The “Past Present Future” banner for Madness at the end of their XL year has helped sell out three nights at The Roundhouse in Camden. Not only that, but it’s given us a teaser of new track “Before We was We” on the videos of lampposts being fly-stickered.
With the book of the same name coming out officially in stores next week expect activity and promotion to ramp up with more surprises on the way. We’lll be giving away a copy to one of our lucky readers next week as the multiple MIS XX give-aways continue.
This week, Bedders Tweeted “Don’t watch that watch this… Everywhere”, under the Past Present Future banner. We’ve a strong feeling there’s more Past Future Presents to come as we reach the anniversary of the One Step Beyond LP later this month.
Mark revealed that Ian Wright who designed the Grey Day sleeve is the designer responsible for the teaser “Past Present Future” design. He finished by adding “Keep an eye out for more of this…”
And finally, before we move on, continuing with their string of sell-out dates, we learned this week that the band’s “Before we was we” book signing session at Rough Trade East on 10th October has now sold out. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket then please write in telling us what the event was like,
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.
TWO TONE RECORDS was created in 1979 by The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The label spawned a youth movement and a number of well-known artists and singles through its tenure including the aforementioned Specials with key singles ‘Gangsters’, the UK Number singles ‘Too Much Too Young’ and ‘Ghost Town’. They also helped launch the careers of Madness with ‘The Prince’, The Beat with ‘Tears of A Clown’, The Selecter with ‘On My Radio’ and The Bodysnatchers with ‘Let’s Do Rocksteady’ (The Bodysnatchers). The label ended its chart run of singles with ‘Nelson Mandela’ by The Special AKA.
This 40th Anniversary 7” Collection has been curated by Jerry Dammers, selecting his favourite 12 singles released on the label between 1979 and 1984.
– Presented with their original sleeve designs in a bespoke 1960’s style carry case
– A Bespoke Two Tone 7” slip mat
– 7” Art Card signed by Jerry Dammers.
Nick Woodgate’s “The Music” CD Album
Due to popular demand Nick’s new album is now available to purchase on CD. Priced at a mere £5 including U.K. shipping, this is an absolute bargain!
Celebrating 40 Years Of Madness – The 1979 Retro Range (Plus new T-shirts)
This Limited Edition MADNESS XL 40th Anniversary TOOTAL Scarf is now available @ The MADSTORE!
When Madness decided to celebrate their 40th Anniversary of entertaining the British Public, by launching a Strictly Limited-Edition Silk Scarf, teaming up with iconic British Accessories brand Tootal was the obvious choice.
Using Tootal’s centuries of Silk Scarf expertise and heritage within the Ska scene, the Band was instrumental in the design process, incorporating the unmistakable Madness logo with a nod to their truly outstanding 40th Anniversary.
Taking inspiration from their archives, Tootal took vintage styling and added Madness’ flamboyance into the Design.
This unique collaboration piece by Tootal for Madness is made from luxurious pure silk.
Before We Was We: The Making of Madness by Madness
The band’s first official book.
The story of how they became them. It’s a journey full of luck, skill and charm, as they duck and dive by day and make the name in London’s exploding music scene by night, zipping around the capital in their Morris Minor vans. Their formative years, 1970-79.
This is the riotous coming-of-age tale of seven unique individuals, whose collective graft, energy and talent took them from the sweaty depths of the Hope and Anchor basement to the Top of the Pops studio. In their own words, they each look back on their past and how during those shared adventures, they formed a bond that’s lasted forty years. Before We Was We is irreverent, funny and full of character. Just like them.
This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby goes back in time to report on what was going on in the world of Madness 5, 10, 15 and 20 years ago this week.
5 years ago…
Issue Number 804 – Sunday 5th October to Saturday 11th October 2014
The House of fun weekender was just 7 weeks away, and this week Madness confirmed that their alter egos The Dangermen and The Invaders would perform on the Friday night.
The announcement was made official in an amusing video of Suggs in the shower, with a short clip of them playing “Girl” while soundchecking at the previous weeks 02 appearance.
Excitement was now building. A triple whammy of Madness bands!
Return of The Dangermen And The Invaders!
Moving on and in Sign of the Times we featured a huge write-up of the recent Silencerz gig at The Kings Head, courtesy of subscriber Daren West. If you’d been unable to get along then Daren’s lowdown would have given you a very good idea of just what went on and what tracks were aired.
Next, and in a special “MIS Presents” article we revealed our plans for the MIS Present stage show at the forthcoming Madness Weekender in Minehead. We were thrilled to welcome back The Inflatables, and also welcome two other bands in the form of Swagga and Reece.
Elsewhere, and we were pleased to welcome back the one and only Paul Rodgers as he reviewed the the One Step Beyond 35th anniversary CD/DVD package. After a multiple page review Paul finished off by confirming that this was a very worthwhile re-issue.
10 years ago…
Issue Number 544 – Sunday 4th October – Saturday 10th October 2009
This week’s issue was a packed one, and this was down to our two guest writers Jonathan Young and Paul Rodgers.
Jonathan made a welcome return to the MIS with an absolutely massive review of what was the soon to be released Thirty Years of Madness Tribute Album, while Paul was back with yet another one of his Madness chart lowdowns – this week was one of his most in-depth and detailed yet!
We got the issue underway with Jonathan’s track-by-track review of the Madness Tribute album. The article was huge, and must have taken him weeks and weeks to put together. If you were still undecided about the album before reading the article you certainly knew, one way or the other, after reading it, if the album was for you or not.
Next, it was over to the Current Movie Reviews web site who reported on Madness’ recent performance on Regent Street;
“Concert goers got to enjoy a 45 minute set featuring some of Madness’s greatest hits including, Our House, One Step Beyond, and It Must Be Love. Another treat for the audience was Suggs daughters, Scarlett and Viva who had the crowd going wild.
Suggs showed how great a father he was when asked about his daughter’s career. He said, “This is the biggest gig they’ve ever done. I try to keep them out of the showbiz world. They aren’t part of the famous kids set. They all have degrees and proper jobs. I’ve made them do the music in their spare time.”
Madshop news followed, as the music store branch of the Madness web site announced the forthcoming release of the One Step Beyond digi-pack, due for release on the 26th October. The article contained a brief lowdown of the album content and included web links where you could buy the CD online plus links to a new One Step Beyond T-shirt should you not already have enough Madness related clothing in your collection.
Moving on, and we stumbled upon Paul Rodger’s Madness Musings in which he dished out a massive lowdown of Madness chart stats, facts and figures. You’d struggle to find a more detailed set of Madness chart information anywhere else on the web.
We brought this issue to a close with a plug from Mark Adamson, asking if we could point you all in the direction of his fantastic Deaf School web site, and linked to a download of the audio from Madness’ recent Regent Street performance. For bootleg collectors this was a must.
15 years ago…
Issue Number 282 – Sunday 3rd October – Saturday 9th October 2004
Following a number of packed issues of the MIS, this weeks was one of the smallest we’d had in a long time. So short in fact, that with the intro and outro it consisted of only 4 sections!
Although this was a short issue the intro was a real lengthy affair, consisting of news of some Suggs spotting at a recent Ray Davies play at The Bloomsbury Theatre, a new competition being run by Warrior Clothing, and news that North London’s MOT would be travelling to the West Country the following July, to appear at The South Cotswold Beer Festival. If the wait until July 2005 was too much for you, you could catch the band at their next gig which would take place on the 23rd of October where they would be supporting the More Specials at The Standard Music Venue.
Moving on, and we had news in, courtesy of Birchy, that 101cd.com were selling a Divine Madness and Take it or Leave it in a deluxe 2 DVD box set, and also a 2 CD box set containing Complete Madness and Utter Madness. The sets were priced at £19.99 and £8.95 respectively.
Next-up, and we passed things over to Mr. Smash who explained that he had to be careful with what information he passed on to us as Chrissy Boy got the hump if he released too many details before they appeared on the official site. However, he was able to reveal that some members of the band had already been busy writing the next pieces of original Madness material, but that we shouldn’t hold our breath as to when it would see the light of day.
20 years ago…
Issue Number 20 – Sunday 3rd October to Saturday 9th October 1999
The release date for `Wonderful` seemed to be getting just that bit closer as each day went by. Cathal, Bedders and a number of news bulletin’s declared that the new album would be hitting the shelves of a music store near you on Monday 25th of October, one week after the release of `Johnny The Horse`.
However, the market had to be just right before a new album hits the shelves of record stores, and so it probably came as no surprise to learn that the release date had been put back yet again. This time to the 1st of November.
It’d been a busy week for Madness with the DM signing and Camden gig on Thursday and on the 2nd the boys ventured up to Sheffield to play a selection of live tracks which were captured by Radio 2. The tracks played were: Lovestruck, Johnny The Horse, My Old Man, Drip Fed Fred, It Must be Love, and One Step Beyond.
Most of this weeks’ issue seemed to be filled with the text from just two massive articles, the first, a massive transcription from The Daily Express Magazine kindly typed-up by the one and only Iain Mason, and a lengthy blow-by-blow account of the Madness Covent Garden appearance and subsequent drunken Madmeet by Vince Foley.
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature
One Step Downunder
Tribute band One Step Behind, the masters of Madness are jetting off this December to play a tour Down Under.
The band are taking in all the major population centres on a 9 date run, including two dates at Brisbane zoo. Monkeying around Madness music. Wonder if they will play Tarzan’s nuts?
Now, you lovely readers who are sadly so far away from Madness past present future Camden, can enjoy a slice of the band’s music live, in the capable hands of the longest running carbon copy. Happy 40th to some of these tunes that went beyond. If you’re in OZ looking to dance during the XL year then here are the all important dates.
December 2019
Wed 11th NZ, Auckland, Tuning Fork (SORRY SOLD OUT)
Madness frontman Suggs talks to Steve and the team about the band’s first official book ‘Before We Was We’. Plus there’s Factoids, Non-Stop Oldies and the latest entertainment and lifestyle news.
Time
This just about brings this week’s issue of the MIS to a close.
If you do manage to get along to see the band at the Cheltenham Literary Festival question and answer session on the 8th or the “Before we was we” book signing on the 10th then please send us in a review. We’d love to publish it.
