Madness Information Service Online Newsletter Issue Number: 881 – Sunday 27th March to Saturday 2nd April 2016
We begin this week’s issue with the news that further acts have been announced for the House of Common in August.
The legendary Lee Scratch Perry is now being listed as star guest – a true original reggae legend. A handful of further known names in dub circles all sit under the collaborative banner of the UK Allstars, and further to this are a number of established younger acts including Ms Dynamite and a club night called Tonga.
Other guests include Mike Skinner from The Streets, and newly introduced is Kiko Bun, an up and coming North London dub artist who recently covered Toots for the “This is England 90” soundtrack.
Elsewhere, the news this week focused on Hasting as Suggs headed to his birth town to announce Madness playing the pier. While he was there he helped with the finishing touches of its renovation. How far the front man has come since his Take it or Leave it plastering days. You’ll find full coverage of the plank in this issue’s “Sign of the Times” section. That gig will be held on May 21st.
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
May
Saturday 21st – Hastings, The Pier *** New ***
Saturday 28th – Dauwpop Festival, Netherlands (headliners)
More info at: http://www.dauwpop.nl
July
Saturday 30th – Kendal Calling, Penrith http://www.kendalcalling.co.uk/information/ticket-info/
Sunday 31st – Y Not Festival, Matlock
http://www.ynotfestivals.co.uk
August
Thursday 4th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange *** Sold Out ***
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Friday 5th – Edinburgh Corn Exchange
More info at: http://m.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/028964-madness/
Saturday 6th –Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness, Scotland (headliners)
More info at www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk
Thursday 11th – Cropredy Festival, Oxfordshire. First day headliner
Saturday 13th – Boom Town Fair – Winchester
Friday 19th August – Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/37005067CAE570E4?tpab=-1
Monday 29th – House of Common, Clapham Common
More info at: http://www.madness.co.uk/houseofcommon/
September
Sunday 4th September -Jersey Live Festival, Jersey *** New ***
November
Friday 18th – Monday 21st – Madness Weekender 6, Minehead
Suggs
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
April
Saturday 16th, Boisdale, Canary Wharf, London
July
Friday 22nd, Hampton Pool Picnic, Supporting The Selecter
Rhoda Dakar
June
Saturday 18th – 100 Club London
(Also appearing at The London International Ska festival, Glastonbury, & European festivals this year)
WIN IT
Win Suggs Tickets
Like and share a post over on Suggs’ official Facebook page for a chance to win tickets to his One Man Show. At the same time you’ll will be helping the big man promote the forthcoming dates into the bargain.
https://www.facebook.com/thesuggsmcpherson/
Pier Pressure – A Ballot for two Hastings Tickets
So Madness being such a popular band, matched with the limited number of places on the pier for the concert, and a lot of local interest in Hastings for the opening event day on the restored sea side structure and gaining much national press this week, all meant an instant sell out for the concert in May. Great Stuff.
Somewhat frustratingly for some fans the website selling tickets was that of the pier charity and it wasn’t ready and able to provide the bandwidth to cope with such masses of demand visiting at 9am opening for the generous cheap £25 tickets which lead to a lot of browser crashes as people tried to get through on the site. Some fans confused by this managed, better luck on a second attempt. Others missed out when it was sold out. Just one that we know of managed to accidentally book twice because they thought they hadn’t got to the end when it crashed. So we now have 2 tickets to advertise here, for the face value and booking cost of £55. (Plus a £10 option to attend an earlier pier event that day also).
Send an email. Title it Pier Pressure.
And MIS will run a ballot next week.
The Winner will be put in touch with the seller to arrange and agree a private sale for the 2 tickets.
Jonathan young / Linsay Boyce
BUY IT
Deluxe edition of The Lone Ranger.
https://www.discogs.com/Suggs-The-Lone-Ranger/release/8172245
A Deluxe Edition release of Suggs’ first solo album “The Lone Ranger”.
Originally released in 1995 this much requested reissue is the most comprehensive collection available of the original album and all the related bonus material.
Other bonus material includes the b/sides – ‘Bedazzled’, ‘Animal’, ‘When You Came’ and ‘I Feel Good’. The CD booklet features the original artwork, a UK Discography, lyrics of the original album tracks all in a 16 page colour booklet.
Out April 22nd
Buy it if you don’t have the original classic album or want those original collected B-sides together or if you want Suggs to consider another solo album in future support this release, but if you want it for all the remixes please stop taking e and consult a dr. Some were as dreadful as the Macarena.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Suggs Nails Final Plank in Hastings Pier Renovation
The Hastings-born pop star completed the redecking of the pier after a £15m renovation over the past two years.
“I was born here and went up and down this pier as a kid myself but the band never had an opportunity to play her in our first incarnation,”
Tickets for the Madness Concert are £24 each available from www.hpcharity.co.uk
The grand opening gala is free but by ballot ticket.
Suggs and the Re-Appearing Pier
Hastings-born musician Suggs, lead singer of the band Madness, will fix the last plank of 50 miles of new decking on the Victorian structure in place to mark the occasion.
The Hastings Pier charity said it will re-open no later than the middle of April with a celebration planned for May 21 after a two-and-a-half year renovation project costing more than £14 million.
BBC News Coverage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-35874840
The Madness star, who was born in Hastings as Graham McPherson, said: “Going on the pier was always a really happy time… It’s a privilege to be involved. I can’t really say I had a hand in building it but at least I can say I was involved.”
ITV News Coverage
A Hastings-born popstar has returned to his home town to help complete the latest stage in the restoration of the pier.
The pier was destroyed by fire six years ago but its £14-million rebuild is almost complete.
Madness singer, Suggs, was surprised to be asked to help complete the latest stage of its restoration.
Video of Suggs on the Pier
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=556847674484408&id=100004775416138
MIS FEATURE
Musicless Madness
One of the latest internet memes in recent years is The Musicless Music video, created by taking the original video picture and removing the sound of the over dubbed song. Next, instead of just leaving it mute, a new foley soundtrack is faked and synced back in to the original videos. This recreates, somewhat comedically at times, the ambient noise that might had been present if the visuals had just been things happening in front of a camera.
Sometimes this means dubbing back individual instrument performances or solo vocals to camera, but flatter or deferring notes are often used, while all the strange scenes that happen in often bizarre or Nutty video content get their voice back.
One particular pure version of this internet meme is Dancing in the street Mick Jagger and David Bowie, where the new soundtrack has them purely dancing to silence and just grunts groans and sneaker squeaks on the floor bring the only sound. It’s a sight for only sore eyes!
Someone was bound to apply the craze to Madness at some point, sure enough well done user “Drinkdrankpunkcast” for this bizzarre musicless madness video. Our favourite bit is the barbers. Ouch!
House of fun.
Jonathan Young
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 620 – Sunday 27th March – Saturday 2nd April 2011
Our issue got underway with a reminder that today was a memorable day if you were a Blockhead fan, as it marked 11 years since the sad passing of Ian Dury.
To mark this occasion, Spike of MadIncFilm had uploaded a Lee Thompson and Like Father Like Son cover of the Dury classic ‘Wake up Make Love’ to YouTube. Recorded at The Hope and Anchor back in 2001, Lee made the love clear for Ian’s tune, and Kev added haunting guitar effects.
On to Madness news, and it was the turn of Madness fans based in Spain to be excited, as we’d received news earlier in the week revealing that the band would be appearing at the CRUÏLLA BCN festival.
Passing the information on to us, David Gilabert of the possibly self titled ‘Madness Barcelona Supporters Club’, told us that the band would be taking to the stage on either the 8th or 9th of July.
Moving on, and it was over to Mick Jenner, with his review of the recent Skax and Big 10 gig at Camden’s Dublin Castle. Mick commented at the time; “After spending the last year following Big10 and The Skanx around London, I finally got my dream come true when The Dublin Castle played host to both bands on a double bill to be remembered”.
Next, and following on from their recent collaboration on “Kitchen Floor” that Madness debuted on the Do Not Adjust Your Nut Tour, Nicky Woodgate was now working with his brother to make an album of monumental statue.
“We’ve kept back all the best songs for this mega album”, commented Nick at the time.
“We are hoping to get the brass section and bass guitar from the ranks of Madness itself. Mixing and mastering by ‘Melt Music’.
It’s going to be unbelievable – wait till you hear our songs. So far we’ve done a lot but there’s much more to do”
We brought this issue to close with two final snippets – the first was the news that according to the This is Hull and East Riding web site, Suggs would be taking part in a section of a charity fundraising walk from Lands End to John O’Groats and back. Organised by weight loss guru Aaron Howlett, the event was being staged to raise money for the NSPCC, and to encourage people to get out and get fit.
And finally. Would we see the return of a certain Mr. Bedford back to the Madness fold? If true, Bickling Hall would play host to the first full line-up of the band in a number of years.
10 years ago…
Issue number 360 – Sunday 26th March to Saturday 1st April 2006
With this issue of the MIS running until the 1st of April, we got the intro underway with a totally unbelievable announcement revealing that we’d been set a promo version of ‘The Dangermen Sessions Volume 2’.
What did we think to it? We described it as being legendary, but for all the wrong reasons. The second album featured cover versions of some of the cheesiest pop songs you could ever imagine. The Birdie Song, Barbie Girl and Achy Breaky Heart (among others) were all given the Madness touch.
We hope that no one actually thought this was genuine, but you never can tell.
On to some real news, and we passed things over to subscriber ‘Lawrence’, who introduced many of us to the new (at the time!) LastFM web site, and how well Madness were currently charting with the number of individual plays visitors had given our favourite band.
With the site also supporting groups, Lawrence suggested that the creation of an MIS/Madness Trading Ring Last FM group would be a good idea.
It was over to The Madness Trading Ring’s Steve Bringe for the next article, as he gave us heads-up on Nick Woodgate’s MySpace page for his band ‘The Lowlifes’.
There were already a few songs on the site for you to listen to, which Steve described as “kind of bluesy in sound”.
Following this we took a trek over to the Official Madness Message Board, and picked out a few of the more interesting items that had been posted over the past couple of weeks.
We had posts from a 12-year-old wondering if he’d be allowed in at a Madness concert, Chrissy Boy revealing that the artwork for the forthcoming tour was still being worked on, and Nick Woodgate who was giving his MySpace page a bit of a plug.
The issue continued, with news from Newcastle based ska tribute band ‘Shut Up’, who revealed a few of the tracks played at their recent gig at Newcastle’s Quayside, followed by a lowdown of all their forthcoming gigs for the year.
We brought this issue to a close with the latest news from JAG, and the announcement that Jermaine of Tour Madness was encountering problems with his recently purchased computer, and because of this work had yet to commence on the next release.
15 years ago…
Issue number 98 – Sunday 25th March to Saturday 31st April 2001
With the release of this issue landing on the same day as the start of British Summer Time, we reminded the MIS readership that with the prospect of nice weather to come, we’d no doubt see the traditional summer lull in news rear its head.
In an attempt to compile the largest set of Madness links on the internet, subscriber Philip Pugh wanted your assistance. All you had to do was send him the link of your Madness web site and a 20 or so word description of your place on the net. If you also knew of any sites worth checking out, Philip was after details of those, also.
On to the articles, and we started off with an in-depth update from Chris Mountain on how the arrangements for the forthcoming Madness Weekender in Blackpool were going. A Madness tribute band had now been booked, and all you needed to do was send in your £20 deposit.
Arrangements were also well underway for the annual McMadmeet, which this year would take place on the 31st of March in Edinburgh. Organised by the ever capable Mr. G, the start time was 1:00pm, with the finish being when the last person dropped!
Our next article was a short transcript from The Bristol Evening Post, which covered Suggs on a charity visit to see some of the poorest regions of Indian. Accompanied by two employees from Wessex Water, Suggs spent two weeks visiting water and sanitation projects funded by donations from the WaterAid charity.
Following this we moved on to some Blockhead news, as we revealed the full tracklisting to the Dury covers album ‘Brand New Boots and Panties’. The album would see the light of day on CD, casette, and also a limited edition gold vinyl for the collectors out there.
Subscriber Doug Holmes took the reigns for the final article of the week, as he lamented the fact that the only award Madness had been given was an Ivor Novello. He finished on a positive note saying he was happy that there were those of us who recognised the band’s unique talents, and will forever have that spirit in our hearts “from dancing in the Chemists shop to chilling in the ‘Loves Truck'”.
Rob Hazelby
INTRODUCING – KOKO BUN
‘Where I’m From’, Kiko’s most recognisable song, initially jumps out as a straight-up reggae tune; yet it incorporates numerous influences from his hometown.
Kiko has stored London’s splattering of styles in his musical DNA ever since he was young. Growing up in North London, his first musical awakening was classical, before turning to salsa, hip hop and then reggae.
“I’ve been into music from a very young age. My dad played a lot of dub and rocksteady and rub-a-dub when I was growing up. But as I started to grow I got into classical music – I played the violin for numerous years, and when I got my grade 8 I was in the midst of this big hip hop phase. I started collecting a lot of blues records to sample, bought a PC and started making loads of old school beats. Towards the end of that I was deep in this big reggae phase.”
Then I joined a reggae band called general skank. We did loads of gigs, by the end of my time I had written about 7 reggae tunes of my own.
Since going solo under the Kiko Bun name, I’ve supported The Wailers which was amazing, been signed and appeared on This Is England 90 soundtrack reworking 54-46 was my number.
Today (the day of Madness announcing kiko for house of common) I was on The Robert elms show BBC London.
Sticky situation is my Latest single – check it out for the summer.
Kiko bun / Huck
TIME…
We bring this issue of the MIS to a close with details of another addition to the band’s gig line-up for 2016.
On Sunday 4th September Madness will be headlining the Jersey Live Festival, Jersey.
For those of you living away from the mainland, and on the Channel Islands, this could be a perfect opportunity for you to catch the band on your home turf! If you’ve never been to the Channel Islands before why not combine a stay to coincide with the concert?
Until next week, take care,
Jon Young, Rob Hazelby, Simon Roberts, Paul Williams
The Author
