The Madness Central Blog

Today’s final donation of  £ 5,  which came in just under the wire, closed out our three week charity drive for Woody’s sponsorship of Cancer Research UK at the London Marathon this year.

All told, we raised £ 330 this year (not including tax bonuses), which is a little less than half of what we accumulated in last year’s charity contest. Through his sponsorship page, Woody’s grand total is £ 6,174.16, which when added to the December tour donations comes out to £ 13,763.16 raised in aid of Cancer Research UK. Well done, Woody!

Now to the winner of this year’s prize (kindly donated by our favourite drummer, Daniel “Woody” Woodgate), his running shoes from the 2009 London Marathon. Who is our winner? Stand up…

CLAIRE THE MAD SQUIRREL]

Congratulations, Claire! You’ll be receiving an email soon alerting you to your win.

Although the Madness Central contest has now closed, you can continue to make donations to Woody’s charity here:

http://www.runningsponsorme.org/woody

Thanks to everyone who supported Woody and Cancer Research UK this year!

Mark your calendars, fine people of Birmingham. Suggs of Madness will be performing for charity at the Irish Centre this 20th of May in aid of the Solihull branch of the Chernobyl Children’s Project.

Performing live in the Leinster Suite, Suggs will be treating the audience to a selection of his hits as well as a live on-stage interview following the set.

Doors are at 7PM Thursday 20th May, with tickets a mere £10 for admission.

Full details can be had at the Irish Centre Birmingham website:

http://www.irishcentrebirmingham.co.uk/

Clive Langer, guitarist for the renowned Liverpool band Deaf School (and Madness producer), sent Madness Central his thoughts on the recent Shark Trek tribute to Eric Shark, Deaf School’s recently passed vocalist and friend. Suggs and Lee of Madness were asked to join the festivities; here’s what Clive had to share:

It’s a week ago since I awoke in the Hope Street Hotel and proceeded to Ye Crack for a bloody whatever and tried to gather my thoughts and take in what had happened the day before. I felt happy and exhausted. I then realized that I’d been on the Everyman stage for 7 hours the day before, 4 rehearsing and 3 hours doing 2 performances.

It was a very special show for a special man. It was a tribute to Eric Shark, one of Deaf School’s 3 singers who sadly died in January. To make the show into a fitting tribute, we asked a couple of our friends if they would sing one or two of his songs, they all agreed and we found ourselves as a 13 piece outfit for the first time since 1974. Not only did Suggs and Lee agree, but we also had Kevin Rowland, Ian Broudie and Pete Whiley on board.

Although chaotic everything worked out amazingly well. It was only the afternoon of the show that we had our whole entourage together but at showtime that didn’t matter or notice,and doing 2 shows in one night gave everyone a second chance, and they all took it!

The first show was brilliant and we all (band+audience) knew something special was going on,but we couldn’t have imagined what was gonna happen next….As soon as we hit the stage for the second show with Suggs walking on to do Eric’s old intro monologue, the place erupted and luckily the roof didn’t come down. By now our special guests had sussed out that Enrico and Bette were not gonna be out shone and everyone pulled out all their stops with creative, competitive + fun performances that went down a storm. A couple of times I just stopped playing and watched the crowd and singers interact in a frenzy of dancing, kicking, arm waving, singingalonging and blissful joy!! I realized at this point that it didn’t really make any difference whether I was playing or not, the night’s wheels were in motion and the momentum was bigger than all of us.

Eric would have been very happy, his presence was with us throughout the day, and both shows. It was great to have his family, the band, guests and audience in the same place to celebrate the man and his incredible contribution to Deaf School, as a friend and an artist.

Love was in the air
All the best Cliff a.k.a Clive Langer

The Everyman Playhouse website has tickets listed at £18 and £28 for the April 17 festivities.

http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/show/Deaf_school_shark_trek/78.aspx

Madness producer Clive Langer’s band Deaf School is holding a charity event in honour of late Deaf School vocalist Eric Shark (ne Thomas Sam Davis) who passed away in January. Rehearsals have begun for what is dubbed “Shark Trek”, with Suggs and Lee from Madness showing up this week in preparation of the April 17 tribute.

From the official Deaf School website (www.deafschoolmusic.com) come these two blog entries written by Mr. Langer. More updates from the studio are sure to follow as Clive is an avid blogger, both on the Deaf School site and his producer’s site with partner Alan Winstanley.

Everything’s Under Control – April 2nd

Here we go…..It’s Friday April 2nd, I’m at home thinking about tomorrow’s rehearsal. We’ve got Kevin Rowland coming to the rehearsal studio at 11 which will probably give us half an hour to go over Suggs’s bits with Enrico and Bette. Ian Broudie’s coming down at mid-day and Bette wants to leave for the seaside then. I hope she stays to sing back up for Ian. No bass and drums this weekend but we have Nick Stix returning next weekend.

Next weekend Enrico’s in Paris but Paul Pilnick and Lee Thompson should be joining Max, Bette, Nick, Ian Ritchie and myself. I think Ian Broudie, Kevin Rowland and Suggs will also be there…. We have a rehearsal on the night of the 14th and God knows who’s gonna be there and a rehearsal in The Everyman with Mr Average (for the first time, but no drummer) on the afternoon of the 16th.

So on my reckoning the only time the whole band will be all together will be on the afternoon of Saturday the 17th April. Yes, the day of the shows! It will be brilliant, I’m sure!! It’s great that everyone’s making an effort for Eric.

Bette in Leather – April 3rd

Well, first proper rehearsal over and it was encouraging. Suggs and Bette came flying through the doors full of vigour and continued to enthral us in their leather trousers! And then the amazing Mr Kevin Rowland arrived (the best dressed man in town) with Enrico close on his heels. Ian Ritchie surprised and entertained with his horn in hand and bicycle nearby, having crossed London in record time due to a visitation to the wrong studio! Then there was Max, a missed alarm bell and a few missed keys and cues but pounding his Nord Electro into submission for the amusement of all. I had a good bash at my newly acquired red glitter Telecaster as well, causing Enrico to exclaim “That’s good that bit that sounds like the Clangers!”.A good day ,,,, Good day, C

Mark Adamson with Deaf School’s website pointed us to a recent BBC interview with Suggs and Clive:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0071hnn/Simon_Hoban_31_03_2010/

In the interview, Suggs reveals he will be singing the Deaf School songs “What A Jerk” and “Taxi.”

An interview with Audio Bullys at Stealthattack.co.uk sheds more light upon the Madness involvement on the forthcoming album “Higher Than Eiffel”  featuring Mike Barson and Suggs that we reported earlier this year.

From Stealthattack.co.uk:

Lock duly broken the tunes flowed. The approaches changed according to the songs. So, ‘Twist Me Up’ was a live jam bursting to life with images of ‘Ready, Steady, Go’ podium dancers, incorporating guitar from Si’s brother Jimmy, drums from Terry and a piano top line from Madness’ Mike Barson. More Madness came courtesy of Suggs harmonica on album closer ‘Goodbye’, a ska house tune that is the perfect send off to an album of such diverse but harmonious tunes.