A while ago we missed the 60th birthday of Suggs, famed as the lead singer of Madness. He was born as Graham McPherson in Hastings, Sussex but to prevent isolation growing up when his Scottish ancestry became known, being a jazz fan he chose the name of a jazz flautist to be known by. He spent three years of his childhood in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales and as his father had left and his mother was a singer, also lived for a while in Liverpool, before settling in St John’s Wood, Marylebone, Westminster, attending Quintin Kynaston School, now known as Harris Academy. On leaving school worked as a butcher and painter and decorator, but music was his passion and he formed the North London Invaders but became famous as lead singer of ska group Madness, coming to prominence in the late 70s, but they had many hits through the 80s to 90s – Baggy Trousers, House of Fun, Our House, It Must Be Love, Driving in my Car, One Step Beyond, Mr Apples; also still with Madness had solo hits 1995-8 including Camden Town, homage to a favourite area of London where he lived – but he also became a celebrity. He has been in films The Edge of Love 2008, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 1999, The Tall Guy 1989 and TV series such as Benidorm 2017 & Press Gang 1990 as well as contributing musically to The Avengers 1998, 10 Things I Hate About You 1999 & Mean Machine 2001. Madness spent more weeks in the chart than any other band in the 80s; at the band’s first Madstock concert 1992 an earth tremor of over 4 on the Richter scale was recorded as fans danced to One Step Beyond. He is now an afternoon DJ on Virgin, supports Chelsea FC & recorded Blue Day for the team for its successful FA Cup run 1997. He won Presenter of the Year Royal Television Society award for a Disappearing London series for ITV 2005-7, which won three other awards; in 2006 he presented for BBC London a weekly series called Inside Out with stories from the capital; in 2017-18 he presented two series of WW2 Treasure Hunters for the History Channel; he is a patron of Children in Need & Cancer Research UK & a member of the Useless Information Society. Married with two daughters, they lives in Holloway, North London and also have a holiday home in the Italian countryside, and he owns a club Quo Vadis in Soho, London. We believe him more than worthy of a match in his honour and hope you accept – if the numbers or ratings do not suit, then please make contact.
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