Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 867 – Sunday 20th December to Saturday 26th December 2015
Hello, and a very warm welcome to this festive Christmas issue of the weekly MIS newsletter.
We hope that those of you who celebrate the event have managed to buy the last of those presents, and now just have the task of wrapping to go.
No doubt many of you have asked for Madness goodies for Christmas, and we hope that you all get what you wanted.
On to this week’s Madness news, and it was less than ten minutes after sending out last week’s issue that subscriber Frank Beentjes got in touch with us to report that it had just been announced that Madness had been booked to headline the Daupop Festival.
Taking place on Saturday 28th May 2016, this Netherlands based festival will see the band take the headline slot.
The Daupop web site claims that this will be the only performance in the Netherlands for Madness in 2016. With us still firmly rooted in 2015 we feel that’s a rather lofty claim to make with a full year stretching out before us.
The gig has been added to our Showtimes section, and you’ll be able to find all the relevant information right there.
Moving on, and The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra were guests on the Robert Elms show this Tuesday just gone. (see our Sign of the Times section for the link).
Thommo (who was late to the interview due to a last minute toilet break) aired the band’s new single, out Christmas Day, It May be Winter Outside (but in my Heart it’s Spring).
Lee says;
“Had to use the guaranteed warmth & triple ply toiletries of the Ladies, that was so far away, I thought I may have to produce my passport!
We also performed Coasters (L&Stoller’s) Hongry. It must have been pulled due to lyrical content/ watershed… Sounded Baffa as well “
You can see video of that track via the band’s website, along with the news that the “Bite the Bullet” album may be out in April.
Now, on with the issue!
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
No further gigs planned
2016
May
Saturday 28th, Dauwpop Festival, Netherlands (headliners) ** NEW **
More info at: http://www.dauwpop.nl
August
Saturday 6th –Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness, Scotland (headliners)
More info at www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk
November
Friday 18th – Monday 21st – Madness Weekender 6, Minehead
Suggs
March
17th – An evening with Suggs and Friends for Pancreatic Cancer. The Emirates Stadium
April
22nd – Scarborough Spa Theatre
23rd – Lincoln Drill Hall
24th – Carlisle Sands Centre
25th – Ilkley King’s Hall
27th – Bournemouth Pavillion Theatre
28th – Bath The Forum
29th – Worcester Huntingdon Hall
30th – Wrexham William Aston Hall
May
1st – Crewe Lyceum Theatre
3rd – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
4th – Sheffield Lyceum
5th – 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
January 15th 2016 – Jazz Cafe – Camden Town London
Near Jazz Experience
More info at: https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience
January 2016
26th – Near Jazz Experience + Support + DJ, Indo, 133 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1DT. 8pm. Free Entry
BUY IT
Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra – It May be Winter Outside
It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It’s Spring) is now available to pre-order from iTunes and Amazon for release on Christmas Day
Amazon – http://www.amazon.co.uk/May-Winter-Outside-He…/…/ref=sr_1_1…
Itunes – https://itunes.apple.com/…/lee-thompson-ska-orc…/id643860026
Limited Edition Madness Harrington Jackets
Official Madness Harrington Jacket in both black and navy are now available from the madstore.
£60 in small medium large X large and XX large. In tartan lining stylish cut. M logo and laurel motif and an M pin badge.
You can see Mark Bedford and Lee Thompson with his scooter modelling the designs.
Madness Craft Beer
http://m.bhs.co.uk/h5/product?productId=20960250
An amazing gift for any Madness and Craft beer fan. This gift pack includes a mix of 2 bottles. Gladness Craft Lager and Lovestruck Premium Amber Ale.
Contents:
- 1 x Gladness Craft Lager 500ml
- 1 x Lovestruck Premium Amber Ale
- Madness Brewing Co. Pint Glass
FEATURE – IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE LYRICS
IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING.
When the temperature dips, I’m in my baby’s arms
Her tender fingertips know just how to keep me warm
It may be zero degrees with snow fallin’ down
But I’ve got warm and tender love just as long as she’s around
Chorus:
It may be winter outside
But in my heart it’s spring
How much joy and pleasure baby
Can one girl bring
Winter nights can be awful cold
Without someone to hold
But when I have her next to me baby
I’m in ecstasy
(Repeat Chorus)
Throughout my life I’ve had my share of girls
But she’s been the only one
Who can make my temperature twirl
Things are just not the same
When she’s not by my side
And yet I shouldn’t complain
But be waiting with my arms open wide
(Repeat Chorus to fade).
The original 70s tune Was sung by Love Unlimited, a trio of black female singers that used to back Barry white at his live shows. Cleverly, on the new tune the lyrics have been changed as Lee wouldn’t have sounded right singing the original phrasing “We’ve had our share of guys, but he’s the only one makes our temperature rise”
Warm yourself this Christmas Day with Lee Thompson and Winter outside.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra on Robert Elms, BBC London
You’ve got the chance to “listen again” for the next week, at the following link;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038wly1
The band announced April as the release date for their second album, saying it wasn’t quite ready after the first recording sessions, but now with some further tracks it’s sounding good. Bob the Bone was congratulated on his marriage overseas.
The band played a session of new song “Step it up Sister”. Mez the drummer was present and Sumudu sang backing vocals. This promoted host Robert to ask “Who is in the band now?” No one answered in full, though Mark could be heard laughing at that point.
When asked if they thought the Christmas Day release was a bit late for the Christmas number 1 charts, Thommo replied that you can’t compete with Adele.
The interview appeared near the end of the show after 2.30pm
This week Mr Happy interviewed Lee on his show on saint FM we hope to bring you a podcast of that later on.
How we Made Stop the Cavalry
Ahead of his next Christmas Day release single, The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra’s Winter outside, stiff supremo David Robinson, talks along with Jona Lewie (Currently to be heard on Specialised combat cancer LP) about the making of a top 3 classic Christmas hit from the same label as Madness in the 80s. The classic, Stop the Cavalry;
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/15/stop-the-cavalry-how-we-made-interview-jona-lewie
“I singed to Stiff Records with 50 demos to my name. When I played Stop the Cavalry to Dave Robinson, who founded Stiff, he said it was “just another antiwar song”. I’d just bought an electronic keyboard – the Poly Moog, as used by Gary Numan – so I went back and beefed up the arrangement, playing the melody on a kazoo. Dave loved it” – Jona Lewie
“I’ve always loved a Christmas single. I think it was me who suggested the brass band, actually, to make it more Christmassy. We argued over that too. Jona’s a passionate, lovely, talented geezer. He has tapes full of ideas, and never gives up on any of them. He recently played me some ideas for a new album. I said: “Jona, these are the same songs I rejected 35 years ago.” – Dave Robinson
Suggs – My Mad Life Crisis
Radio 4 – Christmas Eve – 14.15
Duration 45 minutes.
A slightly dramatised version of Suggs’ One Man Show is to air this Christmas Eve.
The Madness frontman tells his funny and moving true-life story.
The death of Suggs’ beloved cat on his fiftieth birthday triggers a personal quest to discover what happened to the father he never knew. Stunned by what he learns, Suggs takes us back to his childhood and his first appearance on Top Of The Pops at the age of eighteen.
Adapted for radio by Owen Lewis from the stage play My Life In Words And Music by Graham McPherson and Toby Follet.
Other parts played by Ewan Bailey and Philippa Stanton.
Pianist: Dean Mumford
Director: Owen Lewis Producer: Karen Rose A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Actor Suggs
Actor Ewan Bailey
Actor Philippa Stanton
Writer Graham McPherson
Writer Toby Follet
Abridger Owen Lewis
Director Owen Lewis
Producer Karen Rose
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 606 – Sunday 19th December – Saturday 25th December 2010
With it now done and dusted, we could now look back at the recent Christmas tour as one of the most troubled in the band’s history, and that was all thanks to the weather.
With the Hull and Sheffield gigs cancelled, it was starting to look like the Earl’s Court gig on Friday would also be going the same way.
Keeping up-to-date with fans via Facebook we were reading tales of long treks in the snow, fans unable to get to the gig, and partial cancellation of the public transport network.
Thankfully the gig did go ahead, bringing the tour to a close on Friday the 17th of December.
It would certainly be a memorable one, not just for the fans, but also for the band, who, as mentioned an issue or two back, had to fulfill the cancelled gigs on the 5th (Hull) and 6th (Sheffield) of February 2011.
The recent Christmas tour was already a set of fading memories for many, but thanks to the generosity of Anglo Management you could relive segments of one or more of the gigs in the comfort of your own home. How? Well, Anglo had kindly made available an album’s worth of live tracks from the recent tour. Not only that, but they were free to download. A very nice early Christmas present for fans.
Was a family matinee really the place to throw your knickers on stage? That was the question asked as one fan recounted his experience of a woman appearing from the crowds and roping in a member of barrier security to throw some red knickers in Carl’s general direction.
“She handed him them, and kept saying “Carl” in the kind of voice I’ve come to know well from female fans of the band! I kind of felt sorry for the guy who made a noble attempt having been bizarrely roped into her passion mission. He rolled them up and chucked his best, they went sailing over the couple of heads, the barrier and the security pit, only to run out of velocity due to their light weight nature, and parachute gently just short of the stage, totally un-noticed by her aimed love target, as Carl continued to sing and beam out at the crowd”.
We brought this issue to a close by pointing you in the direction of a selection of some stunning photos that had been taken at the recent Cardiff gig, and that were now available for your viewing pleasure.
10 years ago…
Issue 346 – Sunday 18th December to Saturday 24th December 200505
In the rush to get last week’s MIS out we forgot to mention a number of updates to the site, as well as thank those who have helped with these new additions.
We had a number of additions to the ‘videos’ section, which were all down to Michael Gleeson, and the photo gallery had also received numerous new photos. Graham and Kim Smith had passed over some truly cracking photos of the ‘Scala’ and ‘Move’ gigs, whilst subscriber Kevin Dolby had sent over a varied selection of photos.
On to the articles, and we kicked things off with news that Madness (well, Suggs had been interviewed by The Camden Chronicle) had been out celebrating 100 years of the Arlington House hostel.
The hostel opened in 1905 and had since provided shelter for the homeless, and at the time was housing 400 men.
A £31 million redevelopment of Arlington House was due to be completed by 2008.
On to blogs next, and news had reached us indicating that Phil McGuirk of North London band MOT, had recently set up a blog. The idea being that whenever he had something interesting to say he’d post it there.
Next, we moved over to the one and only Chris Foreman, who, in answering a fan’s questions explained that around the time of the first Madstock Chris was despatched to the archives, only to discover that some of the master tapes had deteriorated so much that they started to crack up and the oxide had come off on the tape heads.
It was back to Arlington House next, as we featured the Camden New Journal’s coverage of the 100 years of the famous hostel. The article finished by saying;
A council press officer confirmed “numbers will reduce significantly” at Arlington House, but added “a new 48-room Salvation Army hostel isopening in Judd Street in August 2006 that will cater for people preparing themselves for independent living”.
Moving on, and in what promised to be one of MOT’s best gigs to date, the band had secured a whopping two hour slot at The Dublin Castle, on the 27th of December. What’s more, entry would cost a mere fiver, and that included a ska/Motown DJ.
We’d been waiting for months, and finally they’d arrived. What are we on about? The Dangermen picture discs! With one Jonathan Young finally getting his paws on this much coveted release, we let him round off this week’s MIS with a full lowdown of this shiny new release.
15 years ago…
Issue 84 – Sunday 17th December to Saturday 23rd December 2000
We started off this issue with something that would be of interest to subscribers of the excellent `Madness Unsugged` fanzine. The editor, Vince Carden told us that if all went according to plan, the next issue would see the light of day sometime towards the end of January. He also mentioned the possibility of a Madmeet in Camden on New Year’s Eve.
Following last week’s announcement that The Selecter would be playing at The Dome, Whitley Bay, Jeff Sharp has been in touch to tell us that the date was then changed from the 15th to 16th. If you were one of the many who went along on the 15th only to find the Selecter playing the following evening, we suggested you directed your moans to The Dome by giving them a call.
With two weeks to go before the close of the `Madness Top Tens` Poll, chief statistician, Andrew Langmead was already up to 37 entries (just one less than the total received last time). If you had still yet to vote for your top ten, we asked you to contact Andrew with your top 10 suggestions.
Last week we reported that American rapper, Eminem had put together a song entitled `Our House`. One part in his version was in dispute as a number of people suggested that it may be a Madness sample featuring in the track. Since then, Phil Smash and Mark Adamson had been rooting around, and had revealed that it is none other than `Limp Bizkit` providing the Our House lyrics. So, you could all relax, safe in the knowledge that the our boys had not featured on this track either in person or sample form.
Phil Smash also reported that last Wednesday morning Channel Four’s `Big Breakfast` show featured a DJ who was setting up an office party with presenter Richard Bacon. Richard asked him what celebrities he had DJ’d for, to which he replied “I did a party for Suggs’ daughter, Cecilia, and we had to play Cecilia, and that was a little odd`. As Phil rightly pointed out “He doesn’t have a daughter called Cecilia, so what the hell that DJ was talking about, we didn’t know”. Most bizarre!!
Finally, before we got underway with this weeks issue, the TMML’s Graham Hewson told us that this month’s `Front` magazine had a small snippet regarding the legendary Suggs pulling pints for the locals a month or so back. Graham also pointed out that there was a picture of the man in action. Probably not worth buying the mag just for that unless you were a die-hard-collect-everything type fan. Ah, that was pretty much all of you anyway, isn’t it?
On to the articles, and it was over to Mike Hearne, who gave us the lowdown on his recent night out to see tribute band Badness. After a detailed review, he finished off by saying that “If you get the chance to see Badness at a venue near you my advice is DO NOT miss it!”
DVD was still fairly new technology in the home some 10 years ago, so we often posted-up any Madness related DVD bargains as soon as they cropped-up. This was one of those occasions, as author George Marshall emailed in to tell us that the Pulped web site were currently selling the Madstock 4 DVD for a mere £8.00 including delivery.
It was over to Jon Young next, who revealed who the four winners were to the recent Fink Brothers competition he’d been running on his web site. The lucky people had been contacted via email, and Jon finished by saying that he may hold another competition in the new year.
Some sad news from ‘Bucket’ of US based MoonSka Records, was next in this issue, as he revealed that due to changing market trends, and reduced revenue, the long running MoonSka Records would be winding up and closing down.
We finished off on a jollier note, with some Bob The Builder news courtesy of Andrew Langmead. Here’s what he had to say at the time;
“If you’ve seen the video for Bob’s excellent new single ‘Can We Fix It?’ you may have noticed the little builder dressed in fully nutty gear! Yes, that’s right, Bob is dressed in Black Suit, Pork Pie Hat and Shades, and he even recreates the Nutty Walk in one scene!!”
Rob Hazelby
TIME…
That just about brings us to the end of this week’s issue of the MIS.
In the issue after next we’ll be starting our annual lookback, where we take a fleeting run through the highs and lows that took place within the Madness community over the past 12 months. It’s been an interesting and eventful year, so we’re certainly not short of things to cover.
With Christmas fast approaching we’re expecting next week’s MIS to be a rather thin affair, but if you have anything you’d like to submit then please send it in. All submissions will be really appreciated.
In the meantime, we hope you have a fantastic and nutty Christmas, and that you get everything you’ve asked for.
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
(With thanks to Frank Beentjes)
The Author
