IN THIS ISSUE ...

1 - THE EDITOR WRITES - Latest news and information in brief

2 - MADNESS TOP TEN - Andrew Langmead returns detailing why he's
    deciding to extend the deadline to midnight on December 31st
    2000, so a few more people can get their votes in.

3 - A LOOKBACK AT 2000 - A walk down memory lane over the last 12
    months charting the highs and lows in the Madness community.

[1] - THE EDITOR WRITES

Evening all,

I hope the majority of you manage to have a read of this, the last
edition of the MIS in 2000, before you all go off and ring in the
new year.

As I expected, news has been very thin on the ground this week, and
I've had very little sent my way by subscribers, so this issue is a
little on the small side.

With there being little news, I have decided that it was time to do
a look-back over the past 12 months in the Madness community, in an
effort to chart the high's and low's of the past year. I'm sure I've
missed one or two significant events that occurred, and I if I have
offended anyone by doing so, I apologise.

So, without further ado, lets get underway with this shorter than
usual edition of the MIS.

Enjoy the read,

Robert Hazelby (MIS Online Editor)

[2] - MADNESS TOP TEN

Hi everyone!

I hope you've all had a great Christmas. I know have!!!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has sent in a Top Ten for
the new Madchart. I've had over 50% more entries than last time, but
it's still not good enough!!! :-)

There have been loads of charts submitted by fairly infrequent
posters and lurkers, but I'm still waiting for many of the regular
posters to send one in! I know it's hard to do, but go with your
instincts. I'm sure the top ten changes daily for all of us, but it's
all a bit of fun!

For this reason, I'm extending the deadline to get charts to me until
the end of the year. I'll then run down the chart in the new year. So
far there are 102 songs in the chart, so it will take me a while to
get through them all. Should raise some topics of conversation during
the quiet month of January!

Take care all, and have a wonderful new year.

Charts to andrew at alangmea.freeserve.co.uk with Top Ten in the subject
line
please.

Goodnight.

Andrew.

[3] - A LOOKBACK AT 2000

JANUARY
Started off very quiet indeed, with many Maddies still suffering from
over indulgence during the New Year's celebrations. Although things
were slow, the rumour mill was still active, and pumping out details
that Madness were due to play in Belgium later in the year. The other
more realistic news was that the next Madness single to be released
would be none other than the excellent Drip Fed Fred, featuring the
vocal talents of the late, great Ian Dury.

Onto the internet, and Colin Galbraith announces the opening of his
recently put together Madness site, `Magnificent Seven`. Colin's main
push points for the site were that it was 100% dedicated to Madness
as well as being 100% Scottish.

Meanwhile, on UK television the BBC continued coverage of it's retro
music show, Top of The Pops 2 with a vintage shoot from way back in
1982. Also on the subject of `footage`, news came in that some
behind the scenes video taken by Lee Thompson during the Christmas 99
tour may be appearing on the `Drip Fed Fred` single.

January also saw the release of issue five of the excellent skazine,
Mad Not Mad, designed and edited by none other than MIS Online
subscriber, Ian Taylor. As with previous issues, this did not
disappoint. Chelsea supporters were up in arms over their change in
seats even though they've paid for theirs with a season ticket.

Later in the month, we had an in-depth review of the newly released
Madness rarities CD, `First Step Beyond`, and towards the last few
days of January, we discovered that Virgin would not be financing
the next Madness video, so it was unknown at that stage if one would
appear or not. Virgin's poor management continued to show itself with
major confusion as to what promotional appearances the band would be
making to push the single, and when the single would actually be
released.

FEBRUARY
Following the disturbing news that a Virgin produced Madness vid
would not be seeing the light of day, the first week of February
seemed a lot brighter, with news that almost all of the DFF video
had now been filmed, and the boys appearing on Saturday's National
Lottery TV show.

With the MIS Online website now looking a bit tatty round the edges,
Simon Roberts was busy behind the scenes putting the finishing
touches to the site you see today. Elsewhere, and DFF fever seemed
to be sweeping the country with posters appearing in the most unusual
places.

There was more re-release news later that month when news reached us
that Virgin were going to release Divine Madness for the 3rd time!
This re-re-release (work that one out!) would feature a new sleeve,
a number of extra tracks, and would be digitally re-mastered.

With the end of the month fast approaching, Virgin Record's excellent
(sarcasm) planning really shone with the cancellation of the
rally to promote the release of Drip Fed Fred. As this was a Madness
related event, it was obvious that whatever was planned would be as
wild and as wacky as possible, and as such, they had enlisted the
help of a red double decker bus, a tank, placards, posters and some
bizarre ideas. Unfortunately, those organising the event hadn't
made the appropriate enquiries with the Council.

MARCH
The third month of the year started off with news that the
forthcoming Madness single was sitting at number 29 in the viewers
chart on VH1. The ever-lucky Vince Foley had yet again managed to
get hold of the latest Madness single days before the official
release and was able to give the rest of us a run-down of what we
could expect to find on the latest release. One thing that stuck
out a mile was the absence of the promised behind the scenes
concert footage Lee had been busy filming.

Towards the end of the first week of March the DFF single was
finally released. Many noted that the previously Madness friendly
Woolworths were shunning the new Madness single in favour of more
`trendy` acts to line its shelves with.

On a slightly jollier note, Wee Stoo reported that Cathal Smyth
was caught playing a small solo acoustic session in a local London
club. Five songs were aired during the short set, and Cathal,
nervous as he was thought it went well.

For those of you who hadn't managed to catch the recently aired
Madness videos, Simon Roberts kindly uploaded them on his website
for your own private viewing. For many people, this was the only
chance they had to see these new releases. Later that week Simon
also uploaded their excellent performance on Channel Four's TV
show TFI Friday, for our viewing pleasure.

The other week it was looking `gleaming`, now the possibility of
the bi-annual shinding known as `Madstock` was looking very
doubtful indeed. On the brighter side however, we were advised to
start saving up our pennies for a Christmas 2000 tour, which as you
all know, never materialised.

APRIL
We entered the end of the first quarter of 2000 with the sad news
that the much loved Ian Dury had sadly passed away peacefully at his
London home with family close by. Almost as soon as the news was
announced on UK television, radio and websites, scores of tributes
flooded the Total Madness Mailing List, from subscribers trying to
put their thoughts into words. Vince Foley put together a heart
warming article for the MIS in which he all asks us to all stand
and raise our champagne glasses.

As with previous April's this one would be no different. Yet again
another April fool is blasted off into the outer reaches of the
internet thanks to Wozza and Simon Roberts. This year's leg-puller
took the form of a new Madness CD entitled `Perfect Place World
Tour`.

Following the recent news that Virgin were planning to re-re-release
the definitive singles collection, Divine Madness, it was a pleasant
surprise to see that Virgin had enlisted the assistance of the god
like Peter Gardner in order to make this the perfect Madness
compilation.

There are a number of movers and shakers out there in the online
Madness community, and Scatty proved that he was most definitely
one of them. No sooner had `Uncle` Ian been laid to rest he decided
that a tribute day must go ahead. As great many of you know, Scatty's
Ian Dury Tribute was one of the best things to happen with the
Madness fanbase over the last 12 months. Scatty wasn't the only
man (or woman) out there doing his bit in the name of Madness. Vince
Carden, editor-in-chief of the excellent Mad`zine, `Madness Unsugged`
presented Madness to the masses when he made a special guest
appearance on 101.6 FM's weekly `Ska Patrol` programme.

For those of you who like to read about as well as listen to Madness,
the news that Virgin were releasing a new book about The Magnificent
Seven was exciting stuff. It's just a shame that 8 months on and
we're still waiting for the darn thing to be released!

Taking advantage of the Easter bank holiday towards the end of the
month were a number of drunken Maddies who attended the second
McMadmeet. The drink flowed freely, but thankfully there were no
serious casualties.

MAY
With the nights drawing out and Summer fast approaching, May was an
exciting month with numerous announcements and a number of things for
any self respecting Madness fan to look forward to. Jenny Payne hit
the headlines with her ground-breaking news that Madness were to
appear at the recently announced Ian Dury Tribute at London's
Brixton Academy. Meanwhile, Lee Swandale has some exciting info
relating to that famous Madness spin-off, Crunch! The band rehearsed
for the first time in three years, and were planning to stage a
number of gigs at the end of June or beginning of July.

Later that month, Scatty announced that his plans for an Ian Dury
tribute day were coming along with some speed. The day, now entitled
`Rhythmstock` would consist of a number of special events, including
a charity auction and disco. All proceeds would be going to Cancer
Bakup. For all Statesiders who were rightly depressed that they'd
be missing the commemorative occasions

With the news a forthcoming Madness book still very much the topic
of conversation amongst Madness fans, the book's promotor, Jake
Stavrindes  kindly supplied the MIS with the Virgin publicity plan
set up to promote the book prior to its release.

To finish the month of, top Madness tribute band, One Step Behind
sent in their latest batch of currently planned gig dates. Those who
are avid followers of the band will no doubt be aware that almost as
soon as a batch of gigs are announced, they're usually out of date as
more performances are quickly organised to fill in days not already
booked-up.

JUNE
With the recent release of the re-re-released 1992 singles
collection, `Divine Madness`, `Madness Unsugged` editor, Vince Carden
managed to get hold of his copy before the rest of us knew it had
hit the shops. Vince's summing up was that none of the tracks sounded
any different, and that it was a waste of £17. The only redeeming
feature Vince could find was that it may bring on board one or two
new Madness fans.

Later that month, Madness fans up and down the country had good
reason to be excited when The Velvet Ghost made his first appearance
at the Fleadh Festival. A few lucky Maddies made the trek along to
witness the historical performance, and reviews were nothing short
of sheer praise.

The 16th saw what was initially Paul Scatt's dream become reality in
the form of Rhythmstock. By the time the day had arrived, what was
initially a small idea had snowballed into something huge requiring
a number of other volunteers to step on board to help out. The day
was nothing short of fantastic, with everyone agreeing that this was
the start of something that should possibly be an annual event. The
subsequent edition of the MIS featured the by now traditional `Post
Meet Statistics` where numerous pillars of the Madness fanbase are
quite literally named and shamed for their antics that day.

On a serious note, everyone who went along should be proud at how
much was raised. I think that at the final count it was around £1200.
Not bad for a small(ish) collection of Madness fans grouped together
in the backroom of the Dublin Castle.

JULY
This month started off with my hard drive suffering a major crash,
meaning that a number of MIS back-issues which I'd yet to put online
went missing. Thanks to Simsey and a number of other MIS subscribers
I was able to replace the missing issues but it was not without one
casualty.

The casualty in this case was the elusive issue 59 - the issue that
never was. Due to the crash I lost track of what the last issue
released was, and due to a miscalculation issue 59 was missed out
and issue 60 was the next issue to see the light of day. Still,
looking on the bright side, out of around 550 subscribers, the only
person who actually realised that we've been one issue out since
that day is Simsey!

During the first week of the month Simsey was also trying his best to
track down a number of people who had bid for items during the recent
Rhythmstock auction, but who were still owing monies. As far as I am
aware, after much chasing all monies were accounted for. For those of
you how won bids and took so long to pay - shame on you!

Following the announcement back in June that Wizard Inns were opening
a new pub in Upminster a positive reply from Julian Sargeson
regarding the possible Ian Dury naming made things look good for the
final title of the new drinking hole. One week later the final name
was decided. Poor old Ian didn't get the tribute he deserved, but on
a upbeat note, the pub were planning to make a small dedication to
Upminster's legend inside the premises.

Towards the end of the month Crunch performed for the first time in
three years at The Underworld to a eagerly awaiting audience. Those
of you lucky enough to go wrote in with some fantastic reviews
detailing in-depth the superb evening the rest of us missed. Crunch's
very own Tad even found time to pass on his words of thanks to
everyone who came along to the set, saying how pleased he was with
the amount of positive feedback he had received.

Finally, following on from his long stint on Channel Five's `Night
Fever` TV show, and more recently on `A Question of Pop`, the
legendary Suggs was back on our screens once more, this time the
host of `The Real Car Show`.

AUGUST
The 8th month of the year started off with news that the legendary
`One Step Beyond` was to be re-issued and aimed at the fans who must
have every release in their collection. Whilst elsewhere Ian Maison
decided that it was about time we all had another vote, but promised
us that it wouldn't be yet another vote for your favourite album.
"This one's actually quite good", he stated.

During the second week of August, news reached the MIS offices thanks
to the MIS newshound, Jonathan Young, that a track put together by
Tricky and Madness frontman may finally see the light of day. As far
as I am aware, at the time of typing, it's still not been released.

Continuing with the charity mood which Scatty created a few months
back, Colin Galbraith announced that on the 20th August he would be
running in the Glasgow half marathon with all money raised going to
the worthwhile CancerBacup charity which Ian Dury spent so much of
his time working with.

August was also the first time that the Madness 2001 convention was
mentioned, with a few ideas being bounced around by Chris Mountain
to test the water and gauge some sort of response from fellow Mad
fans.

By the end of the month, that all-famous of Camden watering holes,
The Dublin Castle which had closed some six weeks earlier for a
much-needed re-decoration re-opened. MIS Online subscriber Simon
Roberts went along for the grand re-opening and reported that the
once grotty drinking establishment was now actually looking like a
half decent pub.

SEPTEMBER
Back after a much needed rest, the TMML's Scatty returned with the
foundations of what may have been his next campaign, to get Madness
the recognition they deserve at London's famous Rock Circus, which
was sadly lacking waxwork statues of our beloved heroes. As far as
I am aware, this campaign never left the drawing board. Still, it
doesn't rule out something being organised for 2001!

With many UK news reports focusing on the problem of illegal
immigrants entering the UK aboard lorries coming over by cross
channel ferries and Eurotunnel, One Step Behind's latest news that
reached us involving them turfing out an illegal immigrant that had
tried to stow away in the tour bus was most topical indeed.

For those people who missed or were too drunk to remember what went
on during the Rhythmstock celebrations a few months back, Simsey
finally got around to putting his photos online for all to see.
Luckily, everyone was well behaved and had no reason to be embarrassed
for their actions!

The end of the September finally saw the screening of the long
awaited Madness documentary, `Young Guns`. Whilst most people said
they enjoyed the programme, the majority spotted a number of major
errors during the 40 minute show, as well as coming to the conclusion
that the main bulk of subject matter dealt with, most fans would
already know.

OCTOBER
October started off with another one of Vince Foleys topical and
well-written rants. This time the target was the ill-updated Madness
website at www.madness.co.uk which hadn't been updated in an
absolute age. For those of you subscribed to the excellent `Mad Not
Mad` fanzine, October witnessed the release of issue 7 of Ian Taylors
excellent publication. As usual, you'd be mad to miss it.

With the Harry Potter craze running neck and neck with the Japanese
created Pokemon phenomenon, Cathal Smyth took time out from his busy
schedule to report that a Madness-tinged title track featuring on the
forthcoming film may not be out of the question.

On the 14th, a large band of Maddies made their way down to London
for the second public Crunch! gig of the year. The number of MIS and
TMML subscribers was way up on the gig held back in the summer, and
a superb time was definitely had by all. If you missed it, you
missed out!

Brendan Phipps of the legendary `One Step Behind` returned with the
latest round up of gigs from one of the UK's top Madness tribute
bands, and Chris Carter-Pegg turns the rest of us green with envy as
he reported on the Suggs appearance down at the French House where
the lead-singer was barman for an hour or two.

NOVEMBER
Following the latest batch of gigs for `One Step Behind`, Claire
Keegen passed over the packed schedule that `Complete Madness` had
lined up for the month, whilst Steve Turner sent in a list of all
planned gigs from now until Christmas for `Los Palmas 6`. You could
be sure that if you wanted your taste of Madness between November and
the end of the year, you wouldn't have too much of a problem.

By the middle of the month, TMML maintainer, Jenny Payne was asking
people to send in their suggestions for the site re-vamp the TMML
website was to undergo at the start of 2001.

The Los Palmas 6 very own Steve Turner made a re-appearance at the
end of November to tell us about the bands `Biggest Buzz of Our
Careers` when the legendary Lee Thompson got up to play alongside
the LP6 regulars when they headlined a charity gig.

Radio Two listeners were well catered for, when the legendary Suggs
was special guest on Mark Lamarr's `Beginners Guide to Reggae`. Many
of the topics of conversation had been heard time and time before,
but there was no denying that the music played was top notch.

DECEMBER
As with previous years December was a time for winding down. The
number of news items went down to a steady trickle as people were
busy getting themselves ready for the Christmas and New Year's
celebrations.

Jonathan Young set up a Zarjazz related competition, giving one or
two lucky people the chance for win some excellent Fink Brothers
goodies to add to their collection, whilst Lee and Chris were kind
enough to answer a few questions you'd sent into the Crunch website
for dissemination.

Just before Christmas Day, the sad news that New York's Moonska
records, much loved with many of the US Madness fanbase had finally
closed up shop due to falling profits and sales.

The year finished off with Chris Mountain reporting in with more
details surrounding the Madness Convention 2001, and Jonathan Young
returning with the results of his Zarjazz completion he'd set up at
the start of the month.

2001
Well, that was 2000, and what a year it was. Here's wishing everyone
a very happy new year. I hope to see many of you over the next 12
months.

Remember to bring some Madness into your new year's celebrations!

Take care, and I'll see you soon.

All the nutty best,

Robert Hazelby