By Steve Conway – 28/01/24 – Filmmaker

Eleven Years On: Revisiting My Interview with Suggs for a Dive into His Iconic Musical Journey and Insights

This was one of the first short videos I made of this type after leaving a full-time job at the time to venture into the world of freelance filmmaking.

While, of course, I was aware of Suggs and the band Madness, especially growing up in North London, I had never known him personally or met him before.

…The likes of Amy Winehouse, Blur, The Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Supergrass, and Coldplay have all played at the venue…

He is a friend of someone close to me. During a conversation one day I mentioned how much I would like to film and interview Suggs if the opportunity ever presented itself. Fast-forward to some time later, and our shared connection phoned me up, saying he had mentioned me and the idea of a short interview with Suggs to him, and he wasn’t opposed to it at all.

We just had to figure out a time and place that suited all.

It was actually Suggs who suggested we do it at the Dublin Castle pub in Camden, which seemed fitting as the pub is steeped in a rich history of musical talent. The likes of Amy Winehouse, Blur, The Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Supergrass, and Coldplay have all played at the venue. Not to mention, it is widely recognised as where Madness themselves first came to everyone’s attention back in the late 70’s and early 80s.

…It was quite funny seeing Suggs on the streets of Camden…

On the day of filming, I knew that our window of time together would be very short. I had no issues with this, and I also appreciated any time he could set aside for this to even happen. It was approaching midday, and I was carrying my equipment up Parkway Road in Camden Town. While doing so, I was taking in my surroundings, as one does while walking about. Suddenly, further along the street, my eyes picked up on a very noticeable figure, even for Camden. It was Suggs, sunglasses and all, obviously heading to the Dublin Castle as well. It was quite funny seeing Suggs on the streets of Camden; it’s almost as if the two go hand-in-hand, as if this is his natural habitat, and encountering him here is to be expected.

Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who had clocked him. Many people walking past did double takes, and suddenly, a shout of “Suggsy!” came from a wound-down window of a van as it sped by. Suggs raised a hand in response.

We both practically arrived at the pub at the same time. “Steve?” his recognisable voice inquired. Do I stupidly ask Suggs if he is Suggs in return in this situation, I thought? Play it safe instead: “Yes, great to meet you. Thanks for taking the time to do this.”

“Just make sure you win an Oscar one day” he said to me in jest through his infectious laugh.

The pub was empty, thankfully. I think they were just getting ready to open and kindly allowed us to do our thing quickly prior.

Needless to say, Suggs has had countless cameras pointed at him and has been in all kinds of film and photography situations over the years, all much bigger in scale than what we were about to do, so I didn’t need to try and explain too much to him and I assumed he was simply waiting on me to get going.

Fortunately I also had some help on the day, being assisted by an old work colleague, which helped speed things up a lot and took some pressure off.

…It was one of those weird situations for a filmmaker…

The clock was ticking, so I knew I had to act fast. There would be no time to try things out, experiment, or anything like that. It was a case of finding the main shot I wanted and then sticking with it. From recollection, the setup we went for in the end turned out to be the very first shot I positioned for. Even with the light I brought along, I literally switched it on, positioned it once, and was happy to go with what it offered.

Never at any point did Suggs seem impatient, bored, or fed up, nor did he give off any negative vibes, which was a tremendous help and helped put everyone at ease. He calmly waited while we did our thing first before needing him. As we quickly tried to set up the shot and camera equipment around him, we spoke among ourselves with general chit-chat. Naturally, the pub itself holds a lot of memories for Suggs, so this became a talking point. It was one of those weird situations for a filmmaker, where you are fascinated to hear the stories and insights someone has to share, but at the same time, internally thinking that we need to save this for the actual interview we are about to film.

As I already mentioned, he has been in this situation too many times to count. When we did eventually start filming, he was totally at ease, natural, easy to chat with and how you see him on camera is essentially what he was like off of it

On one hand, this is great, of course, because while you are behind the camera, it is easy to think a lot of the work in front of it is being done for you, which, in a way, it is in some instances like this one. But you still need to steer it all somewhere, and the person appearing in front of the camera still needs something to go off of, it cant be left up to them to do all of the work once the camera is rolling.

…Surely, if there was anyone who could offer such insights…it was Suggs….

I had some questions written down that I wanted to ask him, but I was also wary about asking him the same questions he had been asked a million times before. On the other hand, I didn’t want to overthink it all and attempt to be too clever or original. I also wanted to leave some room for any sudden moments that might occur and allow the conversation to naturally flow wherever it went. An idea I had a few days before the shoot was to try and find some old photos from the earlier days of the band Madness to bring along. My thinking was that this might help evoke some memories and also give him something to look at while we were setting up, so he wouldn’t get bored. Now, over ten years later, the older me debates whether or not that kind of forced nostalgia on someone was a good idea.

One thing I did want to try and get out of this whole thing was to hopefully gather some insights from him that budding singers and musicians could take away. This seemed like one of the obvious things, to me anyway. Surely, if there was anyone who could offer such insights, particularly for bands chipping away from the bottom up, it was Suggs.

I feel like he ticked all of those boxes with his responses and more.

Our time together and the flow of the conversation eventually reached a natural point where everyone sensed that we had probably done enough.

While he never mentioned that time was an issue for him at any point, I was wary of it myself. When we did conclude things, it turned out that we had spent exactly one hour together.

…Playing gigs on top of Buckingham Palace, performing at Glastonbury, participating in the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games…

Eleven years later, looking back, from a filmmaking perspective, of course there are some things I would do differently now regarding how I shot and edited the video. That is only natural, I suppose. However, I also feel a sense of appreciation for the video as it stands, as it reflects me as a filmmaker at that particular time in my own journey.

Although we have loosely moved around in some of the same social circles at times, I have never met Suggs again since the time this video was shot. Of course, I sent him the final piece when I completed it. He was happy with it and had some complementary things to say.

It was a great little moment and memory to look back on. Where have eleven years gone? It’s just crazy.

In those eleven years, Suggs and the band Madness have obviously continued to move forward, from one notable highlight to the next. Whether that’s playing at Glastonbury, releasing new albums, touring the world, or the Suggs one-man shows on stage and a film about his life as well. Not to mention, in the previous year, 2012, they played a gig on top of Buckingham Palace and participated in the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games.

As for me, the Oscar still eludes me yet.

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