Dodgy
Encyclopedia
Dodgy are an English
power pop
rock
trio
, that rose to prominence during the Britpop
era of the 1990s, who are best known for their hits
"Staying Out for the Summer", "If You're Thinking of Me", and "Good Enough". The last was their biggest hit
reaching #4 in the UK Singles Chart
.
, who had moved to London and was composed of Nigel Clark
on bass, Mathew Priest
on drums and David Griffiths on guitar. Shortly after their arrival in London in 1988, Frederic Colier
joined the band as the bass guitarist, with Clark providing vocals. The new formation first settled in Battersea
, using their living quarters as a rehearsal space. The quartet then relocated in a detached house in Hounslow
, where they turned the garage into a recording studio
. The band played extensively around the London music circuit. It was during that time that the band met their future manager, Andy Winter
.
Dissension led to the dismissal of Griffiths, with Clark stepping in as the guitarist. The trio performed several concerts around London before agreeing that a lead guitarist was needed. After placing an ad in the magazine
Loot, the band invited Ben Lurie
, a guitarist from Australia, to join them, only to see him leave them less than a week later to join The Jesus and Mary Chain
. Shortly after, Andy Miller
, joined the band. Armed with a new sound, the band decided to change its name. It is during this time of transition and intense songwriting that Colier left the outfit. Clark took back the bass
, and with Miller on guitar
and Mathew Priest
on the drum
s, they became Dodgy.
The band
's debut album
was produced
by The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie
. During the 1990s the band gained significant popularity for their live performances. The band concerned themselves with social issues by supporting The Serious Road Trip, War Child
, the Liverpool Dockers' Strike
, Charter 88
and youth democracy campaigns. The band became the second UK act, after China Drum
, to play in Sarajevo
after the lifting of the siege, giving a concert at Kuk club in August 1996. They returned to Bosnia in 1997, to film a programme with Kate Thornton
in Mostar
.
While Clark was absent from 1998 to 2007 to pursue ongoing solo
projects, Priest and Miller continued the band as a five piece joined by the vocalist David Bassey; keyboardist
Chris Hallam, and bassist Nick Abnett. This line up of the group would record one album, Real Estate, released in 2001, which was produced and mixed with Robin Evans at T-Pot Studios in Scotland
. On their "Dingwalls
to Dingwall
" tour in 2000, the group visited the Hebridean island of Taransay
, to entertain the castaways
being filmed for a BBC reality television
programme
.
The “lost’ ten years did nothing to dampen the original member’s desire to act upon the ideals that fans of the band connected to so strongly in the first place. Nigel released a critically acclaimed solo album and has spent a lot of time, and still does, working with troubled, “difficult” kids which the mainstream schooling system has almost given up on – bringing them into his studio, writing songs with them, finding out what they’re good at and trying to make them feel that they are not ‘worthless’.
Andy Miller didn’t stop playing guitar, the thing he’s rather good at. He was asked by Bernard Butler to join his band and performed with him on Later with Jools Holland. He formed MASS and later Hey Gravity, who were asked to record one of John Peel’s last sessions before he died. Both bands found a great deal of success in Europe, France especially where they supported the Libertines, Muse and Tricky, and now currently also working with The Heavenly Spheres.
Besides managing bands such as Misty’s Big Adventure and Panama Kings, Mathew carried on playing drums for friends and various bands he liked – Ian Mcnabb and the Icicle Works, The Lightning Seeds (where his first gig was headlining the very emotional Hillsborough Justice gig at Anfield), The Yellow Moon Band (comprising Jo and Danny, who created the amazing Green Man festival) and the Electric Soft Parade, who’s grueling 6 week tour of the States in 2008 prompted him to say “never again, not unless it’s in luxury” and inspired his sideline into radio production, gaining a masters degree in 2010. He now produces documentaries for the BBC called The People’s Songbook.
The original line up of the band, Clark, Miller, and Priest, returned with a live album
, So Far On 3 Wheels - Dodgy On The Radio, in October 2007. In the summer of 2007, the band announced a reunion tour, featuring the entire original line up. These plans were abandoned however, when Miller fell out of bed, chipping a bone in his arm in the process. The rescheduled tour took place in March 2008.
The band played two sets at Guilfest
music festival in Guildford, Surrey in July 2008. The first set was an acoustic set in the Unison tent where they appeared in support of the organisation. They later played a set with full band on the main stage. They headlined the Sunday night at Scarborough's Beached Festival
in August 2008, and appeared at the ToneFest in September.
In November 2008, the first tracks from new recording sessions appeared online. They played a benefit show in May 2009, as part of the homelessness charity Crisis
' 'Hidden Gigs' campaign, alongside The Bluetones
.
In 2009, Dodgy played at the Glastonbury Festival
, as well as appearances at Bug Jam 2009, Whatfest and Cornbury. It was anticipated that Dodgy's first album in over ten years would be released in 2010. However, a 2011 release date now seems more probable.
On 29 August 2010, Dodgy played at the The Galtres Festival in North Yorkshire, playing Dodgy tracks such as "In a Room" and "Staying out for the Summer", as well as a version of Nigel Clark's solo track, "21st Century Man".
On 23 April 2011, Dodgy played as the headliners at the Mash Fest Festival in Trowbridge and on 28 May 2011, Dodgy headlined at the LeeStock Music Festival
in Sudbury
, Suffolk
, helping to raise money for the Willow Foundation
. Mathew Priest
said in an interview with the BBC that they would be playing a mixture of new songs and old favourites and talking of their new material said "If we can just get people to listen to it, they're going to love it". on 25th August 2011, Dody also Headlined at the Garlic
Festival, in the Isle of Wight
.
The new album of brand new songs by Dodgy has been a long time coming but 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' is well worth the wait. Deeper and more mature but with bigger choruses and stronger melodies, recorded over the summer of 2011 in an old farmhouse in Malvern and mixed by Matt Pence in Texas, the original members Nigel Clark, Andy Miller and Mathew Priest, have recorded their best work to date.
Nigel, Mathew and Andy were brought back together four years ago at a funeral, in similar circumstances to those that recently brought The Stone Roses back together; in Dodgy's case it was the sad loss of their friend and long standing lighting director, Andy Moore.
Once the decision had been made to regroup and the band completed a successful reunion tour, culminating in a sold out show at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, Dodgy found the creative chemistry was as strong as ever and set about writing and recording new songs. Sessions began in an old wooden workshop in Nigel's back garden in Malvern. The studio didn't need to be soundproofed as there were no neighbours, so as a result the album has infused an interesting variety of additional sounds - doors creaking, birds singing, dogs barking, you might possibly pick out the sound of a tractor on one song. The location has certainly influenced the process and final song choice. Two of the central tracks on the album Tripped and Fell and Raggedstone Hill take inspiration from an 800 year old myth from Malvern about a local monk who fell in love with a local lass and was forced to climb Raggedstone Hill, on his hands and knees, as a penance for falling foul of the bountiful evils of the flesh.
To mix the album the band decamped to Texas. Some of Dodgy's favourite recent music has been released by the Bella Union label and after letting MD Simon Raymonde hear some of the early song recordings, he recommended that they hook up with Matt Pence, who has recently mixed albums by John Grant and Midlake. The band are unanimous in their opinion that Matt's insight and work on the tracks has brought out an inner majesty in the songs that even exceeded the band's expectations.
Such is the confidence in their new output, that Dodgy have already successfully completed a UK tour previewing ‘Stand Upright In A Cool Place' in it's entirety, where songs such as 'What Became Of You', 'Only A Heartbeat' and 'Tripped And Fell' have quickly established themselves as firm favourites in the Dodgy repertoire.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
power pop
Power pop
Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
, that rose to prominence during the Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
era of the 1990s, who are best known for their hits
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
"Staying Out for the Summer", "If You're Thinking of Me", and "Good Enough". The last was their biggest hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
reaching #4 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
.
History
Dodgy were born from the ashes of Purple, a trio from RedditchRedditch
Redditch is a town and local government district in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district had a population of 79,216 in 2005. In the 19th century it became the international centre for the needle and fishing tackle industry...
, who had moved to London and was composed of Nigel Clark
Nigel Clark
Nigel Clark emerged on the British music scene as the lead singer and bassist of the pop band, Dodgy...
on bass, Mathew Priest
Mathew Priest
Mathew Priest is an English drummer with the band Dodgy. He has also played with The Lightning Seeds, The Electric Soft Parade, The Yellow Moon Band and Ian McNabb in The Icicle Works....
on drums and David Griffiths on guitar. Shortly after their arrival in London in 1988, Frederic Colier
Frederic Colier
Frederic Colier is a filmmaker, playwright, novelist and musician.- Biography :Born in Audresselles, France, Frederic Colier currently lives in New York City. Until 1990, he was the bass guitarist of the London-based pop rock band "Purple" which later charted success under the name of Dodgy...
joined the band as the bass guitarist, with Clark providing vocals. The new formation first settled in Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
, using their living quarters as a rehearsal space. The quartet then relocated in a detached house in Hounslow
Hounslow
Hounslow is the principal town in the London Borough of Hounslow. It is a suburban development situated 10.6 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It forms a post town in the TW postcode area.-Etymology:...
, where they turned the garage into a recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. The band played extensively around the London music circuit. It was during that time that the band met their future manager, Andy Winter
Andy Winter
Andy Winter is a British comics writer. He is best known for creating Hero Killers, with Declan Shalvey, which won the Eagle Award for "Favourite British Black and White Comicbook".He largely publishes his work through his own Moonface Press....
.
Dissension led to the dismissal of Griffiths, with Clark stepping in as the guitarist. The trio performed several concerts around London before agreeing that a lead guitarist was needed. After placing an ad in the magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Loot, the band invited Ben Lurie
Ben Lurie
Ben Lurie is an Australian musician, best known as a member of the Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain from 1989 to 1998.-Biography:...
, a guitarist from Australia, to join them, only to see him leave them less than a week later to join The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...
. Shortly after, Andy Miller
Andy Miller (musician)
Andy Miller is the guitarist for the band, Dodgy. In 1996, he had a relationship with Denise Van Outen.- References :...
, joined the band. Armed with a new sound, the band decided to change its name. It is during this time of transition and intense songwriting that Colier left the outfit. Clark took back the bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, and with Miller on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and Mathew Priest
Mathew Priest
Mathew Priest is an English drummer with the band Dodgy. He has also played with The Lightning Seeds, The Electric Soft Parade, The Yellow Moon Band and Ian McNabb in The Icicle Works....
on the drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, they became Dodgy.
The band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
's debut album
The Dodgy Album
The Dodgy Album is the debut 1993 album by the British indie group Dodgy."Water Under the Bridge", the first single released from this album, saw the beginning of "the way of dodgy", a step-by-step enlightened 'dodgy' philosophy that would appear on the record sleeves for each of their future...
was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie
Ian Broudie
Ian Broudie is a British singer-songwriter, musician and record producer from Liverpool, England. After emerging from the post punk scene in Liverpool in the late 1970s as a member of Big in Japan, Broudie went on to form the short-lived groups Original Mirrors and Care in the early 1980s as well...
. During the 1990s the band gained significant popularity for their live performances. The band concerned themselves with social issues by supporting The Serious Road Trip, War Child
War Child (charity)
War Child is a non-governmental organisation founded in the UK 1993, which focuses on providing assistance to children in areas of conflict and post-conflict. They use their film and entertainment background to raise money for aid agencies operating in former Yugoslavia...
, the Liverpool Dockers' Strike
Liverpool Dockers' Strike
The Liverpool Dockers' Strike lasted from 1995 to 1998.Although referred to as a strike it was strictly a dispute because the employers, the MDHC had actually used the opportunity to sack the dockers who were caught up in a separate dispute.The Liverpool dockers refused to cross a picket line set...
, Charter 88
Charter88
Charter88 was a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the New Statesman magazine in 1988 and it took its name from Charter 77 - the Czechoslovak dissident movement...
and youth democracy campaigns. The band became the second UK act, after China Drum
China Drum
China Drum were an English punk rock band from Ovingham in Northumberland active from 1989–2001, playing their final years under the name The Drum.-History:...
, to play in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
after the lifting of the siege, giving a concert at Kuk club in August 1996. They returned to Bosnia in 1997, to film a programme with Kate Thornton
Kate Thornton
Kate Thornton is an English journalist and television presenter. Early in her career, she was notable for her articles at the Daily Mirror and for her role as editor of Smash Hits magazine...
in Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
.
While Clark was absent from 1998 to 2007 to pursue ongoing solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
projects, Priest and Miller continued the band as a five piece joined by the vocalist David Bassey; keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Chris Hallam, and bassist Nick Abnett. This line up of the group would record one album, Real Estate, released in 2001, which was produced and mixed with Robin Evans at T-Pot Studios in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. On their "Dingwalls
Dingwalls
Dingwalls is a venue adjacent to Camden Lock in London, England. It houses bars, cafes, clubs . The building itself is one of many industrial Victorian buildings that were put to new use in the 20th century. The original owner of the building, T.E...
to Dingwall
Dingwall
Dingwall is a town and former royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,026. It was formerly an east-coast harbor but now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest castle north of Stirling. On the town's present-day outskirts lies Tulloch Castle, parts...
" tour in 2000, the group visited the Hebridean island of Taransay
Taransay
Taransay is an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is famous for being the host of the British television series Castaway 2000. Uninhabited since 1974, except for holidaymakers, Taransay is the largest island in Scotland that lacks a permanent population...
, to entertain the castaways
Castaway 2000
Castaway 2000 was a reality TV programme commissioned by the BBC in 2000.-The Concept:Castaway 2000 is a successful British television show that, because it was aired in the same year that Survivor first aired in the United States and Big Brother first aired in Great Britain, is often regarded as a...
being filmed for a BBC reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
programme
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
.
The “lost’ ten years did nothing to dampen the original member’s desire to act upon the ideals that fans of the band connected to so strongly in the first place. Nigel released a critically acclaimed solo album and has spent a lot of time, and still does, working with troubled, “difficult” kids which the mainstream schooling system has almost given up on – bringing them into his studio, writing songs with them, finding out what they’re good at and trying to make them feel that they are not ‘worthless’.
Andy Miller didn’t stop playing guitar, the thing he’s rather good at. He was asked by Bernard Butler to join his band and performed with him on Later with Jools Holland. He formed MASS and later Hey Gravity, who were asked to record one of John Peel’s last sessions before he died. Both bands found a great deal of success in Europe, France especially where they supported the Libertines, Muse and Tricky, and now currently also working with The Heavenly Spheres.
Besides managing bands such as Misty’s Big Adventure and Panama Kings, Mathew carried on playing drums for friends and various bands he liked – Ian Mcnabb and the Icicle Works, The Lightning Seeds (where his first gig was headlining the very emotional Hillsborough Justice gig at Anfield), The Yellow Moon Band (comprising Jo and Danny, who created the amazing Green Man festival) and the Electric Soft Parade, who’s grueling 6 week tour of the States in 2008 prompted him to say “never again, not unless it’s in luxury” and inspired his sideline into radio production, gaining a masters degree in 2010. He now produces documentaries for the BBC called The People’s Songbook.
The original line up of the band, Clark, Miller, and Priest, returned with a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
, So Far On 3 Wheels - Dodgy On The Radio, in October 2007. In the summer of 2007, the band announced a reunion tour, featuring the entire original line up. These plans were abandoned however, when Miller fell out of bed, chipping a bone in his arm in the process. The rescheduled tour took place in March 2008.
The band played two sets at Guilfest
GuilFest
GuilFest, formerly the Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues is a music festival held in Stoke Park, Guildford, England each July. The festival, like the larger Glastonbury Festival, features a range of genres including rock, folk, blues, and in recent years pop...
music festival in Guildford, Surrey in July 2008. The first set was an acoustic set in the Unison tent where they appeared in support of the organisation. They later played a set with full band on the main stage. They headlined the Sunday night at Scarborough's Beached Festival
Beached Festival
The Beached Festival was a free festival held annually in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. After 6 years it had grown to become the biggest free festival in the South Bay of Scarborough. It last took place in 2008.-History:...
in August 2008, and appeared at the ToneFest in September.
In November 2008, the first tracks from new recording sessions appeared online. They played a benefit show in May 2009, as part of the homelessness charity Crisis
Crisis (charity)
Crisis is is the UK national charity for single homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services from centres in London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh and Merseyside, called Crisis Skylight Centres....
' 'Hidden Gigs' campaign, alongside The Bluetones
The Bluetones
The Bluetones were an English indie rock band, formed in Hounslow, Greater London, in 1993. The band's members were Mark Morriss on vocals, Adam Devlin on guitar, Scott Morriss on bass guitar, and Eds Chesters on drums. A fifth member, Richard Payne, came on board between 1998 and 2002...
.
In 2009, Dodgy played at the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, as well as appearances at Bug Jam 2009, Whatfest and Cornbury. It was anticipated that Dodgy's first album in over ten years would be released in 2010. However, a 2011 release date now seems more probable.
On 29 August 2010, Dodgy played at the The Galtres Festival in North Yorkshire, playing Dodgy tracks such as "In a Room" and "Staying out for the Summer", as well as a version of Nigel Clark's solo track, "21st Century Man".
On 23 April 2011, Dodgy played as the headliners at the Mash Fest Festival in Trowbridge and on 28 May 2011, Dodgy headlined at the LeeStock Music Festival
LeeStock Music Festival
The LeeStock Music Festival is an annual music festival, held in Sudbury, Suffolk in memory of a popular local, Lee Dunford. The festival has been in existence since 2006 and raises money for the Willow Foundation, a national charity that gives special days to seriously ill young adults...
in Sudbury
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early history:...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, helping to raise money for the Willow Foundation
Willow Foundation
The Willow Foundation is a national charity established in 1999 by Arsenal footballer Bob Wilson and his wife Megs in memory of their daughter Anna. The charity assists some of the estimated 12,500 people in the UK, aged 16–40, who are diagnosed every year with a life-threatening illness...
. Mathew Priest
Mathew Priest
Mathew Priest is an English drummer with the band Dodgy. He has also played with The Lightning Seeds, The Electric Soft Parade, The Yellow Moon Band and Ian McNabb in The Icicle Works....
said in an interview with the BBC that they would be playing a mixture of new songs and old favourites and talking of their new material said "If we can just get people to listen to it, they're going to love it". on 25th August 2011, Dody also Headlined at the Garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
Festival, in the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
The new album of brand new songs by Dodgy has been a long time coming but 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' is well worth the wait. Deeper and more mature but with bigger choruses and stronger melodies, recorded over the summer of 2011 in an old farmhouse in Malvern and mixed by Matt Pence in Texas, the original members Nigel Clark, Andy Miller and Mathew Priest, have recorded their best work to date.
Nigel, Mathew and Andy were brought back together four years ago at a funeral, in similar circumstances to those that recently brought The Stone Roses back together; in Dodgy's case it was the sad loss of their friend and long standing lighting director, Andy Moore.
Once the decision had been made to regroup and the band completed a successful reunion tour, culminating in a sold out show at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, Dodgy found the creative chemistry was as strong as ever and set about writing and recording new songs. Sessions began in an old wooden workshop in Nigel's back garden in Malvern. The studio didn't need to be soundproofed as there were no neighbours, so as a result the album has infused an interesting variety of additional sounds - doors creaking, birds singing, dogs barking, you might possibly pick out the sound of a tractor on one song. The location has certainly influenced the process and final song choice. Two of the central tracks on the album Tripped and Fell and Raggedstone Hill take inspiration from an 800 year old myth from Malvern about a local monk who fell in love with a local lass and was forced to climb Raggedstone Hill, on his hands and knees, as a penance for falling foul of the bountiful evils of the flesh.
To mix the album the band decamped to Texas. Some of Dodgy's favourite recent music has been released by the Bella Union label and after letting MD Simon Raymonde hear some of the early song recordings, he recommended that they hook up with Matt Pence, who has recently mixed albums by John Grant and Midlake. The band are unanimous in their opinion that Matt's insight and work on the tracks has brought out an inner majesty in the songs that even exceeded the band's expectations.
Such is the confidence in their new output, that Dodgy have already successfully completed a UK tour previewing ‘Stand Upright In A Cool Place' in it's entirety, where songs such as 'What Became Of You', 'Only A Heartbeat' and 'Tripped And Fell' have quickly established themselves as firm favourites in the Dodgy repertoire.
Studio albums
- The Dodgy AlbumThe Dodgy AlbumThe Dodgy Album is the debut 1993 album by the British indie group Dodgy."Water Under the Bridge", the first single released from this album, saw the beginning of "the way of dodgy", a step-by-step enlightened 'dodgy' philosophy that would appear on the record sleeves for each of their future...
(1993) #75 UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... - HomegrownHomegrown (Dodgy album)Homegrown is the second album by the British indie group Dodgy, released in 1994. Unusually, the title track for the album actually appeared on Free Peace Sweet, the band's next album, instead.-Track listing: # Staying Out for the Summer...
(1995) #28 UK - Free Peace SweetFree Peace SweetFree Peace Sweet is the third studio album by Dodgy. It was released in March 1996. The vinyl version has two extra songs: "Is It Me" and "Grateful Moon". The album's title is a pun on three-piece suite...
(1996) #7 UK - Real Estate (2001)
- Stand Upright In A Cool Place (2012)
Compilation albums
- Ace A's and Killer B'sAce A's and Killer B'sAce A's and Killer B's is a compilation album by the English band Dodgy, released in 1998.-Track listing:All songs written by Dodgy unless noted....
(1998) #55 UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... - The Collection (2004)
Live albums
- So Far on 3 Wheels - Dodgy on the Radio (2007)
- Dodgy - Live at Cornbury Festival (2009)
UK singles
- "Summer Fayre" (1991)
- "Easy Way" (1991)
- "The Black and White Single" (1992)
- "Water Under The Bridge" (1993)
- "Lovebirds" (1993) #65
- "I Need Another (EP)" (1993) #67
- "The Melod-EP" (1994) #53
- "Staying Out for the Summer" (1994) #38
- "So Let Me Go Far" (1995) #30
- "Making the Most Of" (1995) (Dodgy with The Kick Horns) #22
- "Staying Out for the Summer" (remixRemixA remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
) (1995) #19 - "In a Room" (1996) #12
- "Good Enough" (1996) #4
- "If You're Thinking of Me" (1996) #11
- "Found You" (1997) #19
- "Every Single Day" (1998) #32
- "Feathercuts and Monkeyboots" (2000)
- "(We All Need a Little) Liftin" (2001)
- "Down in the Flood/Forgive Me (Club Tour Mix) (EP)" (2008)
Downloads
- "Forgive Me - Demo" (2008)
- "Down in the Flood" (2008)
- "Find a Place" - The Bootleg Series and Crisis Charity Download (2009)
See also
- List of Britpop musicians
- List of NME covers
- List of performers on Top of the Pops
- List of Never Mind the Buzzcocks episodes
External links
- www.dodgyology.com Dodgy's official website (launched 8 November 2008)
- www.myspace.com/dodgyuk Dodgy's official MySpace
- DodgY TV - Official video site
- Comprehensive Discography
- Dodgy on The Mag
- In A Room - Official DodgY Forum