SUGGS is used to jumping around the stage on his regular visits to Dorset but the legend has told Later why he will be leaving his Madness band mates behind and taking time to reflect on life during his performance in Poole this week.
The singer has come to that age where the kids have move out and he wants to take stock, having a recap and taking time to remember the amazing events that have gone on while remaining in the limelight for more than 30 years.
Madness may have come to prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s but you only have to see the children dancing alongside their mums and dads on the dancefloor at any wedding to see how their music has bridged the generation gap.
And the story of Suggs’s own father’s life is one that he has been thinking about ahead of his My Life Story performance of songs and anecdotes at Lighthouse, Poole, on Friday.
His dad William, who worked for a photographic developers, was a heroin user whose problems led to a split with his mum Edith, a jazz singer.
His dad walked out when he was young and Suggs only found out he was dead after seeing it on his own Wikipedia page.
The 52-year-old carried out more research to find out his father died in 1975 aged 40 from his drug-related problems.
Suggs also found out his dad was also once sectioned under the mental health act after injecting himself with heroin.
And these revelations prompted him recently to ask his mother about his father.
He said: “She told me he was a very nice man.
“‘Just like you,’ she said.
“That was the most shocking thing she could have said in many ways.
“I’d had him down in my mind as some sort of wayward old wastrel who’d just pushed off.
“The fact that he was really nice upset me.
“But then heroin is an unforgiving mistress.’ Suggs was born Graham McPherson in Hastings and when his parents broke up he lived with his mum in Liverpool, where she performed at clubs close to where The Beatles were performing at The Cavern at that time.
They moved to London where her singing career continued alongside bar work.
Suggs was sent to live with his aunty to be more settled but he missed his mum and moved back to the capital three years later.
So, given his colourful upbringing it is perhaps not too surprising that Suggs married young.
By 21, he had a wife, a baby daughter and a mews house in Camden bought with the money he’d made from Madness’s regular appearances in the Top 10.
“To some extent, I think it’s true to say that I deliberately created Fortress Suggs to give my life a bit of structure,” he said.
“Having said that, I’d fallen in love with Anne. I wanted to be married to her.”
His wife is a professional singer too.
She works under the name Bette Bright and the two are still together three decades later.
They have two daughters – Scarlett, 29 and Viva, 25 – who now sing as a duo under their own names.
“My mother, my wife, my daughters – I’m surrounded by women who sing,’ said Suggs.
He is a far from from hanging up his own microphone with Madness’s popularity showing no signs of fading They played on top of Buckingham Palace at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert and the Olympics closing ceremony last year.
They continue to be called upon to appear at memorable moments, recently playing to mark the closure of BBC Television Centre in London.
“2012 was an extraordinary year for us,” Suggs adds.
“You wouldn’t have anticipated the Queen was going to invite us on her roof to play or that we were going to play at the Olympic closing ceremony.
“Like any human beings we were insecure but we realise now we’re pretty good.
Suggs brought his My Life Story show to the Electric Palace in Bridport last year and his shows have been well received due to his natural ability to carry a show on his own with his jokes and stories, as well as some music.
Madness rose to fame after forming amid the late 1970s ska and two-tone scene.
The London band topped the chart in the 1980s with Baggy Trousers, It Must Be Love, House of Fun, Driving In My Car and Our House.
They went into a hiatus after hitting boiling point but managed to get together again and have been in another long purple patch with new albums and annual tours.
They have now released their tenth album Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da and are planning a series of gigs in the UK this summer.
They headlined Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle in 2010.
They always go down a storm when they play at the BIC and they were on top form for their show there last December.
So expect some great stories from his music, television and radio career and he may be over 50 now but don’t be surprised if he is still buzzing with energy.
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