Camden’s Dublin Castle pub is not only where Madness had their legendary break which shot them to stardom and put the watering hole on the map, it’s also considered the spiritual home of Madness to us fans.
With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing the famous venue to close the owners are now struggling to keep the venue up and running while there’s no income coming in.
Things have got so bad that management have resorted to crowdfunding to help raise much needed funds.
Here’s their plea in full;
“The Dublin Castle is part of a national initiative launched by Music Venue Trust to prevent the closure of hundreds of independent music venues.
Our venue faces closure because we are completely out of funds, We’ve used up our income to maintain this Victorian Building. The pub was built in 1840. Decades of live music has had countless numbers of fans gracing these floorboards.
We used to maintain it as needed when the wear n’tear took its toll. Punters enjoyed the well-used, worn, yet tired historic ambience it creates. Despite being ordered to close the pub it’s building maintenance needs to continue. However the money to pay for these works ceased when Covid-19 stopped the beer flowing through our taps.
We used to scrape by juggling the repairs and finances to cope since 1974. That’s is the year when we were first privileged to take over the pub. The overheads of putting on live bands meant much higher operating costs such as security and meeting enforced regulations. It always used to be ‘hit and miss’ if the punters showed up to watch a Grassroots band. Sometimes, the festivals, the football on TV or other events would keep them away. Unfortunately, the building maintenance needs to continue still. This is together with new preparations should we be permitted to open again.
Your donations will be used to pay for the repairs & decoration to the facia of the Dublin Castle. To update and improve the toilet facilities. We know that you the punters will have much higher expectations now. The three roof lights are single glazed and they often leak rainwater onto the customers below. They require replacement and the wooden front windows to the venue are crumbling in parts. No doubt we’ll need to introduce additional tables and chairs to adhere to social distancing measures. The rainwater also enters in some parts of the building where the Victorian brickwork is poorly, we shall need to carry out some brickwork repointing and replacement.
If we hit our target, and we can prevent the closure of the venue, everything above the amount we need will be donated to the Music Venue Trust GMV Crisis Fund to protect other venues just like ours, right across the country.”
The owners of The Dublin Castle have been strong supporters of the Madness fanbase and MIS for many years. It’s now our turn to help them out.
In this issue we have a special MIS Feature detailing how you can help fund the DC and at the same time enter an amazing raffle to win a new XL Record Store Day Night Boat double 7 inch gatefold edition.
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.
16th – The Courtyard, Herefordshire’s Centre for the Arts
17th – Bristol, Royal Redgrave Theatre
19th – Exeter, Corn Exchange
20th – Westlands, Yeovil
21st – Aldershot, Princes Hall
22nd – Hertford Theatre
23rd – Forum Theatre (Malvern Theatres)
24th – Warrington, Pyramind and Parr Hall
25th – Lythan St. Annes, Lowther Pavilion
27th – Hexham, Queens Hall Arts Centre
28th – Dundee Rep Theatrre
29th – Aberdeen Music Hall
30th – Edinburgh, The Queen’s Hall
The Sliencerz
May
30th – Bull and Gate, Barnet
Buy It
New Album From Nick Woodate – “JoJo Man”. Out Now
Here’s Nick;
“Because it stresses me out to have people pay for my music or have to have vast amounts of followers to earn the smallest bit of money I am releasing my album on Soundcloud totally free to listen to and stupidly it doesn’t earn me a penny. I don’t think you even need to create an account.
Nick also told us;
“It’s ended up being more of a compilation album with 3 new songs to people that know. I might have 8 new songs to put on this album”.
We’re blown away with Nick’s generosity of making his latest album free to download. Nick isn’t asking for any donations. What a gent!
In Before We Was We Madness tell us how they became them. A story of seven originals, whose collective graft, energy and talent took them from the sweaty depths of the Hope and Anchor’s basement to the Top of the Pops studio.
In their own words they each look back on shared adventures. Playing music together, riding freight trains, spraying graffiti and stealing records. Walking in one another’s footsteps by day and rising up through the city’s exploding pub music scene by night.
Before We Was We is irreverent, funny and full of character. Just like them.
Record Store Day – Work Rest and Play ** revised date **
Release date: TBC. Was 18th April then 20th June
Format: Double 7″ single
Cat No. BMGCAT430DSV
Overview:
Fortieth anniversary re-issue of Madness’ “Work Rest & Play EP” – the follow-up to their debut album, 1979’s “One Step Beyond…”
Limited edition Record Store Day 2020 release on double 7” format with a triple gatefold sleeve including photos from the time of the original release.
Track listing:
Side One
Night Boat To Cairo
Side Two
Deceives The Eye
Side Three
The Young And The Old
Side Four
Don’t Quote Me On That
Record Store Day – Dance Craze 40th Anniversary Edition ** revised date **
This is a new half-speed master exclusively for RSD and part of the Two Tone Records 40th Anniversary celebrations. This is a soundtrack to the live movie of the same name featuring exclusive live recordings by The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers. This is also first vinyl repress since its original release in 1981.
Tracklisting:
Concrete Jungle
Mirror in the Bathroom
Lip up Fatty
Razor Blade Alley
Three Minute Hero
Easy Life
Big Shot
One Step Beyond
Ranking Fullstop
Man at C&A
Missing Words
Inner London Violence
Night Boat to Cairo
Too Much Pressure
Nite Klub
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, 10, 15 and 20 years ago this week.
5 years ago…
Issue Number 837 – Sunday 24th May to Saturday 30th May 2015
This week, in the run up to the release of his debut solo single “In Your Mind”, Woody Woodgate and singer Dan Shears spent their time shooting a video with media group Life Imitates Art.
So, what of the tune itself? We thought it was a catchy one with a pop groove. The MIS team took an instant like to it when we first heard it at The Dublin Castle shows the previous year.
Anyway, it was a case of no rest for the Woody, as The Grandslam got underway this week, and the excitement amongst fans continued to build as many happy posts on Facebook about the arrival of tickets testified.
Woody told us “We’ve rehearsed a handful of new (Madness) songs”, and that the rehearsals would continue on through the week.
The Grandslam would kick off in Lincoln on Friday 29th, at Lincoln City Football Club.
On to the articles, and we had yet another packed “Sign of the Times” section, which was stuffed full over coverage detailing Carl’s solo venture, plus details of how you could win tickets to see Madness at the Montrose and Chelmsford gigs.
Over in “Live and Intensified” we issued the following plea…
“If you’re attending any of the gigs this Summer, and you’ve got more fan passion in you than just the length of a one finger typed tweet send us in your reviews of Madness’ biggest ever outdoor tour.
Your review doesn’t have to be massive. Just a sentence, a paragraph, or a set list, or a video link, or a full blown account of your Grandslam. It’s entirely up to you. Whatever your experience let all our readers know how your day was, what were the best bits, and make Madness proudly a band people truly talk about.
We’ll publish your efforts in a future MIS newsletter, in our Live and Intensified GrandTales section, and also on our website blog. There may even be a prize or two given out come September!
Be a sport and send us your post match analysis.”
Further on, and in our “MIS Feature” we brought you a full transcript of the recent interview Woody gave to our favourite radio show the previous week; Mr. Scurf’s Koast Train.
The chat began with talk about Booze and Woody being tee-total these days. It was Earl Grey that was now his favourite tipple, along with a new drink; “Chocolate Tea”, which his wife had discovered.
We brought this issue to a close with a snippet from Roy Stride from Scouting For Girls who was clearly excited to be supporting Madness. “We are thrilled to be playing with Madness in Lincoln, such an historic and beautiful city and we know it has a great reputation for live music. We always have great fun when we play with Madness and we always ensure the crowd does too!”
10 years ago…
Issue Number 577 – Sunday 23rd May – Saturday 29th May 2010
This issue got off the starting blocks with the news that Bristol’s famous music venue, The Fleece and Firkin, would no longer be playing host to tribute acts.
The news came to us from Bristol based Madness tribute “Nuttyness”, who reported that;
“It’s Sad news the New owners of the Fleece and Firkin have decided that they don’t want to do Tribute Bands any more
So this will be our last gig in the Fleece until they decide to wonder why their tills are empty, its very sad for us as this was our home gig, and the staff have always treated us well. (it will be missed)”
Next, it was over to the Sunday Mercury, who were reporting that Suggs was due to play one of the smallest shows in his career, in Birmingham.
How? Suggs was booked to perform at the Irish Centre, in Digbeth’s High Street. He’d then take part in a live interview on stage, where fans could ask him questions from the floor. The event would raise much needed funds for the Chernobyl Children’s Project.
It was time to get you to part with your readies next, as Retro Madness were here with their latest offer. This week they had reduced the price of the very rare Grey Day UK 12” from £39.99 to just £19.99. Not only that, but that included postage and packing!
Following that we went over to Jonathan Young, who had managed to grab a few minutes with comedian Adrian Edmonson, who had been performing in his new band “The Bad Shepherds”. Asked if the band had ever considered covering a Madness track he commented;
Yes we have tried a few. It’s just not quite there. We’ve been trying to do Grey Day, and also Our House.”
We continued with Jonathan as his outro was a length piece of Madness / holiday related poetry. Who said the MIS wasn’t a cultured publication, eh?
15 years ago…
Issue number 315 – Sunday 22nd May to Saturday 28th May 2005
Things had certainly quietened down after a previous hectic couple of weeks. However, on Tuesday fans finally got to hear a couple of tracks from the forthcoming Dangermen album when Mike and Suggs appeared as guests on BBC Radio 2’s Drive Time programme, hosted by Jonnie Walker.
For those of who’d missed it, we’d painstakingly knocked-up a transcription of the show which you could find elsewhere in the issue.
We’d also put together a brief write-up about the new tracks so you could get some sort of idea as to what they were like. Those of you who had been lucky enough to catch the show (or use the BBC’s wonderful `Listen Again` facility), were urged to write in with their thoughts on the new tracks.
We finished off this extremely short issue by urging those of you who had yet to order your tickets for the Forest Tour to get along to section four, where you could find out what venues had had their allocations snapped-up, or were about to.
20 years ago…
Issue number 53 – Sunday 21st May to Saturday 27th May 2000
Looking at this week’s edition of the MIS, it was clear that news had certainly not been hard to come by. There had been loads happening over the past 7 days, and with the `Ian Dury Concert` and `Velvet Ghost` events in the not-too-distant future, it was looking as if we’d be in for a lively couple of weeks.
Vince Carden had been in touch to say that subscribers to Madness Unsugged would receive issue 4 in about two weeks time. He apologised for the delay caused by an annoying printing problem and said that if anybody wanted to take out their impatience and aggression on him, you could beat him up at either of the forthcoming madmeets!!!
Thanks to Brendan Phipps, you’d also be able to find an up-to-date photo of the band displaying all current members of the group.
It was well worth a look.
Alongside the Ian Dury tribute gig on Friday 16th of June, TMML subscriber, Scatty had been beavering away organising additional events of which, some had been listed in past editions of the MIS Bulletins. If you were planning to come along to the show and would like to come along to the pre and post-gig events as well, Scatty told us that it was your last chance to put your name down.
Still on the subject of `Madmeets`, Scatty and MIS subscriber, Vince Foley were also organising a little get together on 10th June to celebrate Mr Smash’s appearance in London’s Finsbury Park.
In this week’s collection of articles, we took a look at two new video (remember those!) bootlegs containing around 3 hours of Madness footage. Imaginatively entitled “Madness TV Appearances (Tape 2), and “Madness Live (Tape 3)”, these would set you back £17.50 each.
Next we featured an in-depth review and write-up of the new Dr Martens CD, courtesy of Complete and Utter Madness. Weighing in at 2 CDs, this album featured such bands as The Blockheads, Bad Manners, The Sex Pistols, and of course, Madness.
Moving on, and we gave a quick plug to the forthcoming Ska Fest 2000, which was due to take place at The Empire Arena, Morcambe from Friday 16th to Sunday the 18th of June. The line-up included The Specials, The Selecter, The Hotknives and many, many more.
With tickets priced at a measly £55 for all 3 days, ticket holders were in for a cracking weekend at a really small price.
Elsewhere in this issue was a re-print of an email originally sent to MIS subscriber Wozza, from Blockhead Mickey Gallagher. Mickey detailed some basic details of the forthcoming Ian Dury tribute gig, due to take place on the 16th of June, before hinting on the band’s future plans for the rest of the year.
We finished off this week’s edition of the MIS with a reminder that tickets for the forthcoming Ian Dury tribute gig were still available, and could be purchased from various outlets (of which we listed all known ones).
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature
Win New XL Record Store Day Night Boat Double 7 Inch Gatefold Edition
We are giving away an advance copy of The Work Rest and Play Gatefold Double 7inch. XL anniversary edition. Not officially released until August. Get it now in June.
A track made famous from its live beginnings in grassroots music venues including The Dublin Castle.
It’s one of the places where songs like Night Boat first sailed into the ears of future Madness fans, and now due to operating costs while closed due to covid 19, that pub is under threat.
Madness information service & All things Madness page ask you here to consider the cost of a pint, send it over to the above music venue trust lead crowd funding page link for The Dublin Castle. Let’s give one to the house, that home of many mad times before and hopefully more to come, such as the still forth coming Madness book club event. When times allow.
So We’ve a raffle prize incentive for you to consider doing this. Send just a few quid as every thing helps, to their crowdfund page this week. Leave your pub memory comment on that page when you do so and mark it “MIS”. Reply that you’ve done so by emailing
Jon@madness-mis.com or replying to the thread in the All things Madness Facebook group. Or the MIS twitter.
We will raffle a copy of the new Work Rest and Play gatefold 7 inch Madness double pack XL edition on June 7th to one lucky pub punter. Thanks if you can help in hard times. Please share the above link to friends.
Jonathan Young
Time
We finish this issue on a Dublin Castle crowdfunding related note and urge you to read through the comments those who’ve already pledged have left.
