Madpost May 1997
The Monthly Madpost
May 1997
Contents
| [1] Introduction – A few words about this month’s Madpost. |
| [2] The UK Madmeet – Find out just what went on! |
| [3] Channel Five – The new UK terrestrial channel gets some praise. |
| [4] Mad Ramblings from Jim Clauser – A Fictional Madmeet. |
| [5] Forthcoming SKA-Fest in Philly USA – May be of interest to the Stateside Maddies on the list. |
| [6] The Liquidator Tracks –Article by Bedders. |
| [7] Nut Inc #8 –Info on the latest issue of ‘Nut Inc’. |
| [8] Crunch Officially on the Internet – Here’s the details… |
| [9] Suggs’ Broken Arm – Chris Byrne is here with the info! |
| [10] Submission’s for June’s Madpost – Find out how you can help. |
[1] Introduction
Well April sure was a busy month, what with the UK Madmeet in Camden on the 19th, the news that Madness are looking into setting up and ‘official’ Madness site on the internet in the not too distant future, and a number of Maddies trying their hardest to arrange ANOTHER meet-up in Camden on May 3rd for the ‘Crunch!’ gig at the Dublin Castle!
Anyway, enough of me. I’ll let you get on and read one of the largest issues of the ‘Madpost’ yet – enjoy!
Robert.
[2] The UK Madmeet – April 19th 1997
Most of the Maddies were at the meeting point outside the station at around 11:30am. The only missing Madsters were Simon Roberts and Nathan Anderson. I was expecting Simon to be delayed as he suspected the trains may be problematic for him, but no one knew what Nathan was up to as we didn’t have his phone number.
After much waiting, Nathan arrived at just gone 12 noon but there was no sign of Simon. We all decided that we had to make a move as some people were getting restless. I managed to dive in a vacant phone box, leave a message on Simon’s answer phone and then the meet was on!
The first port of call was going to be ‘Holts Shoe Shop’ and a quick tearful glance at the closed ‘Rock On!’ as we walked past. This was not to be. For some god-like reason Rock On was open so we all poured into the shop intent on finding the Madness goodies.
Many of us found a few items to fill gaps in our collections. I bought a few 7 inches and a 12 inch, Ed bought a lovely wall hanging collection of 7 Madness singles and others also picked up Madness-related merchandise.
Once everyone had got what they wanted we all wandered next door to the almighty Holts to gaze in awe at the shop that started it all. If you’ve ever been into Holts you’ll know just how small the place is, so you can imagine that we had a little difficulty trying to fit in 18 Maddies. There were so many of us that some had to stay out in the porch!!
It was at this point that Simon Roberts decided to make his appearance, apologies for being late, and “hello’s”. We decided it was time to leave the shop when the nice chap behind the counter said that if we’d all seen enough would we mind leaving as he had money to make!
We all decided that the next destination should be the almighty Dublin Castle pub. Dominic and myself had to go visit the cashpoint so we told the rest of the gang that we’d make our own way there. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea so we split up and went our seperate ways.
Dominic knew exactly where the Dublin Castle was, and as soon as we’d finished with the cashpoint we went straight to it, wandered in only to be greeted to an empty room. On closer inspection the room wasn’t entirely empty, there was a middle-aged man sat down reading the paper and sipping a pint. “Hello there strangers” he said. “Come and and have a drink”. We decided that that was a good idea, wandered up to the bar, ordered and sat down.
“Where dya reckon they’ve got to?” said Dominic. “God knows” I replied, “Yvette was with them and she knows how to get here so I can’t understand why they’re not”. We decided not to worry and continued to sip our pints…
Five minutes later the rest of the party crashed in through the doors, said their “hiya’s” to the two of us and made straight for the bar. After a few questions Dominic and myself found out that the other group had got sidetracked and had wandered off to Arlington House in a sort of “not quite direct” way to the pub.
Simon leant over to me and said “That bloke.”, referring to the one reading the newspaper, “He looks like the bloke from the start of ‘My Girl’. I looked over, looked back and said “Naa, it can’t be”. The next thing we know is that Nathan is over chatting to him and it turns out that he IS the bloke from the video to “My Girl”!!!
Whilst everyone was listening to his slurred but fascinating stories invloving the lads the rest of us were off selecting the entire Divine Madness album on the jukebox or passing round the Madness memorabelia which consisted of a signed photo and a signed ice bucket in the shape of a top hat!!
At around 2pm everyone was starting to get hungry so we decided to wander over to the Spread Eagle for a pub lunch. As some Maddies were still sipping newly poured pints we split up again and the boozers (Nathan, Gaz and Simon) met us over there later.
After lunch it was off to joke shop featured in the House of Fun video so some Maddies could pick up a fez or two, followed by a visit Chalk Farm Station and Primrose Hill. Some of us decided to take the short walk from Camden Station to Chalk Farm whilst the slobs (joke) of the group took the tube to the next stop, re-enacting scenes from ‘Take it or Leave it’ as they went.
Eventually we all met up again at Chalk Farm Station, and many of the Maddies who hadn’t been there before couldn’t believe how small it was. After stopping for some group photo opportunities we then made the walk up to Primrose Hill. When we had all finally staggered to the top, Joe Skips got out his video camera to shoot some tape of the surrounding view and a bunch of boozed up Madsters. The rest of us were taking little notice. We were more intent on resting our legs and shouting things out to the kiddies playing with the kites.
After 20-30 minutes sat up in the cold we decided to force ourselves to wander back into Camden Town where we went back into the Dublin Castle. By this time most people there had had quite alot to drink and general info and mindless chat was swapped around and many people were setting each other daft questions which were impossible to answer unless you were completely daft, sad or just plain MAD!!! and that’s where everyone stayed until it was time for them to make tracks.
I’d like to thank everyone who made the effort to come to the (first of hopefully many!) Mailing List Meet in Camden Town. Special thanks for travelling LARGE distances to Joe Skips and his wife (from the USA), Suggselia (from Vienna) and Gaz (from Dublin).
The turnout was better than I expected with a massive 18 (I think!) Maddies turning up!
[3] Channel Five
Whoa, at the moment channel 5 is like a god send to us Suggs loving people. Not only do we have the brilliant Night Fever on Saturdays but I turned the TV on today and it was the Lord himself being interviewed on a daytime show called 5’s Company, so here are a few points from the interview:
Suggs said he realised that managing was not for him when the Farm rang him at four in the morning from France to ask him to arrange a van and then drive it down to them as their van crew had all left.
Suggs’ left arm is in plaster – wasn’t mentioned in the interview, anyone know how he did it ?
In answer to the school question – Suggs said whilst being brought up by his mother he moved around a lot and so went to many different schools. So he may have gone to both of those that were mentioned by the group.
Now for the biggy – NEW MATERIAL IS ON THE WAY!! – He said we will be hearing some new stuff soon, but he didn’t give any dates.
Cheers..
Steve.
[4] Mad Ramblings From Jim Clauser
Anyway, sit back and enjoy his mad wafflings about a fictional US Madmeet…
The rather sad looking group in black shirts stood near the entrance to the N Train at Coney Island. One man, obviously the leader of the group, was attempting to appease their impatience with a few jokes. Finally, one of the three women in the crowd spoke up:
“Look, if we have to listen to one more hideous pun I’m taking my sister and we’re leaving.”
She stood defiantly in front of the leader, her pony tail bopping back and forth as she expressed her anger.
The leader looked a little surprised at her outburst. He scanned the group and said, “Look I know we’re all anxious, but I’m telling you please be patient. He will be here at any any moment and then we can get started.”
Two of the men sat down on a broken down bench by the outside door. The women grabbed their purses and made their collective way to the ladies room. The leader put his hands in his pockets and looked expectantly at the subway stairs.
Suddenly another train came into view and the familiar whine of the car announced its arrival. The group leader nervously tapped his foot as the crowds of people poured out onto the platform. From the middle of the mass a young man with a black shirt appeared and began to walk down the steps.
He looked around and the group leader gave a little wave.
“Is this the Madmeet?”, the new arrival asked.
The group leader shook his hand. “Yes indeed. Listen, if you have a moment, I need to talk to you.”
He led the young man off to the side of the stairs.
“Ummm, we, that is I, actually, have a bit of a problem.”
The young man UN zipped his jacket. “Fire away mate.”
The leader’s voice went down a decibel. “Well, it is like this: you are the only Britisher of the group, and it, uh, was suggested that you, well…”
For the first time the young man looked a trifle annoyed. “That I what?”
The group leader lowered his voice a little more and leaned toward him. “We figure that maybe you wouldn’t mind, well it’s not easy to say.”
The young man’s eyes froze into an icy stare as he waited for the leader to get to the point. He was about to get his answer when the women returned from the bathroom. They spotted the leader with the new arrival and hurried over to them.
The girl with the pony tail was the first to speak.
“You’re here! Hey look everyone, it’s Suggs private secretary!”
The young mans mouth dropped open and the three women surrounded him, barraging him with questions. His eyes met the group leader’s and there was a look of confusion and a distinct amount of anger. The leader shrugged his shoulders and turned to the rest of the group which had scattered through out the terminal.
“All right everyone, why don’t we go outside and check out the board walk.”
The Madmeet group made their way to the front door and the women were chatting excidetly about the young man. The new arrival tapped on the leader’s shoulder and pulled him back.
“What gives?, he demanded.
The leader sheepishly looked at him. “Well, you WERE the only Britisher to attend today, and I thought that since England was so small to begin with, that it might make the day seem a little more legitimate if we had a Madness connection of some sort.”
“Legitimate? Connection? Bloody hell, what in god’s name am I supposed to say? That I know Thompson’s shoe size?”
“Suggs.”
“What?”
The leader buttoned his coat. “You’re supposed to be SUGGS secretary, not Thompson’s.”
The young man pulled out a cigarette. “Look, you are going to owe me, Big Time!” He made his way to the door. He turned around. “Well, are you coming, MR group leader?”
The leader smiled, “Well, there was one more thing.”
The young stood patiently with his hand on the doors metal bar. “Well, let’s have it then, am I supposed to be Christopher Lee’s nephew, or a missing member of Fun Boy Three?”
The leader pulled out a cigarette of his own and walked towards him.
“No, nothing so drastic. I happened to mention though, that the news of Benny Hill’s death might have been a bit exaggerated…”
He smiled again at the young man’s confused, angry face and proceeded to join the others on the board walk.
Jim Clauser
[5] Forthcoming SKA-Fest in Philly, USA
Since I didn’t make it to the Mad Meet in New York, I thought I’d extend the following invitation to all of you:
During the last week of June (date unknown as of now), I will be booking a ska show at the “Theatre of Living Arts” on South Street in Philadelphia. It currently features “The Upstanders”, from West Chester PA, “The B-3’s” from pittsburgh, and “The Toniks”, the list’s very own Chris (cmtst29+@pitt.edu) Taschner’s band, also from the Iron City. Tentative headliners are “The Scofflaws” or “The Pietasters”.
More details to come as they are finalized, but anyone that wants to make it to the show, consider yourself on the guest list.
stay rude,
Lesley (starebox@aol.com)
[6] The Fabled Liquidator Tracks
However whilst I have been swapping mails with Mark I thought I’d use the opportunity and help the Maddies who mentioned the “Liquidator Tracks” by asking Mark to tell us the story behind them.
Take it away Mark..
Oh, by the way, ‘The Ghost of Reverend Greene’ made me howl with laughter. I spoke to Chris about this because I had forgotten about the song Mainly because it never really made it on to tape in that form.
What you have is a very rough draft of a song that Lee wrote. When we were writing, any old lyrics were thrown on top of melodies just to sketch a song out. I’m sure that odd lines were used were used elsewhere but, more importantly, the melody was probably coupled with other lyrics to make a new song! An example of this was ‘House of Fun’ which was originally called ‘The Chemist Façade’.
Lee started with a rough outline for the story of the song. This included ‘Good morning Miss; Can I help you , son?’ but no ‘Welcome to the House of Fun’; this was added much later in the studio.
I think that the line came out of a discussion that he and Suggs had about another song Chris also said – and I’ll come clean here – that he thinks that Thommo put the lyrics into the comic just to fill an empty page! Ooops!
I do remember some of the other songs: ‘Perfect Place’ was a real favourite of mine. We did it, with a drum machine, on the Red Wedge tour (without Woody and Mike). It was quite close to something like ‘Yesterdays Men’. It did get recorded but was never used on any album. (That I don’t know why?).
‘The Liquidator Demo Tracks’, were about 16 songs (I think) in various states that were recorded for album which was to follow ‘Mad Not Mad’. As you know things fell apart around that time. Some of the songs were used on ‘The Madness” album. Once again the final versions might of had different titles I’ll have to have a think!
So, from this very long message, we wish you goodnight.
regards, Mark
[7] Nut Inc #8
For the first time in a long time I’m back on the list !
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it so far, but issue 8 of Nut Inc, the excellent Madness fanzine finally arrived at my house yesterday. This is the bloody Xmas issue !!
Anyway, it’s a very god read, and lists the missing tracks which would have comprised the follow-up album to Mad Not Mad. Tracks include “Ghost of Reverend Greene”, “Alligator With A Stanley Knife”, “It’s For The Best”, as well as quite a few which went on to appear on The Madness.
I’m curious to know if anyone on the list heard these tracks live, possibly on the Mad Not Mad tour. If so, any opinions ???
Here is the address for Nut Inc… I think it costs about 2.50 per issue, and the current issue is 32 pages long (including glossy cover !!!)
The address is :
| Nut Inc., |
| Stuart Wright, |
| 15A Clarence Street, |
| Southend, |
| Essex, |
| SS1 1BN, |
| ENGLAND |
TTFN,
Paul
[8] Crunch Officially on the Internet
Sit back and enjoy this article from Chris Carter-Pegg…
Dear all,
I received a letter in the post this morning from Mr Chrissy-Boy Foreman (sorry to name drop so severely). Among other things he informed me that Crunch (Lee & Chris’ band, formerly known as The Nutty Boys) were now officially on the net, and so I thought this might be of interest;
They can be found on:
http://www.majic.co.jp/livehouse/london/cgi-bin/livemaker.cgi?who=Crunch
What is contained is the full length live audio recording of their last Dublin Castle gig as well as live video footage of them playing the tracks ‘Here He Comes’, ‘Magic Carpet’ and ‘Birthday Girl’.
Unfortunately I don’t have the technological facilities to appreciate either of these delights, but its worth a visit anyway, even if just to vote for them (for what ever good that does).
So anyway, have fun and if you haven’t yet seen Crunch playing live (where have you been for the past seven years!), they will hopefully be playing at The Dublin Castle on May 3rd. (tel: 0171 485 1773)
All the nutty best,
CHRIS
[9] Suggs’ Broken Arm
Saw this in yesterday’s News of the World:
“FORMER Madness frontman Suggs ruined his family’s ski holiday. They all had to come home after just TWO days because he broke his arm in a fall on the slopes.
Suggs says: ‘I hadn’t been skiing for about five years. The last thing I heard before my accident was my kids shouting ‘Dad, dad, don’t!’ Then I disappeared over a small precipice that I hadn’t seen.”
Chris
[10] Submissions for June’s Madpost
Stay nutty,
Robert
The Author
