51 Facts About Suggs

Suggs began his solo career in 1995, while still a member of Madness.

Suggs has been an actor, with roles in films, theatre and television.

Suggs is married and is the father of two children.

The couple had married in the Paddington area of London in 1960 and Suggs was raised in Hastings by his mother.

Suggs's father had left by the time Suggs was three.

Suggs then went to the Quintin Kynaston comprehensive school at St John's Wood.

Suggs got his nickname from randomly sticking a pin in an encyclopaedia of jazz musicians while he was still in school, to avoid being labelled as the member of an ethnic minority owing to his Scottish surname.

Suggs has said that he felt "a bit lost" after the band split up, and he saw a psychotherapist on four occasions.

In 1997, Suggs recorded the song "Blue Day" for Chelsea FC with Chelsea players.

In 1998, Suggs released his second solo album, The Three Pyramids Club, on Warner Music, which was produced by Steve Lironi.

In 2008, Suggs contributed vocals to a cover of Al Bowlly's "Hang Out the Stars in Indiana" for the soundtrack for The Edge of Love composed by Angelo Badalamenti.

Suggs worked with Morrissey between 1989 and 1990, singing backing vocals on the tracks "Piccadilly Palare" and "Sing Your Life".

Suggs produced their first single "Hearts and Minds" in 1984.

Suggs has collaborated with Jools Holland twice on his Small World Big Band albums, firstly in 2001 with the song "Oranges and Lemons Again" and then with "Jack O the Green" in 2003.

Suggs played with Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra in 2003 for a television special where they performed two songs with veteran ska singer Prince Buster.

Also in 2005, Suggs collaborated with electronic group Audio Bullys on the track "This Road" from their top 40 album Generation.

In 2006, Suggs performed the Madness song "My Girl" with the Ordinary Boys at the Brixton Academy which was released as a B-side on their UK hit single "Nine2five".

Suggs has acted in films such as The Tall Guy and Don't Go Breaking My Heart.

Suggs starred in the Channel 4 drama The Final Frame, in which he played a pop star named East.

Suggs played a pop star in the Press Gang episode "Friends Like These" in 1990.

Suggs appeared in the 2008 romantic drama The Edge of Love starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller, playing the part of "the crooner" and singing Bowlly's hit "Hang Out the Stars in Indiana".

In late 2011, Suggs began a nationwide UK tour of a new one man stage show entitled "LIVESUGGS".

In 2003, Suggs appeared as Joe's dad in the stage musical Our House, featuring the songs of Madness, for a limited run in London's West End.

In November 2012, Suggs reprised his role of Joe's dad in the 10th Anniversary Concert of the musical Our House in aid of Help for Heroes.

Suggs was a principal and original DJ on BBC Radio 6 Music when it launched in March 2002.

Suggs worked with Bob Monkhouse on the BBC Radio 4 musical sitcom I Think I've Got a Problem, starring comedian Phil Cornwell and written by Andrew McGibbon.

Suggs became a DJ on Virgin Radio with the show Virgin Party Classics, and was nominated for a Radio Academy Award in 2005.

The channel was hosted by Suggs, but was short-lived, pulled just four months after it launched.

Suggs regularly featured on Virgin Radio competitions where listeners could win the chance to meet him and have a drink with him.

On one such occasion, well-known children's book writer Simon I Boy chatted about pop records that Suggs was pleased he had no connection with, particularly a 1974 Decca recording entitled Name It You Got It by Micky Moonshine.

Suggs appeared twice with Madness on the British TV comedy show The Young Ones, first on the episode titled "Boring" in which the band performed "House of Fun".

Suggs has hosted a celebrity karaoke game show on the UK's Channel 5, titled Night Fever.

Suggs was a team captain in the BBC music trivia game show A Question of Pop, hosted by Jamie Theakston, opposite Noddy Holder.

Suggs has appeared as a guest on the BBC Two show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Suggs has co-presented two series of sixty-minute programmes called Salvage Squad, one restoring a Model T Ford, and one restoring a Ruston-Bucyrus 10RB in which a group of engineers restored rare old machinery.

The series won three Royal Television Society awards with Suggs winning the award for "Presenter of the Year".

In 2005 he filmed a similar one-off programme for the BBC entitled A Picture of London by Suggs, which featured the newly penned song "Cracks in the Pavement".

Suggs has twice been a guest presenter on the BBC's long-running chart show Top of the Pops, once in 1995 and again in 2005.

In 2006, Suggs was the main presenter of the BBC London series Inside Out, a weekly programme for Londoners looking at surprising stories in the capital.

In 2007, Suggs starred in a series of Birds Eye commercials which feature the Madness song "Our House".

In 2009, Suggs performed with Zoe Ball in Let's Dance For Comic Relief dancing to "You Can Never Tell" from Pulp Fiction but was eliminated.

In 2015, Suggs appeared as a panelist on QI, in series L episode 15.

In 2017 and 2018, Suggs presented two series of the archaeology programme WW2 Treasure Hunters alongside detectorist Stephen Taylor on the TV channel HISTORY.

Suggs is a patron of the charity Children in Need, and has frequently appeared on the annual television fundraiser, performing various Madness tracks with other celebrities.

Suggs is a member of the Useless Information Society, a society of journalists, writers and entertainers which focuses on esoteric information and has released books such as The Book of Useless Information.

In October 2013 Suggs released his autobiography, Suggs: That Close.

In 2012, Suggs learnt of his father's 1975 death through reading his own Wikipedia entry.

Suggs referenced his Wikipedia entry and stated that some published information relating to his early life was untrue, adding that he would get bored in interviews and make things up.

Suggs confirmed that although he was born in Hastings, the family moved around and he spent much of his early life in Wales.

Suggs stated that his father left when Suggs was three, not before he was born.

Suggs is married to singer Bette Bright, who is the vocalist of the 1970s British band Deaf School.