The effects can last forever

This one had been on the calendar for ages: the Sheffield leg of Dodgy's Free Peace Sweet tour found us bombing up the M1 on a Friday evening to sample some legendary south Yorkshire hospitality. As with a lot of music venues currently (and this one is a real jewel), the Leadmill's future is far from secure. However, a good crowd guaranteed Dodgy a warm reception. When they embarked on the first leg of the FSP tour in 2023 their frontman Nigel Clark said that they'd be playing the album (in full and in its original running order) they recorded 27 years ago when the average age of the band was 27. Phew! And here we are in 2024 with all the songs sounding just as vibrant and passionate as they ever did in back in 1996. (And I should know, having seen them dozens of times over the years). They opened with this. Somewhere in my vaults I have a 12", 12 minute, white label drum and bass remix of this, but today I've gone for a stripped back acoustic version. Enjoy.

Dodgy - In a Room (acoustic) - 1996

Dodgy on Vinyl · In A Room (Live Acoustic Version)

The trouble with me is water under the bridge

Found myself back in Hull at the weekend. A few beers on Saturday in the Old Town and a bit of a wander, (& a rather nice pizza) and what better way to round off proceedings than with a few pix of my favourite bridge on Sunday afternoon. I never tire of looking at it (I know, I've told you that before); I'm in awe of it every time I see it (Yes, I've told you that too). And it never looks the same twice. (Yep, ditto above.) I must have fired off a couple of dozen shots at least - many whilst trying to eat an ice cream - and in true spray and spray fashion there were a couple of keepers; the rest will take up residency on my burgeoning photo roll. 

Anyway, that's enough of my confessional. Feel free to share your obsession(s). What building, place, object, do you, above all else, hold dear? You may not photograph it every time you see it (though you might); you may not even have told anyone before about this passion (though you might). Either way, drop me a comment below. If you don't, then I'll know - I really am a crazed loner.  

Dodgy - Water Under the Bridge (1993)

I know how she feels

It's not going so great, is it? Johnson's only been in charge five minutes and already the Irish (both lots), the Scots and the Welsh are threatening to dissolve the Union. So much for those promised sunlit uplands. Stop the world I want to get off.

It will only be when the country is brought to its very knees and begs to come back into the EU fold that the leavers will finally wake up to the fact that, actually, what we have now is not so bad. It's workable. We trade with Europe; we trade with the rest of the world. And they trade with us. Frictionlessly. Everybody wins.



But come October 31st it's gonna be a cold wind that blows across the Channel and into the dystopian badlands of a once great Britain. Our just in time procurement chain will last seven days before essential supplies run out. Queues at the forecourt and fighting on the streets. And that's just for starters. It'll be like an episode of Survivors - that post apocalyptic drama from the 70s, only for real.

Or will it? All I know is, I've got a bad feeling about this. And it's not going away.

Dodgy - U.K.R.I.P. (1996)

This is Ours

I'm still coming down from Dodgy's gig at Rock City last Saturday. There's more than a strong possibility I'll be seeing them a little later in the tour; if only to hear them do their a capella version of Find the Cost of Freedom. For years now they've been dropping it into their set as part of This is Ours. I could listen to them harmonising all night. Here it is/they are from the Astoria in London doing just that.

Dodgy - This is Ours/Find the Cost of Freedom (1995)

And here's the original. Absolutely no introduction necessary.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Find the Cost of Freedom (1970)

What Have I Done Wrong?

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Dodgy live. More than 20? Definitely. More than 50? Probably; and when I said here they'd be going round the country to mark the 25th anniversary of Homegrown (their second long player), I knew that I would drop all plans and get myself down the front.

It's hard to comprehend where the last quarter of a century has gone. 1994 seems like another world. Though I'm glad to report that even though a few brain cells have been lost along the way, I still have my original copy of the album. As well as my own teeth. And hair.

Of course Homegrown* had Staying Out For The Summer on there, and Melodies Haunt You, even So Let Me Go Far. But this was the standout song for me last night. Still relevant too, as Nigel Clark pointed out - social media has got a lot to answer for. It really has.

Dodgy - What Have I Done Wrong? (1994)

They were even selling programmes last night. How refreshing, how Dodgy. Five English pounds** secured a permanent reminder of a brilliant album and a brilliant night. And I still haven't ruled out Brighton and/or London yet...

* The song Homegrown, perversely, is not on Homegrown. It can be found on Free Peace Sweet.
** 10% of all profit made from the programme goes to Musicians Against Homelessness. 

Cold Tea

A conversation in the pub tonight took me back to a time when home taping, far from killing music, kept two overgrown schoolboys sane for much of the 90s & indeed the noughties.
One mixtape I did for Steve was two sides of a C90 rammed with wah wah tunes. And for the life of me I can't remember what I put on there. Except this - this definitely opened proceedings:

Dodgy - Cold Tea (1993) 



Be careful whee you tread
You don't want to do any harm

My Brother Jake

When James rang the other day and said he'd really like us to do another round of recording, it was, quite literally, music to my ears. We've done a few sessions together over the years and he really has helped shape a lot of my songs. I may have provided the playground, but James was the one who put the swings and roundabouts in.

That's not my quote by the way - when Nigel Clark walked out on Dodgy 20 years ago I remember Matt their drummer saying it might be Clarks's name on the records, but they all know how the songs really got written and recorded. Ouch.

That said, I know this time around we'll be doing a couple of covers. James and I both love the Eiderdowns' version of From the Beginning by ELP. Bernard, who played fiddle on Pickering Place would certainly be my Number One choice for this along with Nat: Nathaniel plays sax with local shit kickers Slumb Party, but it's his banjo I want to hear on this:

The Eiderdowns - From the Beginning

And another one I'd like to have a crack at is My Brother Jake. Free had a huge hit with it in 1971, but, again, I want to do it more like the Eiderdowns; so chilled we may all end up getting hypothermia. Let me make a few phone calls and see if we can't fix this up for early in the New Year.

The Eiderdowns - My Brother Jake [mp3]

So Let Me Go Far (A Pilgrimage)

"Did you put the hand brake on?"

And then there were four

It's like a clarion call. One of your favourite bands announce that they're gonna be performing their (utterly, utterly splendid) second long player (a quarter of a century after its release), in its entirety. In the same running order as the album, and everything. LIVE!

Next Monday, Dodgy are announcing dates for their Homegrown 25th. Anniversary tour. They did something similar back in 2013, 20 years after they released their debut album.

I shall be pulling in a couple of shows - at least; in the same way that next March/April I'm getting a few miles under my belt catching this lot; I've already got tix to see Phil Mogg and co. at Northampton Roadmenders, Nottingham Rock City and Shepherd's Bush Empire.

Next year's diary is filling up fast.

Dodgy - So Let Me Go Far (1994)

Lucky You

A whole month of World Cup action recently came and went and I managed to keep this sleepy digital backwater a football free zone for the duration. Likewise today, on what is Ian Broudie's 60th birthday, I'll try not to mention that song; you know which one I mean.

Ian Broudie has written some cracking songs over the last thirty years or so. His band the Lightning Seeds was really nothing more than a vehicle to take the songs he'd written on the road and play them live. Like a lot of musicians he's much more at home in a studio working by himself, writing, recording, refining. The Lightning Seeds was just a name above the door. When he recorded the tracks for what would become Jollification, apart from some additional vocals by Alison Moyet and Terry Hall, Broudie played every note of music himself and, of course, produced it. Quite literally a one man band.

Jollification came out slap bang in the middle of the Britpop boom and could be seen and heard rubbing shoulders with the likes of Oasis, Blur, Dodgy (who he also produced), Ocean Colour Scene et al. The fact that it spawned four hugely successful singles should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Except, maybe, the slightly morose, slightly awkward scouser who wrote them all.

This one has, for a number of reasons, become something of an ear-worm just lately. Lucky You may not have set the charts alight, but nearly 25 years later it's till ringing in my ears; lucky me.

Lightning Seeds - Lucky You

Grass Man

My friend Adele feels the same way about gardening as I do: there's only one thing worse than gardening, and that's people talking about gardening.

However, a garden without grass is one thing, but a world without grass is unthinkable. Say hello to the Grass Man.

Whilst Adele was with us this weekend we went to see Dodgy in a little club in town. As usual they were on fine form. Unusually, however, they were without Matthew their drummer. He was moonlighting.

But they did play this. Obviously.

Dodgy: Grassman

360 Degrees of Separation

My fellow diner and I spotted the band slipping out of the club's stage door on the other side of the street from our table in the window. They'd just finished their soundcheck and were all having a good gleg at the poster outside advertising the gig: Dodgy - Warehouse 23, Wakefield - Friday 16 September - Doors 7.30 pm.

I've lost count how many times I've seen them live. The first time was way back in 1996. They'd just had their Barnets shorn and dyed blonde - a couple of weeks before they released their third album Free Peace Sweet. I remember another blondie introducing them that night - Jo Wiley broadcast the whole gig live that night on her Radio 1 show.


But within a year the band had folded. Nigel Clark's decision to call time stunned everyone. The other two probably still haven't forgiven him.
Since getting back together in 2007, Warehouse 23 is typical of the kind of venue the band play these days; but nearly twenty years ago, just prior to Clark pulling the plug in 1997, Dodgy were on the verge of great things. Their records were selling by the shed load, their guitarist was walking out with Denise van Outen. Life was sweet.

However, things are on the up again: these days they're probably writing the best songs of their career. They've got that knack of releasing material you swear you already know. Take this one for example, California Gold. They played it on Friday as part of a blistering set - it's taken from their new album What Are We Fighting For.

Thank you to JT for the photos

She lies sleeping in a half filled bed of rice

Dodgy: Fibbers, York

* The new Fibbers p*sses all over the old Fibbers

* I bet Paul McCartney wishes he'd written So Let Me Go Far

* Matthew Priest is Brian Blessed

* They got them dancing down the front - I love to see women *point* when they dance

* Some real toe tappers on the new album - promised Easter 2016

* Grassman really is a nineties song

* The sign of a good gig - when you can't believe they're introducing the last song already

* Who knew my honorary Goddaughter would be there tonight? Hugs and kisses were the order of the day. Amanda would only have been eight when Staying Out For The Summer came out

* In A Room - home of the best misheard line in pop, ever

Single of the Year (and it's still only March)

That's right. If a better single is released between now and New Year's Eve then you'd better point me in the direction of the nearest Burton's.

And here's the thing about The Charlatans (well, two things actually): it transpires that they don't come from anywhere near Manchester. And, they've never split up: God knows what they've been up to in the last twenty years - I don't think I've heard a peep out of them since the heady days of Britp*p and TFI Friday.

Anyway, their latest 45 may sound suspiciously like Good Enough by Dodgy (and none the worse for that), but as The Number One Son said to me last week, you don't get many Rhodes dominated tunes sounding half as infectious as this.

Bostin

York Fibbers may only be a tiny northern club on the indie circuit, but on Friday night, opening for Dodgy, it was my Wembley, o2 Arena and Hammersmith Apollo all rolled up into one. My previous five gigs (and the five before that and the five before that) have all been in various pubs and folk clubs playing open mic and singers nights. I usually play sitting down and there's invariably somebody on a nearby stool singing a 62 verse sea shanty with his finger in his ear. And there'll be a raffle in the interval. Sometimes I'm spoiled and a plate of sandwiches comes out; you'd be surprised at 10 o'clock, after four pints of Leeds Best, how well egg and mayo between two slices of bread goes down.


Fibbers, on the other hand, don't do raffles. Or sea shanties. But they do have a rather good sound man and a PA that meant I could probably be heard in Leeds. And though I didn't have a rider I think they're more used to M&Ms than egg and mayo; that said, I doubt Dodgy typed up their requests, strange or otherwise, on 53 typed sheets of A4.

Anyway, armed with nothing more than my guitar I walked on the stage, adjusted my microphone and plugged the guitar in. I was out of the traps. With the spots trained on me like a gun turret searchlight I had no idea where anybody was and could just about make out the bar at the back of the room.

I played a greatest hits set - opening with Camberwick Green and finishing with Leeds1972. It went well. Even though I say so myself. Straight to the bar and a catch up with my glee club before three proper musicians took to the stage: I've been hanging on to Dodgy's coat tails for over 20 years and they just get better and better. I must thank Nigel, Matthew and Andy, again, for having me on the bill. Three nicer fellas you couldn't wish to meet.

A one word summation of the night? Bostin.

Displacement

It's OK lads, you go ahead without me

displace .v. move from the proper or usual position
I tweeted a while ago that one of the reasons I was probably never asked to join The Rolling Stones was my disinclination to living out of a suitcase. That and the fact that me and Mick would be constantly arguing about the merits of opening the set with Miss You.

However, from time to time, being a freelancer, my work takes me away from home. Which is fine if I can see an end date; I can chalk the days off in true cartoon prison style. My destinations, however, are nowhere near as glamorous as a Stones world tour and my digs probably not as decadent as The Hyatt in West Hollywood. But it's OK. It might not be rock and roll, but I'm learning to like it.

Chucking the guitar on the back seat of the car every Monday morning helps: I've lost track of the number of pubs, clubs and open mics I've found on my travels. I've met some great people and have always been humbled by the reception my songs get in an alien environment. Not least The Catweazzle Club in Oxford. Decked out like a harem with candles, joss sticks and leather settees it's probably one of the best venues I've played in. And playing whilst seated on a gold lamé chair was fun too.

I met a lovely German girl in the interval. Anna was from Munich and her English was perfect. I told her, however, that despite her total command of the language she probably wouldn't understand a word of my Camberwick Green song. I dedicated it to her anyway.

Speaking of songs, I'm really quite excited about an upcoming songwriting workshop with Clive Gregson. I've been a big fan of Clive's since his days with Any Trouble. And I must have been to see Gregson & Collister a couple of dozen times in the late eighties and early nineties. It's been held in someone's house and after the workshop, in true pop-up style, Clive's playing a house concert. As I said, I'm getting excited about it. Almost as excited as I am about supporting Dodgy at York Fibbers on 13 June. But more about that nearer the time.

Nottingham Ale

When Nottingham brewery Castle Rock unveiled their Screech Owl IPA in 2008 they said it was a strictly one off brew. But in the same way that The Darkness brought you a One Way Ticket To Hell, And Back, so too did Screech Owl return. And now, to complete Castle Rock's U-turn, it's available in bottles. And why wouldn't it be? This fruity, hoppy, bright and clear beer, which at 5.5% ABV is no slouch, surely ranks as one of Castle Rock's finest achievements.



As you can see from the above promo, if it's good enough for Robin Hood and his Merry Men, then in true Dodgy style, it's good enough for me. Robin Hood and his fair maiden, Maid Marian, are coming up this weekend (seriously) - I hope they bring a couple of flagons of this fine frothing ale with them.

Frozen Gin: Nottingham Ale

The day after the Lord Mayor's Show

Like the puppy given as a present on Christmas Day, your record store needs you to be there for it the other 364 days in the year; just because the lines started forming in the early hours of Saturday morning and resembled war time ration queuing by opening time, I'm guessing that, once inside, you could swing a few cats around today.

For the record, I pitched up at Jumbo Records in downtown Leeds. Dodgy, everyone's favourite comeback kids, played an exquisite 40 minute sent on the top deck of an identikit shopping centre; a perfect warm up for next week's gig at The Lexington in London's swinging Islington.

They were well received, even though the slack-jaws on the escalators wired to their i-Pods couldn't work out why anyone would want to take an hour out of their day and watch (free) live music.

I shelled out for a copy of Stand Upright In A Cool Place on which Matthew, Andy and Nigel were good enough to scrawl their monikers. An enjoyable afternoon was had by all.

Dodgy colours

 Burnt Sienna

Vincent Wells, my old art teacher, was an eccentric old buffer. While his passion for art was never in question, his teaching methods were dubious to say the least. Lines, shapes, perspective and colour all passed me by. But one thing he said has remained with me to this day: burnt sienna. It was the way he said it; imagine a cross between Frank Muir and Brian Sewell and you won't be far off.  If I can shoehorn the word into everyday parlance,  I'm a happy man. Whether it be choosing a floor covering or a lacquer to paint the garden fence, dropping it in to conversation always makes me smile. As it did today when Matt Priest and Nigel Clark of Dodgy were describing the colour of their new album, Stand Upright In A Cool Place on The Word podcast. No, not the colour of the sleeve,  the colour of the songs and the vibe. Brown and gold they said. Burnt Sienna I said out loud - to an empty room. And I grinned like an idiot.

Combining self-penned modern day folk songs like Raggedstone Hill with their trademark jangly, dreamy backdrop, the boys who stayed out for the Summer are now the men coming home for the Autumn. That's not my quote by the way. Anyway, have a listen to this and see if you agree with the livery of this cracking new tune.

Dodgy: What Became Of You

 

Support for the support

Bearded cove on sofa: Barrington aka Gary Cole

Some might say the only good thing to come out of Derby is the A52 to Nottingham (now rechristened Brian Clough Way); I couldn't possibly comment. Anyway, when flying back to the fair city of Nottingham to interview Dodgy and pull in their gig at The Central, a young bearded cove, from Derby support band WhiteMoor, thrust a CD into my hand and said 'give this a listen.' And you know what, it's cracking little record that's fair bristling with charm and a personality a million miles removed from any Indie Landfill you may have been subjected to on 6 Music recently. You can read my review here.

This gem is what we used to call Side 1, Track 1. I do believe they had the good sense to release it as a single (remember them?) Oh, and their guitarist calls himself Barrington.

WhiteMoor: Three Words

Dodgy

Apologies for the delay in starting 2011, but I've not been well. Like you wouldn't believe: I think I did Christmas and New Year on autopilot - however, normal service has now been resumed. And for that I can't thank my very own Florence Nightingale enough for being there when it mattered (I guess that's what they mean by that whole 'for better or worse' malarkey).

Anyway, just got time to say that we've now got tix for the first gig of the new year. Dodgy (Nottingham Central Fri 21 Jan), it must be said, probably released the most consistently fab grooves of all the Britpop movers and shakers of the time. If you want three essential albums of the early 90s you can forget Oasis and Blur; The Dodgy Album, Homegrown and Free Peace Sweet capture the (don't worry, I'm not going to say the z word) very spirit of that whole TFI Friday buzz that defined the fag end of the last century. Bostin.

I interviewed Nigel Clark a few years back and remember telling him that this was the best song he'd ever written. He didn't disagree.

The feline models at the top of the page btw are our very own Tom and Doris, who proudly posed for Phill Jupitus' Pets In Band Tee Shirts gallery.