Hello, and a very warm welcome to our Christmas Eve 2017 edition of the MIS Online Newsletter.
We’ve got an absolutely packed issue for you this week, with several additions to “Showtimes”, a number of MIS Features, and a lengthy “Sign of the Times”.
Combine that with the regular “I Remember Way Back When” and “Buy It” sections, and there’s more than enough to keep you occupied while granny watches commandeers the telly to watch The Queen’s Speech.
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.
Madness
July 2018
July 28th/29th – Car Fest. Announced on Chris Evans’ Radio Show!
November 2018
Friday 30th Nov – Monday 3rd Dec – The House of Fun Weekender
Ticket hotline 08450261274 / http://www.butlins.com/madness
Suggs
What a King CNUT Tour 2018
A life in the realm of Madness.
Wed January 31 2018 – SWINDON Wyvern Theatre
Thu February 01 2018 – ST ALBANS Alban Arena
Fri February 02 2018 – GUILDFORD G Live
Sat February 03 2018 – SALISBURY City Hall
Sun February 04 2018 – CHATHAM Central Theatre
Tue February 06 2018 – SOUTHEND Palace Theatre
Wed February 07 2018 – BASINGSTOKE Anvil
Thu February 08 2018 – LEICESTER De Montfort Hall
Fri February 09 2018 – COVENTRY Arts Centre
Sun February 11 2018 – HASTINGS White Rock Theatre
Tue February 13 2018 – SALFORD Lowry
Wed February 14 2018 – BUXTON Opera House
Thu February 15 2018 – LEEDS Town Hall
Fri February 16 2018 – STOCKTON Princess Alexandra Auditorium
Sun February 18 2018 – BRIGHTON Theatre Royal
Tue February 27 2018 – MERSEYSIDE Floral Theatre
Wed February 28 2018 – DUNFERMLINE Alhambra Theatre
Thu March 01 2018 – GLASGOW Pavilion
Sat March 03 2018 – HULL City Hall
Sun March 04 2018 – YORK Opera House
Tue March 06 2018 – PRESTON Guild Hall
Wed March 07 2018 – NORTHAMPTON Royal and Derngate
Thu March 08 2018 – SOUTHAMPTON O2 Guildhall
Sun March 11 2018 – BIRMINGHAM Alexandra Theatre
Tue March 13 2018 – AYLESBURY Waterside Theatre
Wed March 14 2018 – POOLE Lighthouse
Thu March 15 2018 – CHELTENHAM Town Hall
Fri March 16 2018 – BATH Forum
Sun March 18 2018 – NOTTINGHAM Theatre Royal
Mon March 19 2018 – IPSWICH Corn Exchange
Tue March 20 2018 – CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
Thu March 22 2018 – LONDON Palladium
Suggs – My Life Story The Movie, Premier
Koko Camden – January 17th
Simultaneous Cinema link of film and Live Q and A with Suggs talking to Keith Allen.
Beverley Parkway Cinema
Blackpool Odeon
Bluewater Showcase
Bristol Showcase
Cardiff Tramshed
Cleethorpes Parkway Cinema
Coventry Showcase
Derby Showcase
Derby Quad
Dudley Showcase
Edinburgh Lothian Road
Odeon
Glasgow Glasgow Film Theatre
Herne Bay Kavanagh Cinema
BOOK NOW
Hull Odeon
Leeds Showcase
Leicester Showcase
Liverpool One Odeon
London Camden Odeon
London Crouch End Art House Crouch End BOOK NOW
London Wimbledon Odeon
Manchester Great Northern
Odeon
Milton Keynes Stadium Odeon
Newcastle Silverlinks Odeon
Norwich Odeon
Nottingham Showcase
Peterborough Showcase
Pontardawe Arts Centre
Reading Showcase
Sheffield Odeon
Shrewsbury Theatre Severn
Southampton Showcase
Stockton on Tees ARC (Stockton Arts Centre)
Teesside Showcase
Walsall Showcase
Wotton Under Edge Electric Picturehouse
(with replay screenings in Cardiff in later January)
The Silencerz Featuring Lee Thompson
Friday 19th Jan, Camden Assembly
Lee Thompson
Sunday 25th March, The 100 Club. Part of the Sound Screen Festival. This is a performance plus a screening of One Man’s Madness *** New ***
It’s £5 for a CD and £2.99 for a download (plus a bonus track of Dublin Castle. All money is going to CLIC Sargent, which is Mad Chat’s current cause. Thank you!
Behind the sceneshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnSHNq-0heg&feature=youtu.be
Madstore 20% Discount
Get 20% off all clothing for the entire month of December. Just enter DEC20 at the checkout.
Full House – The New Madness Best of Album – Review
Available to order now from Madness.co.uk & Pledge music. Out now!
2 CD’s and 4 LP’s make up a house full of Madness hits as latest in a long line of “best ofs”. It’s 42 tracks neatly split into 21 on each CD or set of LP’s. That includes the biggest singles and songs of the FULL band era on Full House part one. Then Mike leaves home. Uncle Sam starts part two which brings us up to Carl-less date with the band still making great music in a house occasionally with someone who’s not home today. In fact the CD mirrors this fact slightly, a beautiful cover bulging with multiple mad men all together in our full house of fun then opens up on the CD version to reveal just Woody inside another version of the house on the inner image, where the full band are driving away in their car, and a business man runs for the buss. The Vinyl is even more stunning, housing a black and white checkered floor and an upstanding 3D pop up design of the full house cover.
Product description: Ladies and Gentleman, for your drinking pleasure Madness bring you one of the fines beers to ever pass your lips. An idea born in the Dublin Castle (the very pub where we played our first gigs), Madness Beers go one step beyond with flavour and style.
ABV 4.2%, Units 2.1
MIS Feature – Jamboree Selection Box
Merry Christmas Holidays to one and all. We hope you’re sitting comfortably around a mince pie or equivalent treat.
It’s been a fun year for Madness. No one really expected any new written songs this year following 2016 being a year of a new album release, but we did get twenty fresh tunes appearing in the live set in 2017. From CTUN touring, House of Common guests spots and predominately then across Europe and into House of Fun Friday and its a sweet packed Jamboree bag.
So, we thought you might like to put your feet into freshly gifted socks and put them up, while reliving these rare returning live songs from Seven or B-side fame, the new covers (maybe even for a possible Dangermen volume 2 ), Invaders and 50’s era tributes all that the Jamboree bag bought.
We scoured youtube for you and where the trend has been towards private facebook videos, we’ve arranged for the fan footage to be happily brought over to the more public and easier to find again archives of our MISTV account. Thus, this week we’ve filled every gap. All songs are represented from venues across this year. We’ve even thrown in our tribute montage to The Lego Nutty Boy (Richard Jones) from House of Fun’s Saturday Night crazy fancy dress, when we were unable to source any video of the band performing Skylarking this year, but did have the audio.
So, here is the full Jamboree bag, stuffed with a couple of extra guests from House of Common, the extra tunes from the last album and a happy Suggs joining Cockney Rebel for a hell of a crowd singalong. Enjoy, and don’t eat your selection box all at once. Savour it over this Christmas holiday.
Our thanks to Adam Nichols, Beverley Kinsella, Stav, Hazel Foster, Lisa Search, and all the individual fans’ video clips.
Compiled by Jonathan Young
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 711 – Sunday 23rd December – Saturday 29th December 2012
Earlier this week, the band took time out of their busy tour schedule to attend an award ceremony at the Polish Embassy, London.
The medals, entitled “Medals of Gratitude”, were given to each of the band members in recognition of the group donating their gig fees to help the Solidarity Campaign Movement, back in the 1980s.
It’d taken almost thirty years for the band to be recognised for their efforts, but at least they got there in the end.
The band played a gig in Warsaw, Poland in January 1984 and donated all the proceedings to the Solidarity movement. The gig was also televised and shown on state run Polish TV station (TVP 2) on 21st January 1984 called ‘1-2-3-4 zespół Medness’
On to the articles, and with memories of the recent Christmas tour still very much in people’s minds, we featured a re-print of the London Evening Standard’s review of the O2 Arena gig.
“Like a shopping trolley that refuses to work when it leaves the vicinity of its supermarket, Madness’s appeal has always come to a grinding halt the moment they skank through United Kingdom passport control. After 36 years, it still rankles and when singer Graham “Suggs” McPherson announced “we’ve just got back from our world tour of Great Britain”, everybody understood that Madness is a strictly British institution. No matter: the world’s loss is Britain’s gain.”
Following this, it was over to Suggs related news as we featured dates for April, May and June of his “My Life Story” tour. Our favourite frontman had a very packed second quarter ahead!
We went back to O2 related news following this, as we featured a re-print of the gig review which originally appeared on the Independent web site.
“The set-list includes songs from Madness’s incremental, eccentric 1980s decline after crucial songwriter Mike Barson quit – basically fine, odd singles such as “Michael Caine”. The big hits are though, unusually, the best. “Baggy Trousers”’ schoolyard memoir is recognisable to the bouncing kids here tonight. “Our House”, the finest song outside of The Kinks about English family life, finds a perfect balance between the autobiographically specific and the universal. The second coming of the band who wrote it sees them finally claiming their dues.”
Moving on, and it was over to Terry Edwards, as we reported that the new Christmas album from Terry’s record label could still be downloaded and added to your music collection before the big day.
A certain Mark Bedford, member of The Near Jazz experience, cover legendary Christmas carol, “We Three Kings”, on the album. Meanwhile, Phil Jupitus appeared on the release as Porky the Poet.
We brought this issue to a close with a Charge of the Light Brigade tour round-up article courtesy of our very own Jonathan Young. If you were unable to get along to the shows or it simply passed you by in a blur then this was essential reading.
10 years ago…
Issue 451 – Sunday 23rd December to Saturday 29th December 2007
While a lot of you had been out buying the last of those presents and scrawling on mountains of cards, we’d been hard at work putting this week’s issue together. This meant that when you’d finally found five minutes in your pre-Christmas rush to put your feet up, you had something to read.
This issue kicked off with a transcript from the Time Out web site where they’d interviewed Chris and Woody, and asked them to nominate their musical wonders of the city of London.
There list looked like this:
– Immigration
– Street Hawkers
– Buskers
– Mobile Phones
– Big Ben
– Fairgrounds
– Notting Hill Carnival
It was over to the Barking and Daghenam Recorder next, as they interviewed Suggs and asked him what the band’s secret was to the band’s enduring popularity;
“I don’t really know. We thought we’d made it when we got a residency at a pub in Camden in 1979 so to be still here and loving it is pretty special.
I think it’s probably the fact that we are all still mates and we still ‘feel’ the music. Can you feel it? Come and see us and find out”
The Financial Times was our next port of call, as they reviewed the band’s recent performance at the 02 Arena. The reporter noted that such was the athleticism of the band that if their next album failed to do well they could always put out a fitness video instead.
We passed the baton over to Colin Galbraith next, who being the author of several poetry books, had decided to treat MIS readers to a new piece of poetry devoted entirely to our favourite band.
It was a time for an almost non Madness related note for the next article as we reviewed The Young Ones 25th Anniversary Box set.
Naturally, with Madness appearing on the show not once but twice, the article did feature many mentions of North London’s finest.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that Woody had updated his section on the official Madness web site, and so we urged you to take a look behind his door.
15 years ago…
Issue 189 – Sunday 22nd December to Saturday 28th December 2002
The Christmas 2002 edition of the MIS proved to be a lengthy one, with reader reports from a number of the recent gigs providing much of the bulk, and at the same time, making a nice change from all of the press reviews we’d seen of late. After all, it’s nice to get a lowdown of a Madness concert from a fan rather than a member of the music industry.
On the subject of the concert, it was nice to see that the general consensus from the online Madness community was that the band had given some of their best performances since their 1992 comeback at the original Madstock. Not only that, but the sheer effort the band had put into the impressive sets had gone down very well indeed, with the string of concerts proving to be a treat for both the eyes and ears.
Those who had consumed far too much at the McMadmeet, and had only hazy memories of what went on would now have an opportunity to fill in the blanks, thanks to Wee Stoo and Stevie Ward, who kindly uploaded a batch of photos taken from the event.
Meanwhile, MOT drummer Dan Fossard got in touch with us with a fantastic tale of how, at the recent Newcastle gig, Carl had dedicated a song to him. The track? Non other than the legendary Night Boat to Cairo, and on Dan’s birthday of all days.
Moving on, and it was the turn of Andrew Langmead to write in with a heads-up of Madness’ next TV performance. On Boxing Day, the band would be appearing on BBC1 as part of the ‘It’s the Number One Party’ celebrating 50 years of the UK singles charts. On the same day Virgin Radio repeated their Virgin Superstars edition with Suggs as the guest.
Elsewhere, and on a slightly worrying note, Steve Chapman wrote in with a review of a recent Bad Manners gig, which did not sound good at all. Here’s a snippet of Steve’s original post;
“Douglas Trendle is NOT a well man, he should not have been on stage tonight. He stood proud for only one song before making a hasty exit one line into Fatty Fatty, leaving the band to finish the song instrumentally (save for the chorus, which they did themselves!). The musicians battled on with a couple of instrumental numbers before following the big man off the stage
In short, to let this man go ahead with his tour in this state is (excuse the pun) madness. He may need the money but first and foremost he needs to recover. Perhaps he will do in time for the next live appearance, but walking onto a pokey little stage at the late time of 11:15pm, in a very smokey venue, having just had meningitis doesn’t seem a sensible way to achieve this!!!”.
The sad news continued, with the news from Jonathan that Vince Carden’s stunning fanzine “Madness Unsugged” had just hit it’s final ever issue. Keen to help maximise sales of this woefully underrated but much loved fanzine, MIS co-editor Jonathan Young compiled an in-depth review of this ultimate edition, and declared it a “Madness Masterpiece”.
With a conscious effort to not finish the issue on a downer, we rounded off this edition of the MIS with reviews of the Docklands gig and Madmeet by a certain Rob Hazelby, with one Jonathan Young providing a blow-by-blow review of the NEC concert.
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature – Jamboree Bag – Lyrics Pt. 3
Poison Ivy
Continuing our lyrics series from the recent House of Fun rare cover songs, we return to the earliest Madness (Invaders era) gigs. This time it’s The Coasters hit about a girl who’ll leave you itching for more.
She comes on like a rose,
But everybody knows,
She get you and such.
You can look but you better not touch!
Poison Ivy,
Poison Ivy,
Late at night while your sleepin’,
Poison Ivy comes a creepin’ around.
She’s pretty as a daisy,
But look out man, she’s crazy!
She’ll really do you in.
If you let her get under your skin!
Poison Ivy,
Poison Ivy,
Late at night while your sleepin’,
Poison Ivy comes creapin’ around.
Measles’ make you mumpy and mumps’ will make you lumpy,(<)
And Chicken pox will make you jump and twitch.
The common cold will fool you,
And whooping cough will cool you.
But Poison Ivy Lord will make you itch!
Your gonna need an ocean,
Of calamine lotion.
You’ll be scratchin’ like a hound,
The minute you start to mess around!
Poison Ivy,
Poison Ivy,
Late at night while your sleepin’,
Poison Ivy comes creapin’ around. (> Repeat)
Sign of the Times
Dave Gorman: My six best albums – Dolly Parton, Madness, Misty’s Big Adventure and more
DAVE GORMAN, 46, wrote for The Mrs Merton Show and The Fast Show before penning his Are You Dave Gorman? show and book. He currently hosts Modern Life Is Goodish on the Dave channel (Tuesdays, 10pm) and recently announced a nationwide tour for autumn 2018.
MADNESS: Absolutely (Union Square)
My childhood is all here.
I was a huge fan as a kid, at an age when you want to be in a tribe.
I adored Baggy Trousers.
I had it on cassette and put it on when it was my turn to do the washing-up.
IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS: New Boots And Panties (Edsel)
I was led to this by Madness who talked about Dury in glowing terms.
Now I think how healthy it was to have as a role model a pop star who was disabled and didn’t look manufactured.
His voice was gruff but, in common with Madness, there was still a fairground sound to it and the lyrics were funny.
DOLLY PARTON: Blue Smoke (Sony)
I know it’s cheesy but it’s the album my son was born to.
Under my wife’s instructions, I created a huge playlist of songs she really likes and we had it on speaker in the delivery room.
I’ve got a soft spot for Dolly.
When you get into your 40s, you do tap your toe.
MISTY’S BIG ADVENTURE: The Black Hole (There’s A Riot Going On)
I like bedroom geniuses.
The man at the heart of this band, Grandmaster Gareth, is that sort of man.
He has a rich voice and writes quirky songs.
I use it often on tour to play when the audience is coming in.
CAKE: Comfort Eagle (Sony)
A 1990s rock band whose lyrics are funny and sharp.
I discovered them via Whispering Bob Harris on the radio late at night after a gig.
When I was first dating my wife, I played this and she got excited about them as well, which made me feel quite worldly.
PULP: Different Class (Universal/Island)
This came out when Britain was different and confident.
I bumped into Jarvis Cocker once in a New York flea market and we both did a double take because we heard an English accent.
Like Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood, he can describe something very British and northern.
MIS Feature – Jamboree Bag – Lyrics Pt.4
Upside Down
In the last of our series of running lyrics from Friday set at House of Fun, we tackle the last new cover version.
It’s an interesting one as the original artist was Joe Higgs we believe (tell us if we are wrong); a tune that Jimmy Cliff sang backing on for Trojan and later covered.
However, it’s a 70s version on another label that Madness are covering. The Trojan version had anti war lyrics (Well, Vietnam handles that better in the Friday set) the 70s version of Upside Down with the same chorus goes for an amusing tale of gender mistaken identity, more in the camp of Kinks, Lola, and Madness have smoothed out the lyrics into plainer English vocalisation. Here they are, the right way up…
They say the world is spinning around
I say the world is upside down
They say the world is spinning around
I say the world is upside down
Hotpants!
Walking down the street
Just looking from behind
All the people that you meet
Well they’re so hard to define
They say the world is spinning around
I say the world is upside down
They say the world is spinning around
I say the world is upside down
No moustache. No beard.
Walking down the street one day
Just to pass the time away
I thought she was a sick looking chick
I went to look and there was Dick
Hotpants! No beard. No moustache.
You look like my baby
Time
That’s almost it for this Christmas Eve issue of the MIS, but before we go we do have a couple of last minute bits for your reading pleasure.
Those of you who’ve been following the steady and regular updates to the Seven Ragged Men web site may be interested to learn that 1985 is now online and ready for viewing. Check it out at: http://sevenraggedmen.com/1985-2/
If you’ve not yet visited this amazingly informative and fascinating corner of the internet before then point your web browsers over to http://sevenraggedmen.com and get ready.
Moving on…
We start to wind down this Christmas Eve edition of the MIS Online newsletter to an end with a link to a “Kids React to video. Why? Well, this one is “Kids React to Madness”.
It’s a packed stocking of rarities and live tunes. And we are uploading Lee’s cover version of Kilburn & The Highroads shortly into the archive. You you can also grab much more at the facebook group page … Madness bootlegs.
