ISLE OF MAD

Welcome to the biggest music festival the Isle of Man has ever seen taking place in the biggest venue the Isle of Man has ever seen. Seven fantastic nights in one massive marquee!

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the famous Isle of Man TT Races, Street Heritage Events are organising The Peel Bay Festival - some of the biggest names in Rock are being lined up to perform in this amazing marquee located on the cliff top in Peel.

On Sunday the 3rd of June 2007 Madness will be performing in the 10,000 capacity marquee with The Stranglers kicking the night off. Tickets on general sale at 9am on Tuesday 30th January, and for people who have pre-registered at 9am on Monday 29th January.

Ticket prices : Standing £39.50 and VIP £99.50. There is an introductory 5% discount for the lucky lucky people who buy tickets within 21 days of going on sale and a 10% discount if you've bought tickets for another night.

Further info at:

www.peelbayfestival.streetheritageevents.com/

Rough Kids Video - Madness with Ian Dury 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a3LtJDm6nQ&mode=related&search=

Recorded live at The Big Top, Finsbury Park, London on 21st December 1985.
Ian dury and Madness.

Lee Hooky.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH BEDDERS

MIS talks exclusively to Bass Legend Bedders about the Christmas tour, NW5, 2007 and that Moustache!

1. Madness went to the edge of the universe and beyond with this Christmas tour.

What wonderous sights did you see?

Well, the rain of Glasgow was a wonderous sight! But every grey Glasgow cloud has a silver lining – we went to see The Pogues on our night off there. To hear 'Fairytale of New York', at Christmas, with the crowd singing every word was very rousing and very emotional.

The night after, at our gig, we had our 'Official Piper' turn up. His name was John and he wanted to pipe us on to the stage. Well you can't let a man in a kilt down, so he came on for the encore and did a fantastic version of 'Flower of Scotland'. Crowd went bananas...

Lee's dive from the stage, in Bournemouth, was also special. How does he still do that? And having Jerry Dammers around was brilliant – especially when Chris would get him to sing old Rod Stewart songs.

2. What's been your favourite song to play on this tour?

'Our House' always brings the house down.

3. We loved hearing NW5, many fans took this track to heart quickly. What's it like on stage playing a new track for the first time and does it change over the length of a tour?

As you might know, the old memory is not what it used to be so it wouldn't be giving any trade secrets away to say that I had to rely on a few bits of paper to remind me of the chords and the order of NW5! The giveaway is if you see me and Chris looking down a lot! Yes, the song did go through a few minor changes, as we went along. Mainly just to make it a bit better for a live audience.

4. Can you tell us anything at this stage about the new album and possible future plans for next year?

Well, there are a few tracks recorded but not finished. I took a bit of a break at the start of 2006 so I'm not on all of them. Like NW5, I might re-record the bass, at a later date. But there are plans to record a few more in the next couple of months. As for the future: well, keep June free.

5. What has been the greatest moment about having Chrissy Boy back on guitar during this tour?

Seeing the old boy put his guitar behind his head and wringing it's neck during Grey Day.

6. How long did it take you to grow that moustache we saw you sporting on the tour video screen during "It Must be Love" and where has it escaped to now?

Well, the moustache was flown in from Portugal. I had a surrogate (a Portuguese fisherman, actually) grow it for me. It was kept on ice and then a team of moustache dressers implanted it. After the video it was retired to stud and hopefully will be producing babies goatees for a long time to come.

7. Have Madness any plans yet for 7 minutes past 7pm on 7.07.2007 which is now just 7 months away?

Several.

Best wishes, Mark

The moustache can be viewed in full-on action by going to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwxTkaOuWW8

A NUTTY NEW YEARS EVE

Lee Thompson performed a small low-key gig for new years eve in local pub The Red lion.

Here's Bex:

Just thought I'd let ya know how the gig went on NY eve. The band did 2 sets and featured 4/6s of Like Father Like Son - Kev and Dan Burdett on Guitars/Vocals, Lee - sax and vox and Nick Judd on keyboards. Then on the drums was a nice guy by the name of John - he used to be in Reece who Lee "unofficially" managed, and Jimmy Woodford on bass from JAG.

The first set opened with "Cool for Cats" with Lee reading lyrics from a piece of paper. They then rattled through their versions of "Town Called malice", "Ironshirt", "Get it On", "No No No (you don't love me)" and various others. All nicely done, though hilarious when Lee had to get his crib sheet of lyrics out for a couple of tunes.

The second set featured a great version of "walking on the moon" and then it basically turned into a Madness fest with "The Prince", "One Step Beyond", "Embarrassment", "My Girl", "IMBL", "Lovestruck" and finishing with "Night Boat..." which was in danger of causing the Landlord huge bills due to the amount of crazed dancing that was going on..

The band came off around 11.35pm then time to welcome in the new year. So, cue a mad stampede at the bar As the bongs of big ben sounded over the PA system, poppers went off
and the traditional sport of kissing and hugging as many people as possible began - I had a surprise when Si Birdsall grabbed me for a hug - he's such a lovely guy and went round saying happy new year to as many people as he could! A brilliant night and I really hope they do some more gigs!

Becky Lane

Madness in a Mood to Dance

Madness Join the Band Dancing Mood on stage in Buenos Aires.

To play "Madness" with a "Take me home Country Roads" intro in the style of the Toot's cover of that song.

Watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZzAyD_hNvk

It's a cut above the average youtube camera phone in audience snippets, this has been edited and captioned, it's well worth a watch. Thanks to Cintia Martinez