Suggs the smart Geezer !

I first came across Suggs as a young lad, along with The Specials, Dexys etc. Madness were part of a great smattering of cool bands from that era.

Most of the bands shone very brightly for a year or 2, but Madness have hung around. They are in the UK, part of our culture now, playing both the Olympics ceremonies and Royal celebrations and their tunes light up any day. If you dj and have a room full of all ages, madness will get the 7 year old and the 70 year old moving.

mod shoes madness young suggs in doc martins

Now not for a minute am i suggesting that Madness or even Suggs are Mods, but there is an obvious line back to SKA. Suggs has often said about his love of SKA in many interviews, but he has also recently mentioned that he had leanings to the MOD thing. In his biography he mentions going to see The Who at the Charlton Football Ground, which i believe did future members of The Chords.

In the book he mentions buying a riding an LI150. Chas smash also had one. He talks about cutting his hair short whilst everyone else was long. To me sounds like a
young Weller !

mod shoes suggs autobiography — Suggs has a biography out, it is a good read and as entertaining as a Madness song.

mod shoes suggs on a vespa scooter — Not the Li150 he had when he was younger.

Anyways back to the story, when i was younger Suggs looked friendly and came over well on the telly. The songs they developed became classics and his dress sense changed but he always looked dapper. Even mid 80s period he dressed like he had thought about it.

So why this blog?
Well many of us Mod types cite people like Marriot, Weller etc, as an influence, Suggs was one of mine.

Looking back now you can see a IVY skin look rather than the OI! look that many skins had. He wears a lot of amercan influenced clothes, which to my young eyes, just looked cool. For every pic of him in his cherry reds, you can also see him in mixture of Tassel Loafers & Brogues.

On the front cover of One Step Beyond, brown full wing tip brogues. 3 of the rest of the band in Tassel Loafers. I think this is why i wanted a pair of both at 11 years of age. I had to wait at least a year for a pair.

The suits at the time weren’t classic 3 button affairs, but they looked right, Suggs very often wore a 1 button jacket, which i always thought looked great on him. The Chequered jacket in Embarrassment is just brilliant and no one could pull it off like him.

I must admit his look went very 80s as the decade progressed but i dont remember any long hair or dodgy leather jackets.

The next i heard of him, he was managing Liverpool band The Farm. Pics i saw of this time was very IVY inspired Harringtons and Jeans with turn ups. Once Madness started getting back together properly then smart suits were the order of the day. Notice in the pics Suggs has his trousers or jeans tailored right.

He has had a variety of shoes in these recent times, but he seems to favour Loake Brighton Tassel Loafers and Two Tone Brogues. At Glastonbury he wore some very dapper brogues, and that is pure madness ! how did he keep them clean !

Anyways hope you liked this little blog.

The final picture is a great one, look at those colours, god he looks good. Get the biography it is great and if you get chance try and catch his show about his life it is very entertaining.