I'm proud to be part of this! Can you help? - Help Madness fans beat Pancreatic Cancer

On Saturday 4th November, my band, The False Dots performed at the  Madchat Autumn get together at The Dublin Castle. Madchat is the online Madness community. To me, Madness are the quintessential North London band. They have gone from being scalliwags, to being national treasures, even performing their hit "Our House" on top of Buckingham Palace as part of the Queen's jubilee celebrations. Every year, Madchat select a charity to support for the year and hold fundraising events. This years charity is Pancreatic Cancer UK. This is a cause very close to my heart. In August 2000, my business partner, Ernie Ferebee was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. He was told he had 3-6 months to live and there was no cure. He had three children under 7. Ernie managed 8 months, seeing his kids through Xmas. For me, that has always been personal. When Madchat announced the charity, I knew we had to be involved. 

I thought of ways to try and help raise funds. I paid for 50 CD's to be pressed up, featuring my band performing one of our numbers, Saturday, with a guest performance by Lee Thompson of Madness on sax. These highly limited edition CD's were on sale at the event. This was a one off. I also pressed up 15 copies for promotion of the event. One was returned and I auctioned this, raising another £50, meaning all in, we raised £300 with our efforts. It was the least I could do and hopefully, it will make a small difference in the fight.

Anyway, I just checked the TOTAL  on the Madchat Just giving page and it's at £5,855, just £145 short of £6,000! I really would love to see the total reach the magical £6,000 for the year before the page closes and Madchat choose a new charity. It's personal for me, so I have a special deal to offer you. If you make a £10 donation to the charity, I will put you on the Guest List for The False Dots gig at The Dublin Castle at the Dublin Castle on Saturday 23rd December (details here) and you will get a very special, limited edition False Dots badge as a souviner. How does that sound. If you gift aid it, then you will give £12 for your £10. If you've already got a ticket, don't worry, donate £2 and we'll give you the badge! And if you don't like the False Dots but want to make a donation to beat Pancreatic cancer, just put a donation in!

The False Dots at The Dublin Castle

To gift aid, the link is here - www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mad-chat-group-c4, please put "MADCHAT FALSE DOTS GUEST" for a pass or "MADCHAT FALSE DOTS BADGE" in the message along with whatever else you might want to say. If just 12 people who read this blog come as guests,  then Madchat will hit the £6,000 and I'm sure Ernie will be looking down from his cloud in the sky feeling proud of us all. I will go through the pledges before the gig and add them to the list. If you can't go, please add a donation anyway. Sadly, unlike many cancers, Pancreatic cancer survival rates have not improved since Ernie passed away. A night at The Dublin Castle is always a great night, especially on the Saturday before Christmas. The pub is the spiritual home of Madness and Madchat have their name on the wall, having helped the venue survive the Lockdown!

I am so proud to be associated with Madness and Madchat. Lee Thompson of Madness has been a big supporter of many of my efforts to raise money for cancer charities over the years. In 2008, Lee even put a band together with guitar legend Chris Spedding specially to raise money for MacMillan at a gig we'd organised at The Bull in Barnet. It was the last gig our former bassplayer, Paul Hircombe played with us before he died of cancer.  This week Madness got their first UK No 1 Album, long overdue. I am made up for Lee and the rest of the crew. Long overdue, as are Knighthoods and Brit Awards.

Here is a video we made of the track Lee performed with us.

If you are a Madness fan and are not a member of Madchat, click here to join - it's the best way to follow the band!