Newsletter Contents 1. Latest News And Information 2. Suggs and Mike Barson feature on Audio Bullys’ forthcoming album 3. Word Magazine - Suggs Speaks on Ian Dury 4. Forever Young Goes Karaoke 5. Daily OM Review of Norton Folgate 6. Care to Direct "Our House"? 7. This week's Special Offer for MCN Readers from www.retro-madness.co.uk 8. Roughcut presents: Suggs Talks To God. 9. Contacting Madness Central 10. Newsletter Subscription Details.
On Friday, January 22, Episode 3 and Episode 4 of Suggs’ Italian Job are airing on Canada public television station TVO. The two episodes broadcast at 7:00 PM EST (GMT-5) and 7:30 PM EST (GMT-5) respectively...
The new single “Forever Young” is released today (18th January 2010) and comes with a number of different mixes of the song, as well as a cover of the Billy Ocean hit “Love Really Hurts” (dependent on the format you buy)...
Ever a friend to Madness Central, the young-at-heart Chrissy Boy fielded our question about a video for the new single “Forever Young”, namely, is there going to be one? Here’s what Chris shared with us...
Tour big screen pictures now up on official site. Again as notified by the Madness News List mail out today, if you were one of the lucky ones to be featured on the big screen during the last tour then here’s your chance to see the picture at the official site...
Madness drummer Woody and brother Nick Woodgate to Collaborate. Word in from Nicky Woodgate that he and his brother Woody are getting together this week to write some songs...
Scottish Youth Group to perform Our House the Musical. The Eastwood Theatre for Youth (Harlequin), a young persons (ages 9 to 21 currently) theatre group that performs three productions a year, have announced this year’s first production is the Madness musical “Our House.”...
Madness Management on How to Download Your Forever Young Bundle Mixes. It’s been bought to our attention that some people buying the download of Forever Young through Record Store (which underpins the Mad Shop) have not been able to download the tracks since Monday’s release date...
Madness Appearance On “One Shot Not” Now Available On-Line
Following on from the blog earlier this week about Madness’ appearance on French/German TV show “One Shot Not” which was broadcast today (21st January 2010) - the show is now available to view on-line...
Suggs and Mike Barson feature on Audio Bullys’ forthcoming album
With word out this week that the Audio Bullys long-awaited album Higher Than Eiffel is to be released on the 29th of March, equally exciting news is in that Suggs and Mike Barson of Madness were involved in the recording of the forthcoming album...
Note: The
full blog posting is also included in Section 2 of this newsletter
2. Suggs and Mike Barson feature on Audio Bullys’ forthcoming album With word out this week that the Audio Bullys long-awaited album Higher Than Eiffel is to be released on the 29th of March, equally exciting news is in that Suggs and Mike Barson of Madness were involved in the recording of the forthcoming album.
It is on the album track “Twist Me Up” that you’ll hear the Mighty Barzo on keys and the similarly Mighty Suggs on backing vocals. We’ve heard Suggs’ voice combined with Audio Bullys’ music once before on the Generation song “This Road” from 2005; it’ll be more than interesting to hear how Mike’s distinctively acoustic-heavy keyboard work fits in with Simon Franks’ and Tom Dinsdale’s electrobeat.
This is only the third time Mike Barson has ventured outside the confines of Madness to collaborate with other artists, the first time being on the Suggs solo project The Lone Ranger and the subsequent project being on the No Doubt track “Everything In Time” produced by longtime Madness producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley.
Higher Than Eiffel Full Tracklist: Drums (On With The Story) - Only Man - Daisy Chains - Feel Alright - Twist Me Up - Dynamite - Drained Out - London Dreamer - The Future Belongs To Us - Shotgun - Dragging Me Down - Smiling Faces - Kiss The Sky - Goodbye
3. Word Magazine - Suggs Speaks on Ian Dury In the currrent issue of Word, Suggs speaks on the huge inspiration to Madness, the late Ian Dury ...
"There are loads of things I remember about Ian. I remember our sax player, Lee, going to see Kilburn & The High Roads at the Tally Ho in Kentish Town. He was trying to bunk in through the dressing room window, but they had those prongs on the window sills - things you don't really see these days. As he was climbing in, his turn-ups got caught on these prongs and he was left suspended upside down from the window. The Ian Dury walked in and just goes, 'Ay, ay, what the f**K have we got here then?
Lee gave me the first kilburn & The High Roads Album, Handsome, which was f***ing brilliant. It was when punk was coming in, but it was this amazing blend of calypso and rock and roll and this voice singing in this brilliant vernacular way. I also remember our producer Clive Langer coming with us to a festival in Europe where Dury was playing. Clive went up to him and said, 'Ian, I've just got to say what a great f***ing artist you are.' Dury just smiled and goes, 'And you are...?' Even when he was just bantering like that, he had this amazing presence. He came and sang on our song Drip Fed Fred, which was just great, an honour.
My favourite Ian Dury song is F***ing Ada. The chorus is really s**t, but the verse....'Stains on the memory/Stains on the quilt....' Wow! When you get down to it, Ian Dury and Ray Davies are the two influences on Madness."
4. Forever Young Goes Karaoke If you're aching to sing along to Forever Young without Suggs and Chas messing up your soaring voice, now you can download a karaoke version to thrill your family and friends.
London in the late 1970s was full of angry youth bristling under Thatcherism and connecting with the fiery but soulful sounds of ska and reggae on the immigrant-filled streets. The lads of Madness brought their horns and helped create what was known as "2 Tone," a merging of reggae and ska influences with New Wave pop, then brought it into America's living rooms in the early days of MTV, creating a national taste for small hats and alto saxophones among our own discontented youth.
Insular suburban anthems like "Our House" softened the overall effect, even getting the moms in on the act. Musical tastes changed, of course, and Madness lost some of its cultural cachet over the years, but they kept rocking. The Liberty of Norton Folgate comes after side projects and long breaks, but the boys are going strong with most of their original members, including lead singer Graham McPherson (aka "Suggs"). Folgate is definitely a career high point, even compared with their "Our House" heights, bringing precision song-craft, focused storytelling, character-rich lyrics, and lots of those jumpin' ska horns.
Beginning with energy and precision, Madness shows they've grown up from just writing on behalf of their house to all of London: "Can we make it / If we all live together / As one big family?" they sing on "We are London." The issue here is London as a cultural melting pot with jaunty barrelhouse boogie-woogie piano and a "nah nah nah" chorus. "Forever Young" brings up the big guns with outdoor horns blazing rasta-style good vibrations, with big thudding drums and a solid beat as Suggs laments, "Paradise lost / And innocence done."
The title track is an amazing 10-minute piece that ties up all the loose ends of one dazzling concept album, with herky-jerky lyrics and perky interludes of horns, Bollywood, warped piano, and a bizarre carnival whirl. Suggs' jumps in and steps through the tight musical latticework like Fred Astaire in a minefield. "Walking wild and free / And in your secondhand coat happy," Suggs sings. "Just to float in this little taste of liberty." You can feel he means it. Subverting racism with songs that openly defend miscegenation and equality, Madness buck all trends and expectations and nail one out of the park, a solid 30 years into their career. The Liberty of Norton Folgate is a comeback triumph.
Sheffield based Splinters Theatre Group is looking to appoint a new director for its production of Our House - The Madness Musical.
The group - which includes performers aged from 14 to 30 - starts rehearsals in mid May for the production which will be performed at The University Drama Studio on Glossop Road at the beginning of October.
Some experience of working with young adults may be beneficial.
For more information or to apply for the position email splintersth...@o2.co.uk or write to Jill Beckett, 12 Sandon View, 7 Wharncliffe Road, Sheffield, S10 2DH.
7. This week's Special Offer for MCN Readers from A quick reminder to buy 'Forever Young' before Sunday this week from 'The Madshop' for which a pack comprising 7"+CD+Downloads can be purchased for £8 + p&p (instead of £9) if you use the voucher code 'MADSHOP2'.
To coincide with this week's release of the new single, today's special offer from 'Retro-Madness' is for the official 1 Track Promo of Forever Young complete with A4 press release sheet. The price including the press sheet and UK p&p is £9.99 and can be found by scrolling approx 1/4 way down the page below: http://retro-madness.co.uk/
The image does not yet include the press sheet, we will update this over the weekend. The price will be fixed at £9.99 for the next two weeks until Sunday 7th February or until they are all sold.
We still have a few Madness 7 red enamel badges left over from last week's deal so we are holding their bargain price of £2.50 (inc UK p&p) for one more week, you will find them about 1/2 way down the same page:
9. Contacting Madness Central You can send all communications relating to Madness
Central to the e-mail address: ad...@madness-central.com
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