Madness have just finished touring Australia and Suggs has stayed behind to perform his solo spoken word ‘Suggs My Life Story In Words and Music’.
“I’ve been a long time in this business. I’ve seen a lot of things,” Suggs tells Noise11.com. “I’ve had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. It was my 50th birthday recently and a rather strange thing happened. My cat fell off a shelf and died. It got me thinking about fate and all the crossroads and how different my life could have been. I thought I’d write a show about it. So I do a one-man show with a keyboard player and we deconstruct a few Madness songs. I just tell the particular story of how I got to be where I am”.
It was 40 years ago when Madness first appeared on Top of the Pops. It was a career-changing moment for Suggs. “I think Cliff Richard was on,” he said. “I remember even then being astonished at how much make-up he was putting on. It was pretty much like the 60s almost. The studio had three red light bulbs and one yellow one. It was a very lo-fi TV show but sometimes 15 or 16 million people were watching. It was a big moment. People talk about ‘when do you think you’d make a career out of it’ and it was that moment”.
Suggs will appear tonight in Sydney and then head to Perth and Melbourne.
Suggs My Life Story In Words and Music dates
April 20, Sydney, Enmore Theatre
April 22, Perth, Astor Theatre
April 24, Melbourne, Comedy Theatre
https://www.livenation.com.au/artists/suggs
