Friday, May 13, 2005
A Sad Day
Friday 13th has arrived and with it, some very sad news indeed. Chris Foreman, one of the founding members of Madness, instrumental in their success and unique in his string plucking skills, has announced he has left Madness and their alter-ego band, the Dangermen.
Stating he "was just sick of the petty time consuming bollocks that goes on in the band," as his reason for leaving, he also went on to confirm that he "won't be appearing at the Forest gigs or anything else to do with Madness/Dangermen." He did confirm he has played on some of the Dangermen Session tracks on the soon to be released album on the V2 label.
Chris Foreman will leave a huge void in the same manner in which Mike Barson did when he left the band back in 1986. Going to see Madness is never the same when a member of the band is missing, and this news is bound to shock those fans with tickets for this summer's tour. In 1996 Norman Watt-Roy stood in when Mark Bedford on bass took leave of the band, but he returned with the advent of fresh material. Chris's reasons for leaving sound more worrying and problematic, but everyone is hoping he will return to the band sooner rather than later.
So who will stand to fulfil this summer's commitments? Wilko Johnson springs to mind or maybe John Turnbull - but that's it, and at a push.
I pray this is not the beginning of the end for Madness; one of the UK's best-loved music acts of all time.
We had our final team (as we know it) lunch today at Siam Erawan on Howe Street. I had minced prawn and pork parcels to start and beef strip with chilli and Jasmine Rice for my main; it was delicious. I washed it down with a coule of cold Singha's (Thai beer) making not a bad lunch for my usual Friday fayre. The rest of the team departed immediately after the meal so me and Julz went for a drink in the newly refurbished St. Vincent to kill off the rest of the afternoon. Though I wouldn't say it is refurbished as such. It looks like all that has happened is a quick lick of ain on the walls and tables and chairs now in the place where the pool table once was. Shame.
I headed off to get Laura about half past five. Last night's tears and stress resulted in a crash course in the 4x table till way past her bedtime. Then this morning I got up early with her to try and get her more confident and able to work out the sums. At the end of it all I walked her to school and gave her a big kiss good luck for this morning's test.
Realistically, we were hoping for a result of about 4 or 5 out of 10. Given the late start and rush job I thought that would have been a respectful result to get. Well, didn’t she blow us all out the water. She got 10 out of 10! Extra ice-cream made its way onto her plate after dinner for that!!
Tiredness played a huge part in my evening and I got little done. A redraft of the London poem and some more RLS reading. Maybe the excitment of Sunday and the approaching Oasis gig is playing on my mind.
It's going to be a fantastic weekend!
Stating he "was just sick of the petty time consuming bollocks that goes on in the band," as his reason for leaving, he also went on to confirm that he "won't be appearing at the Forest gigs or anything else to do with Madness/Dangermen." He did confirm he has played on some of the Dangermen Session tracks on the soon to be released album on the V2 label.
Chris Foreman will leave a huge void in the same manner in which Mike Barson did when he left the band back in 1986. Going to see Madness is never the same when a member of the band is missing, and this news is bound to shock those fans with tickets for this summer's tour. In 1996 Norman Watt-Roy stood in when Mark Bedford on bass took leave of the band, but he returned with the advent of fresh material. Chris's reasons for leaving sound more worrying and problematic, but everyone is hoping he will return to the band sooner rather than later.
So who will stand to fulfil this summer's commitments? Wilko Johnson springs to mind or maybe John Turnbull - but that's it, and at a push.
I pray this is not the beginning of the end for Madness; one of the UK's best-loved music acts of all time.
We had our final team (as we know it) lunch today at Siam Erawan on Howe Street. I had minced prawn and pork parcels to start and beef strip with chilli and Jasmine Rice for my main; it was delicious. I washed it down with a coule of cold Singha's (Thai beer) making not a bad lunch for my usual Friday fayre. The rest of the team departed immediately after the meal so me and Julz went for a drink in the newly refurbished St. Vincent to kill off the rest of the afternoon. Though I wouldn't say it is refurbished as such. It looks like all that has happened is a quick lick of ain on the walls and tables and chairs now in the place where the pool table once was. Shame.
I headed off to get Laura about half past five. Last night's tears and stress resulted in a crash course in the 4x table till way past her bedtime. Then this morning I got up early with her to try and get her more confident and able to work out the sums. At the end of it all I walked her to school and gave her a big kiss good luck for this morning's test.
Realistically, we were hoping for a result of about 4 or 5 out of 10. Given the late start and rush job I thought that would have been a respectful result to get. Well, didn’t she blow us all out the water. She got 10 out of 10! Extra ice-cream made its way onto her plate after dinner for that!!
Tiredness played a huge part in my evening and I got little done. A redraft of the London poem and some more RLS reading. Maybe the excitment of Sunday and the approaching Oasis gig is playing on my mind.
It's going to be a fantastic weekend!
Colin 9:17 am