We trust you all had an enjoyable new year’s eve and are now poised for what 2019 and the 40th anniversary year of Madness may hold.
With such a landmark year ahead we have no doubt that there’s going to be a lot going on. We’ll try our very best to keep you up-to-date with developments, but we also recommend you sign-up on the official Madness web site, to be amongst the first to know when something’s announced.
Simply point your web browser over to https://www.madness.co.uk/MadnessXL/ and submit your email address. Within a few seconds you’ll find a confirmation email in your mailbox. Click on the link in the email to complete your registration.
2019 is also a special year for the MIS as this marks our twentieth anniversary! Issue one of the MIS blasted forth across the vast expanse of the internet on Sunday 23rd May 1999. If this wasn’t enough, 2019 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the release of the much-loved “Wonderful” album. While “Wonderful” reached an impressive number 17 in the album chart it’s first single, “Lovestruck” reached number 10 in the singles chart, giving the band their first top ten single since 1983!
Back to this week’s issue, and if you watched Madness’ new year’s eve performance in London, either on the BBC or in person, you couldn’t have failed to have noticed a cardboard cutout of Mr. Bean in the crowd and on stage. Our MIS Feature this week reveals just who was responsible for smuggling him in!
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.
The idea is a simple one, that came to us one evening back in July.
Bands as Football Teams, Football Teams as Bands.
We now have over 400 badges, working with friends and guest designers, setting up an exhibition at The National Football Museum in Manchester https://bandsfc.com/”
Bands FC have given a large number of badges to the band to give away on the Sound of Madness tour. So, if you’re buying something before or after one of the gigs don’t forget to pick up your free badge.
New Arrivals at The Madstore
If you missed the House Of Fun or you need another fix get your hands on the event range NOW at The MAD STORE with 20% OFF whilst stocks last!
NEW STOCK JUST LANDED!
2018 Christmas Sweaters, track jackets, polos, fez hats, tea towels, badge sets, dekker hats, beanie hats the list goes on….!
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.
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: 765 – Sunday Sunday 5th January Saturday 11th January 2014
A fair number of you managed to catch the band when they brought in the new year over in Dublin as part of a live concert held in the capital. Reviews from a couple of subscribers were featured in this week’s Live Intensified section, so, if you were unable to get along these should have helped to fill in that void for you.
Sadly the turn of the new year didn’t just bring rave reviews of an appearance by the band, it also brought news of a pub closure in Camden.
Yes, The Crown and Goose, a legendary Madness drinking hole on Arlington Road, finally held its final p*ss up, on new years eve, before the goose was cooked and the crown dislodged.
The doors were now closed and the wrecking ball of development now loomed. It was the Camden pub Madness didn’t so much shout about, but a place Suggs had been drinking in since aged 16, and the site of many a pished Madness plan being hatched, or victory celebrated.
Bye, bye birdie. RIP.
On to gig news, and rumours reached us that there may be a number of Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra gigs due to take place around mark. This would coincide with their single release. Southend had been mentioned, but this was the only information we’d received at this point.
Our MIS Feature this week covered the forthcoming Specialized 3 Mad Not Cancer album, which was due to be released on the 23rd June. In this update the one and only Dave Wakeling from The English Beat was here to give us the latest on this forthcoming charity fundraising release.
Elsewhere in this issue, we had the second part of our lookback at 2013, which this time covered May to August, and in our outdo subscriber Darren Fordham was here with details of how you could get your hands on a pair of shoes signed by the entire band.
10 years ago…
Issue 505 – Sunday 4th January to Saturday 10th January 2009
News had been reduced to a mere trickle over the past few days but this didn’t come as too much of a surprise as things normally tailed off in the world of Madness for a couple of weeks after Christmas.
Thankfully, this didn’t mean our issue was a short one – far from it, in fact. We had detailed thoughts and opinions of the recent O2 gig from subscribers Kris and Tony, kicked off our second part of our lookback at 2008, and we also gave you the heads-up on a number of Crunch related videos that had recently been uploaded to YouTube.
If that little lot still wasn’t enough we had the full transcript of MIS Online’s interview held with Suggs at one of this year’s Hackney gigs, a previously unpublished (in the MIS) article from the Racing Post, and we finished off with a journey back to 2004 to report on what was going on in the world of Madness half a decade ago.
15 years ago…
Issue 243 – Sunday 4th January to Saturday 10th January 2004
We kicked off our first issue of the year with not one, but two exclusives.
First-up, we had an interview with Terry Edwards. Terry was one of the backing brass players during the 2003 Christmas tour, and he kindly took time out of his busy schedule to reveal just what it was like to go on tour with Madness, and the kind of preparation involved.
Terry was also kind enough to tell us about his next project, and how you could get hold of it, 4 weeks before the official release date.
One draw of this was that the release featured a brand new Butterfield 8 track.
We weren’t even a full week into the new year, and already rumours were flying around the net as to what Madness would do in 2004 to celebrate their 25th birthday. One rumour stated that The Specials and Bad Manners had been approached with regards to supporting the band, and that they were thinking of staging a 25th anniversary 2-tone tour.
Elsewhere, and rumours were circulating that the band were planning to undertake a continental tour. It looked as if the fans were in for one heck of a year!
Moving on, and we kept with tradition, and started our lookback of the previous year, with the first 6 months of 2003. For those who found that the booze they’d wolfed down during the holiday season dulled their memory somewhat this lookback would no doubt prove an excellent tool for jogging the old grey matter.
We finished off this issue with the worrying news reporting that the godfather of Ska, Laurel Aitken had been taken ill early in December, and the prognosis was not good. The doctors were far from optimistic regarding his condition. Rather than give false hope, they explained that he could die at any time.
Unfortunately, Laurel’s financial situation was also precarious. For years, he’d been playing shows all over the world in order to provide for his family, and along the way had passed through many a seedy dressing room unbecoming an artist of his stature and 76 years of age. Obviously, in his current condition Laurel was no longer able to support his family, leaving only the scant royalties he earned from the few songs actually credited to him.
On Saturday 3rd January a benefit gig was held at Club Ska, Rayners Lane, (North West) London to raise money for Laurel and his family.
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature
Happy New Year Mr. Bean
“You can shove off Mr Bean, you’re freaking me out” [G McPherson 31.12.18]
…a group of lads had a day on the town, a bit of a pub crawl, they purchased Mr Bean early on in proceedings for £30 and took photos with him around London during the day.
They got him to the bar area before the gig but then lost him.
Another group found him and tried to get him into the main hall, the BBC were having none of it and security put him aside out of sight.
Naturally this then became my challenge for the night so I grabbed Bean from where he had been hidden and took him to a different entrance.
I waited for security to be distracted, checking the tickets of another group, to seize my moment of making a run for it with him into the crowd.
Whilst the warm up guy was on stage I kept him out of sight, fearing some BBC guy would probably have him ejected (he didn’t have a ticket for the gig after all).
[MIS Note: And MR Bean was an ITV sitcom BBC was more Blackadder!]
So he didn’t first make a public appearance in the main hall until Driving in My Car and Tomorrow’s Just Another Day, (Played before the broadcast) where Suggs was visibly quite distracted by him yet also clearly quite entertained by him at the same time.
He commented on a couple of occasions “You can shove off Mr Bean, you’re freaking me out”.
Steve Chapman and myself then hatched a plan to let Bean do a bit of crowd surfacing, we decided to wait until Baggy Trousers, being a suitably lively track to make a difference to the day.
I knew that he would sink or swim, those in front of us would either drop him to the floor or join in the fun. Gladly everyone joined in and Suggs beckoned him onto the stage.
The torso is now all that remains of him and he will now join my growing collection of “props made famous on Madness concerts broadcast on BBC1!”
We’re almost done for this week, but before we go we’d like to pass you over to Paul Rodgers who sent in this little snippet;
“Well done to Madness whose budget album The Very Best Of Madness has now been certified as silver (not multi-platinum). According to the BPI website this album was released on 1 Jan 1753 and had sold 60,000 copies by 28 December 2018.”
We have a feeling their stated launch date may be a little off!
And finally, on a non Madness related note, but something many of you will be very interested in, we urge you to check out the new lyric video to the brand new Specials track “Vote for me”:
