This issue gets underway with yet another addition to the list of forthcoming Madness gigs.
Yes, we’ve finally added the band’s FIB 2018 date to our “Showtimes” section, which subscriber David Gilbert pointed out was missing. Madness will be taking to the stage at the FIB Benicassim festival on Sunday 22nd July. If you’d like more information tor to book tickets hen please go to fiberfib.com.
On to other tour news, and the big announcement this week is that The Near Jazz Experience are going on tour.
Running through September and October, the band will cover 10 dates from the 25th September to the 5th October where they’ll be supporting The Nightingales. Check out our “Showtimes” section for the full list of gigs.
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.
Important – The release date for this disc was 2nd March 2018, and copies have not yet been shipped. If you’ve yet to place an order we recommend you hold off parting with your money until news of copies arriving with those who’ve already ordered start to surface.
Price £12
Director Julien Temple (The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners) takes a stage show, adds some drama, archive, animation and music, then shakes it all up for MY LIFE STORY where Suggs, takes a hilarious, yet moving, look back at his life in a musical form.
Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Or a music hall dream? Whatever it is hold on to your seats as Suggs goes on to stumble and plummet through the trap door of failure; then trampoline back up to catch the passing trapeze of show business success.
£9.95. Limited to 250 copies. A5 paperback photo-zine. 36 pages.
Hanging Around Books’ tenth release (HA010), “Kimono Our House: Madness In Japan 1982” features rare and previously unseen photographs of the Nutty Boys taken by Andre Csillag at various locations during the band’s 1982 tour of Japan.
As Andre writes:
“In May 1982 I was asked by the manager of Madness, the late and sadly missed Matthew Sztumpf, to accompany the band on their first Japanese tour. These shots were taken over a period of a week in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya and on bullet trains inbetween.”
“It was an intense week of gigging, travelling, promotional work and making history. While in Japan, the band had their first number one on the UK singles chart and were filmed live via satellite from Tokyo introducing the video for that week’s chart topper, “House Of Fun” — a first for the BBC and Top of The Pops.”
“Thanks to Graham “Suggs” McPherson, Cathal Smyth, Lee Thompson, Chris Foreman, Mike Barson, Mark Bedford and Dan “Woody” Woodgate for their time and the enjoyable madness.”
Andre Csillag, February 2018.
MIS Feature
The Songs of the Silencerz Part 7
We complete, for now, our series of articles cover the lyrics of Silencerz songs written by Nick Godwin. Here’s the last track on their debut album released yesterday.
It’s called Last Bus and clearly it’s a song about your time up being called.
The Last Bus
Well I thought about today
Like any other day
I heard about the news
And I didn’t know what to do
All the dreams I had
And the books I never read
To savour something of
And give it out with love.
Cmon cmon cmon
Chorus
Turn the clock back
I’m not ready
You’re not ready too
Turn the clock back
We’re not ready to
Take the last bus home
I cannot explain
How everything has changed
I can’t live every day
Like another holiday
Well the bus is coming soon
Coming right into this room
It stops for everyone
And it won’t miss anyone
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 736 – Sunday 16th June to Saturday 22nd June 2013
Our issue got underway with the news that Madness would be appearing at Rockhal, Belval, Luxembourg on the 15th September. Also this week, The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra announced that they’d be playing at the Secret Garden Party near Huntingdon on July 28th.
In other gig news, we learned that after speaking to Suggs’ management the great man had no current plans for further one man shows. Naturally, if we heard anything further we promised to let you know.
On to our regular “Buy It” article, and this was the week we added a link to the vinyl edition of the Ska Orchestra’s Benevolence Of Sister Mary Ignatius album. What’s more, it cost a very reasonable £10.44.
Further on, and in our Live and Intensified section Steve Farthing was kind enough to send in a detailed review of the recent Chepstow Race Course gig which also featured a meet and greet.
Also in this section was a detailed review of Madness’ appearance at the Rockness gig. This came courtesy of subscriber Rob Wardlaw.
In our “That Facebook” section Woody continued to integrate massively with the facebook community. Some people seemed to doubt it was him, despite all the Madness fan pages confirming it, and most importantly his brother accepting him as a friend! Bit of a giveaway that one.
“How do I prove I’m me? Well I’ve just taken this photo with a T-shirt from last nights’ gig in Rouen, and how can I not do my trademark thumbs up. For all you doubters, more to follow”
Woody had been posting from the current Madness gigs, about his surroundings. Most excitingly though he posted this about The Magic Line album….
“Delivered final artwork and wave files to Tribal the CD manufacturers for the Magic Brothers album the magic line.
Almost there now.”
Our MIS Feature this week focussed on the one and only Lee Thompson who had taken part in a slew of radio interviews across the UK. The majority had been uploaded to YouTube, so you didn’t have to do any digging to find the ones you’d missed.
10 years ago…
Issue 476 – Sunday 15th June to Saturday 21st June 2008
We had an absolutely rammed issue for you this week, as so much seemed to be going on.
Exciting news came in earlier in the week revealing that demand for the Hackney Empire gigs continued to grow. So much so, that on Wednesday a third and final night, taking place on the 26th of June was announced.
On the Friday night just gone, the band took to the stage at Aintree Racecourse, for what would be a mixture of the greatest hits package, plus one or two newer tracks sprinkled in for good measure. We promised to have a full review of the gig from Looby in next week’s issue, but until then you had to make do with the setlist in no particular order.
Elsewhere in this issue we had a review of the first night of the Our House musical tour, taken from the What’s on Stage message boards. The author was generally praising of the performance, and commented that the audience was extremely supportive.
Continuing on an Our House musical theme we featured an interview with the show’s writer, Tim Firth. Originally from the What’s on Stage web site, it proved to be an interesting question and answer session with the man himself.
If that wasn’t enough Our House coverage for you we also had a massive review of the new show from Chris Carter-Pegg and Emma Southerby, who declared “overall the show is superb, cleverly recrafted for a touring musical and a brilliant new cast”.
It was over to Madness off-shoot Crunch! next, as we featured a roundup of YouTube video links from the band as they performed at Concrete Jungle Festivals’ May Day Festival at The Barfly on the 4th of May. If you were a fan of Lee and Chris’ outfit then you’d have been more than happy with this rundown.
We had news of, umm, news, next as we reported that Madness had appeared on Sky News to discuss their forthcoming album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate, and their Hackney Empire gigs. The band were on fine form, and although much merriment was had with the interviewer a few juicy tidbits of information were thrown up.
We brought this issue to a close with the announcement that Simon Walshe was the lucky winner of the MIS competition to win a fully signed Our House musical poster. With over 20 members of the cast, this featured an impressive number of autographs.
15 years ago…
Issue 214 – Sunday 15th June to Saturday 21st June 2003
After last week’s jam-packed issue, this week we returned to more meagre pickings, with very little news to report on at all.
With very little to go on, we went over to the official Madness messageboard, in an effort to highlight some of the more interesting questions the band had decided to answer. One of the more amusing messages came from Brian, the super courier, who posted the following:
“bedders special delivery from “BRIAN (super courier)
06.05.2003
Hello Mark,
I’ve had the great privilege of delivering parcels to your shop (location details withheld). Any chance of a complimentary ticket for the next Madness gig?
City Link Bri”
Ok, so it was possibly a bit cheeky, but it seemed as if it did actually pay off, as Mark replied with:
“Mr Super Courier!
says Mark(01.06.2003),
Bri,
Your service is immaculate. See me next time you deliver!”
Moving on, and in this time of little news, we decided to take a look at Colin Galbraith’s excellent web site ‘The Magnificent 7’.
Naturally, the place was dedicated to all things Madness, and we gave it a real in-depth going over, culminating in a recommendation that all our readers get themselves along the site.
Nearing the end of this rather lean issue we allowed MIS subscriber Chris Jackson to list his rare Madness items for sale. Goodies included various calendars down the years, a My Girl orange 7″, and much more.
We finished off this week’s MIS with news that top Madness tribute outfit, One Step Behind, would once again be descending on Bristol, after an extremely long hiatus.
For a number of us Maddies based in the South West, it was an opportunity that would prove to be too tempting to resist.
Rob Hazelby
Time
We bring this issue to a close with the news that the one and only Lee Thompson has been involved in a charity release in aid of mental health and youth music.
Entitled “The Fall of Emperor Less”, the single is now available from most online retailers, and we’re told, is a modern take on the reggae genre.
The composer enlisted musicians from the North East as well as some very special guests including our very own Lee Thompson and Steve White & Julian Rodric of the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra.
The single is available on Google Play, iTunes Spotify and Deezer.
