1 – THIS IS WHERE THE MADNESS BEGINS – The obligatory intro.

2 – FULL HOUSE OF FUN – BUTLINS LIVE MUSIC WEEKENDS ISSUE 16 – This
article was taken from the current edition of the Butlins
magazine, which aims to promote Butlins weekends to holiday
makers. The review brings a different viewpoint, from a holiday
goer who seems to know a bit about the band, but not on a scale
as the majority of MIS readers.

3 – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS – This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby
goes back 5 years to issue number 453, and the week of Sunday 6th
January to Saturday 12th January 2008, and then back 10 years
to issue number 191 and the week of Sunday 5th January to
Saturday 11th January December 2003.

4 – A STITCH IN TIME – We’ve seen some amazing Madness related
projects in our time, ranging from the comprehensive Tour Madness,
to the obsessive cataloguing of every Madness worldwide release
ever. This latest project we have to report on is one of the more
sedate we’ve investigated, but it’s by no means any less
impressive.

5 – A LOOKBACK AT 2012 – PART 2 – In this second and final part of our
lookback over the past 12 months, we cover July to December 2013.

6 – TOTALLY SPORTS LONDON MAGAZINE – Madness feature extensively in a
new French magazine. Suggs was interviewed by Darren Tulett, an
English journalist who is very popular in France. Darren works
for French Radios (Europe 1, Oui Fm) and French TV like Canal
Plus. JP of the French MIS reports.

7 – SMALL WORLD – LIVE – From the House of Fun weekender comes a live
video of the band playing “Small World”, from the new album. Jon
Young is here with the details

8 – THAT’S YER LOT – A few last minute words before we finish for the
week.

[1] – THIS IS WHERE THE MADNESS BEGINS

Hello, and a very warm welcome to this week’s edition of the MIS Online newsletter.

We may be going through the usual post Christmas news lull at the moment, but we’ve still got lots to pass your way. From the second and final part of our lookback at 2012, news of a two-and-a-half year long cross-stitch project, to footage of the band performing “Small World” live, and much more, we think you’ll find something to interest you.

So, sit back and enjoy the read.

Simon Roberts, Rob Hazelby, Jonathan Young, Liz Maher
Email us at: simon, robert, jonathan, liz @mis-online.net

[2] – FULL HOUSE OF FUN – BUTLINS LIVE MUSIC WEEKENDS ISSUE 16

This article was taken from the current edition of the Butlins magazine, which aims to promote Butlins weekends to holiday makers.

The review brings a different viewpoint, from a holiday goer who seems to know a bit about the band, but not on a scale as the majority of MIS readers.

MADNESS? JUST A BIT.

Before I start this review I’ve got a confession. I’ve never been to Butlins before! But when I heard Madness were playing. I was on the next train to Minehead.

While it might not be that cool to admit, I’m here with my mum. She loves music, so I took the chance. The Madness Weekend is curated by the Nutty Boys themselves, with a peep show, wall of death, invisible circus and more to keep us entertained alongside the music. And although some things are a bit mad – as you’d expect – my mum takes it all in her stride.

The skyline pavillion is a sea of braces and pork pie hats by 8pm, and while the crowd is big and boisterous, everyone is friendly. We sneak almost to the front and find ourselves standing next to a couple on their honeymoon. Rachel tells me they’ve seen Madness four times already. “We saw them perform their new album last night which was superb,” says her husband Mark. “And some of the band were dancing away at Jaks afterwards”

I tell them I feel like a Madness impostor, as Madness had released three albums by the time I was one. But Rachel says “That’s fine. A band like this is for everyone. Next time we’re bringing our four sons along”.

The audience is buzzing with anticipation by the time a long drum roll announces that something is about to happen. The curtains open to the band spinning umbrellas, it’s pouring with rain outside and a ripple of laughter fills the skyline, turning into applause and then dancing as the opening bars of One Step Beyond ring out. It is a brilliant, totally infectious atmosphere. Finally Suggs appears on stage. “You’d better start to move your feet. To the rockin’est rocksteady beat of Madness.”

I hate to use the phrase, but the crowd just goes wild. The gig itself is great, with amazing visuals – from cool footage of 1950’s icons (for my girl and My girl 2), to stills taken from around the site (Our House), manic circus faces (House of fun) and giant flashing hearts (It must be love). Suggs is a genius front man who clearly known his audience “Are you having a good time?” he asks after the first song.
“I had a little walk round the site after the gig last night, and it certainly looked like you were having a good time. For those of you who are still confused we’re Madness.”

He introduces each song with some irreverent chat that has everyone sniggering. “I was at the discotheque last night, until very late it happens and some silly buggers had stolen the headphones. So that made an interesting scenario. A silent disco, with no music. Cue more laughter before the band launches into Never Knew Your Name.

Clearly enjoying themselves, the band pace through their hits with energy. I don’t know their old stuff, but I love it anyway – and get carried away dancing with two lads who try to teach my mum to skank!
My highlights?

Everybody dancing in unison to Baggy Trousers, and singing along with my mum to It Must Be Love. When the band leave the stage the crowd are stomping for more, and Madness don’t disappoint. As their encore comes to an end, Suggs suggests that all reconvene in the disco. “And whoever took the headphones don’t forget to bring them back.”

By Ellie Fazen (Suggs version of Cecilia was the soundtrack to my summer when I was 13. The sunglasses and swagger got me hooked on Madness).

From Butlins live music weekends magazine

[3] – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby goes back 5 years to issue number 453, and the week of Sunday 6th January to Saturday 12th January 2008, and then back 10 years to issue number 191 and the week of Sunday 5th January to Saturday 11th January December 2003.

5 years ago…

Issue 453 – Sunday 6th January to Saturday 12th January 2008

In this edition of the MIS, we continued our lookback over the past
12 months with the second part of our article, charting the highs and lows which took place over the course of the past year.

Elsewhere, a certain Paul Muscat had been keeping himself busy, and whilst it wasn’t as large as some of his more famous efforts, it was indeed something that’d keep you interested for a minute or so.

Further on we had a brief lowdown, along with audio and video download/streaming links, of the recently aired Hootenanny gig, which was part of Jools Holland’s annual end of year Hootenanny. If you’d missed it then we were here to help you catch up on some excellent live Madness performances.

If the above wasn’t enough, we also had details of when Carl took over the role of DJ for a one off stint on Radio 2. As with the Hootenanny, we had links detailing how you could catch this if you were unlucky to have missed it.

10 years ago…

Issue 191 – Sunday 5th January to Saturday 11th January 2003

As at the start of January 2002 things had gone more than a little quiet, but used to the post Christmas lull by now, we advised readers not to panic, as things were bound to pick up in the next week or so.

Much of this week’s issue was taken up with our lookback at 2002, where we charted the high and low points of the year just gone by.
Although much of the issue was taken up by this we still managed to cram in a few Madness related articles that had caught our eye.

Andrew Langmead reported that Madness had managed to attain a very respectable 14th position in Virgin’s Top 100 British Artists lowdown, while on the stageshow front, What’s on Stage News announced that the Our House Musical has been given an extra 7 months to its run.

The boys were on TV over the Christmas period as part of the BBC’s “It’s the Number One Party” celebrating 50 years of the UK singles charts where they performed `House of Fun.`. As with most of the acts they were miming the show. Thommo went up on 2 wires in true `Baggy Trousers` style and tried to do as many flips as he could, almost knocking into other band members in the process.

We also reported that following a near death experience, Bad Manners’
Buster Bloodvessel had battled a near death experience, where his heart stopped for 17 seconds, and was now well and truly on the mend.

Rob Hazelby

[4] – A STITCH IN TIME

We’ve seen some amazing Madness related projects in our time, ranging from the comprehensive Tour Madness, to the obsessive cataloguing of every Madness worldwide release ever.

This latest project we have to report on is one of the more sedate we’ve investigated, but it’s by no means any less impressive.

After two long years of hard work, and no doubt, many late nights it’s complete – the Madness cross stitch. Graham Yates tells us the photo used as a basis for the work comes from the Folgate era.

The brainchild of subscriber Jackie Reid, this amazing looking piece of work can be viewed by pointing your web browsers over to:

https://twitter.com/jreid1961/status/285358121902284800/photo/1

At this moment in time we’re not sure if Jackie’s going to call the Madness cross stitch projects a day or if she’s going to move on to another Madness related project.

If she does, we’ll let you know.

Rob Hazelby / Jon Young / Graham Yates

[5] – A LOOKBACK AT 2012 – PART 2

In this second and final part of our lookback over the past 12 months, we cover July to December 2013.

JULY

The second half of the year began with news that a number of soundboard recordings of Madness’ performance at the recent Isle of Wight Festival had now made it on to YouTube.

The tracks uploaded were Our House, House of Fun, My Girl 2, It Must be Love, and Baggy Trousers.

Declan Mc Dermott was responsible for the heads-up on these tracks, and we promised to let readers know if further soundboard recordings surfaced in the coming weeks.

With gigs at Westonbirt and Doncaster now done and dusted, reviews of both started to trickle in. Unfortunately, neither were grumble free from the reviewers. The Westonbirt gig suffered from severe delay as the band decided to wait until almost 10:00pm before coming on stage.
The reason why? They’d decided to watch England Vs Italy backstage.

Grumblings were even louder for the Doncaster gig, where the reviewer slammed the fence that split fans up depending on ownership of a golden circle ticket.

“These kinds of barriers don’t work at Madness gigs.
Songs like our house, and it must be love, still
shine and unite the crowds in song tonight, the
grandstands, the whole racecourse singing along to
the words for two dreamers, for love being the best.
If Madness want to cross class, unite all comers in
song, don’t build a two tier money trap that creates
these situations. For a little extra cash, probably
not that much over all, venue, management and band
get it wrong here”.

While the above two gigs did go ahead, the unseasonably wet UK weather meant that both the Haydock Park and Carlisle gigs had to be cancelled.

The press release read;

“Following over 27mm of rain since 8am this morning
(Friday) at Haydock Park and a similar story in
Carlisle, event organisers have admitted defeat in
staging this weekend’s race meetings and concerts by
Madness.

Due to health and safety concerns with additional
rain forecast, the racecourses were left with no
alternative other than to abandon the fixture.”

The freak weather didn’t just impact Madness, as the Lee Thompson’s Ska Orchestra gig on the 8th July at MFest was also cancelled due to terrible weather conditions.

On a more amusing note, July was also the month when Suggs had to be escorted away by security after he invaded the stage of a Sting gig.

According to Digital Spy, Suggs drunkenly made his way on stage while the former Police frontman was performing, and then wouldn’t leave.

Suggs’s wife Bette Bright denied that he was drunk when he stepped on stage, saying: “I wasn’t with him. But he wasn’t really drunk because he knew he had to go to Stuttgart today.

“He just got on stage, which he always does, and said how much he loved Sting. That was about it. I don’t think he was dragged off by
security. It’s just been wildly exaggerated.”

Still recovering from their rooftop performance at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, they, as did the fans, learned that the band would be performing at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games on August 12th.

Apparently the band would be sandwiched between a Notting Hill Carnival section and the Cold Stream Guards, early in the running order. Fans were also told to expect a return of Bedders for the performance.

AUGUST

With the Olympic Closing Ceremony taking place on a Sunday, we held off sending the issue out until Madness had performed in their slot at the event, as we were keen to feature a review of proceedings in the latest issue.

As the “review” was typed-up as the performance was being screened live, it turned into more of a bullet-point blog-type article, detailing a brief lowdown of what went on.

We brought our review to a close by commenting;

“Madness have gone from the bunch of lads who
used to appear on Top of The Pops to an almost
institution deemed worthy of helping to close
an Olympic ceremony, and for that we can feel
proud”.

This month we also looked back, as it was 20 years since the two Madstock reunion gigs took place in London’s Finsbury Park.

Memories of those two special days came courtesy of Chigs Charlesworth and our very own Jonathan Young, who we discovered frightened his poor old mother to death when he phoned to tell her he’d missed the train home, and had to sleep in the station overnight.

Back to the Olympics, and it was this month when a special re-issue of Total Madness landed on store shelves up and down the country, sporting Team GB colours and a slightly altered track listing. Yes, it was really only for those die-hard collectors, who those who had only heard of Madness from their Olympic/Jubilee performances, but it was a nice release regardless.

Due for release on the 29th of October, online retailers were now allowing you to pre-order your copy of the forthcoming Madness album.
Unfortunately, the band and management were still deciding on what to name the release, and so online retailers were giving the name either TBA or TBC.

Now, it may have been months away, but August was when we learned the fancy dress theme for the second Madness Minehead Weekender. “Circus Freaks” was the order of the day, and initial guidelines were as follows;

“Anything Nutty Freaky, from Victorian travelling
shows through to modern rock alternative style
dress or a little side show fangoria fits the bill
for the Butlins Big Top. From bearded ladies,
moustachioed strong men, deranged ring masters,
scary clowns, animal tamers, tapezze ballerinas,
to stop and stare roll up for oddities”.

It was time to get those thinking caps on!

SEPTEMBER

September brought news that the Chas-Smash.com web site was now back up and running. OK, the content was merely a massive chunk of text, which, without paragraphs, wasn’t the easiest of missives to read, but at least it was a start.

On a slightly non Madness note, but of interest to many, September also saw Ian Dury’s legendary Spasticus Autisticus as one of the many tunes to be used during the opening ceremony of the Paralymics
2012 event.

Sameer Rahim of the Telegraph, commented at the time;

“Watching the performers on stage and in
wheelchairs belt out the song was
electrifying. It was more than a reclaiming;
it felt like something that demanded to be
listened to. Rather than the tiptoeing language
that surrounds disability this felt authentic.
“I’m spasticus,” is an echo of “I am Spartacus”
from the Kirk Douglas film. As person from what
the song calls “Normal Land”, I can’t claim to
understand what a disabled person’s life might
be like. Ian Dury’s song, and the Paralympics
as a whole, will hopefully go some way to
changing that”.

This month the band continued to add dates to their already busy schedule, as we received news that on September 27th, they’d be performing at Camden’s legendary Roundhouse, as part of this year’s iTunes Festival.

Tickets were to be allocated via a ballot system, so the only way to be in with a chance of getting a pair was to sign up to the iTunes Festival web site, and then cross your fingers.

Thankfully, those unable to get along or not lucky enough to win were told that they’d be able to watch online. Thank goodness!

Mid September brought with it the name of the much anticipated next album. After much discussion amongst the band members and management the final name would be “Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da”. All we had to do was sit and wait until the 29th of October, when the album was due to go on sale.

Those who had bought tickets for this year’s Madness Weekender were treated to some amazing news this month, when it was revealed that Lee Thompson’s Ska Orchestra had been added to the line-up. The band were booked to play at midday on the Sunday, meaning you could have a decent lie-in and still catch the band before lunch.

Fanzine collectors also received some good news this month, as after a break of 10 years (yes, you read that right!) the latest issue of Mad Not Mad finally saw release. It’s unknown at this point if or when the next issue will arrive. Our advice is not to hold your breath!

OCTOBER

We kicked off the month with the sad news that a number of Suggs solo gigs had had to be cancelled, and along with that, the much anticipated book wouldn’t be surfacing until some time around mid 2013.

All we were told was that the delay was down to the serious illness of a close family member.

Following September’s gig at The Roundhouse, Lucky Seven Records were nice enough to release an 8 track live LP featuring three of the new album tracks. The album was made available as an iTunes download, priced at £4.49, or 99p per track.

With October playing host to issue 700 of the MIS, we decided to mark the monumentous occasion by looking back at the previous 6 centenary issues, to see how we celebrated those birthdays and to take a look at what was going on at the time.

On the 16th the band appeared on Later With Jools Holland, where they performed a number of new and old tracks, in front of a studio audience. Fan feedback from the performance was mixed, with many pointing out that you could clearly see Suggs reading the lyrics from a sheet of paper on the floor. Still, it was all excellent promotion, and came just prior to the release of the new album.

Towards the end of the month press and fan album reviews flooded in as Oui Oui started landing on doormats or hard drives around the globe, and making a much welcome return to the MIS was Vince Carden, who was kind enough to give us his views on this latest release.

Those who had read Vince’s previous work know that he doesn’t do reviews by half, and this lengthy and detailed piece was no different.

So, what did he think?

“Madness are at the top of their game in terms
of their songwriting and also enthusiasm for
all things Madness. They have had their biggest
year since 1982. The enormous success of 2012
is an appropriate way of celebrating a 30th
anniversary and I believe it will be capped off
with their highest position for an album of new
material since Absolutely back in 1980”.

We brought October to an end with a special edition of the MIS, as we’d been contacted by band management with the sad news that Lee’s sax had been stolen from the X Factor Studios, after the band performed on the show. Fans were told that information leading to the safe return of the instrument would result in a Madness related reward.

NOVEMBER

Charity was the name of the game as this month got underway, and with it men across the globe took part in the ever popular Movember. What did this have to do with Madness? Well, a certain Woody had decided to take part and was asking you to kindly sponsor him.

With the release of the new album only a week or so back the newspaper, and internet reviews continued to surface, and pleasingly the majority were extremely positive. Naturally, the band were putting in much effort to promote the album themselves, with appearances on This Morning, Channel 4 News, Soccer AM to name but a few.

The Madness PR bandwagon was clearly in full swing!

Lee had some fantastic news to report early in the month when he announced that his sax had been returned, and not only that, the Ska Orchestra’s EP was now available.

Lee also revealed that he was thinking of raising some money for charity by auctioning off the kilt he flew in during the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.

At the 2011 Madness Weekender plans were made for the world’s longest Nutty Train. For the 2012 event plans were afoot to arrange a Nutty Charge, to take place at the same time and on the same patch of grass. The idea was that you’d come armed with all manner of soft battle weapons, and take part in a nutty charge.

Unfortunately, despite the planning that went into this, the terrible weather meant that health and safety deemed the event too dangerous to take place.

Ah, yes. The weather. It was already behind the cancellation of a number of the summer gigs, and it was now the turn of the Minehead Weekender to feel the full force of 2012’s near continuous rain.
With fans and band members struggling to get to and from the event it really is amazing that it went ahead at all. Thankfully, it did, and this second Weekender turned out to be just as successful as the first.

DECEMBER

The final month of 2012 was one of live gigs, as the band staged another one of their much loved Christmas tours, this time entitled “Charge of the Mad Brigade”.

It would come as no surprise that the majority of this month’s issues of the MIS were crammed with gig reviews from the press and the Madness fanbase.

A few other items of news did surface during November however, and these included an announcement regarding new dates for Suggs’s one man show in April, May and June 2013.

2012 was brought to a close with news of limited time discounts at the online Madness store, and news that Suggs had been interviewed by Clare Balding for BBC Radio 2, where he discussed the year gone by.

AND ON INTO 2013

Finally, fans already had something to look forward to in 2013, as before the year was out the first racecourse gig had been announced, and we were told to expect many more to be confirmed as the year got underway.

Not only that, but the third Madness Minehead Weekender was also confirmed, and fans quickly started booking their places.

2013 looks like it’s going to be a busy one!

Rob Hazelby

[6] – TOTALLY SPORTS LONDON MAGAZINE.

Madness feature extensively in a new French magazine.

Suggs was interviewed by Darren Tulett, an English journalist who is very popular in France. Darren works for French Radios (Europe 1, Oui
Fm) and French TV like Canal Plus. He was a reporter for several football world cup games and he presents a lot of premier league football in France. Darren is a Madness fan and has a Mod look.

About the interview : Suggs talked about London and Camden Town, Suggs also said that people have to go to Soho and he gave somme good places to go.

Camden has changed since the Madness singer was young. Suggs is sad because lot of venues was closed over the years. Suggs said that today there are lot of supermarkets and when he was younger they were farms and horse hospitals.

In the seventies Suggs said that there were in Camden just some hippies, today too much tourists. Suggs said he loves to go have a drink at the Dublin Castle. One of the best pubs, and one of last independent pubs! Suggs said he loves London; you can eat all the world’s kind of food!

Suggs said : Olympics was fantastic, 2 weeks of happiness.

Suggs said he was very happy to play on the roof of Buckingham, don’t you know that “little frogs from Camden Town play at the roof of Buckingham”!!

Suggs said: Our House is like an unofficial English anthem now. Suggs said, that the band is now a national treasure. 33 years after our first success, people have released that we are a part of them. Our songs are a part of lot English people now.

They also talk about The Jubilee. Darren said, The 80’s band who have the best energy today is Madness, and Madness have played in the roof top of Buckingham Palace.

Suggs talked about Football, he said why he supports Chelsea. Suggs said that the mayor of london is a big madness fan and Suggs will send him the “oui oui” album.

See the French text here, and full magazine layouts:

http://www.totallysportsinlondon.com/magazine/numero_12_avec_Madness

Thanks to JP of the French MIS

[7] – SMALL WORLD – LIVE

From the House of Fun weekender comes a live video of the band playing “Small World”, from the new album.

Baggy Trousers 4,231 plays, Our House 3,112 plays, Wings of a Dove
1,295 plays, Tomorrow’s Just Another Day 875 plays, NW5 114 plays, Bingo 31 plays, Mad Not Mad 17 plays, Delilah 5 plays, Circus Freaks
4 plays.

Small World 1 play.

http://tinyurl.com/akkt2u4

It’s nice to witness those rare moments when Madness really truly do something completely different. The House of fun weekender has been a brilliant part of that happening in recent years.

This year it provided the new album in full. So unlike Folgate where Rainbows and Africa still sit in the category of “Never heard Live”
the current album in it’s 1CD edition has been fully aired live by the band.

For perhaps one time only, (until the next time. Who knows when?) Woody got to play his composition, whilst wearing a moustache!
Moustache 7 plays. (we are making these numbers up by the way)

2.14 if you want to jump to the live version of that solo on keys from Barso.

Small World Linked forever. Follow the link and if you couldn’t make England, Minehead, or just want to return. Welcome back to the Small Moment of Small World Live.

Jonathan Young
Video by Sharon Staite

[8] – THAT’S YER LOT

We’re almost done for this week, but before we got there are a few last minute bits and pieces to pass your way.

First-up, it’s over to Jermaine of Tour Madness, who tells us that;

“Our House is currently used as the theme-tune
to ‘Divorce’, an RTL-series about three
housemates separating from their wives.

Check out www.rtl.nl/divorce”

Next, and here’s a real blast from the past. MIS web site maintainer is currently in the process of decommissioning one of our old servers, and during this he’s uncovered a few gems.

The footage we really recommend you look at is a 46 second clip of The Invaders in action. According to Simon this is the only known footage of the band in action. This snippet features Gary Davey on drums and Gavin Rodgers on bass.

Point your browsers at:

http://youtu.be/YrEfdWQzwyA

And finally, if you really want to give yourself nightmares, Simon’s dug out footage of the MIS staff and friends Christmas outing from December 2006.

Sleep tight!

Rob, Jon, Simon, Liz
(With special thanks to JP of The French MIS team, Graham Yates, Jackie Reid and Sharon Staite)