over to the Ska Orchestra Facebook group where you’ll find a stack of fantastic photos taken at last night’s Garage gig in London.
You can get to the group by going to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/138362986238425/?fref=ts
Check them out!
And with that, we’re done. We’ll be back this time next week with another issue of the MIS.
Have a good week!
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Dan Fossard)
The Author
