G’day
I am a Madness fan from way way back – I was born in Nuneaton, but have lived in Melbourne Australia for most of my life – but I did spend 6 years or so living in Nuneaton from the age of 8 to 14 and got to see you play in Coventry or Birmingham in 1980/1981 and I’ve been to every gig in Melbourne since 1982. My favourite was 84 at Monash University hall when I was 16. Now, my 11 year old son is also a massive fan and incidentally he wrote you a question and was blown away when he got a reply – so thanks heaps for that! Anyway I digress, 2 days ago I saw an ad for the line up for the 2013 Byron Blues festival and you were listed as the international act – I can’t tell you how excited I was and my son. I contacted every email address listed on your site to find out a) if you were doing a side gig in Melbourne and b) would it be a venue that permitted under 18s. I received a rather curt email response from ‘the office of David Levy’ – quote ” Dear Rebekah, They are not playing Byron Blues Festival and this is a mistake made by event organisers and will be removed shortly. MADNESS are currently playing no shows in Australia in 2013″.
My son was heartbroken…any chance of any Australian tour in the next couple of years???, I guess I need to keep saving to to take us both to UK to see you???? But- thanks for the new album its amazing as ever
Rebekah Taylor

Dear Rebekah
I am sorry but in a nutshell we never agreed to this gig and the promoters went ahead and said we were playing it.
CB