| Dodgy | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Hounslow, London, England[1] |
| Genres | Britpop Power pop Alternative rock |
| Years active | 1990–1998 1999–2002 2007–present |
| Labels | A&M Records Bostin' |
| Members | |
| Nigel Clark Mathew Priest Andy Miller |
|
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".[1] The last was their biggest hit reaching #4 in the UK Singles Chart.[2]
Contents |
Dodgy were born from the ashes of Purple, a trio from Redditch, 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 drums, 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.[3]
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.[4] 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".[5] 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 its 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.