I have just been surfing the net and hda a quick search for stuff at
www.amazon.co.uk and found the following..
Total Madness
George Marshall Our Price: �9.95
Availability: This title is currently on order. We expect to be able to
obtain it within a month.
Category(ies): Music, Stage & Screen
Paperback - 120 pages (31 December, 1993)
ST Publishing; ISBN: 0951849743
Reviews
Chris Foreman, Madness
Once I'd put this book down, I couldn't pick it up again!
Book Description
The only book ever to detail the history of one of Britain's best loved and
most successful bands - from their days leading up to fame and fortune when
they were known as the Invaders right through to their Madstock reunion
concerts. Baggy Trousers, One Step Beyond, Embarrassment, Our House, and so
the hit list continues for the nutty boys. The book includes tons of info
for the casual fan as well as the Madness die-hard, and includes colour as
well as black and white photos and a full UK discography.
>From the Publisher
It's Madness. Total Madness. And we wouldn't want it any other way!
About the Author
George Marshall has championed street music, and particularly ska, for well
over a decade. His love of 2 Tone began in 1979 and has now lasted over 20
years. He has also written The Two Tone Story, and several over books about
the skinhead cult.
Excerpted from Total Madness by George Marshall. Copyright � 1993. Reprinted
by permission. All rights reserved
When it comes to towns, cities and countries, absence really does make the
heart grow fonder. Romanticism replaces realism as your mind's eye turns
litter-filled back streets into green and pleasant lands. And the longer
you're away, the bigger the fairy tale. Maybe that's why the biggest
patriots tend to be those living in exile, forced or otherwise. To one
Graham McPherson, paradise lost was London. Not that he was born within the
sound of Bow Bells or anything, but when you spend your childhood being
passed from pillar to post, the bright lights of the Big Smoke can appear
very attractive indeed. He was actually from the Sussex seaside town of
Hastings, but didn't stay there very long. His father walked out on the
family when Graham was three, leaving his mum, a jazz singer, to bring his
sister and him up. Single parents don't have it easy at the best of times,
but when you're trying to make a living touring the pubs and clubs, family
life ends up taking a back seat. The young Graham McPherson found himself
living in far-flung cities of the old Empire, like Manchester and Liverpool,
before being sent to live with his aunt in North Wales at the age of eight.
At least one good thing came out of his connection with the music world
though. His nickname, Suggs, was borrowed (and never returned) from a
flautist in a jazz encyclopedia. He spent four years in Wales, living the
life of a yokel while dreaming of London and all it would offer him.
More than anything, Suggs wanted to be part of the mod and skinhead gangs he
read about in the 'papers. And come the day when his mum did decide to move
back down south and settle in North London, Suggs was on his way to the big
time. Well, that was the game plan anyway. The problem was that nobody had
told the London kids what the game was. When he arrived at Quinton Kynaston
all boys' school in Swiss Cottage, not only was he treated like a country
bumpkin, but the mod and skin gangs he had hoped to join were now a thing of
the past. He still didn't belong and his childhood remained largely a
solitary one. The moving from town to town hadn't helped academically, and
his mum never made him go to school anyway, but he did get two O-levels and
a CSE, and stayed on for the sixth form. It wasn't that he really wanted to,
but it was worth his while to do so thanks to the social security rules of
the day. Gangs hadn't disappeared entirely however. One in particular, the
Aldenham Glamour Boys, had a name for themselves in this neck of the woods.
They were a peculiar mixture of suedeheads, teds and Roxy Music freaks who
took their name from the Aldenham Boys Club that they frequented. Each was
an outcast in his own way, but together they were something people took
notice of, something to be reckoned with. Like all mobs, they got into
fights with rival gangs, but such is growing up in the darker corners of any
city you care to mention. A Clockwork Orange was showing in cinemas at the
time and the Glamour Boys saw it countless times. Mind you, the same was
true of that other film that threatened the very fabric of society, Dumbo,
which they were also regulars at. Suggs first met the gang in a street in
Hampstead and spent the rest of the day knocking back pints with them. In a
world of daft flares and even dafter Kevin Keegan haircuts, the Aldenham
Glamour Boys stood out a mile. Spray-painted DMs and imported Levi's 501
jeans were the order of the day, as were ex-G.P.O. Morris Minor vans.
Nothing but the best for these lads. This was the life Suggs had been
looking for, but little did he know what fate had in store for him and
certain Glamour Boys. Among this motley crew of misfits were three blokes
who had known each other since primary school, and who Suggs was going to
get to know very well too. Step forward Chris Foreman, Mike Barson and Lee
Thompson. Chrissy Boy Foreman had left Owen's Grammar School in Islington
with a single O-level to his name, and ended up doing a series of dead-end
jobs like hospital porter, and painter and decorator. He and Lee actually
worked together for a while as gardeners for Camden Council which was a
better laugh, but not exactly a passport to the good life. Lee came from the
wrong side of the tracks and for a time looked like he would stay there. He
was brought up in a block of flats on Highgate Road mainly by his mum, as
his dad spent much of his time behind bars. Young Thommo, as his mates
called him, was no angel either and soon rang up 13 court appearances
himself. On his 14th birthday, he bunked off school and stole a bag from a
hospital locker. In it was 130, mostly in coins, and he made the mistake of
giving out handfuls of 50p pieces to his mates. Someone grassed on him, and
Thommo ended up getting a kicking off the Old Bill and getting sent down
from November 1971 to January '73. Chafford Approved School played host to
him, but at least he was allowed out at weekends . . .
Interesrting...
Mark Adamson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.angelfire.com/80s/madnotmad
ICQ# 54919047
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