The Madness Central Blog

Feel like a weekend in sunny Las Vegas? How about if you had tickets to see Madness at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay?

That’s exactly what’s up for grabs in this latest Madness Central competition. Courtesy of the House of Blues Las Vegas we have a pair of tickets to the April 14, 2012, Madness concert in Sin City, Nevada. One lucky winner will walk off with two general admission tickets to the gig!

All you have to do is visit our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/madnesscentral and share the ‘Madness Central’ link we’ve posted on our page. Not only do you get the opportunity to win the tickets, but you also get to spread the good word of Madness to all your friends. Share the link and your name goes in the virtual hat.

Don’t have a Facebook account? Don’t fret: You can still enter by sending your name and email address to admin@madness-central.com.

This competition will remain open to entries until February 20, 2012, giving the winner plenty of time to make arrangements to join us on the Las Vegas Strip and jam to the nuttiest sound around!

Good luck!

Steve and Kev
Madness Central Management

It’s official. Madness is playing the House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada, US of A, on April 14, 2012. This is the second of four American dates announced to coincide with their appearances at this year’s Coachella Festival in California.

Stay tuned to Madness Central for information on the forthcoming Los Angeles and San Francisco shows.

Want details? Here you go:

http://www.houseofblues.com/tickets/eventdetail.php?eventid=73282

Saturday 04/14/2012
Doors: 07:00 PM
Show: 08:00 PM
Prices:
$29.50 – General Admission Standing
$33.00 – General Admission Day of Show
Ages: 18+

Tickets on sale 02/04/2012 at 10 am Pacific Time (or 04/02/2012 for our non-American friends).

House of Blues Las Vegas
3950 Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(702) 632-7600

Madness has added another racecourse concert to their 2012 summer roster, this time at Haydock Park Racecourse, Merseyside, UK, on July 6, 2012.

Tickets for July 6, which include both the evening’s horse racing and the Madness concert, are on sale now.

Bookings can be made online at http://www.haydock-park.co.uk on 0844 579 3006 or from Haydock Park itself.

Prices range from £30 to £60 for adults and £15 to £30 for children. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

The first of four United States concerts was officially announced this weekend. Humprhey’s By The Bay in San Diego, California, will play host to Madness on Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

http://humphreysconcerts.com/

Tickets start at $58.55 (which includes ticket price and associated fees) for the gig itself, with dinner packages and Lexus premium pacakges (room, dinner and gig ticket) also available.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0A0048373A0C43B8?artistid=984976&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=60

There are three more US dates to be announced, for Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Stay tuned to Madness Central for the latest!

Prior to his show at the Grand Opera House in York on Thursday 26th January, ITV journalist Adam Fowler had the opportunity to interview Suggs on all things Madness, and more.

Adam kindly contacted Madness Central to explain …

“Suggs came to York last night to do his one man show (which I went to see – absolutely excellent).

Anyway, he kindly agreed to an interview so we went up in the York Eye and talked about his show, the new Madness album, his forthcoming book, northern crowds …everything but the price of fish really.

All the best,
Adam Fowler,
Newsroom Journalist | ITV plc”

Full interview:

Edited version:

We really must be excited about the forthcoming “Forever Young: The Ska Collection” album for this is our second blog on the subject today!

There’s been some chatter about the “Ska Collection” title and its relation to the track listing that was provided to Madness Central earlier today, namely, “Half those songs aren’t even ska!” To nip this misconception in the bud, Madness Central has been provided an excerpt from the liner notes of the album, approved by the band and straight from the band, addressing just this.

—–
From “Forever Young: The Ska Collection” liner notes:

This album gathers a selection of Madness’s ska and similarly skanky songs, although Chrissy modestly refuses to claim that any of them are actual ska: “It’s our take on the music. Ska was an initial part of our inspiration – amongst many other things. I wouldn’t say it was all we do but this album reflects the best examples of us attempting to – sometimes successfully – play ska and reggae. Definitely, with the earlier stuff, we were always giving it an off-beat guitar or piano to keep it skanking along. It’s something to fall back on…”
—–

As most longtime fans of Madness realize and embrace, Madness has never been a ska band in the sense of their contemporaries like The Specials and The Selecter. They always had their own style and interpretation influenced by the likes of rock, blues, Motown, and yes, even ska, and by the second album, the distinct voice that was blossoming on their “ska” debut ‘One Step Beyond…’ was already evolving, replaced by what was to become Madness’ singular sound in British pop music.

Madness Central received an exciting email from Holly Barringer at Union Square Music/Salvo giving us the low down on the forthcoming Madness compilation album “Forever Young: The Ska Collection.”

Per usual, USM has gone out of its way to put together a special package for the fans, including two previously unreleased tracks, one of which Chrissy Boy told Madness Central in 2009 in an exclusive interview, a cover of Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” recorded for the Dangermen Sessions.

Below is the press release Holly sent along. We hope you’re as excited as us about this new offering from Union Square Music/Salvo! And be ready for the promotional contest to accompany the release!

=====

MADNESS – FOREVER YOUNG: THE SKA COLLECTION

RELEASE DATE: 2ND APRIL 2012

Back in the day, as a vital part of the 2Tone Ska Revival, Madness were responsible for some of the biggest hits the genre has ever seen. In the early ‘80s, along with The Specials, The Beat and The Selecter, they were at the forefront of the movement and many people still consider them a Ska band today. While it’s true that they branched out of that genre to become a massive mainstream pop act and the most successful singles band of the ‘80s, they have always kept Ska close to their hearts, echoes of which can be heard on every single one of their studio albums including their most recent, ‘The Liberty Of Norton Folgate’. It’s from a track on this album that we take our title, ‘Forever Young’. There couldn’t, however, be a Madness Ska Collection without the classic Nutty Boy anthems ‘Baggy Trousers’, ‘One Step Beyond…’, ‘Night Boat To Cairo’, ‘The Prince’, ‘Swan Lake’ and many more.

To make it even more special the band has contributed two previously unreleased tracks; a cover of Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Vietnam’ and a rollicking version of Edvard Grieg’s ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’.

This album includes a special fold-out poster booklet and liner notes featuring new interviews with Chrissy Boy and Lee Thompson.

TRACKLISTING

1. One Step Beyond…

2. Forever Young

3. My Girl

4. Baggy Trousers

5. House Of Fun

6. Grey Day

7. Tarzan’s Nuts

8. Don’t Quote Me On That

9. Take It Or Leave It

10. Victoria Gardens

11. The Prince

12. Day On The Town

13. Dust Devil

14. In The Rain

15. Not Home Today

16. Prospects

17. In The City

18. Madness

19. Mistakes

20. The Communicator

21. Swan Lake

22. Night Boat To Cairo

Bonus Tracks – Previously Unreleased

23. Vietnam

24. In The Hall Of The Mountain King

Get to your gogglebox! Suggs is hosting a new show that “traces the roots of the punk movement and music of the 1970s, a raw revolution that grew out of social deprivation and mass unemployment and still influences society today.”

http://uktv.co.uk/yesterday/item/aid/649375

Teen Spirit: The Mods & The Rockers
Thursday, 26th January at 9.00pm on Yesterday
Sky 537; Virgin Media 203, Freeview 12

In this first episode, Suggs takes a look at post-war Britain in the 50s where the word teenager didn’t even exist.

Instead children simply left school and entered straight into adult life by getting a job, getting married and having children themselves.

In an era where homes finally got the washing machine, electric fire and the telephone, young adults were also starting their own rebellious uprising.

Bored of following the establishment, they decided to cry out to society by donning drainpipe trousers, drape jackets and crepe shoes to form the well known culture of the Teddy Boys.

Suggs takes viewers back in time to explore the music, fashions and rebellious attitudes of the 50s teens.

Don’t forget your hair grease and comb.

Episode guide: http://uktv.co.uk/yesterday/episode/listing_id/154565681/channel_id/3866

Add one more gig to the summer 2012 line up. Madness is confirmed for the Indian Summer Festival in Broek op Langedijk, Netherlands.

The festival takes place on 16 June 20112.

Information and tickets can be had from the official festival website:

http://www.indiansummerfestival.nl/

This isn’t typically something we would blog, but in light of the inaccurate House of Blues Anaheim “news” that is being posted to forums, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc., we felt it was a good idea to give notice that Madness’ management has now confirmed the US gigs for April and an official announcement of those gigs is coming soon (we were told this week).

Really, there’s not much to this blog. It’s more of a teaser. But mainly it’s notification that accurate information on the forthcoming American tour dates is almost here!