Madness frontman Suggs has revealed that David Bowie once peered down to check if he was still alive after a dramatic 20-foot stage fall during a support tour in the 1980s. The singer, real name Graham McPherson, shared the anecdote ahead of Madness's performance at Lakeside Festival in August.
Stage fall in front of Bowie
Recalling the incident in Anaheim, Suggs said: "I could hear them striking up One Step Beyond, an instrumental, just as I was coming on the stage. I was so excited. I skidded along the stage and fell straight off the end. It must have been a 20-foot drop." He added: "Apart from a bit of bruising around my coccyx, I survived. But I could see Bowie peering down at me from the side of the stage, checking if I was still alive. I think the crowd thought it was all part of the act!"
Bowie's private persona
Suggs, who supported Bowie on tour in the Eighties, described the Starman as "really charming" in private. "The mystique was part of the act, but he was also just a lovely - extremely interesting - bloke," he told the Mirror. He recalled seeing Bowie at a Soho club called the White Club in the early 80s: "He just used to sneak in the back, totally on his own, sit and have a drink and no one really bothered him." Suggs added that Bowie told him: "When you get to his level of success, having a load of security around you only makes things worse. He loved that little bit of anonymity."
Double knee replacement recovery
The 65-year-old singer recently underwent a double knee replacement, which he described as "very, very painful." He said: "I'm so grateful to the surgeon. Modern medicine is incredible - two days, and I was back up on my feet." During recovery, he unknowingly ordered multiple vinyl records while on medication: "With all the drugs after surgery, I hadn't realised but I'd been ordering all these vinyls. So I kept getting all these records through the post - they just kept coming! I was obviously in a bit of a psychedelic state, but that made me smile."
Now back on his feet, Suggs is ready for festival season: "I'll be jumping around that stage like I'm James Brown. We're a lot older now, we don't go as mad. We're still as enthusiastic on stage, but the after-partying has reduced quite considerably!"
Almost 50 years of Madness
It has been nearly 50 years since Madness released their debut album, One Step Beyond..., which was recorded and released in under a month. The band's early gigs were famously rowdy. In Glasgow, they were once barricaded into their dressing room during a brawl: "They'd had a dance and a singalong, then proceeded to do what everybody does when they've had a skinload of beer in them. They started throwing punches. Quite soon, it was pandemonium."
Suggs noted that Madness still attracts multiple generations of families. "We always did appeal to kids and it was kind of annoying at the beginning because we wanted to appeal to cool people, not kids. When Baggy Trousers came out, it was just this phenomenon among school kids." He added: "I think maybe there was a naive joy to those videos. We were genuinely having a laugh."
Friendship as the glue
Married to singer Bette Bright since 1981, Suggs has two grown-up daughters and is a proud grandfather. He even sponsored one of his grandchildren's football team kits with Madness. Reflecting on the band's longevity, he said: "Friendship and love are important. A lot of bands don't actually get on, you know, they split up.... But friendship's been the glue for us. We were friends from school, and the success of Madness was sort of… a by-product of our friendship."
Suggs added: "I hear so many times of stars becoming ostracised, living a life by themselves in their own castle, I've always made sure to temper my success with a certain amount of failure. I'd never want to become a superstar!"
Madness will play Lakeside Festival at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire from 5-9 August.
