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

2 – SKA ORCHESTRA WEB, VIDEO & FORTHCOMING THOMO INTERVIEWS – Here’s
a heads up from Lee Thompson on a couple of interviews coming
next and a TV show he’s involved in. Plus links to LIKE the Ska
Orchestra official facebook page and YouTube channel where
exclusive stuff will appear.

3 – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS – This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby
goes back 5 years to issue number 468, and the week of Sunday
20th April to Saturday 26th April 2008, and then back 10 years to
issue number 206 and the week of Sunday 20th April to Saturday
26th April 2003.

4 – SUGGS: ROCKING UNTIL WE ARE 70? – After that appearance on
Buckingham Palace, Madness found a brand new audience. Duncan
Seaman caught up with front man Suggs. From The Yorkshire Post
web site.

5 – SUGGS ON RADIO 4 – We bring you news of a new radio talk from
Suggs on a figure he respects from the world of art.

6 – NEAR JAZZ WEB EXPERIENCE – Mark Bedford, Terry Edwards and Simon
Charterton, aka The Near Jazz Experience, release a 3D 7″ record
and join Twitter (the place they wrote an anthem for) and
Facebook.

7 – SUGGS, MY LIFE STORY, READER REVIEW – I went to see Suggs “My
Life Story” on Thursday 18 April 2013 at Cambridge at The Corn
Exchange. Review by Trish Tatt

8 – ZOLTAR’S BOOK PAGE 2: YOU CAN’T STOP A GOOD SCOT DANCING – With
the special edition of Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da now reaching
many, many more happy postboxes across the country, we bring more
fan first impressions and reviews as its happiness finds more
time to sink in across the madworld. This also includes our
interview with the dancing scotsman from the DVD.

9 – PAUL RODGERS’ MADNESS STATS, FACTS AND FIGURES – Paul’s back with
not one but TWO weeks of Madness related chart stats. That’s more
info than you can shake a stick at!

10 – ALL CHANGE AT MIS ONLINE – An important announcement before we
finish for the week.

[1] – THIS IS WHERE THE MADNESS BEGINS

Hello, and a very warm welcome to the last issue of the MIS in its current format.

Don’t panic, the MIS isn’t coming to an end. Instead, we’re looking into making the format more readable for you on a larger variety of devices, and at the same time reducing the amount of time it takes us to put each issue together.

The final section of this issue explains the changes in full, and while we’re certain that it may take a bit of getting used to, we hope that you’ll find that it continues to provide you with your weekly slice of Madness and Madness related news.

Now, before we get underway with this week’s issue…

To coincide with the release of the 4 disc special edition of Oui, Oui the band have uploaded a teaser of “1978” to their YouTube channel, which you can find at:

Meanwhile, this week The Guardian had this to say about “How Can I Tell You”;

“This jaunty father-to-child advice affair crams in
a few too many lyrics, so it scans clunkily, like
an amateur poem or Ed Sheeran song.

It’s the third single off their album Oui, Oui, Si,
Si, Ja, Ja, Da, Da, which I imagine was named by
Jim Trott off The Vicar Of Dibley (target
demographic reference)”

Earlier today The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra began shooting a video their Fu Man Chu single, with Dave Robinson directing and Bitty Mclean appearing to perform his vocal. Jim o Gara’s blue Bentley stands in as Thompson’ car and shooting continues on the project.

Expect an MIS feature on this soon!

And finally, unless you’re subscribed to Mark Bedford’s Twitter feed you may have missed one of his fire engine tweets which hit the net a few days back;

“Just saw/heard Fire Engine drive by with ‘Ring of
Fire’ blaring out of the window!?!”

Enjoy the read!

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

[2] – SKA ORCHESTRA WEB, VIDEO & FORTHCOMING THOMO INTERVIEWS

Here’s a heads up from Lee Thompson on a couple of interviews coming next and a TV show he’s involved in. Plus links to LIKE the Ska Orchestra official facebook page and YouTube channel where exclusive stuff will appear. This includes the forthcoming video of the Fu ManChu single the band are shooting today (Sat 20th April).

The band’s official news page on Facebook. Like it…

https://www.facebook.com/Leethompsonska

The band’s official Youtube Channel…

http://www.youtube.com/LeeThompsonSka

Exclusive content coming from both.

Here’s Lee…

Hi

Just to make you aware if not already. A Now
Music documentary, on the history of this
phenomenon, saw myself being filmed for this
& playing up to the cameras (as one does) This
will be aired at the end of May I believe.

Best, Lee

The show us called Rude Boy Revival, and the interview will be airing on Monday between 7 and 9pm. If you live in the West Sussex region you can catch it on 107FM. Otherwise, you can find the station online at www.meridianfm.com

With thanks to Lee Thompson and Chris Watts

[3] – THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

This week MIS co-editor, Rob Hazelby goes back 5 years to issue number 468, and the week of Sunday 20th April to Saturday 26th April 2008, and then back 10 years to issue number 206 and the week of Sunday 20th April to Saturday 26th April 2003.

5 years ago…

Issue number 468 – Sunday 20th April 2008 – Saturday 26th April 2008

We kicked off this issue with the news that the band had added yet another gig to their ever growing line-up for 2008, with the news that they’d be performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Switzerland.

Whilst this was exciting news, this wasn’t the biggest news item of the week by a long shot. Oh no. News had reached us via Lee Buckley and Trish Morgan revealing a new supergroup consisting of Lee Thompson and a number of other musical legends had been formed. The name of this group? The Dance Brigade!

Elsewhere we had detailed information on the Montreux Jazz Festival gig, an interview with Chris and Suggs backstage at the recent Snowbombing Festival, and news that the MadnessTradingRing.com web site was now online and open for business.

If that wasn’t enough, Paul Muscat had news of the Fifth Annual Madchart, the lowdown of forthcoming MOT gigs, and YouTube links to fan shot footage of Mike playing on The Royal Albert Hall’s famous organ.

10 years ago…

Issue number 206 – Sunday 20th April 2003 – Saturday 26th April 2003

With Easter falling somewhat later than it did this year, issue 206 landed right on chocolate egg nibbling day.

One Maddie who was clearly taking time out of a busy chocolate chomping session was Graeme Sharp, who gave us the heads-up on a whole host of appearances that Suggs would be making over the next couple of weeks. These appearances included an interview on Radio 5 with Simon Mayo, and numerous newspaper articles.

Suggs started his flood of media appearances when he joined Gary Crowley on BBC London 94.9 FM for a one hour special. As well as linking to the audio stream so those who missed it could get a chance to hear it for themselves, esteemed co-editor, Jonathan Young took a great deal of time to painstakingly transcribe huge chunks of the programme, for fellow Maddies to read through.

With Suggs now underway with his stint at appearing in the Our House musical, one Steve Chapman decided to not only get himself along and see how Mr. McPherson was doing, but to kindly knock up a review, so the rest of us could have some idea of how well the show was going with him in it.

Steve gave a glowing review, and also mentioned that Suggs’ run had been increased, and was now meant to last a total of 10 weeks, which by his maths meant he’d be winding up on the 14th of June.

Always one to sniff out a story, one Chris Carter-Pegg was once again trying to dig out the truth from the rumours. With no official news on that 3rd Madness gig for 2003, members of the Madness Trading Ring had been putting 2 and 2 together, to get 7, and a cast of plenty.

After much thought, guesswork and just downright speculation, Chris came to the conclusion that it ‘could’ be an appearance at Party in The Park. He was however, keen to point out that he was only speculating.

We rounded this issue off with Jonathan’s review of the final episode of “I Think I’ve Got a Problem” series 2, whilst that long lost Madness fan, Ed Stebbing-Allen, regaled us with a well written and extremely amusing review of a Madness tribute band he’d seen, but was unable to find out who they were.

Rob Hazelby

[4] – SUGGS: ROCKING UNTIL WE ARE 70?

After that appearance on Buckingham Palace, Madness found a brand new audience. Duncan Seaman caught up with front man Suggs

AS the leader of Madness, pop’s eternal Nutty Boys, Suggs still regularly finds himself hymning the escapades of “naughty boys in nasty schools” in the song Baggy Trousers.

The singer’s current stand-up show My Life Story in Words and Music, However, was prompted by reflections of a more middle-aged kind.

“The specific things were I got to 50, by coincidence in the same year that my kids – well, I call them kids, they’re actually 28 and 26 – my daughters left home,”
the singer, whose real name is Graham
McPherson, explains.

“Primarily them leaving was an opportunity for me to think about myself. Until then I’d been concentrating on the complications of bringing up my own family.

“On the morning of my birthday my cat fell off the shelf and died next to me. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

“I started thinking about my father and how I got to this point in life. I began a journey of discovery about my father who I never knew.”

Suggs was born in Hastings in January 1961. His parents, Edith and William, separated when he was young after which he and his mother moved frequently before settling in St Johns Wood, north London. He never saw his Scottish-born father after the divorce, hearing only that he was a drug addict.

“The only thing I knew was that he left when I was three. He ended up in Tooting Bec asylum, so I did not have high hopes,” the singer says of the starting point for his research.

“I spent hours and days in public records offices, then I did something I’d never done before and looked myself up on Wikipedia and there it all was. They knew more than me and mum put together.

“It was not a shock. The sad thing was he lived a lot longer than I thought. He moved to Birmingham and remarried [before dying of drug-related conditions at the age of 40].

There was a chance we might have met somewhere. I had not anticipated that.”

From his Welsh mother, a jazz singer, the young Graham McPherson inherited a love of music. His nickname was borrowed from the American jazz musician Peter Suggs and Suggs remembers his mother always singing. “I had no voice like her,” he says.

“There was always music around. I loved it but becoming a singer [myself] was a complete quirk of fate.”

After flunking out of school and working in “various rubbish jobs”
including a butcher’s shop in 1977 he fell in with a band then called the North London Invaders, becoming their frontman “because I was quite charismatic, not for any vocal talents at all”.

For a short while he was thrown out of the band for preferring to watch Chelsea football matches than rehearse yet was asked back.

When in 1979 the seven-piece changed their name to Madness and released the ska single The Prince on 2 Tone Records they began a long and successful career which continues today and has included the hits Baggy Trousers, Our House, It Must Be Love and House of Fun.

Becoming famous at the age of 18 was not without its difficulties.
Much though he enjoyed the opportunity to travel the world with his friends in the band – “In 1979-80 we were touring a lot, it was great, in a van flying around the country” – coming home to find Press photographers outside his house was less pleasant. “Life had changed dramatically,” he says. “You lose a sense of community with friends from home who you had not seen for six months.” There was a troubling period in the mid-1980s seeing contemporaries such as Boy George falling prey to drugs and realising “that possibility was lurking” for Madness yet thankfully they avoided succumbing to the darker temptations of fame.

Suggs’s favourite memories of the past 35 years include headlining their own Madstock festival in Finsbury Park in 1992: “Seventy-five thousand people turned up – it was then that we realised the impact we had had, up to that point we thought our time was up. We realised we had 20-odd hits and we had forged some path in the consciousness of the British public.”

Another high point was performing last year for the Queen’s diamond jubilee.

The experience surpassed playing at the closing ceremony of the London
2012 Olympic Games, Suggs says. “We’d never had such a reaction.
Playing Our House in the Middle of our Street at Buckingham Palace, it resonated in a way we had not really anticipated.”

Could Madness continue like the Rolling Stones, rocking into their 70s? “I don’t know about like the Stones – I’m unlikely to ever put leather trousers on,” Suggs quips, “but in terms of age, possibly.”
Having once seen Cuban musicians in the Buena Vista Social performing in their 80s, he appreciates musical careers do not have to be finite “if you can do it with some dignity”.

“We will know when the time is right [to retire],” he says. “But at the moment it’s fun, we like what we are doing. It doesn’t seem like it will end.” At 52, he says, he realises the “great fortune” he has had in life to come “not from the very bottom but near it, to the top” and the strong bond of friendship within Madness. “Money and fame are great,” he says. “There’s nothing romantic about being skint. But the greatest success in life are your friends, it’s not something you can buy.

That’s the greatest lesson life has taught me. It’s not got a point this show [My Life Story] with a capital ‘P’ but if anything, it’s that.”

Yorkshire Post.

[5] – SUGGS ON RADIO 4

We bring you news of a new radio talk from Suggs on a figure he respects from the world of art.

BBC Radio 4 is lining up 75 leading public figures, including film director Bernardo Bertolucci, singer Paul Weller and novelist Jeanette Winterson, to reveal their most treasured cultural influences for what the station claims will be one of the most comprehensive arts events broadcast.

The network has already confirmed 30 names for the project, Cultural Exchange, which will see individuals selecting a single item to talk about, with the choices ranging from the King James Bible to an obscure 1960s album. It will feature every weekday on Front Row until the end of July.

Radio 4 confirmed that Madness singer Graham McPherson, better known as Suggs, will discuss John Betjeman’s meditation on mortality, On a Portrait of a Deaf Man. The show is on from 7.15pm from Monday, though it is not yet listed which day Suggs appears. Podcasts will be available after broadcast here…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/cultex

Radio 4 bbc.co.uk and press release and The Guardian

[6] – NEAR JAZZ WEB EXPERIENCE

Mark Bedford, Terry Edwards and Simon Charterton, aka The Near Jazz Experience, release a 3D 7″ record and join Twitter (the place they wrote an anthem for) and Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/NearJazzExperience
Tweets by The_NJE

We start our world tour of Paris and London on Monday at the University of Chicago Center in Paris, 6 rue Thomas Mann, Paris 13ème, France.
Onstage 7.30pm

Buy the 3D acoustic part I and II here. Get and Mp3 http://sartorialrecords.greedbag.com/buy/acoustic-pts-i-and-ii/

This is a Record Store Day exclusive which will truly appeal to die-hard vinyl fans. Recorded direct-to-disc at the Riflemaker gallery on a vintage lathe by Lewis Durham (of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis), Acoustic is a groovy, no-holds-barred live studio recording, made the way the jazz greats recorded. The sound reeks of analogue warmth played on big old instruments and documented with big old RCAmicrophones.

Harking back to the R&B singles of the 50s & 60s, the recording is split in two parts – but this came about naturally, organically. The fade at the end of side one is played rather than controlled, with the NJE hitting back right on cue to commence part two. This neatly fits the seven inch format – a very happy accident indeed.

The Near Jazz Experience was formed by multi-instrumentalist Terry Edwards, bassist Mark Bedford and drummer Simon Charterton in the spring of 2010. Edwards & Charterton cut their musical teeth with Norwich punk-funk band The Higsons after which Edwards formed BUtterfield 8 with ex-Madness bassman Mark Bedford. Mainstays of the NJE sound are Edwards’ distinctive guttural saxophone, Charterton’s polyrhythmic funk patterns and Bedders’ fluid but grounding basslines. The whole is a Near-Jazz Experience!

Single Launch at the indo. April 23rd in London. 8pm

The Near Jazz Experience present their Record Store Day 7″ release at their monthly residency. The record, printed in 3D comes with complimentary 3D glassesSupport from 5-piece band B’layachi and DJ set from Easy 3

NJE

[7] – SUGGS, MY LIFE STORY, READER REVIEW

My Review by Trish Tatt

I went to see Suggs “My Life Story” on Thursday 18 April 2013 at Cambridge at The Corn Exchange.

I have been a Madness fan for several years and so has my husband Philip so when I saw that he was coming to a theatre near us we just had to go. We also invited a couple of friends to Heidi and Dave.

In the 1st half of the show both Phil and I was engrossed.

After a 20 minute interval Suggs was back. With his story we felt he was very professional his anecdotes rolled off his tongue as if he lived it a thousand times. It was an excellent show. But then it came to an end.

We were leaving when Heidi asked a security guard if it was possible for us to meet Suggs. Then after a wait of about half an hour Suggs came out. I tried my camera but unfortunately the batteries died. But thankfully Heidi’s camera was working perfectly (as you can see on my Facebook page). Suggs was more than happy for us to take photos.

After the photos he gave me a kiss and a hug, then he shook Phil’s hand. Suggs was a true gent. We then went home.

Both Phil and I are both disabled and both in wheelchairs.

It was a night I will never forget.

Trish Tatt

[8] – ZOLTAR’S BOOK PAGE 2: YOU CAN’T STOP A GOOD SCOT DANCING

With the special edition of Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da now reaching many, many more happy postboxes across the country, we bring more fan first impressions and reviews as its happiness finds more time to sink in across the madworld. This also includes our interview with the dancing scotsman from the DVD.

Robert Wardlaw, during Can’t Keep a Good Thing Down, on the Butlins Live DVD, you are seen dancing away happily knowing all the words to the new song and generally lapping up The House Of Fun environment.
When did you first hear the tune, and how would you describe the reasons for your dancing?

“I had YouTubed it before Butlins n loved it…. Butlins
was the first time I heard it and for me it reminded me
of the boys themselves…. 9th August 92 is the day the
good thing came back up and since then … no one has or
ever will keep put em or keep em down…. and … I’m
always at my happiest when I’m in the mad world n all
that it brings…. could never have believed or hoped
for what has happened since that day… when something
gets u … it’s there for life n when it proves u right
… it makes u proud…. bottom line… u can’t keep a
good thing down …. ull never know how sad i was when
they split …. just thankful for everything… remember
the song … maybe in another life ? i always hoped n
prayed that one day ….. one better day …..those days
came n stayed n we are now living the other life …. ul
never keep the best thing down…. and not to forget the
mad and beautiful people I’ve met thro it…. Or meeting
heroes it couldn’t get any better … ”

Robert Wardlaw

Having watched the DVD in full now. The sound is mixed so well, it takes us back to a great night where sleeves rolled up, Madness wowed with a 15 new song set. Feelings of Pride well up. The mixer Peter Miles deserves a mention for doing such a great job. Isolated soundesk feeds ensure the crowd are not heard until it’s time for between song cheers for atmosphere. Giving you an audio quality that you’d be happy to swap with studio conditions at times, the songs captured how they were at the very beginning from Sole E La Luna to Powder Blue’s forgotten Reprise version. There are lovely camera moments from Woody, such as miming the Trombone during the end of 1978, that shows the direction of musician ship holding together the new pieces. The editing out of much banter might be missing by some, but it helps a the flow of the show to be much like that of a CD, song, song song, selectable and playable. This is a must watch DVD, that will be lovingly played again and again I feel.

Andy Shoultz on The 2nd Disc songs.

I’m in love with ‘Oh my love’! Certain songs just come along and just grab you. Ive not stopped playing it, loved it when i heard Suggs n Barzo doing a version of it on Radio 2 But hearing it (Ska version), is superb! It’s on a constant loop in my head! Im getting a lot of strange looks from people cos I keep breaking out in song! Love it to bits!

Really liking Big Time Sister too, and ‘Can’t keep a good thing down!’.
Circus Freaks as well sounds great (agree with Vicky on that one) Love the Demo of La Luna (mix)…. and Gotta give Thommo’s Deolali a mention, cos I love the way Thommo writes! He’s a legend! I cant keep ‘Oh my love’ out of my head! Such a simple yet beautiful song…in the way the made ‘It must be love’ and took a labi Siffri song and made it their own, and they’ve done it with a Lennon classic!

Thought Powder Blue sounded superb, lush even! Found it the weaket song on Oui, Oui 1 disc! But the demo sounds great!!!

Vicki Lee (Seen as an Owl on the DVD Gallery!) says of Circus Freaks.

Amy mix of Circus Freaks. My Obsession. Definitely those two are my favourites. The brass on CF reminds me of the Mark Ronson version of God Put a Smile Upon Your Face.

Not liking 1978 as much as I’d hoped. Was hoping for more demos than mixes. Don’t think another DOARB was necessary”

Jonathan Young/Robert Wardlaw/Andy Shoults/Vicki Lee

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

Here is the news. The first part relates to the chart issued on Sunday
14 April and dated 20 April: Oui Oui down two from 60 to 62 in the chart. It is a non-mover at 12 in the indie chart. Overtakes The Liberty Of Norton Folgate in the points league table based on chart position each week in top 200. How Can I Tell You disappears without trace as people buy the album and (presumably) concert tickets instead after hearing it on the radio.

Complete and Total Madness both left the top 200 last week. They were
44 and 42 respectively in the indie charts following big falls.
Neither return to the indie top 40 this week.

Last week Oui Oui moved up to become the year’s 84th best seller. To quantify that a little, it has immediately been outsold (this year) by Depeche Mode’s new album which sold 28,450 copies in its first week, but it was still ahead of last week’s number 2 album by Imagine Dragons, which sold 23,348.

It follows then that Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da had sold more than
23,000 and fewer than 28,450 until 6 April 2013.

Wednesday update: Complete rose to 42 and Total dropped to 45 in the indie charts.

The latest charts issued today (and dated 27 April) show Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da down two to 64. It is up one to 11 in the indie chart. It has now spent 18 weeks in the top 100, meaning it is one week behind Keep Moving in terms of weeks on the chart. Within the next couple of weeks it looks sure to become Madness’ fifth most successful album. If the Summer tour named after the album is vaguely successful the album’s success could see it eclipse Rise And Fall too.

It’s not clear yet whether this week’s chart placing includes sales of the brilliant deluxe version of the album. Complete Madness continues its absence from the indie top 40. One wonders whether this is because its popularity has suddenly run out or if it has been temporarily deleted for some reason.

Paul Rodgers

[10] – ALL CHANGE AT MIS ONLINE

Those who have been online since the mid 90s may remember The Madness Mailing list, a chat-based email group which came into being due to lack of an alt.music.madness newsgroup.

Not too long into its life a once-a-month email went out detailing in brief what had gone on over the last four weeks. This, over the course of the next few years, transformed into what we know as the weekly MIS Online newsletter.

Originally compiled on an Amiga 1200 (remember them?), with an 80 meg hard drive and 6 megabytes of RAM, the text format and character width all came about due to the limitations of that machine and the limitations of other platforms at the time.

Some 15 or more years later The Madness Mailing List may be long gone, but the weekly MIS newsletter continues to go from strength to strength.

We’re now in 2013, and after some consideration, the MIS team have decided that it’s now time to revamp the weekly bulletins.

From next week the 70-column text will go. Yes, the emails will still be plain text so that they’re readable on the largest number of devices, but they’ll no longer be limited to 70 columns. This should mean that the issues are easier to read on tablet and smartphone devices.

Another change will be how we feature articles from other publications. At present we copy and paste whole articles in to each issue. Although we do our best to credit the authors of the publications the legality is probably suspect at best, it takes an age to get the articles into a useable format, and also, do you really need to read yet another article with Suggs telling you about what made him start his One Man Tour?

From next week we’ll continue to give you the heads-up on articles, but instead of copying and pasting the entire text we’ll include a short paragraph from it, and then link to the rest. If you want to read more you’ll just need to click on the link.

We’ll also have a number of new regular sections in each issue. One of these will featuring forthcoming gigs, and will see all future performances listed. New gigs will appear and ones that have passed will drop off the end.

The end result of these changes should mean that you continue to receive an MIS newsletter featuring the latest Madness news, and at the same time this new format will be a lot less work for us to compile.

Stay with us and do let us know what you think of the changes.

All the best,

Rob, Jon, Simon and Liz.
(With thanks to Robert Wardlaw, Andy Shoults, Vicki Lee, Trish Tatt, Lee Thompson and Paul Rodgers)