Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 872 – Sunday 24th January to Saturday 30th January 2016
Sunday’s here once again, and as usual it plays host to another edition of the MIS Online weekly newsletter.
This week we begin with news from The Ska Orchestra’s one and only Darren Fordham, who reports that “Thommo will today choose the final track listing for Bite The Bullet”.
With a provisional release date of the first day in April, it sounds as though plans are hotting-up in preparation for the band’s second album.
In true MIS style we’ll bring you further news on this as and when it appears.
Also this week, Madness fan Andrew Green got in touch to tell us “This weeks vintage edition of Top of the Pops showed the video for Los Palmas 7, but, strangely, some of the clips were edited out, namely the clips from Star Wars, which I presume were removed due to rights issues.”
And with that, lets get 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
May
Saturday 28th – Dauwpop Festival, Netherlands (headliners)
More info at: http://www.dauwpop.nl
Saturday 6th –Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness, Scotland (headliners)
More info at www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk
August
Thursday 11th – Cropredy Festival, Oxfordshire. First day headliner
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
Near Jazz Experience
More info at: https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience
January
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
This was finally released on Christmas day, and can be purchased from the following Amazon and iTunes links:
Amazon – http://www.amazon.co.uk/May-Winter-Outside-He…/…/ref=sr_1_1…
Itunes – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/it-may-be-winter-outside-but/id1062562074?i=1062562075
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.
Dr. Marten’s Web Site Sale
Many shoes discounted. Grab yourself a bargain!
http://www.drmartens.com/uk/c/Sale-Mens-Footwear
LIVE AND INTENSIFIED
Along with our review of The excellent Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra gig last week there have been many more glowing reports. But we did receive a submission from Rob Price who felt Lee and the band had “outgrown the Camden Jazz Cafe ”
Rob and his friends wrote…
“(At) show time when many more people arrived leaving very little if any room to see the group perform. This coupled with the fact that we spent most of the evening either being poked in the back by the numpty behind us or apologizing to the victims who’s toes we had stood on meant a very good evening was spoilt by being overcrowded.”
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Lee Thompson Joins Johnnie Walker ** Listen Again** 24 Days left
Johnnie Walker is joined live in the studio by Lee Thompson from Madness.
Most well-known as the saxophonist and songwriter for the ska group Madness, Thompson helped form the band in the late seventies and wrote their debut single “The Prince”. The group went on to become one of the most prominent groups of the 1970s and 1980s.
Lee Chatted with Johnnie Walker about starting Madness and avoiding a life of petty crime, how he started on brass instrument of choice and how it was “ahem, acquired. He also spoke about loving songs with quirky lyrics, and his meeting with David Bowie (including Lee’s impression of the guy)
Lee chose tracks including.
Smokey Robinson – Tears of a clown
The Kinks – Lola
Ian Dury And The Blockheads – Clever Trevor
David Bowie – Watch That Man
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06w4sf2
The programme should be available via the BBC’s Listen Again service.
Suggs Lifts Life on Life Story
“I think it’s true to say I created Fortress Suggs to give my life structure” he says. Three decades on, he and his wife, singer Bette Bright, are still together, and their two daughters sing as a duo.
“I’m surrounded by women who sing” says Suggs. “Madness have always been about accentuating the positive. It’s no accident our songs are still enjoyed 30 years down the line. They’re upbeat, timeless – a clear-eyed celebration of life.”
http://www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/leisure/leisure_ents/14209173.Suggs_lifts_lid_on_life_story/
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 611 – Sunday 23rd January – Saturday 29th January 2011
Issue 611 got underway with Owen Collin and Jonathan Young, who were kind enough to review Chris’ recent appearance on the Insanity FM Radio Station.
Jon was also kind enough to make the show available for download, and as luck would have it, it’s still there! If you’d like to have a listen, simply point your web browser over to:
As many of you would have known, the 13th of January saw our very own Suggs reach the ripe old age of 50. To celebrate, a private party was held at Wilton’s Music Hall, London.
At the end of the show Suggs was videod by a guest performing a version of the classic ‘Maybe it’s Because I’m a Londoner’, which you can still watch by going to the following YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXWV1jE3Mpk
Next, it was over to Mr. Paul Rodgers, for another one of his stat round-ups. This was a lengthy report, and one stuffed to the rafters with tidbits of interesting and amusing information.
Here’s just a short snippet from the massive report;
“With year end figures having recently been released for 2010, it transpires that the ongoing re-release programme made it a record breaking year for Madness in the album charts.
Despite only spending a total of 10 weeks in the top 200 (using charts dated 9 January 2010 to 1 January 2011 as is apparently the rules when looking at chart stats- I don’t make the rules, but you’ve got to have a system) Madness managed to be joint fifth in the list of artists with most albums charting in that period. They achieved this with 7 albums: Absolutely, 7, Ultimate Madness, The Rise And Fall, Keep Moving, Wonderful and Mad Not Mad.
Only Michael Jackson (11), The Beatles (9), Mister Blobby and The Rolling Stones (both 8) had more albums chart in 2010. Madness are on a par with such chart legends as AC/DC, Elvis Presley and (ahem) The Glee Cast. Despite Bez rejoining their line up Take That could only muster 6 albums. Mind you one of them sold 1.84 million copies, so I guess they can live with being in Madness’s shadow”
We brought this issue to a close with the news that Suggs and Lee would be performing a Deaf School song at the opening of the Deaf School tour on the 28th January. The gig would be held at the Relentless Garage, Islington.
Following our end of issue thank you and well wishes we signed off with the lyrics to the new Madness track, My Girl 2. These had been kindly typed up by Looby Loo and Graham Yates.
10 years ago…
Issue number 351 – Sunday 22nd January to Saturday 28th January 2006
As it was still only being aired in the London area, we started off this week’s issue with a full and detailed lowdown of Suggs’s current TV series ‘Disappearing London’.
The first half of the episode focused on the history of the welsh immigrants in London’s past. Showing how many settled in the dairy industry, of which only one firm seemed to still be in business today.
Welsh Churches were visited, and so were church properties that were now in other use, were closed down or even one that was now an Australian night club. Something Suggs called “a den of sin”. This became even more ironic when the 2nd half of the show, showed how pubs were now converted into flats. We just needed someone to convert a flat into a church and we’d be full circle!
London Red Telephone boxes were looked at in detail, showing you how to spot a K2 from a K6 and lamenting the new BT plastic design as something that will never get put on a tourist postcard.
And the designer of these boxes was looked at in more detail, visiting his power station buildings around london, including battersea power station.
It was over to the official Madness messageboard next, as we reported on a fan who had posted a message, asking if a video for Girl, Why Don’t You had every been produced.
Thommo explained that;
“Much to my disappointment at V2 H.Q. It was decided not to make a promotional video for the ‘Girl’ single as our previous effort for ‘Shame & Scandal cost the marketing man his job…..almost”
It was back to Suggs’ current TV show, Disappearing London, again for the next slot, as we featured a transcript of Suggs talking about Camden Town pubs, and of course, The Dublin Castle. Suggs was seen chatting to owners Peggy and the late Alo, about the early days of Madness and of how things had changed over the years.
Alo explained the importance of pubs to the local community, by commenting that;
“All these pubs are in the hub of our communities and many people still use them as their meeting places, for their weddings, their parties, their 21st, their 18th birthday parties. Their wakes. Ultimately”.
On to the Official Madness Messageboard for the next article, when promoted by a fan asking if The Camden Cowboys had disbanded, Lee explained that;
“The Camden Cowboys have disbanded. It was always their intention to form & disband on the same day, breaking a previous record with my band ‘Mr.Wheeze’, who split shortly after midnight, & after a single performance at the ‘Old Bull’ in May 99′, But, in the right climate, I can’t see why either of these two bands can’t get up to more mischief. It can be fun, can’t it?”
We finished off this issue with the news that BBC Radio Coventry would be running a series of events and shows in celebration of the famous 2-tone movement that began in the area.
As well as Tony Tye’s black and white photo exhibition, there was also a live concert and a number or radio shows in the pipeline.
The festival would run from the 30th of January to the 5th of February.
15 years ago…
Issue number 89 – Sunday 21st January to Saturday 27th January 2001
In an effort to keep up-to-date with the latest in internet technology, and to give himself some much needed coding practice, MIS Online subscriber, Simon Roberts had developed what was believed to be the first Madness related WAP website.
Although designed for mobile phone users with WAP access, the site could also be viewed from the comfort of your computer desktop.
Simon pointed out at the time that although the pages looked crude, you had to remember that they were designed for mobile phone users and not your standard web browsers.
At the time of announcement there was very little on the site apart from a Madness logo and a few simple `under construction` pages. Over time Simon hoped to be make a number of major uploads to the site, but pointed out that coding was going slowly but surely because if there is so much as one html tag or script out of place, the page refused to load.
Next, we had the news that issue 6 of the excellent Madness Unsugged fanzine was going to be delayed. The hope was that the issue would appear in the early part of the new year, but this would now not happen.
Here’s what Vince had to say at the time;
“Dear Unsugged readers, As some of you may know, I was planning to have issue 6 of Unsugged out in early February.
Unfortunately, I have decided to put my career before my pastimes for once and have decided to delay this issue until September as I have final exams to do then. It’s a bit of a pity because I had so much material for it.”
Naturally, we all wished Vince well for the coming months, and the best of luck for his exams.
Moving on, and we passed the reigns over to subscriber Rod Warne, who emailed-in asking if any MIS subscribers were considering going to the `Sounds of the 80’s` weekend at Butlins. The event was due to take place at Bognor Regis over the weekend of 9th – 12th March.
Complete Madness, Bad Manners, More Specials were in the line-up together with tribute bands for Human League, UB40 and Aswad.
The price of the weekend (3 nights), was £169, and that included holiday cancellation insurance.
On the subject of weekends away. The following article announced that the Blackpool weekend was go! Chris Mountain (and assistants) had been hard at work, and were pleased to reveal that the 2001 Madness weekend would take place on Friday June 29th – Sunday 1st July.
The event would cost a mere £50 per person, for two nights bed and breakfast, and the whole hotel was being made available for those Madness fans attending.
The Third Machart continued in our next article, which this week covered positions 59 to 31. As with the previous parts, we were treated to chart stats, track trivia and much, much more. All this came courtesy of the one and only Andrew Langmead.
It was one for Ian Dury fans next, as news reached us that Ian Dury list members were in the process of organising an Ian Dury night at the Dublin Castle on 24th March, and wanted to know if any MIS readers were interested in attending.
The evening would consist of an Ian Dury and The Blockheads tribute band and DJ spinning Dury all night long with some Madness etc.
Money raised from the event would go to Cancerbacup fund.
Atari’s classic arcade title ‘Asteroids’ was next in this issue of the MIS. Why? Well, in a lengthy post from Chas himself, he revealed his two player match on the game with the one and only Paul McCartney.
Unfortunately, Carl’s skills were too much for Paul’s, and so Paul decided to throw in the towel, but not before giving Mr. Smash the trademark thumbs-up.
We finished off this week’s edition of the MIS with the latest stats of Madness greyhound Nutty Boy, who made his recent debut at the Walthamstow dog track.
‘Nutty Boy’ did ‘The Business’ in the seventh race (20.51) at Walthamstow
Full SP:
1st NUTTY BOY (Trap 2) Price- 11-4F Time – 5.04 (bumped& led1)
2nd SHOW BUSINESS (Trap 6) 7-2
3rd CORMACS LADO (Trap 3) 3-1
4th BLUE ADDER (Trap 4) 3-1
5th POLLIN STORM (Trap 1) 8-1
If you were thinking of putting your house on his next race, and throw caution to the wind; Nutty Boy came LAST in his inaugural race at Walthamstow on the 6th Jan 2001. In the fifth race, he was HEAVILY backed ( Chrissy Boy/Suggs putting a few pence on ??;) ), odds at 6/4 Favourite! (X 1.5 your stake).
Rob Hazelby
TIME…
Before we go we’ve got one final snippet to pass in your general direction.
If you live in our around the Halifax area you may be interested to learn that Specials / Madness tribute outfit “Special Kinda Madness”, will be performing at the Marlborough Hall on Saturday 20th Feb.
Tickets to the event cost a mere £11, and can be purchased from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/328387
If you do make it along to the gig please knock up a review and send it in.
And with that, we’re done until next week.
Take care,
The Author
