IN THIS ISSUE ...

1 - THE EDITOR WRITES - This weeks news and information in brief.

2 - SUGGS AND XFM - Taken from the Xfm website, and kindly typed or
    copied by TMML subscriber, Fiona Linnell.

3 - NIGHT FEVER, NIGHT FEVER - I know many of you are fans of that 
    regular Saturday night slice of Channel Five Madness - Night 
    Fever, but how would you like the chance to appear in one of the
    programmes? Ashley Martin is here with the details.

4 - IT'S EXTRA SPECIAL - On a slightly non Madness related note, and 
    Peter Gardner reports that a new Specials 3CD album has recently
    been released, and is available from a record store near you!

5 - THE ROCK CIRCUS - Take a walk of the wild side with Scatty who 
    lets us know just what's wrong with London's famous tourist
    attraction - `The Rock Circus`. An opportunity to give seven men
    the recognition they deserve, or another excuse for a booze-up?
    Only you can decide.

6 - ON OUR WAVELENGTH - Featuring the legendary Suggs. Taken from 
    Mojo magazine and kindly typed-up by Fiona Linnell.

7 - AND SO, TO BED - Thanks and closing words.

[1] - THE EDITOR WRITES

Evening fellow Mads,

I hope this everyone has had a not too stressful week. Well, my 
painting, decorating and furniture moving is pretty much complete
now, but if I come across another paintbrush or wall-paper scraper
within the next couple of weeks I think I'll scream!!

Moving very quickly on and into some Madness related gossip...

Simon Roberts has very kindly scanned-in a picture of the newly
refurbished Dublin Castle and made it available on-line for
people who like myself have yet to cast their eyes on the new
decor. The picture shows a shot of the bar with the three Madness
and Suggs framed posters clearly visible. Simply click to:
http://www.btinternet.com/~wayfinder/dub.jpg for a nose around. 
Thanks go to Simon for the effort - much appreciated!

You may recall a few weeks back the campaign to have a re-vamped pub
in Upminster named `The Ian Dury`. If you remember that, you'll also
probably be aware that unfortunately the pub was finally named `The
Crumpled Horn`. Well, TMML subscriber, Simsey reports that all is not
quite lost;

     "There is a lasting tribute to good ol' Uncle 
      Ian in the pub. Hanging in the pub is a good
      sized photo of Upminster's favourite son 
      (although he was born in Harrow!) and the LP 
      cover to the 'self-titled' (tee-hee) album 
      'Lord Upminster'".

Thanks go to Simsey for the info.

Fancy hearing some of those classic Madness tunes of yesteryear 
re-vamped with a completely different sound? Well, you'll soon have
the opportunity as Jean-Pierre Boutellier tells us that;

     "A Madness tribute sampler will be out before
      the end of the year in Mexico with a Mexican 
      band who cover Madness songs"

The interesting thing is that the tracks they cover are all given a
nice Latin sound. Jean-Pierre tells us to expect `Our House` with a
Salsa beat or possibly `My Girl` with a Cumbia beat. It's certainly
sounds like something to keep your eyes open for.

For up-to-date news and information about this forthcoming release,
please drop a mail to: elcedrico at hotmail.com

Our thanks go to Jean-Pierre for the information - much appreciated!

Now, over to the articles...

Enjoy the read,

Robert Hazelby (MIS Online Editor)

[2] - SUGGS AND XFM

This article is taken from the Suggs homepage on the XFM website and
has been kindly typed/copied by TMML subscriber Fiona Linnell.

SUGGS 
Monday to Thursday 10.00 - 13.00 
Madness frontman comes to Xfm! Suggs handles late morning and 
lunchtime duties, bringing his unique musical perspective to 
compulsive X-addicts and those who can't be bothered to get up for 
the Breakfast Session... 

What were you up to before Xfm? 

Before Xfm I've been doing all sorts of things. Obviously, or most 
obviously, I was in Madness for about 20 years and that just seems 
to come and go at a whim of it's own. We were together for about 
ten years then we had seven years off then we've been coming back 
recently - we did an album out last year - and now we're kind of 
having another pause again. But I may go back to do some more of 
that. I've also been doing a programme on Channel Five called 
Nightfever, which is very popular by all accounts and I'm also now 
doing a new programme now for the BBC - 'A Question of Pop'. So I've
been really busy. 

What made you choose Xfm? 

I'd been thinking about doing radio for quite a while, in fact I've 
had various offers from numerous different people... Actually, it all
started 'cos I went out with someone from Xfm and we ended up 
drinking absinthe in some hell-hole in Soho at four in the morning 
and he said 'You don't want to go there Suggs, you want to come to 
Xfm'. I thought about it for a week or so and I listened to the 
station and I thought that it was the most innovative of all the 
stations around. I thought it'd be a nice place to be. 

What would you like listeners to get out of your show?

I've only been doing the show a couple of weeks now and I'm still 
kind of learning as I go along. It's a delicate balance I find - 
obviously people listen to Xfm mainly for the music and you don't 
want to get too ridiculous and comedic - but at the same time I 
would like some of my personality to come out. I would just really,
ultimately, like to be able to do a show that's a little bit funny
and a little bit on the edge slightly, without being nasty to people
- maybe being sarcastic a little bit - and play great music. Which 
I'm sort of getting towards at the moment. 

What was the first record you ever bought? 

I think the first record I bought, not pinched, was 'Wallstreet 
Shuffle' by 10cc which was a funny old sort of American sounding 
rock thing by a band from Manchester. 

What was the first gig you went to? 

The first gig I went to was The Who at Charlton in, 1974 I think it 
was. It was a great gig, it had another mad band called the 
Sensational Alex Harvey Band and it was a complete revelation. 
They had a laser show - I think it was the world's first laser 
show - which consisted of one green light which bounced off a few 
mirrors. 

What's the most memorable gig you've been to? 

I think the most memorable would have to be seeing The Specials at 
the Hope and Anchor in maybe 1978 or 79. I'd already been in a band 
a little while and we thought we were pretty individual and then 
suddenly this band came along from Coventry - The Specials - and 
they were very similar to us in their outlook and the music that 
they played. 

What advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?

Often it sounds stupid - but I would say 'stick together' is the 
most important thing in a band. You can do this and you can do 
that - basically you need a bit of luck - but what you mostly need 
is dedication. So many times - I know from my own experience with 
friends of mine - they've started bands and then just given up, 
just as the ball's started rolling. Sometimes you just have to 
keep trying. But in terms of being a DJ or a personality or 
whatever you just have to try to be yourself as much as possible. 

[3] - NIGHT FEVER, NIGHT FEVER

I know many of you are fans of that regular Saturday night slice of
Channel Five Madness - Night Fever, but how would you like the 
chance to appear in one of the programmes?

You'll be pleased to know that Channel 5 are planning yet another
series of the pop-music show and want you to take part. Tickets are
now available for the filming of shows from now until December.

For more information, simply click to the Powerhouse TV website at:
http://www.powerhousetv.co.uk/Audience%20Department/nightfever.html

Dates currently available are:

SEPTEMBER 
 Saturday 16th
 Sunday 17th

OCTOBER
 Saturday 7th
 Sunday 8th 

 Saturday 28th
 Sunday 29th

NOVEMBER
 Saturday 18th
 Sunday 19th

DECEMBER
 Saturday 9th
 Sunday 10th

Remember, tickets are FREE and you don't have to take part as one of 
the main contestants if you don't want to. The people `randomly` 
pulled-out of the audience are audition before-hand so there's no 
need for you to panic if you're not the outgoing type!

Many thanks to Ashley Martin for the info.

Enjoy the show!

[4] - IT'S EXTRA SPECIAL

Moving ever so slightly away from Madness for a moment, and TMML
subscriber, Peter Gardner tells us that there is a recently released
Specials album doing the rounds;

     "It's a triple CD set called "Stereo-typical: A's,
      B's & Rarities" and features every track they 
      ever had on a 7" or 12" single, plus a few extras
      (but only from the 2 Tone days, not including
      "Hypocrite" or "Pressure Drop"). It is sheer class
      with a class sleeve and notes. There are a couple 
      of dodgy remixes/rerecodings of Nelson Mandela and
      Ghost Town (Ghost Dub '91) though!"

This certainly sounds like an album well-worth adding to the old CD
collection!

Thanks to Peter for letting us know. 

[5] - THE ROCK CIRCUS

OK everyone all over the world.

Question; "What is wrong with `The Rock Circus` in London?

Answer; They have P.J & Duncan but no Madness!!!!!

I want all of you out there to join with me in the quest for 
giving madness their rightful place in amongst the god's of the 
music world 

I quote "the most successful British band of the 80's" need to be 
recognised for their achievement's

I think that as a course of action we should start of by meeting up
sometime in our respected city's and town's and start collecting 
signatures of all the people who would appreciate seeing them put 
in their rightful places

Tell me what you lot think. I have a few more ideas but thought I 
would test the ground with you lot first

Luv scatty (saintscatty at supanet.com)

[6] - ON OUR WAVELENGTH

"I was out with the guvnor drinking absinthe one night" explains 
Suggs, Madness' frontman and Xfm's newest DJ. "And about 4 in the 
morning, he asked me if I'd like to try a spot of DJing. He said, 'Do
you want to start on Monday?' and I thought, Why not?" 

Suggs has only been on air for six months but he's already played 
host to the likes of Maxim from The Prodigy, The Charlatans, Space, 
Mark Thomas and David McAlmont. "The most memorable moment in the 
show so far has been calling David McAlmont "Mrs", laughs Suggs.

Between 12noon-1pm Suggs takes requests from listeners, but for the 
rest of the show, "It's a pretty random affair, not a set pattern at
all. The best thing about it is hearing great records that I might 
not have found out about otherwise, and inflicting my opinions, of 
which there are many on an unsuspecting world."

Xfm, 104.9MHZ Monday-Thursday 10am-1pm

Suggs Top 10

1. Yellow, Coldplay
2. Another Pearl, Badly Drawn Boy
3. Catch The Sun, Doves
4. In The Name Of The Father, Blackgrape
5. In Amber, Lowgold
6. That's When I Reach For My Revolver, Graham Coxon
7. Barabajagal, Dope Smugglaz Allstars With Sahun Ryder and
   Howard Marks
8. Ghost Town, The Specials
9. Theme From Gutbuster, Bentley Rhythm Ace
10.Sweet Pea, My Sweet Pea, Paul Weller 

Many thanks for the typing efforts of Fiona Linnell.

[7] - AND SO, TO BED

That about wraps it up for another week. 

Apologies for a slightly shorter than usual edition of the MIS, but
during my major decorating spree the computer was sat in a pile in
another room, and this evening is the only time I've had to put the
issue together.

Service should be back to normal next week. In the meantime, many 
thanks to everyone who's name appears in this issue - your efforts
are much appreciated!

If you have anything you think would be worth including in a future
edition, please send it my way.

Have a good week.

Robert Hazelby