DOCTORS OF MADNESS RE-RELEASED… WITH UK TOUR TO CELEBRATE, and dates in JAPAN
The Doctors of Madness are the great outsiders of rock history. They are the missing link between David Bowie and The Sex Pistols (The Guardian). In the words of Def Leppard’s frontman Joe Elliot, they were “Monstrously brilliant”.
The band had been together for three and a half years and had a loyal, committed following when they decided to call it a day. They were finally floored by the killer punch of punk rock, which, like a raw, swaggering, bare-knuckle fighter, saw off many established bands in the period between 1976 and 1978. The fact that the Doctors of Madness were one of the few British bands who could credibly have claimed to have been ‘proto-punk’, with their frantic delivery, their preoccupation with urban neurosis and systems of control, their appetite for fast drugs and their exotic stage names, was not enough to earn them a reprieve. Nor was the fact that their fans included The Damned, The Skids, The Adverts, Simple Minds, Julian Cope and Spiritualized. Even the fact that they gave The Sex Pistols their first out-of-London gig didn’t save them from the punk juggernaut, which flattened everything in its path.
Pop loves novelty. It is the blood on which the pop-vampire feeds. The Doctors just weren’t new enough and they had to die.
Richard ‘Kid’ Strange, Stoner and Peter di Lemma played their final concert at the Music Machine, in London’s Camden Town, on 26th October 1978, by which time Urban Blitz, their violin player, had already left the band.
But now…they are back! Nearly 40 years after their farewell gig, Richard “Kid” Strange, Urban Blitz and Japanese goth/glam/death metal duo Sister Paul (Susumu Bass and Mackii Drums) are touring again. To celebrate the 3 CD Boxed Set “PERFECT PAST- THE COMPLETE DOCTORS OF MADNESS” by CHERRY RED RECORDS in May 2017, the Doctors of Madness toured the UK to massive critical acclaim, with shows in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Brighton, Leicester and many other towns.
The band tour Japan in September 2017 with dates confirmed for:
Friday, 1st Tokyo Shinjuku JAM
Sunday, 3rd Sapporo Susukino 810
Tuesday, 5th Kyoto Saiin Ooh La La
Wednesday, 6th Kyoto Saiin Ooh La La
Thursday, 7th Osaka Shinsaibashi Hokage
Saturday, 9th Nagoya Tsurumai Bar Ripple
Sunday, 10th Hamamatsu Kircher
Monday, 11th Tokyo Shibuya Last Waltz
and plan to tour the UK and Europe in March 2018
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Reviews of the gigs and the CD set can be found here, as well as Richard doing some radio interviews with
Jools Holland, Robert Elms and others.
LINKS
Richard Strange on Jools Holland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pvvll
Richard Strange on Robert Elms
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051ngl3
Richard Strange on Soho Radio
https://www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/the-sunday-sync-21052017/
Richard Strange on Resonance FM
https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/bad-punk-5th-may-2017/
Gonzo weekly Interview
https://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo-233.html
The Guardian feature
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/19/doctors-of-madness-punk
Goldmine review
All About The Rock
http://allabouttherock.co.uk/doctors-madness-perfect-past-complete-doctors-madness/
Soundblab – Review:
https://soundblab.com/reviews/albums/17870-doctors-of-madness-perfect-past#.WRBeV_3rlh8.facebook
Louder Than War – Review:
http://louderthanwar.com/doctors-of-madness-perfect-past-album-review/
Eyeplug.net – Review:
http://www.eyeplug.net/magazine/perfect-past-the-complete-doctors-of-madness/
It’s Psych Baby – Interview
http://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2017/04/doctors-of-madness-interview-with.html
The Afterword – Review
http://theafterword.co.uk/the-doctors-of-madness-past-perfect-3-cds-complete/
Discussions Magazine – Interview
http://www.discussionsmagazine.com/2017/04/doctors-of-madness-exclusive-q-with.html
Discogs
https://www.discogs.com/Doctors-Of-Madness-Late-Night-Movies-All-Night-Brainstorms/master/187935
Gonzo Weekly Lexington gig review
https://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo-236.html
Perfect Sounds forever Interview
http://www.furious.com/perfect/doctorsofmadness.html
Morning Star Lexington gig review
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7afb-Crap-posters,-old-school-punks-and-GNCTU#.WTlchxPytHQ
In his autobiography, ‘Strange- Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks‘ Richard ‘Kid’ Strange describes The Doctors of Madness recording their first album, Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms.He writes: ‘With the early technical problems overcome, we set about our task of recording a great first album with a genuine relish and a manic intensity. I wanted to make an album that would contain, reflect and mutate everything I had ever felt, ever experienced, in my 24 years. I wanted it to reflect every joy, every disappointment, every grudge, and every resentment. I wanted it to be full of bitterness, desolation, alienation, bile and fury. Such tenderness as there was would be tempered with cynicism and distance. Such romance as there was would be doomed to painful breakdown. I wanted the record to be dark, cinematic and colossal. My subject matter was urban decay, neurosis and corruption. I had the anarchist’s loathing for all systems of control. Lyrically my roots were in the singer/songwriter tradition of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel and David Bowie, but my songs were seasoned with a sour edge and a rotten middle, courtesy of William Burroughs. Musically I loved the energy, directness and gonzo avant-gardism of the Velvet Underground at their most uncompromising. Walls of white noise and feedback laid over speed-fuelled, dumb-ass rhythm. The harmonic equivalent of bare-knuckle fighting. Sonic porn. We set ourselves into a circle in the studio, turned down the lights and attempted to blow each other off the face of the earth.‘
June 2003.
Richard Strange has just completed a hugely successful tour of Japan. Billed as The Doctors of Madness Live in Japan, Strange was accompanied by his longtime collaborator and soul-brother, David Coulter, and the Japanese three-piece band Sister Paul. The hour and a quarter long programme featured songs from all of the Doctors of Madness albums, and there are now plans to release a live album of the concerts.