It’s time to raid those bank accounts and make some additions to your wardrobe. Why? Well, this week the official Madness Online Store began one of the best offers it’s ever held.
What’s the offer? The offer currently running has ALL T-shirts listed for a mere £10. Yes, you read that correctly; £10!
We can only assume the band are trying to clear down the stock levels in preparation of the next batch of T-shirt designs that will no doubt surface in the run-up to the Madness Weekender in Minehead and this year’s Christmas tour.
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.
1st – Suggs & Friends – Porchester Hall, London. Annual Charity show for Pancreatic Cancer UK
2nd Kings Lynn, Corn Exchange
3rd Crawley, The Hawk Theatre
4th Bury St Edmunds, Apex
5th Stafford, Gatehouse Theatre
7th Glasgow, Pavillion – rescheduled date
Lee Thompson in Conversation
Sunday November 11th – The Big One 7 – Parkdean Sandford Dorset
“Meet the Legendary Sax man” at this QnA musical career discussion event.
The Silencerz
Saturday 22nd December, The Dublin Castle, Camden. No Lee, as this is the date of the Brighton Madness gig.
Buy It
All Madness T-Shirts £10 on the Official Store ** New **
All Madness T-shirts are currently £10 over on the official Madness store. We assume this is to clear out old stock in readiness for the forthcoming Madness Weekender in Minehead and the Christmas tour in December. Don’t delay, these are bound to sell quickly: https://madness-uk.myshopify.com/
A brief advanced warning that we will be scaling down the Retro-Madness shop from midday this Wednesday, for potentially about 5 weeks. The shop will still be open for these 5 weeks but with only approx 100 different items available instead of the usual 3000! Similarly our Ebay listings will also be scaled down from 1000 to 100 over the same period. From mid November we will be mainly focussing on the stock that we will be taking to our pop-up shop in Minehead at the end of November. So it’s possible that after this Wednesday we may not make the full range of 3000+ items available again until December.
“After a bit of messing about…”, says the new advert for Suggs Movie DVD of his One Man Show, which now has a new release date of November 2018. This opening line is the admission that a delayed March release, a lack of updates before August 10th, and a rejig of both the pledge campaign account and the team behind the release have all taken place.
Now that the Pledge is relaunched though with a new release date of November, and with a fresh launch event to take place at the Pleasance Theatre in London we feel that now is the time to add this back in to our regular “Buy It” section.
Lee ‘Kix’ Thompson is a most unlikely character. Early career choices had him spend a year in Borstal. He still hasn’t found the receipt for his first saxophone. Luckily, he met two other unlikely characters: Mike ‘Barso’ Barson and ‘Chrissy Boy’ Foreman, who shared his interests of graffiti, train hopping and music.
One Man’s Madness, a feature length rocku-docu-mockumentary directed by Jeff Baynes, tells the story of Madness saxophonist Lee Thompson, told by Lee and his fellow Madness band mates, his family, friends and musicologists, who strangely all look a little like him! From meeting Barso and Chrissy Boy, and later Suggs, Chas, Woody and Bedders, to becoming one of Britain’s most iconic and successful bands, this joyous and light-hearted film follows the path of Lee’s life through his lyrics and songs, including such Madness classics as The Prince, Embarrassment, House Of Fun, Lovestruck and NW5.
Two CD set. Original soundtrack to the 2018 documentary about Madness saxophonist Lee Thompson. Includes tracks from Madness, Crunch, ‘Thommosina Leigh’, Ian Dury, and the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra. Including Hidden Tracks. New Mad store T-shirts & Madshorts
Further New T-shirts are now in stock for the summer. Including Madness Shorts as this hot weather continues to encourage getting your legs out. The recent Stately Holmes tour T-shirt is now in stock on line. A rather fetching Lady Killers poster of the old Ealing comedy about a gang of roguish bank robbers, re done with Madness heads taken from old shut up artwork and repurposed nicely in this fitting parody. A fetching Morris Minor car picture harking back to Driving in My Car video and the Mad 7 number plate, with the paraphrase lyrics from Muswell Hill to Selsey Bill! Check out the Madstore now.
Danceable and delightful, this debut album of the band’s much loved original songs pushes on through, breaking the mould of standard ska cover band. Catchy tunes and powerful brass and rhythm section make this a must-listen. Featuring Lee Thompson.
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: 753 – Sunday 13th October to Saturday 19th October 2013
It seemed that there was no stopping those Magic Brothers. In the latest edition of The Mail on Sunday Woody and Nick could be found in the Sunday Health section of the paper discussing the often misunderstood subject of mental health.
Lyn Lawlor got in touch to tells us that Woody would soon be appearing on her Brother’s Croydon Radio show. Naturally, we promised tol have more details on this as soon as they surfaced.
The Magic Brothers partnership seemed to be doing a number of amazing things. On the one hand it was giving us Madness fans an opportunity to listen to some fantastic new music, and on the other it was enabling Woody and Nick to raise awareness of mental health issues; a subject often swept under the carpet.
With a number of excellent TV and magazine spots under their belts over recent weeks and months we were certain that although there was still much to do considerable progress in educating the general public about mental health issues had been made.
On to gig news, and we were pleased to reveal three new Deaf School events in October. They;They’d be appearing at a book launch on Friday 18th at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, at an exhibition on the 19th at the Liverpool John Moores Universits, and at a talk on Wednesday 23rd. This was as well as performing four gigs this month. A busy few weeks for them!
Moving on, and it was over to Paul Rodgers with an MIS Feature covering the recent Take it or Leave it Re-Issue. Paul’s piece was up to his usual detailed and lengthy standards, and after a glowing write-up he finished by saying;
“Sit back, watch and listen. It’ll be a hell of a lot more fun than reading a biography of the band and it might also show the kids that the X Factor is not the only road to success. All they then have to do is decide whether to take it or leave it…”
Next, it was over to our Live and Intensified section where we had a fantastic review by Daren West or the Lee Thompon gig held on the 4th October in St Albans. Following this, we had a short report and tracklisting from Jacek Gajewski, who attended Madness’ recent gig in Duesseldorf. It was estimated that Madness performed to an audience of approximately 30,000!
In our Tweets of a Dove, we featured several tweets from the one and only Carl, who spoke of his recently released track “Goodbye Planet Earth”, and of performing at Festival Number 6.
Over in Sign of the Times it was back to the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra as the Get Out Gigging web site reviewed the band’s recent gig at Concorde 2, Brighton, on Wednesday 2nd October. The reviewer finished their review with one word; “Awesome”.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that on October 30th, Koast Train Radio would be interviewing the legendary Clive Langer. Meanwhile, in re-issue news, Paul Rodgers informed us that the Take it or Leave it re-issue had entered the main charts at number 77 and at 16 in the indie charts. Apparently, it was the 26th Madness release to reach the top 100 for at least one week.
10 years ago…
Issue 493 – Sunday 12th October to Saturday 18th October 2008
Following last week’s official Madness email post which left people wondering if another Madstock was in the planning fans were left non the wiser this week when a follow-up email continued to be just as cryptic. Part of the message read;
“It may appear as if not all that much is going on right now. Beware of appearances, they can be deceptive!
You’ve waited this long… and your wait is almost over.
There will be an official announcement soon and to follow that, a storm of activity spanning the length and breadth of 2009… anniversary year!”
If we heard anything further (and with some actual detail!) we promised to let you know.
On to Suggs next, and section three of this issue featured an interview Suggs conducted with Fast Show creator Charlie Higson. Before he started in the successful sketch show and sitcom spin off Charlie Higson was a 2tone music star whose band’s rarities are still released on Sartorial today by Terry Edwards. Here Suggs reminisced with Charlie about those days.
Next, and following our heads-up in issue 484 we brought you the news that Ian Dury would be being portrayed in a brand new play based on conversations with Spider Rowe, his road manager.
‘ABFCAP! The Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury’, would be at The Courtyard Theatre in London with performances running from 25/11/2008 until 14/12/2008, at 19.30, with an extra 22.00 show on Fridays and Saturdays.
Moving on, and a month back we’d kicked-off a competition to give you a chance to win a copy of Record Collector Magazine that included our small review of Hackney. We were now able bring you news of the winner, who was non other than Owen Collins.
Elsewhere we had news of a new documentary series featuring the one and only Suggs . Entitled Suggs’ Italian Job, this was an 8 x 30 minute series from Wavelength Films in which Suggs traveled in a classic Mini to take in the lakes and mountains of the north all the way to the southern coast.
Suggs’ grand tour would take him to the world famous cities of Milan, Venice, Rome, Florence and Naples and through the spectacular landscapes which have inspired many artists.
He would also make regular detours along the way, straying off the beaten track to discover unfamiliar places with surprising stories to reveal. This new series would appear on the Sky Arts channel in the autumn.
We brought this issue to a close by listing the last two dates of the Madness Musical stageshow, and urged you to go and see it as this could be the last chance you got to see it.
15 years ago…
Issue 230 – Sunday 12th October to Saturday 18th October 2003
Over the past few months the Madness fanbase had been moaning that at every live appearance for the past 10 years they’d been treated to pretty much the same `greatest hits` run through, with barely a nod to the excellent non-single tracks the lads had produced.
Well, it seemed as if the moaning had finally paid off, as this post on the official Madness web site would seem to indicate;
“Xmas Tour Song suggestions
Various members of the group Madness have put forward a novel idea of working in some obscure album tracks for the forthcoming U.K. tour.
As there are so many to choose from, we just can’t make up our pretty little minds so, to start the ball rolling we thought we’d ask you-the paying punter.
Just put the name of the song in ‘SUBJECT’ & a justifiable reason for why you feel we should unleash/perform the proposed work of art to an unsuspecting audience.
ASAP please, as the process takes a hell of a lot of Hard Mental Graft”.
Moving on, and news in from Madness Trading Ring co-maintainer, Steve Bringe was that the Barson/Langer/Winstanley collaboration with No Doubt, on the song “Everything In Time” was finally being released.
The track would be appearing on a No Doubt four-disc Deluxe Box Set, entitled Boom Box. In stores on November 25, brings together The Singles 1992-2003; Everything In Time (B-Sides, Rarities, Remixes) a CD that includes seven previously unreleased tracks, and two DVDS.
Back to a more Madness-related note now, and it would seem that ticket sales for the forthcoming Christmas tour were going far better than expected, as a further date had been added to the already impressive line-up.
The extra date would be on Tuesday the 9th of December at Wembley Arena, which would bring the tour to an eight concert stretch. The full tour now looked like this:
Monday 8th Wembley Arena London
Tuesday 9th Wembley Arena London
Thursday 11th Sheffield Hallam FM Arena
Saturday 13th Telewest Arena Newcastle
Sunday 14th SECC Glasgow
Tuesday 16th Brighton Centre
Wednesday 17th Arena Cardiff
Thursday 18th NEC Birmingham
With the latest issue of Record Collector magazine featuring a large article covering The Old Grey Whistle Test, MIS co-editor, Jonathan Young thought it was about time we took a look at all the times Madness had appeared on the show, along with the tracks played (if possible).
It was a busy week for Jonathan, as he’d not only worked on the Whistle Test article, but had also found time to review the latest CD from Madness Tribute band “Shut Up”. This disc contained a selection of covers from our favourite London group, plus a number of original tracks penned by the band.
Jonathan finished off his review with the following comments;
“No escaping some of the amateur approach about this CD, but overall great to hear a tribute act doing original songs in a Madness style. Most interesting indeed and I’m told oddly enough that “Shut up” is actually not one of the tracks in their set.”
We finished this issue off by urging the MIS readership to get on over to the official Madness web site with their list of suggestions for underplayed Madness songs that they’d like to hear performed during this year’s Christmas tour.
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature
House of Festival Fun
The latest poster for the House of fun Weekender turns the early advent December end date that touches this year’s weekend into a Christmas House of Fun for the start of this year’s Christmas tour. The poster comes complete with baubles, holly sprigs and present wrapping ribbons.
It’s Christmasssssss. Or HOFmas as fans have called it before as it’s a Christmas come early feeling anyway.
Lucky bag is this years Friday set. Which promises a Christmas tune (Most likely that Slade classic they are riffing on on the poster, previously a Suggs Night Fever turn) and a collection of rare Madness tunes and unique covers.
This year they are letting you comment on their social media posts and promise ONE song will be chosen from fan suggestions.
Already a wide variety of choices are coming in, from obscure forgotten “Culture Vulture”, to wide of the mark covers like “Smells like teen spirit” weirdly obvious hits “Baggy trousers” (we think some people are joking), repeats of previous HOF rarities like “Sunshine voice”.
Two songs requested a few multiple times are emerging “Deceives the eye” which is surely the earliest on record track that hasn’t yet been played live again since the 80’s (and we are sure Lee could manage to cover the coppers voice parts).
Secondly calls for “Ain’t no pleasing you” as fans see a tribute to Chas Hodges of Chas and Dave passing.
With Suggs solo touring there is surely plenty more time to chip in and suggest songs before the band reach decisions and rehearsals on this. So put your thinking caps on.
It also confirmed now by the poster that Daka Skank a Brighton energetic ska band are joining the line up, and it newly announces Reece as returning. The band fronted by ex-ska orchestra member Darren Fordham once reformed to play a previous House of Fun some years ago with MIS, and are now back in the main line up. Be sure to check them out.
Our own MIS presents strand this year takes place Friday in Jaks from 10pm with D.M. Street. The Launchers. DJ Swanny (with guest Andy Keys Clark) and ends with Mandy Boybandy.
The Simmertones play Friday, the Inflatables play Saturday. Both are now mainstage.
Also on Saturday are Tankus the Henge. The Silencerz play on Sunday, rounding out a fun weekend and there is a ton more entertainment to check out.
We also have a little Saturday morning entertainment to tell you a little more about so look out for that in a future issue.
Jonathan Young
The Specials – An Update
Great News for Specials Fans
The new album is at the final mix mastering stage. A fabulous collection of politics, life stories and personal tales. Imagine where the band should have gone after More Specials.
This is The Specials with a lifetime of life experience behind them. Album will be out Feb 1st 2019 as they celebrate their 40th Anniversary.
Are shows planned? YES. Hold onto your hats… More news end of month.
Paul Willo
Time
This week Lee Thompson tells us he has been chatting to an author who is interviewing people for a book covering the music of 1979. We expect that it’s going to print for next year what with it being a whopping 40 years since. If so, we’ll let you know more when the new reaches us.
And finally…
If you want to waste your eyes why not watch this week’s low point – Suggs on celebrity juice. We can’t even be bothered to fetch you a link for this poor man’s Shooting Stars on ITV2 that features Suggs in a rug.
