We begin this issue with some good news as this week two previously cancelled 2020 dates were added to the mammoth 2020 touring line-up.
On 12th June Madness will be returning to Westonbirt Arboretum in Tetbury, while the following week, on the 19th, they’ll be back at Theford Forest in Brandon. Both venues are part of Forestry England banner and over the past 15 years or so have become regular summer haunts for our favourite band. Tickets to both events are now on sale and can be purchased by going to http://www.madness.co.uk/live/
Moving on, and over the past two weeks we’ve received a mountain of emails from readers keen to enter our “Full House” vinyl competition. The prize, which has kindly been supplied by BMG has now been won, and you can find out who the lucky recipient will be in this issue’s MIS Feature.
Finally, before we let you get on with this issue, please do check out this weeks’ “Live and Intensified” section where Mr. Willo has details of this years’ “Big One Nine” event which features the one and only Lee Thompson in the line-up.
See below for all forthcoming Madness and Madness related gigs and events. If there’s something we’ve missed off or you feel should be added then please let us know.
A brand new collection covering the entire career of the unique and incomparable Ian Dury.
This collection features some of Dury’s earliest work with Kilburn & The High Roads, through a golden period of solo hits and classic recordings with the infamous Blockheads to his final studio album released in 2002, two years after his untimely passing in 2000.
The Crown Prince of Essex… the punk poet laureate… Ian Dury’s mastery of the English language and powerful performance made him an artist like no other. His wit, wisdom and showmanship are ever present here on classic tracks such as ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt 3’, ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’, ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ …all now unofficial British anthems!
The collection also features brand new liner notes by comedian, writer and Ian’s friend, Phill Jupitus, alongside rare and unseen photographs.
This album was previously available as a pop-up 4 disc gatefold LP priced at around £50. The 4-disc release is now sold out on vinyl.
I Remember Way Back When
This week, MIS co-editor Rob Hazelby goes back in time to report on what was going on in the world of Madness 5, 10, 15 and 20 years ago this week.
5 years ago…
Issue Number 859 – Sunday 25th October to Saturday 31st October 2015
Reports in from The Dublin Castle this weekend revealed a couple of interesting snippets of news. Firstly, “Home Town Hi Fi” impressed attendees of the weekend’s ska gig, warming up ahead of their appearances at The Big One 4 and The House of Fun in November.
The band played a set of storming ska punk originals, and just a single nod to Madness.
Secondly, we spoke with Henry Conlon, landlord of the DC, last weekend. Henry was was happy and proud of the new Madness “One Step Beyond” mural that had recently been installed in the pub. It was in the back, near the dressing room. Blur, Supergrass and Amy Winehouse were depicted on the walls elsewhere in the pub having all played there.
Next, and in our MIS Feature we reported on The Punch and Judy Prize Draw taking place at the forthcoming House of Fun Weekender event. The prizes people had generously donated were absolutely superb, and ranged from Punch and Judy Lovestruck pop-up theatre, Gladness pump clips, Lovestruck beer and much, much more. Also at the event, the MIS team would be presenting two live bands in Jak’s Bar and an auction!
Following this we passed the bits and bytes of the MIS over to the one and only Paul Rodgers. Paul was back with another of his Madness Facts, Stats and Figures articles, and this week he reported once again on Madstock chart news. This week Madstock was 109 on the official album chart, restarting its chart run 23 years and about 9 months after it ended its original run.
We brought this issue to a close with the news that Madness had revealed “The Grandslam Games” as further entertainment at the forthcoming House of Fun weekender. Darts, Sumo football, pool and other sports could be entered to win tickets to future gigs or free beer.
Meanwhile, The Silencerz had rebranded their Facebook page to state “Sometimes featuring Lee Thompson from The Ska Orchestra & Madness”, following their recent live festival appearance without Lee.
10 years ago…
Issue Number 599 – Sunday 24th October – Saturday 30th October 2010
Things were a little quiet this week, and this was reflected in the issue which was slightly shorter than those of the last month or so. With the Christmas tour fast approaching we were hoping that this lull in nutty news was only temporary.
The Mad Not Mad album re-issue had now been available for a few weeks now. Hopefully it was already on your CD shelf, or at least due to head in that direction. With that in mind, we decided to make things a little more interesting by producing our very own Mad Not Mad Easter egg. All you had to do was flick to a specific page, paragraph and two words in the booklet. Armed with those words you then had to use them as part if the URL.
What would all this work give you? A song from a seminal album being practiced, and as you’d never heard before.
On to Dury news next, and we reported on the Blockhead musical coming to the Stratford Theatre, Docklands. Their run of Reasons to be Cheerful was due to run from the 22nd October to the 13th November.
Ever wanted to be on the big screen? Ever wanted to be on stage with Madness? Well, by sending Absolute Radio your photos of what you loved you could do both.
Madness were due to play the legendary Earls Court on 17 December, and during their rendition of ‘It Must Be Love’ a montage of photographs would fill the big screen – photos of you and your loved ones, or indeed anything that you really loved! (Within the boundaries of taste and decency of course…)
But wait, there was more! The first 25 entrants would win a pair of tickets to the Earls Court show, and one very lucky winner would get to meet and greet Madness at the gig!
We brought this issue to close by pointing you in the direction of an interview with Andy Serkis – he who played the role of Ian Dury in the previous year’s Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll move.
15 years ago…
Issue 339 – Sunday 23rd October to Saturday 29th October 2005
It still amazed us here at MIS Online at just how much information Andrew Langmead and Paul Muscat had managed to dig out of the piles of votes that landed in their mailboxes as part of the recent Mad Charts.
We’d thought that every type of analysis had now been carried out on the latest batch of collated votes, but as you’d see in section 3 of this issue, the two of them had one final blast of statistics to throw our way.
If you were still not sure whether to head down to the next MOT gig at The Dublin Castle on Saturday 29th October, perhaps this latest snippet of news would be the thing that finally persuaded you to get yourself down there.
MOT drummer, Dan Fossard told us that;
“We have decided to give away a free CD of ours to everyone who comes to our Dublin Castle gig on Saturday 29 Oct. So, if you want one, get yourself there. If not, it’ll cost you a lady godiva (which is still p*ss cheap!!!)”
In other gig news, and those of you who fancied doing something else on November 5th instead of standing in a cold damp field watching your money go up in smoke may have wanted to journey over to The Kings Arms in Acton, London, where ‘Los Palmas 7’ would be performing.
As many of you would no doubt be aware, one of the more recent Madness and Dangermen gigs took place at The Olympia in Paris. Well, for those of you who weren’t able to get along to the concert all was not lost, as you could now re-live a small chunk of the magic from that evening courtesy of MTR member Mister B, who had made a selection of photos of the Madmeet and the gig itself available for download.
Ska News editor Jean-Pierre Boutellier had also made a selection of photos of the meet and concert available for viewing, as well as a number of reviews (in French) of the gig.
On to this week’s collection of articles, and we started off with Duff Kelly’s review of the recent Dangermen gig in Paris, where Duff revealed that he’d taken his old man along with him.
“My dad enjoyed it – he’s seen them once before in 1999 but this was much better than an arena.
He’s not up to dancing anymore but Madness is all in the mind anyway right!”
Next, we moved on to the final bit of Madchart coverage (for a while, at least!), as Paul Muscat and Andrew Langmead wound things up with their final batch of facts, figures and stats.
Elsewhere, we had exciting news regarding the sadly cut short Our House musical. If things went according to plan it looked like a UK tour and even a Japanese tour were in the pipeline. The UK tour would (we were told) kick off in July 2006, with the Japanese tour still to be finalised.
Moving on, and the next article was a transcription of an interview with Suggs, taken from the Mail on Sunday’s ‘Night and Day’ Live magazine. In it, Suggs spoke about his clothing influences, and where he goes to kit out his wardrobe.
We finished off this issue with news in from Steve Saunders, who revealed that the forthcoming single, ‘Girl’, would be suffering a delay.
“I came across this tonight on the V2 website The release date for “Girl” is listed as 14th Nov, but the official Madness site still states 31st…..
Either its a “typo” or maybe V2 should give someone a phone call…………and while they’re on the phone, maybe they should apologise for such a poor Madness web-page and also why theres only 1 format available for the new single. You’d think they wanted it to fail wouldn’t you…..?”
In usual MIS style, we promised to let you know as soon as we heard anything further.
20 years ago…
Issue number 77 – Sunday 22nd October to Saturday 28th October 2000
Following the rush we had putting the finishing touches together for last week’s MIS, it was nice to have a bit more time compiling this weeks’ issue.
Something we’d completely forgotten to put in last weeks’ edition was a mention of a radio interview Chris and Lee apparently took part in on the afternoon of the gig. Word went round the DC, initiated by a Mr. Swandale, that the lads would be in the station from 12 noon on 94.9FM – London Live. Obviously no one in the DC managed to catch the show, and if recent postings on the TMML are anything to go by, no one there caught it either. If you were one of the few who did listen to the show, we asked you to get in touch.
Next, it was time for some birthday news as on the 19th of October a certain Daniel Woodgate celebrated his big four-o. The famous birthday was given a quick mention on Virgin Radio, so it was nice to know that at least one station kept track of such things!
Moving on, and it was time for some US Madness courtesy of the the TMML’s Jeff Young, who had finally got round to scanning a selection of snaps from the previous year’s New York and Philadelphia events.
Elsewhere, and a little something for all London pub-goers, as we were told that Suggs would be in The French Pub on Thursday 26th of October. One not to miss if you were in the area.
On to this week’s collection of articles, and with it being a slow month we started-off with the latest news from VIP Events, who were announcing The Wembley Music Fair, which was due to take place at Wembley Exhibition Centre on the 25th and 26th of November.
Next, we revealed that the crash of Boxman had thankfully not cost Suggs and Carl a million quid between them. It was, instead around one thousand pounds worth of shares.
“I hope this clears this story up”, commented Carl at the time.
Drunken weekends were the theme next, as Bex gave us a full lowdown of her the recent Crunch! gig at The Garage. With tales of many beers drunk, much singing done, and many friends met, Bex’s review was certainly really appreciated by those of us who were unable to attend.
We moved away from Madness for our next article, when Vince Foley kindly gave a short review of his recent Glen Tilbrook (he of Squeeze) gig. Here’s what Vince had to say at the time;
“I went to see Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze last night (20th) playing at a venue in Cork City, the venue would normally hold 300-400 people ….our city showed itself up for the uncultured, unappreciative folk they are with a measly 15 people making it to the gig…..
It was so embarrassing, even Glen tried to make a joke of it…… Christ I would hate any other artist of my choice to play here now for the
fear of being so badly supported.
A true showman, he played a blasting set and signed an autograph for me afterwards…I met him a few years back and as ever he is such a gentlemen…..
A Madness connection….I asked him how did he enjoy playing at Madstock 3…..’bizarre, but enjoyable’ was the reply…..
Cork city, hang your heads in shame……Long live good music!”
It was back to Madness next, as we reported that Dotmusic were once again holding their annual Dotmusic Online Awards. Two Madness related web sites had put themselves forward this year – Chas Smash Online and VelvetGhost.com. For either site to be in with a chance of winning, you simply had to visit each one and click on the Dotmusic logo.
We finished off this issue with a review of the edition of Madness Unsugged. Issue 5 spanned a whopping 48 pages, and was what you could describe as a bumper issue.
If you weren’t subscribed, you were seriously missing out!
Rob Hazelby
MIS Feature
Full House Vinyl Competition – We have a winner!
Recently released to market is the “Full House” vinyl compilation. This collection of tracks takes a real potted history through Madness’ back catalogue
Previously only available as a pop-up 4 disc gatefold LP priced at around £50, the 4-disc release is now sold out on vinyl.
Now, thanks to the very nice people at record company BMG you were in with a chance of adding this one disc Full House vinyl release to your beloved collections.
All you had to do is answer the following question:
How many tracks does the new “Full House” vinyl compilation contain?
Loads of you took the time to email in with your answer, and while the majority did get the correct figure of 13, one of two of you misread the question and provided us with the number of tracks fo the original 4 disc gatefold LP release.
The results have been collated and we’re pleased to announce that MIS subscriber Graham Clark will soon be the proud owner of this latest vinyl release.
Our congratulations go to Colin and a big thank you goes out to everyone who took part.
A very special thank you goes out to BMG, for without their generosity we wouldn’t have been able to run the competition in the first place.
Two days of great music as well as Auctions, Competitions and all the fun of the Big One Festival.
We’ll have a myriad of international bands and solo artists.
We’ll also be broadcasting footage of previous Big One Festivals and brand new episodes of Masters Remastered.
Lee Thompson will be appearing with a new broadcast along with the full Silencerz band. As well as archive broadcast of The Lee Thompson ska Orchestra live at the big one (from a previous years’ event.)
But thats not all.. they’ll also be memorabilia auctions, competitions and special guests.
Join us on the 7th and 8th of November for The Big One 9 Online.
Over the weekend of 7th & 8th of November we’ll be producing possibly the largest virtual festival of the year. We hope that in some small way that will offer a chance for the ska community to come together online to enjoy good music, company and support our charitable causes.
Specialized is changing. Come along and enjoy the ride.
Confirmed artists for the Big One 9 Online include The Untouchables – Chris Murray – @King Hammond – The Silencerz Feat’ Lee Thompson – The Scotch Bonnets – The Magnetics – Irie Man with Pat Powell- Catbite – Captain Accident & The Disasters- Detroit Riddim Crew – NUMB – Never Underestimate Musical Belief – Mike Pinto, Chango Munks – Girls go ska – Big Fat Panda – Eli Ray, Circle J& Many more
The Big One vaults with The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra, Ed Rome and others.
Masters Remastered with archive Laurel Aitken, Bob Marley, Prince Buster and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.
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PLEASE DONATE.
We are trying to incorporate all traits of the Big One experience into The Big One 9 Online streaming event over 7 & 8th November.
As part of the event we will be doing an auction.
Fancy owning the Specials stage background from their world tours with bands name on? (reserve price on this) amongst other items?
If any acts or persons willing would like to donate items to our auction run by the lovely Michelle McGuffog and her husband Neil please contact them direct by message on
Please do try and support the forthcoming “Big One Nine” event. It’s a great way to help raise money for charity and at the same time experience live music; something we’ve all been missing this year.
