As the frontman of pop-ska group Madness, Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson has, for many fans, achieved the status of minor national treasure. Suggs has worked as a TV presenter, actor and radio DJ – but he will always be best known for his procession of catchy, bittersweet hits, such as House Of Fun, Baggy Trousers and My Girl.
Recently Suggs took some time out to chat abouit his early life and to give an insight into the ideas behind his forthcoming one man show, ‘My Life Story’ which appears at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday 16th April.
‘It’s a memoir,’ says Suggs. ‘It’s not stand-up. It’s not An Evening With… I toyed with calling it Mad-Life Crisis. In the end, though, having gone all round the houses, I’ve called it My Life Story which won’t win any prizes for originality but does at least tell you what you can expect, the good bits and the darker moments.’
It turns out there have been plenty of both. Born Graham McPherson in Hastings, he’s the only child of a jazz singer called Edith and a father, William – whose life was increasingly overtaken by drugs.
Mother and son then moved to Liverpool where Edith sang in the clubs, winning the accolade of Melody Maker’s Jazz Newcomer of the Year in the mid-60s. She performed regularly at the Blue Angel where The Beatles and Cilla Black would hang out after sessions at The Cavern.
Moving south to London, Suggs’ life was unstructured, to say the least. Soho was his mother’s stomping ground where she both sang and worked in bars for extra money. They lived in a succession of rented rooms, the young lad trailing around after her when she went drinking in famous watering holes like the Colony and eventually, Edith decided that her son would do better living out of London in Pembrokeshire with her sister, Diana, and her three children. ‘It was nice to have other kids around but I missed Mum. She was doing what she thought was the right thing. She was finding it difficult to find the two of us somewhere stable to live so she thought I’d be better off in Haverfordwest.’
Three years later, Suggs was back in London, living with Edith, and about to go to secondary in Swiss Cottage. It’s where he acquired his nickname. ‘The other kids used to call me Gray or Mac and I wanted something a bit more distinctive. I was looking through a book of my mum’s about jazz musicians.
‘I took a pin and, eyes closed, stuck it into the middle of a page. It went through the name Peter which didn’t seem especially memorable and then I noticed his second name was Suggs which somehow resonated with me. He was the drummer in an obscure jazz band in Kentucky. Graffiti was becoming popular and people had these amazing names – or tags, as they were called. Now I had mine.’
‘Madness have always been about accentuating the positive,’ says Suggs. ‘It’s no accident our songs are still played, still enjoyed 30 years down the line. They’re upbeat, timeless, a clear-eyed celebration of life as it’s lived. And we’re still together, still making music. For me, the band has always been a bit like a surrogate family. We’re all a bit dysfunctional, all a bit stronger for being together.’
The only problem now for Suggs is shoehorning his less-than-conventional first half-century into his new show. ‘When we were rehearsing,’ he says, ‘my keyboard player would stop every so often and say: “Was that bit really true?” And it was, all of it. Amazing, really.’
SUGGS: MY LIFE STORY appears at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells on Wed 16th April at 7.30pm with tickets at £26 plus a £1.25 per ticket booking fee available from the box office on 01892 530613 or online at assmblyhalltheatre.co.uk
