August 15 - 17, 1997
After hearing so much news on the first two meet-ups, I decided to join the third meet-up, which was held in Camden Town, London. My brother Daniel came along and we met up with Suggsylia on Friday night at the Camden Town metro station. We went to the Dublin Castle to meet up with Jordan and his mate Andrew, but they never turned up. I gave Jordan a call and he told me that Andrew was grounded by his Grandma and that was that. He was realy sorry but looking forwards to Saturday. We did however meet up with Lee, a good friend of Lee Thompson and Chris Foreman. He told us a lot of interesting stories about Madness and mad places to visit whilst in Camden Town. Later on that night we saw Jarvis Cocker, the singer of Pulp. He looked a right wet blanket.On the other side of the road of the Dublin castle, there are two shops with strange names. The first is an estate agents named Hotblack Desiato (read Doulas Adam's trilogy in four parts 'The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' and you'll understand what's funny). The second is a Chinese restaurant named Otofucu ('Ought to f*ck you' should do the trick on your first date!)
Hotblack Desiato (the loudest band in the universe?)
Saturday, the main day of the meet-up, was a hot and sunny day. We all met up at the Camden Town tube. First we strolled down to this music market. A lot of Madness singles, LP's and CD's could be found there. Later on we strolled to the Dublin Castle and passed Arlington House ( The large building in the 'One Better Day' video clip) on the way.
Arlington House with: Andrew, Daniel, Jordan, Alan,
Suggsylia, Yvette, Andy and Chris
After quite a few pints we went to the Spread Eagle to have lunch. Unfortunatly they stopped serving just after I had ordered so the rest that had not ordered went off to Mac Donalds. Nathan, Daniel, Suggsylia, Yvette, Lee, and two others Stayed in the Spread Eagle discussing Life, London and Salaries (Some do it better tan others). Jordan and Andrew enjoyed the sun outside with their Fez hats. Later on the rest returned so we followed them up to the Dublin Castle and filled the juke box again. We all sang along with the Madness songs we all love and steadily got pissed. I remember asking the band in the next room to 'shut up' as they were loudly interfering with our Madness sing-a-long.
Nathan's mate Rich arrived and we Decided to order a large pizza. I got a knife from the bar and the pizza was quickly sliced. There we were in simon's church eating Pizza! Blur's 'Park life' and a few other songs were played just for a change and then it happened: Alan Redpath had fallen asleep and had done something I better not mention to keep up the good name all we Madies have. (what good name?) Of course I made a photo but it f*cked up, like many of the photo's I took during the meet. Damn those disposable camera's! I did my best to restore the photo. I dragged it through every filter Photoshop had on offer! The original was a lot worse! You can see the ghost train passing through Alan though! Wonder where it was going?
Alan (very lucky the camera cocked up!)
Luke.
To make this the most complete review of the third Madness Mailing List Meet-up, I've compiled all the messages sent to the list regarding the meet-up.
Jordan
Hi all,May I be the first to say what a great meet it was yesterday, and to say that I hope alan redpath won't be to embarresed if he's woken up yet (those of you who went will know what I mean). Those who didn't go of course missed out on a brilliant time but also a superb opportunity to buy rare madness vinyl, with people buying assorted stuff and simon managing to get his hands on the test print for one better day. Anyway cheers all, and please email and say if carl ever did turn up I'd love to know!
Here's to the next meet!
Cheers
Jordan
Simon
Latest arrival: Ed. (Shame on you)Most Pissed: Too close too call.
Endurance Award: Suggsylia (Last at the Temple.. after you pissed up
bastards went home - ) Me! (Turned up on Sunday at the 'Temple')
Most Embarrassing moment: Al , he allegedly pissed himself whilst asleep, In Church!!! .. Those pews are sacred!!! -
Highlights: Everyone singing (well almost). Record Fair at the famous Camden 'Electric Ballroom' , Someone telling the band of the night at the 'DC' to 'Keep the noise down- we're listening to f*ckin Madness'. The dog on the glass roof above where we were sitting. Rob & I finding a 'secret passage' in the DC that lead us see 'Butterfeild 8' & 'Crunch!' Flyers/Posters!! - many other highlights- too many too mention!- Parklife!
Downers: Not many... Barman at the Dublin Castle sighing a sign of relief as Madness tunes left the Jukebox. Finding out Suggsylia's real name; it's : Agnusvillia Portspiralstaircasesuperos. (Old MIS Joke- I bet Yvette gets it!).
Most Daring Move (s): Robert shouting 'This is all about the, err, computer' (ERNIE Live mg) at the top of his voice, in the 'vestry' at the DC (The room in-between the bogs/fire-escape/stage entrance). Nathan ordering and getting a Pizza in the DC. Luke & Nathan putting their heads on the road on Camden Parkway. (Unknowingly I think!)
Lost People: Andy Hall, en-route to Primrose Hill.
Best Dressed Person: Rob with his 'Madidas' Madstock 7 T-Shirt!!
Luckiest Person: Suggsylia (Meeting & seeing Jarvis Cocker, Alexis Sayle (this must be a sign!), Rowan Actkintson.
Least Surprising event: Nathan going to a party afterwards. (I wont give him life-assurance anyway0!)
That all I can remember for now.......
A good time was had by all.
Oh, Shit! I'm knackered- time 4 bed.
Simon.
Suggsylia
Hi everyone,The Madmeet was great fun!
Though not a single Madness member turned up...
Instead Pulp's Jarvis Cocker turned up on Friday when I was standing outside the Dublin Castle with Luke, Dan and Lee (Chris Foreman's friend). You should have seen the way Jarvis was dressed! It was a good laugh.
I was the last one to leave the DC on Saturday (at midnight), shortly after Luke and Dan. I met a guy in the pub who had seen Suggs live at the Hackney Empire.
On Sunday I saw the comedian Alexei Sayle (The Young Ones, etc) when I was walking down Camden High Street. Then I met a boy whose mother went to school with two members of Madness (at least that's what he told me).
Later I met up with Simon at the Dublin Castle.
That's all for now...
Cheers,
Suggsylia
PS: Andy Hall, where are you???
Andy
hello,yes sorry i got a bit left behind in camden looking at the shops and stuff, then i had to get back (which was a bit bad because i wanted to stay for the evening). i thought it was really good and i'm looking forward to the next one (hopefully it won't be so warm). thanks to everyone who organised it,etc,etc. anyway i've gotta go (going away for 2 weeks) thanks,
bye.
Simon
I've mailed several times, but I dont seem to be getting through.Is anyone experiencing difficulties?
Has everyone sobered up yet?
Changed you underwear?
Anyway.. Anyway...
I'll let Rob expose the person who pissed themselves.
(Sniggers)
How does Nathan keep going?
I spoke to Rob on Sunday, he said Nathan went to a party after the DC!!!
I met up with Agnusvulgar Spiralstaircaseoperus (Suggsylia's real name-
we found out on Saturday -(Old Suggs joke in a MIS comic!:)) ) at the
'Temple' for afternoon mass.
She leapt out of her chair as she spotted Rowan Actkinson walking past.
I think this was a 'unconfirmed' sighting.
Well the 12" Cardiac Arrest is warped mixed. (Wo-Ho!!)
Bit confusing at the beginning, as it starts slow..I thought my record player was on the blink, so I was swearing and cursing at it for half-an-hour, checking the connections etc.. until I realized it was the song itself!! The track is similar to the 'Michael Caine' warp-mix, not much, but a little.
I dare not play the 'test press' of One better day, instead I use it as a place mat at my dinner table ;-)
I think next time we'll have dinner at the DC. (Nathan had a Pizza delivered!)
Now we have no excuse to leave our place of worship.
I wonder if they do B&B???
Simon.
Rob- Dont tell anybody about the 'Secret passage' in the DC, that lead us to 'Crunch!' & 'Butterfield 8' memorabilia!!
Me!
Hiya everybody,Dan and I made it back to Holland and now I can finally play all the Madness stuff I bought. Thanks for advising me to go to Tower records Robert, cause they still had a copy of the 'Take it or leave it' film and the utter Madness video, which needless to say I bought. I had a good time and I'm looking forwards to the next meet. Nathan, next time we'll order a 2nd pizza!
About Fiday and that wet bloke from pulp, Jarvis Cocker, outside the Dublin Castle with Suggsylia, Daniel and Lee. Daniel and I asked this australian guy to toss a pint over Jarvis. He said he would but never got round to actually doing it. Let's face it the way he looked he couldn't have got any worse! Unfortunatly Jordan and his mate never arrived on Friday. I phoned him and his mate was grounded so he couldn't come till Saturday.
Saturday was a good laugh with Alan. I nearly pissed myself back. Of course photo's were taken and as soon as I've had them develloped they will be published on my internet site.
Once again, the meet was a good laugh and I'll do my best to get there the next time round. It was nice to see who I've been mailing with.
See you all,
Luke
Suggsylia
Hi Chris and all,Here's a list of the Maddies who were able to attend the Madmeet on the 16th August:
- Yvette Reader
- Simon Roberts
- Robert Hazelby
- Jordan Leigh
- Ed (still undecidED?)
- Alan Redpath
- Richard Pountney
- Andy Hall
- Kevin Tizzard
- Luke Roberts
- Dan Roberts
- Chris Byrne
- Nathan
- Andrew (Jordan's mate)
- Lee (Chris Foreman's friend)
- me
I hope I didn't forget anyone! If I did, get in touch with me and I'll resend the list.
Cheers,
Suggsylia
Robert
For all you Mailing List Maddies who were unable to come to the recent Madmeet, I have tried to produce the definitive review of the days proceedings. I'm sure I've missed a few things out, but that may be the fault of the beer that was consumed during the day. Well, here's what happened...Richard and myself arrived outside Camden Town tube station at around 10:45 and were a bit shocked to find only one Maddie - Chris Byrne waiting by the railings. Still, I suppose we had turned up early so maybe we should have expected it.
Gradually over the course of the next hour or so, the other Maddies arrived in dribs and drabs. Alan Redpath turned up with a bag full of records and told us that he'd got there early and so he decided to see what Madness vinyl he could find at the Electric Ballroom record fair. "There's one stall with loads of really good Madness stuff" said Alan, so we decided that as soon as everyone arrived we'd take a look and see what we could find.
Midday was getting nearer and nearer, and still we were a few Maddies short. The crowd that had arrived already were starting to get a little restless, so we decided to wait till just gone noon and then we'd make a move. Just before midday Nathan turned up. This was a major shock to the system as we were all expecting the lad to be the one we were waiting for, but with his arrival it meant that the only person we were waiting for was Dominic.
Dominic eventually arrived as the rest of us were getting ready to move off. He mumbled something about the trains and then we all wandered off to the Electric Ballroom for the record fair.
Upon entering, Alan took us straight to the stall that had the most and the best quality Madness merchandise. I think the man behing the stall wondered what he had done to deserve so many Maddies rummaging around in his stuff. Still, he was making some money and seemed to enjoy answering our questions.
One of the most expensive items for a sale was for an accetate 12" single (I can't remember which one). The stallholder informed us that an accetate is produced before the run of single pressing to see what the sound quality is like. If the sound is good enough, then the singles will be produced. Obviously its rarity contributed to its high price. Still, even though it was almost as rare as rocking horse poo, no-one actually bought it!
Once everyone had got what they wanted, we all made our way to the mecca that is The Dublin Castle. By about 1:30 in the afternoon everyone was starting to get a little peckish, so we decided that it might be a good idea to get something to eat over at The Spreadeagle. As a few people had just bought drinks in the DC we split up. Richard, Nathan, Yvette, Suggsylia, Simon and a few others went over to the Spreadeagle, whilst the rest of us Kevin, Alan, Chris, Ed, Andy and myself stayed a little longer in the DC waiting for 2 people (who shall remain nameless) to finish their umpteenth pint! Once they'd finished we made our way over to the Spreadeagle where we found the rest of the group perched at the bar. Assuming that they had ordered their lunch and were waiting for the meal to arrive, we had a browse through the menu and were about to place our order when we were told that they had just stopped serving meals. By now we were getting pretty hungry, so we told the rest of the group that we were wandering off to get something to eat and we'd meet them back in the DC later on.
Off we went down toward the center of Camden looking for a McDonalds, when we passed a cafe that server all day breakfasts. The six of us dived in there, got seated, looked through the menu and placed out orders with some gentleman who, to put it politely, sounded like Manuel from Fawlty Towers, and was just as difficult to understand. As we'd all had a few pints it proved quite a challenge to bottle up the laughter!
Once we'd eaten our lunch it was back to the DC for more, err, socialising! Everyone took it in turns to put selections from Divine Madness on the jukebox, and I think we must have got through the album at least 3 times. A few people pointed out to others that this had to be the only pub in the world that had the Nutty Boys/Crunch CD available for play.
Halfway through the afternoon, Simon decided to go back to the record fair just to see if there were any bargains that he'd missed. A few others (Chris, Yvette, Suggsylia, Jordan and Andy) thought they'd get some fresh air and take a hike up to Primrose Hill as it was a REALLY hot and sunny day. The rest of us had to force ourselves to stay in church (as Simon refers to the DC) and continue in the merriment.
Half an hour or so later Simon returned with a bag full of vinyl. I can't recally much of what he'd bought, but he seemed very pleased with himself as he'd bought a copy of "The Prince", and a promo copy of "One Better Day" which he still hasn't dared to play.
Later on that afternoon, the Primrose Hill gang returned from their little outing - one man short!!! Yes, I kid you not, one minute Andy Hall is with them, the next he's not! Andy tells me that he got split up and managed to find his way back to the tube station without too much of a problem.
Highlights later in the afternoon include: Alan falling asleep in church, Simon and myself finding a corridor with Crunch and Butterfield 8 posters, and me having to order some food for Richard at the cafe that I'd had lunch in earlier. Rich had had one too many and I was elected (by him) to make the order.
Upon our return to the DC we found Nathan, Nathan's mate and a few other Maddies (Luke Robert and his brother) tucking into a huge pizza. Apparently no one could be bothered to move out of the pub but they were all really hungry. Nathan came up with the idea to order a pizza on his mobile phone! The pizza company were really helpfull and even asked them at what table in the DC were they sitting at so that they could give them their order with the minimum of fuss! The staff at the DC didn't seem to mind them eating food on the premises, and Nathan even had the cheek to go to the bar and ask them for a knife so that they could cut the pizza up!
It was about this time that people started to leave. I can't remember in what order this was, but I think the early leavers were Jordan, Yvette, Chris and Ed, although I can't be 100% sure about this. As the evening wore on, we moved outside the DC and onto the street to continue the proceedings. Luke and his brother seemed quite happy to sit in the road, ignoring car horns beeping as drivers narrowly missed them. At this point Nathan and his friend went off for an hour or so, and the rest of the group carried on doing whatever it was they were doing before he left. Luke pointed out the shop sign on the other side of the street. He thought it was hilarious, and had taken a photo of it earlier in the day.
An hour or so later Nathan returned, and proceeded to confess his undying love for Suggsylia! I think she was a bit taken aback by the whole thing. Everyone else found it rather amusing though!
At around midnight Nathan, Rich, Nathan's mate and myself made our way back towards the centre of Camden to get a taxi back to his place. Richard and myself were ready to fall asleep. Nathan and his friend had other ideas and were planning to head off to a party. Rich and myself got dropped off at Nathan's, whilst the other two took off to this social event of the decade. Once Nathan arrived at this party he decided to phone us up every or so to let us know what a good party we were missing!!
And those were the day's events as I can recall. Thanks to the following Madster's for turning up:
(list compiled by Suggsylia)
- Yvette Reader - Simon Roberts - Jordan Leigh
- Ed (still undecidED?) - Alan Redpath - Richard Pountney
- Andy Hall - Kevin Tizzard - Luke Roberts - Dan Roberts
- Chris Byrne - Nathan - Andrew (Jordan's mate)
- Lee (Chris Foreman's friend) - Suggsylia
Thankyou everyone, thanks for coming. See you all again, someday, in heaven or hell.
Robert
I got the following e-mail from Jordan Lee, after I e-mailed the mailing list about this page. It was so funny I had to post it.
Nice meet page but where at the rest of the pictures I know for a fact you took more than this. Also you missed the part about you ringing me up and me being really apoligitic, it sounds like I'm a complete bastard of something. Anyway speak to you again soon.
Cheers
Jordan
I hereby confirm that Jordan Leigh is not a Bastard!
Luke
