Dial M for... Suggs 

Taken From The Mirror Mag 3/5/03

Apart from bringing us all those 80's hits, Madness front man Suggs was the nutty host of Night Fever on C5 for five years.  Now he's joined the cast of Our House, the award-winning West End musical based on Madness' smash-hit songs.  We gave the big man a buzz on his mobile.

US: What time did you get up?

SUGGS: 8.30, a bit of a struggle.  Being in a the musical means I don't get out of the theatre 'til after 11, you have a bit to eat and your lifestyle starts swinging round into later nights and getting up later.  I sleep well, I can sleep for days.  Luckily I'm one of those people who can snooze.  Healthy, in terms of heart attacks.  I've got all the other things wrong though.

US: Who was the first person you talked to?

SUGGS: My wife Anne.  We met - oh- it must have been 24 years ago.  She was in a band called Def School, which I'd seen a few times.  Then she came to see me play in my band, and someone fixed us up.  Not a blind date, but I made up the numbers, and we went to see a film.  So it all happened in the back row of the cinema.  A natural thing.

US: Where are you right now?

SUGGS: In a taxi in North London on my way home.  Our house?  We've lived in the same one for 20 years.  I like that, the people in our street have seen me go up and down and are not bothered any more.  It's a Victorian terraced house, three up, two down.  It's pretty much white throughout, and modern, with a few old messy bits and bobs.  Like me.

US: When were you last drunk?

SUGGS: Last night, after the show, I was sort of celebrating my second night.  Not enormously drunk, just sort of piddling, tiddly.  On Stella Artois.  If I'm in a wine bar I drink wine, if I'm in an Irish pub I drink Guinness.  Whatever's flowing most freely.  Hangover cure? None, apart from having another drink, which is a bad, slippery, rock path.

US: When was the last time you really had a good snog?

SUGGS: The day before yesterday.  Anne is lovely, forthright and beautiful, with a very strong personality - she ha shad to deal with me.  And the wacky world of show business can lead you in all sorts of strange directions, so she means pretty much everything to me.  In the words of an old blues singer, love has kept us together.  With no end in sight.

US: When did you last cry?

SUGGS: Watching my own musical two weeks ago.  I wasn't in it then, I hasten to add.  It's a very moving show and it just got to me.  It's usually people's fortitude in the face of adversity that gets me.  Simple things.  Getting a tear, I don't think, is a bad thing.  But real full-on, red faced blubbing in public is embarrassing in a man.

US: What are you going to do when you hang up?

SUGGS: Have a bacon sandwich or lie down for an hour.  I'll see how the mood takes me.  The musical has been a joy, the whole process, and me being in it has come as a real left-field thing.  You're sailing along in life and then things start in a completely new direction.  It's a funny renaissance, you know.  I'm really enjoying it.

Interview by Nina Myskow.

Our House is at the Cambridge Theatre, London. For box office and bookings call 0870-890 1102 or book through Ticketmaster on 0870-060 2317