Review: Suggs at the King's Hall, Ilkley

PROBABLY best known as the front man for the 80s group Madness, Suggs (Graham McPherson) is currently on tour with his one-man show which last week played to a capacity audience at the Kings Hall in Ilkley.

He started the evening talking about his recent 50th birthday and discussions he had just after this with his mother about his upbringing in the East End of London and his father who had left them when he was three years old.

His mother was a jazz singer and worked in the clubs in Soho where he accompanied her from an early age. In the 60’s these were full of strippers, hookers and transvestites which led him into his first song of the evening, “Lola” written by Ray Davies of The Kinks. More tales of his boyhood followed – living with his Aunt and Uncle in Wales for three years where he passed his 11 plus exam at the Junior School, his return to London where he attended Quintin Kynaston school in Swiss Cottage, parties with girls from Hampstead, visits to the Roxy Club and the start of the punk era at which point we are treated to a rendition of “Baggy Trousers”.

He then spoke about starting work as a butcher, and at the same time starting his first band, The North London Invaders. To conclude the first half he talked about graffiti which is why the name Suggs came about as his own name was too long to spray on the walls of viaducts. He put a pin in a book of jazz musicians and it hit the name Peter Suggs.

At the start of the second half he took the audience on his journey to Birmingham to find out about his father who he discovered had died there in 1975 when he was aged fourteen. Back to the band and tales of his influences - Motown, Reggae and in particular Ian Drury – their first gigs at The Hope & Anchor in Islington, meeting Jerry Dammers the lead singer of The Specials and signing to their 2 Tone label before moving onto Stiff Records. More songs followed including “Madness” and “One Step Beyond” before he talked about the group’s split in 1986, his time as a producer for the group The Farm and then his solo career which led into his song “Cecelia”, his number four hit from 1996.

To conclude he talked about the Madness reunion, before a very funny Tommy Cooper impersonation sketch in relation to this. The evening had however been punctuated with humour throughout and was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience who gave a standing ovation at the end of his final song, “It Must Be Love”.

by John Burland