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

2 – BIG TIME EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL EDITION TEASER TRACK FOR YOU – Hello
MIS reader, have a listen exclusively here to 45 seconds of the
track “Big Time Sister”, one of the new studio tracks from disc 2
of the forthcoming special edition. Wow! Jonathan Young reports

3 – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS – This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby
goes back 5 years to issue number 462, and the week of Sunday 9th
March to Saturday 15th March 2008, and then back 10 years
to issue number 200 and the week of Sunday 9th March to
Saturday 15th March 2003.

4 – SPECIALIZED 2 – BEAT TEENAGE CANCER – Time to catch up with the
second phase in the Specialized project, which this year is
raising money with a project covering songs by The Beat.

5 – THE LEE THOMPSON SKA ORCHESTRA ALBUM OUT IN MAY – Lee Thompson
appeared on Stomp Radio this week. Amongst the chat, he announced
that roughly the album would be out in May. Stating that, (by the
time you read this) it will have been cut/pressed. The radio
interview including hearing the tracks Josephine, and Napoleon
Solo, and Sit Down and wonder, can be listened to again…

6 – KELLOGS, A TRIBUTE BY HENRY SCOTT-IRVINE – Following the sad news
of the recent passing of Madness’ legendary Kellogs, AKA John
Kalinowski, Henry Scott-Irvine has written a wonderful tribute to
the great man. Details here.

7 – SUGGS TO PERFORM IN AID OF PANCREATIC CANCER UK – Madness singer
Suggs will perform in a star-studded evening of music to raise
money for Pancreatic Cancer UK. Never Mind the Buzzcocks team
captain Phil Jupitus will compere the night which will also
feature Jools Holland and Squeeze frontman Glen Tilbrook.
From The Independent. Written by Matt Gibson

8 – PAUL RODGERS’ MADNESS STATS, FACTS AND FIGURES – Another week and
another round-up of Madness chart news, courtesy of Paul Rodgers

9 – 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 warm welcome to this week’s edition of the MIS Online Bulletin.

Things have been rather quiet on the old Madness news front this week, but as usual we’ve pulled together everything Madness related that has landed in our mailboxes over the past seven days, ready for your reading pleasure.

So, sit back, wrap up warm and enjoy the read!

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

[2] – BIG TIME EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL EDITION TEASER TRACK FOR YOU

Hello MIS reader, have a listen exclusively here to 45 seconds of the track “Big Time Sister”, one of the new studio tracks from disc 2 of the forthcoming special edition. Wow!

By far the most beautiful rhetorical question we’ve ever been asked at MIS came in an email this week, when the band’s team contacted us to let us know the forthcoming special edition album would be trailered by some teasers to its audio content, and then said…

“We thought it might be nice if you had a teaser of one of
the tracks to send to MIS readers exclusively a while before
we send it out to everyone.

What do you think?”

Needless to say we shouted a happy “YES!”, more times than the word appears in the current album title.

So we are now happily all bouncing around to the song.

BIG TIME SISTER.

We uploaded the preview to our website’s Missie player at www.mis-online.net

And we’ve added it to your youtube for you all to check out here…

It’s nice to be allowed to bring you a sneak peak inside the doors of Wormwood Scrubs HM prison.

Lee Thompson’s song completes a trilogy of tracks about his sibling.
This is the prequel to “Embarrassment” and “Back in my Arms Again”
(Sarah’s Song), telling the story of how his sister married in prison!

We love it. Its bombastic brass sting big time, and can’t wait for the Special edition to arrive in our house. It’s out on remand in April along with the rest of Disc 2. Order it at

www.madness.co.uk

Madtube has begun its set of previews, with the track Deolali, which is sounding Bondesque and menacing. Here, with Lee on vocal duties and his finger on the guns trigger.

DEOLALI

“We’ll be doing this for more of the new tracks over the
coming weeks.”

They told us at mad HQ. So keep your eyes peeled to Madtube and delight your ears with more sneak previews to keep you sane until the special edition you ordered arrives in April.

Jonathan Young

[3] – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby goes back 5 years to issue number 462, and the week of Sunday 9th March to Saturday 15th March 2008, and then back 10 years to issue number 200 and the week of Sunday 9th March to Saturday 15th March 2003.

5 years ago…

Issue number 462 – Sunday 9th March to Saturday 15th March 2008

We began this issue with an article from Brand Republic, who revealed that Suggs was making a return to promoting Birds Eye productions, as part of its “Good Man Food” advertising campaign.

The campaign, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, commenced airing on March 3rd, and would include TV, radio and print.

It followed on from Birds Eye’s sponsorship of ITV1’s ‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’, which started on February 16th.

The 40-second TV ad showed Suggs explaining that freezing locks in the natural goodness in Birds Eye food, while its “great tasting” range of products ensured good moods all round at teatime.

Next, it was over to Paul Rodgers, who, following on from the Brand Republic article was giving us his views on Suggs appearing on prime time TV, during Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway TV series.

Paul commented at the time;

“This means between 4 and 8 MILLION people will
hear a bit of Madness every Saturday night
subliminally (if you don’t believe me Google
these words: UK viewing figures ant dec)”

Paul continued his reporting stint with a transcription of an NW5 review from the BT Yahoo web site. Although containing one or two mistakes, it was generally well written and surely any publicity was good publicity, right?

Moving on to Bang! Showbiz, and the publication reported that Suggs would be featuring on a new Keira Knightly soundtrack to her upcoming Dylan Thomas movie ‘The Edge of Love’.

‘The Edge of Reason’, which was written by Keira’s mother Sharman Macdonald, starred Matthew Rhys as Dylan Thomas, Kiera as the wordsmith’s childhood friend Vera Phillips, and Sienna Miller as his
wife Caitlin MacNamara.

Next, it was over to Jonathan Young who, after compiling reports of new Madness offshoot Damaged Goods, the previous week, he was now able to report on a DG himself after seeing them in Barnet.

Available at the Damaged Goods gig was a limited edition CD featuring music from the night’s acts. Two of the tracks were unique Lee Thompson tracks.

Having picked up a spare copy of this 9-track release Jonathan kindly ran a competition so that readers of the MIS could be in with a chance of winning a copy. All you had to do was complete the following sentence;

“Oh Boy, I’m so glad my CD wasn’t Damaged by…”

We brought this week’s issue of the MIS to a close with the news that the Crunch! gig at the Koko this coming Wednesday (12th) had been cancelled. Pama International had cancelled the show, and Crunch!
were due to be special guests.

10 years ago…

Issue number 200 – Sunday 9th March to Saturday 15th March 2003

Our two hundredth edition of the MIS kicked off without celebration or trumpet blowing, and instead, went straight into the news.

We started off with a short snippet from the legendary Terry Edwards, who took time out of his busy schedule to let us know that he was primed and ready for his reserve saxophonist position at the forthcoming Royal Albert Hall gig. Terry told us that “I have my number 12 shirt on ready for the Albert Hall, but I think Lee may yet turn up for it!”.

Carl also contacted the online Madness fanbase, and informed us that Lee had changed his mind, and would indeed be performing at the RAH.

Those of you with a fair bit of spare cash, and a penchant for fine food and wine were in for a real treat this issue, when the news came in detailing a five course gourmet dinner on Friday 30th May with special guest Carl Smyth. Held at the Newbury Manor Hotel, the night promised to be something really special, providing you could afford to go!

Continuing on a Carl related theme, and earlier in the week the Chas Smash Forum burst into chaos when Mr Smash himself made an appearance.
Like the excellent web chats that were set up a few weeks back the forum suffered a little from the same fate whereby loads of fans bombard Carl with question after question.

To be fair, Mr Smith did a super job of keeping things in order as much as possible. Instead of reply to each question individually he waited until a certain number of postings had been made before posting one reply with all the answers to the questions and general comments to the previous postings.

It also seemed that the forums were becoming a victim of their own success. The forums, hosted by Brinkster allowed a 500 megabyte per day transfer limit, but with the additional traffic being generated following the Chas Smash visit this was quickly being used up, and many visitors were facing a ‘This forum has closed for the day’
message.

After much organising, emailing and texting, 18 Maddies descended on The Cambridge Theatre to see the Our House musical. Starting the day with the obligatory Dublin Castle meet-up, the day was a chance for old Madness friends to catch up, socialise, and enjoy this tragically short lived musical.

Rob Hazelby

[4] – SPECIALIZED 2 – BEAT TEENAGE CANCER

Time to catch up with the second phase in the Specialized project, which this year is raising money with a project covering songs by The Beat.

Specialized first came about in September 2011 after its creator Paul Williams, an admin at The Specials fansite saw a TV programme about the care of young people on the NHS. The Specials themselves had played a prestigious gig at The Royal Albert Hall in aid of the charity Teenage Cancer Trust so Paul put his love of 2-Tone and The Specials together with the idea of somehow doing a charity project to raise money for TCT, and the project of a charity album of Specials covers by modern day artists, not just ska bands but from all differing genres was born as “Specialized – A Modern take on Specials classics”.

Yes, the Specialized with a “Z”, it was an intentional spelling – it simply was more striking cosmetically!

The project took off at an alarming speed. Names such as Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals) and Lee Thompson (Madness) became involved, a
40 track double CD evolved, with album artwork by Williams and original 2-Tone designer John Teflon Sims plus sleeve notes by Horace Panter & Lynval Golding (Specials). A 20 date tour a round the UK (including a superb one off special in Australia-Thanks to Chris McKenzie)took off with 5 dates selling out. The bands/acts were simply outstanding. The tour was a great success.

2 vinyl 7″ EPs were released along with a limited edition white vinyl album and the project continued to grow and grow.

Its 2012 drive culminated in a 3 day festival at Parkdean Sandford, nr. Poole in Dorset in October. A sublime line up rocked the weekend which saw photo signings from some of The Specials, a great set by the Specialized Allstars ( a supergroup made up of members of The Specials, and the Prince Buster/Laurel Aitken band as well as UK reggae star Winston Reedy) and was MCd by Dennis Bovell. It was a raging success.

2013 sees Specialized 2- Beat Teenage Cancer. The Beat were a natural choice, being so melodic a band, with messages as tough as The Specials, the scope with The Beat is amazing. Bands came forth again at a huge rate to take part. The new project is an exciting one and it also aims to keep a band like The Beat in the public eye where they belong AND raise even more money for Teenage cancer Trust.

We aim to end the 2013 project in another big weekend bash. Details will appear on http://www.specializedproject.co.uk/

We are very pleased and honoured that we are launching “Specialized
– Beat teenage cancer”. In the same vein as the first album, this time we are basing the whole project around another of the UK ska and 2-Tone legends, of course, it’s THE BEAT. As is the norm with Specialized, all money raised goes to Teenage Cancer Trust.

Always one of the stand out 2-Tone related bands, The Beat were truly the rhythm kings of the movement and they continued this on after the demise of 2-Tone such was their appeal. A team of great songwriters within the band saw many hits and they became the first 2-Tone act to really crack the USA, where their popularity is still huge. They have proved as popular at home too of course, and the latest releases of their work on vinyl and CD has proved this. The cool and efficient front men of Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger were the perfect front for the band with the continual manic struts of superb guitarists Dave Steele and Andy Cox were a sight to behold.

Throw into that melting pot the slinking driving rhythms supplied by Everett Morton on drums and the surprise element in the mix of Lionel Martin AKA “Saxa” (on what else, a saxophone) the laid back, floppy hatted brass maestro who had played with the likes of Prince Buster and Laurel Aitken on the original first ska boom and there you have a band that was crammed with musical greatness. Time has not diminished the band’s legacy and glory, their songs remain hugely popular and we all know both sets of bands currently in formation under The Beat banner, carry off the catalogue of tuneful melodic tracks with aplomb.

The album will feature all the Beat classics and plenty of album tracks for your delight and the project aims to have plenty of surprises along the way. This of course will also see a fantastic return to Parkdean Sandford on November 8th, 9th & 10th 2013 for the aptly titled “Big One 2”, with a new format but just as entertaining.
Big names and a star studded reggae showcase being the highlights.
More details to follow shortly on the Parkdean weekender, so stay tuned.

The bands lined up to appear on the album so far include – The Hotknives, Addictive Philosophy, King Hammond, Big Fat Panda, Bluebird Parade, Buford o’Sullivan, Dirty Revolution, Dub Pistols, Dubtonik, Ed Rome, Esperanza, The Splitters, Swagga, The Amphetameanies, The Kosmos, just to name a few…

The new website is now up and running. Have a look when you have some spare time as its the new place for all things Specialized.

Thank you all for your continued support and hope to see old and new faces at our events.

Come on – lets try and Beat Teenage Cancer. Together.

Message from Dave Wakeling –
“…Music has always had a healing aspect, and two tone a
bit more than most, as it was designed to bring people
together. These songs have been a big part of my life,
and I am honoured that they could be of use to the
Specialized project. a wonderful opportunity to
assist a worthy cause, the Teenage Cancer Trust,
and remember, when we help others, we help ourselves…
one hand wash the other!”

Taken from the project website. By Paul Willo.

[5] – THE LEE THOMPSON SKA ORCHESTRA ALBUM OUT IN MAY

Lee Thompson appeared on Stomp Radio this week. Amongst the chat, he announced that roughly the album would be out in May. Stating that, (by the time you read this) it will have been cut/pressed.

The radio interview including hearing the tracks Josephine, and Napoleon Solo, and Sit Down and wonder, can be listened to again via this link…

http://tinyurl.com/chjgu27

Giloboy DJ says…

“It was my great pleasure to be joined by the One and Only Lee Thompson, Sax Player, Songwriter and all round good bloke from Madness . Lee popped by and shared some great stories of his days with Madness, his new project Lee Thompson’s Ska Orchestra who are just releasing a brand new album and will be out on the road in May on promotional duties.
Details www.itso.mis-online.net”

Songs In The Key Of Lee Thompson. Lee chose the tracks.

MFSB – K Jee
Kiki Dee – On A Magic Carpet Ride
Madness – Night Boat To Cairo
Jimmy Cliff – Vietnam
Madness – The Prince
Madness – Embarrassment
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra – My Girl Josephine The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra – Napoleon Solo The Elgins – Heaven Must Have Sent You

2nd Hour

Madness – Drip Fed Fred
Madness – House Of Fun
Madness – It Must Be Love
War-Low Rider
Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come
Madness – Lovestruck
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra – Sit Down and Wonder

Lee gave out a series of shout outs to fans listening in.

Chat began with news that the video shoot for the Fu Man Chu single, set in a pool hall, had been postponed to find a more retro location for it’s setting.

Lee praises Jimmy Cliff, and later talks about the pressing of the first Madness single. Talks about the structure of the song Embarrassment.
He talks about phil mitchell lookalike standing in for him during a corporate HMV gig in Birmingham. Introduces the ska orchestra players by name again. He retells he story of Ian Dury and drip fed fred. Lee talks about the Madness videos. He talks about house of fun being number 1. He tells the story of giving Elvis Costello the bumps at Dave Robinson’s wedding. He talks about dynamite gangs, before reciting nonsense poetry.
He praises Stuart Wright for his pop knowledge of the golden era.

Check out LTSO page on facebook for current gigs in MAY.
The album launch month. At Chelsea, Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle. On sale now. www.ltso.mis-online.net

Taken from Giloboy podcast site. / MIS

[6] – KELLOGS, A TRIBUTE BY HENRY SCOTT-IRVINE

Kellogs, aka John Kalinowski

A tribute by Henry Scott-Irvine

Following the sad news of the recent passing of Madness’ legendary Kellogs, AKA John Kalinowski, Henry Scott-Irvine has written a wonderful tribute to the great man, which you can find at:

http://www.procolharum.com/procoljk_hsi-obit.htm

There are also a number of tributes from friends, which can be found
here: http://www.procolharum.com/procoljk.htm

Our thanks go to Vince Foley for the heads-up on this.

[7] – SUGGS TO PERFORM IN AID OF PANCREATIC CANCER UK

Written by Matt Gibson
Published on Friday 8th March 2013

Madness singer Suggs will perform in a star-studded evening of music to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks team captain Phil Jupitus will compere the night which will also feature Jools Holland and Squeeze frontman Glen Tilbrook.

Other performers on the night will include finalist of BBC1 singing contest The Voice UK, Bo Bruce, whose mother died of pancreatic cancer, and Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, who has recently been diagnosed with the disease.

An Evening With Suggs And Friends, at The Porchester Hall in London, on March 14, will also feature a live house band including former Pretenders guitarist Robbie McIntosh.

Alex Ford, chief executive officer of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: “We are thrilled to benefit from this wonderful evening with Suggs and friends, organised for us by the Gig Company.

“We hope the evening will raise much needed funds, but also, importantly, the profile of this dreadful disease. There is so much to be done to improve survival rates from this most fatal of cancers”.s

Tickets cost from £120 per seat with tables and VIP tickets also available. To buy, visit www.thegigcompany.org.

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/

[8] – PAUL RODGERS’ MADNESS STATS, FACTS AND FIGURES

Last week’s chart saw both of the Madness’ recent charting albums outside the top 100. Complete Madness fell from 143 to 166 and to number 24 on the indie chart. This in week 95 on the top 200, including a current unbroken run of 50 weeks.

Meanwhile Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da fell from 83 to 147 in week 17 of its top 200 career. It also fell from 9 to 21 on the indie chart.

This week both albums remain outside the top 100, with only their indie chart positions giving a clue that they remain in the top 200.
Complete climbs once more to 22, whilst Oui Oui slips in behind it at number 23. I’d be really quite annoyed if Complete Madness did not manage to achieve 52 straight weeks on the chart next week, especially as Madness promotion and airplay will gradually start to ramp up now in the lead up to the BBC TV Centre gig and the releases of the deluxe album and the new single.

I note the single is still not playlisted at Absolute and Radio 2, although I expect this to change over the next 10 days or so.
According to Absolute Radio’s website they played it once a week ago, but haven’t played it since!

Please remember you can pre-order the download bundle of the single (radio edit, live version and demo) from Amazon and iTunes. I’m probably not alone in hoping there’s a physical format to come too as Record Store Day falls just under 2 weeks after the single’s official release date. A picture disc single and two CDs wouldn’t go amiss in many Madness fans’ collections.

Never Knew Your Name is number 90 on the UK’s year to date airplay chart, which is not bad as we approach the end of the first quarter of the year (in the industry it’s all about the quarterly performance darlings!). I’m expecting How Can I Tell You to do better at radio and in the charts. Hopefully I’m right.

Over in France Never Knew Your Name continues to get airplay 20 weeks into its promotion over there, whilst the album drops to number 165 this week (from 117) in the combined album charts there in its 4th week on the chart.

Before I go there’s just time for one last chart fact for you: For the last 52 weeks Madness have had at least one album in the indie albums top 40 for every week. They have also had two different albums at number one in the indie chart in that time. In all six different Madness albums have contributed to a total of 126 weeks in the indie top 40 in the last 52 weeks. Unless I’ve lost my ability to add up this means that Madness have made up 6% of the indie top 40 positions over the last year. If you think I might be wrong then you do the maths.

Paul Rodgers

[9] – THAT’S YER LOT

That just about brings us to the end of this issue of the MIS, but before we go there are one or two last minute bits to pass in your general direction.

First-up, and on March 19th, the Near Jazz Experience and Trombone Poetry will be performing at Indo 133, Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1DT.
Best of all, entry is free!

The band, Mark, Terry And Simon recently appeared on Resonance FM with Henry Scott Irvine, which might be podcast soon. Naturally, we’ll bring you the link when if/when it’s online.

Moving on, and if you’ve not yet done so, and want to add it to your collection, don’t forget that the Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da 4-disc special edition is now available for pre-order.

Simply point your web browser over to:

http://blog.madness.co.uk/special-edition

If you’re thinking of ordering some items from the Madshop, don’t forget that for all orders over £30 you get the 2012 tour programme bundled for free.

Happy shopping!

Simon, Liz, Jon, Rob
(With thanks to Paul Rodgers and Vince Foley)