DODGY play THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Hello, it's Math here, I'm reminding myself that I play the drums in a band called Dodgy and tomorrow night we take a step to the left, from promoting our latest album Stand Upright In A Cool Place, because (coughs) Dodgy are playing @RoyalAlbertHall
- yes, that's The Royal Albert Hall in London.
Though one day we would be happy to accept an invite from Roger*, Noel** or Russell*** to play a @TeenageCancer Trust event there, or headline ourselves if the demand arises - our appearance tomorrow has come through a rather different route but this doesn't make the anticipation any less exciting.

The life of a professional musician today requires quite a bit of manoeuvring and multi-tasking but I feel luckier than some as I am occasionally gainfully employed by Dorset Music Services, travelling around the countryside a couple of days a week, delivering drum lessons to kids in tiny villages and remote schools. It's a bit like All Creatures Great and Small, but with drums. And without the need for me to put my hand up a cow's bottom.
Every year Dorset Music Services try to put on a big show where the kids can perform for their families, something to aim towards, only this year the 'big' show is at the Royal Albert Hall, it really doesn't get much bigger or more prestigious. When we first heard about it we, like perhaps a few of you thought 
"crikey, that's a bit ambitious"
knowing a little bit about how putting on these events work, but all credit to the small yet incredibly hard working team at DMS who have made their aspiration a reality.

When it was mentioned that there would be a choir of 1,200 kids and full orchestra, at THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, Dodgy selflessly and magnanimously offered our services for a couple of numbers. Yes, it's all GIVE with us, just thinking of the kids.
"What a great idea" was their response "the only problem is, that the night is called Dorset's Movie Mash Up music from the movies and you would have to do two film related songs."
"No problem; our song 'Good Enough' by Dodgy is in the @GwynethPaltrow movie Sliding Doors" we reminded ourselves and even vaguely remember attending the premiere
".. and well, we can do 'Live Or Let Die' or something".
OK, sometimes in these situations it might be better to think before opening our mouths, as DMS gave a resounding "YES, that would be magnificent" at the same time we are thinking "but we've never played Live And Let Die" and here's us casually saying we'll play it with a choir of 1,200 in front of a packed Royal Albert Hall, as if we were making a cheese sandwich!

Well, roll on a few months and here we are , on the eve of the big day. We've rehearsed Live and Let Die (our respect for @PaulMcCartney goes even higher - we did get a nice reply from him once when we asked him to pop down and join us onstage for one of our higher billings at Glastonbury Festival ) and the orchestra and choir has rehearsed, check out the video evidence on the link below...... it's bringing an emotional tear to our eye before we've even got there

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151556880995095&set=vb.27035293811&type=2&theater

We have to acknowledge how impressed we are with the talent on display with these musicians and singers, as people in a band who are pretty much self taught, it makes us wish that we might have had a career in music. Oh hang on...
Next week Dodgy begin our own headlining Back To Back Tour where we will be playing two of our albums (most recent and debut) live in their entirety (check www.dodgyology.com for details) - a challenging task in it's own right but in the meantime .... OK it's not entirely under our own steam/backdrop but let's say it again
Tomorrow ( May 3rd ) DODGY ARE PLAYING THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL!!


* Roger Daltry
** Noel Gallagher
*** Russell Brand

What Are The Rules For A Band Playing Classic Albums Live? - Discuss with Dodgy

DODGY have already announced that in May and June we are going to be doing a series of gigs - the Back To Back Tour, where we will be playing our latest album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' in its entirety along with our debut The Dodgy Album which we can hardly believe celebrates the 20th anniversary of it's release this year. Check out the full list of Back2Back dates @ www.dodgyology.com

Having decided to play both Stand Upright In A Cool Place and The Dodgy Album in their entirety we have had some preliminary discussions about what the ground rules for this might be - and if there's any give and take in 'entirety'? The fact that both albums clock in between 45-50 mins each at least makes the timing of an evening make some sense but there won't be much room for the 'hilarious' between song dialogue for which we are known.... but that might be a good thing ;-)

What about the set list?
When you play an album in it's entirety are we expected to follow the track listing exactly as it is on the album, or is there some freedom to swap things about a bit? The Charlatans have done this a few times haven't they? Perhaps we should ask @Tim_Burgess and the gang.

Of course, when you reach the 20th anniversary of something you might be expected to have picked up a bit of experience and of course we have.. of course we have! Back then though, when we first signed to a major record company after releasing the early singles on our own Bostin label, we might have been a bit naive, artists can be easily 'influenced' by record companies, especially at that time when record companies were more free and easy with their hospitality. For instance, a bit of coercion might come into play when a band like ourselves is deciding on a track-listing for an album and record company bosses aren't subtle about disturbing the obvious natural order of things - a label tends towardswanting to position singles and potential singles towards the front of an album running order even if it doesn't offer the most artistically flowing journey.  So when we come back to look at The Dodgy Album, we discover that the three singles 'Water Under The Bridge', 'Lovebirds' and 'I Need Another' are tracks 1,2 & 3 on the album - we were supposed to have creative license/control - got well and truly hoodwinked there.
So for the live experience, yes, we might like to kick things into action with 'Water Under The Bridge' but then get into the meat of the album and play 'Stand By Yourself' or 'Grand Old English Oak Tree' before returning to the other singles later. Is this breaking the rules though? Are any of you (or worse still, people not reading this) going to get upset that the songs aren't in the expected order even if, reviewing the order we might have structured the album differently in the first place - and then there's another issue of is it OK to hold certain tracks back altogether to play in a possible encore? We'll come back to that one.

Now, how true to the recorded versions are we expected to stay? Of course we can't help ourselves interpreting these songs as we are now but, for instance, could we do a totally acoustic version of 'As My Time Goes By' and/or do we play what was the 'campfire version' of Never Again - rather than the album version of the song. We've heard a story, that there are people who write to the BBC complaining that the same car and numberplate have appeared in different dramas, saying something like "surely a villain in Sherlock shouldn't be driving Dennis Waterman's car from New Tricks - do we have to be wary of trainspotter Dodgy fans, with no disrespect at all but will there be complaints if Dodgy 'interpret' our own songs?

Another real conundrum (and perhaps you could help here) is which album should we play first - Stand Upright In A Cool Place or The Dodgy Album?
From our point of view, just the fact that we can't/haven't come to a decision yet, is testament to the quality and different dynamics of both albums - we will probably change the order of which of them we play first and see what works best - we'll take any comments on board though for the first of the Back To Back gigs.
This also brings us back to the sticky subject of encores - could we be really cheeky though and save one song from each album to put into the encore? Come on, surely we could? But would that then be technically not playing each album in it's entirety? How do you define 'entirety'? - becoming a bit philosophical now. It's a relevant point - if you went out for a meal and had a spectacularly delicious main course, no matter how good it was, it would be a bit weird to save a tenth of it until after you had finished your desert, just because it was SO tasty, wouldn't it? Hmmmm....

We are seriously thinking about what other songs might appear in encores as well. The format for the Back To Back gigs will be to play the two albums, with perhaps a short interval between and then if the response is good (wouldn't like to assume we would get an encore of course) if we DO get an encore we might be looking at an opportunity to play three more songs if we are lucky.
Spoiler - now look away anyone that thinks when an artist comes back for an encore it is spontaneous but hey, these things are often thought through beforehand and planned, so for this tour we'll do a bit of Penn And Teller and let you backstage into what we might be thinking.

As those of you who have caught any of this year's acoustic gigs with Dodgy, we are also well underway into putting together a bunch of quality NEW songs that so far have been very well received - we'll probably take the liberty of teasing you with one of these but maybe featured in the middle of an (encore) sandwich as it were. For the other two songs the bread (and butter) of the sandwich, we will be choosing two songs from Homegrown, Free Peace Sweet and other singles etc. and then there is 'Big Brown Moon', a song which never made it onto the first album but nearly did and though it was a b-side was always part of our set from The Dodgy Album onwards.
Again, we are prepared to get Vox Pops out early on this. Once you have bought your Back To Back ticket, let us know what song from the Dodgy cannon you would also like to hear in the encore, let us know which gig you are going to and comment here, on Facebook send an email to backtoback@dodgyology.com , or Tweet us @Dodgyuk using hashtag #bandsplayalbums , the more public banter there is, perhaps the better.

And what if there is the chance we could get a couple of special guests along - the Liverpool guest list is already looking stupid so we might think of getting at least one of them to sing for their supper as it were. It comes back to that question of how purest is that 'entirety' concept supposed to be? A special guest joining us for a vocal or instrumental - is that spoiling the experience or enhancing it? What do you think?
There are probably other issues we haven't even thought of yet but at least we are beginning to address things - one thing is sure, these are going to be BIG nights.

Next week is UK Budget week when there be lots of discussion on the pros and cons of Keynesian economics so to coincide we will be having a Dodgy Keynesian weekender, with a short residency on Friday (22nd March) and Saturday (23rd) in Milton Keynes @ The Watershed ( @WatershedMK )- it's a lovely intimate venue, great people and Friday is already Sold Out with only a few tickets for Saturday remaining. Should be good.

First full band electric show of 2013 for Dodgy, Primal Scream and anniversary of The Dodgy Album

Well there are signs of spring, friends of Dodgy, glimmers of sunshine and our activity is certainly budding into life. In fact, you might have noticed we have been busy bees already in 2013 and have immensely enjoyed meeting many new friends with intimate acoustic shows where we have been road testing new songs and refamiliarising with a few established ones.

We'll be focusing on the upcoming Back To Back tour* with Dodgy in a later post but yes, can you believe it? (we can't) 2013 is the 20th anniversary of the release of our debut album The Dodgy Album.
'2013' is also the title of a new single by Primal Scream, a band that have featured heavily in what you might call the story of Dodgy - we concur totally with the recent open letter to Primal Scream by @johnrobb77 ( you can read it HERE ) on one of our favourite websites Louder Than War.
2013 is an epic soundtrack for our times and we expect nothing less from The Scream - there are echoes of Hawkwind but that's no bad thing in itself and The Scream have form in this area, covering Hawkwind's 'Urban Guerrilla' some time back.
A particular memory (and a memory from those times is, dear readers, a fairly subjective thing) that we have is from a cold November night in 1992 when most of the mixing from The Dodgy Album was complete. We had been holed up in Parr Street Studios in Liverpool creating this colossus but decided to take a night off and venture down through snake pass to Sheffield where Primal Scream were headlining a benefit for striking miners with The Orb in support - we took a virtually complete and sequenced version of what was to be the album and saved the listening for the journey home.

At the gig after 'Little Fluffy Clouds' subsided there was a lull before The Scream took the stage to the familiar guitar chords from 'Moving On Up' - our merchandiser at the time ( he is now a notable physicist would you believe) was called Damage and Dodgy and gang used to love singing along with Bobby something like "Damage, we've got Damage, we've got Damage, he looks like a gnu" with their song 'Damaged'. That night The Scream encored with a monstrous version of Joy Divisions' 'Atmosphere' - possibly Peter Hook joined them onstage but none of us are going to put our names/memories to that one.

The journey heading back to Liverpool proved to be perilous, it being a harsh winter night with blizzards and freezing temperatures. Nigel at that time had a big heap of frizzy hair and some how our travelling van which had leopard skin sofas (don't ask) became a travelling pub and Nigel doubled as the pub's dog and barman. We listened to our work on The Dodgy Album on the van's excellent Hi-Fi system - excellent Hi-Fi system / shit heating system as we recall - not sure we've ever been so cold but were enormously proud of our achievement and a fitting statement to lay out Dodgy's stall as it were and just one of the reasons we are looking forward to playing all of those songs on the Back To Back tour.

This upcoming Friday (March 8th) though we have the first full band electric show from Dodgy in 2013, it's in Essex at the Braintree Arts Theatre, hopefully a few of you from Colchester and Chelmsford will be able to make the trip as well. We remember fondly some mad gigs with Dodgy at the Army And Navy/ Y Club in Chelmsford and a great night at Colchester Arts Centre - don't think there's a decent venue in Chelmsford anymore which is a shame - anybody knows different let us know.
Not quite sure who is behind our Dodgy sensible gigging policy but the night after we head out to Essex we go on a short jaunt um... to the West Country to Newton Abbott in Devon where we play at The Jolly Farmer... never say we are not willing to travel to delight you.

If we don't see you at the weekend - make it soon
all the best

Dodgy posse x

* DODGY BACK TO BACK TOUR 2013
Where DODGY will be playing with full electric set up, our debut THE DODGY ALBUM and most recent album STAND UPRIGHT IN A COOL PLACE in their entirety.

All venue and ticket details can be found at www.dodgyology.com/gigs/


If you haven't already, you can add value to your ticket PLUS get your name on the artwork to the LIVE album from this tour by signing up to the Back to Back mailing list here backtoback@dodgyology.com


x

Back to Back Tour Campaign

Back to Back Campaign 2013

Love, the first successful step into life

 Dodgy are back out on the road in May to celebrate 20 years since the release of their debut album, THE DODGY ALBUM, and to continue spreading the love from last year's critically acclaimed album STAND UPRIGHT IN A COOL PLACE, they will be playing both albums in their entirety, back to back.

The tour will be called, aptly, the BACK to BACK Tour 2013. The dates are being finalised as we speak.

Not happy with simply playing the dates, DODGY want to add even more value to the price of your ticket so plans are being made to involve you all as much as possible, to give you exclusive access to radio sessions, rehearsals, warm-up shows, special one-off gigs and lots of other treats such as a chance to meet the band, upgrade your ticket to attend the sound-check and take home the set list.

All you have to do is simply leave your name now at backtoback@dodgyology.com

What's EVEN BETTER is that DODGY intend to release a LIVE album from the tour and EVERYONE who signs up will be added to the BACK TO BACK TOUR LIVE ALBUM HALL OF FAME...which means your name will appear on the album's artwork. Oh yeah.

Help us spread the word. The campaign is on:

TWITTER:@dodgyuk #dodgybacktoback2013

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/dodgyuk.  

WEB: www.dodgyology.com

Disclaimer: You can sign up and join the Back to Back campaign and get your name on the live album EVEN if you can't make any of the dates! Though your sanity and the potential for unbridled joy in May would be seriously brought into question!

Seasonal Dodgy - Christmas shows 2012 and 1996

Hey! Anyone noticed?
(Cue Noddy Holder) ...That IT'SSSSSS CHRISTMASSSSSSSSSSSS.
And what better time for us give a blug (a plug in a blog) for our CHRISTMAS SHOW WITH DODGY in London on December 14th, with our guest @TheQuill - Mark Morris (from The Bluetones) and hopefully a few surprises. Tickets still available here:
Christmas with Dodgy - London O2 Islington Academy - TICKETS 

Oh, don't you just love that slowed down, shitty version of The Power Of Love, doesn't it just make you want to get to a John Lewis and spend - if you have anything to spend that is. Time's are tough round here, it's hard to spin a story to a twelve year old boy, that the reason he isn't going to get any presents this year is that this year Santa located his UK sleigh stable/depot in Tewkesbury, rains came, followed by floods resulting in all gifts sailing away down the Swanee confluence of the Severn and Avon - The Sweveronee, whilst the elves, reindeer and ol beardy bloke could only look inadequately on .. in horror... cheer up Tiny Tim, there's always next year, eh?
We'd like to write some witty treatise on this time of year but Charlie @charltonbrooker has already done it so brilliantly in his Guardian column so just go and read that
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/25/2012-christmas-adverts-snowmen-slave-labour

It seemed like only yesterday that Dodgy had our big Christmas show at Brixton Academy in London and it's great to be doing the O2 Academy in Islington this year.
When Dodgy hosted our Brixton show, we had already sold out the whole UK tour, with Brixton at the end and when tickets were selling well we got to achieve our aim of hosting a Brixton all-nighter. We always loved the Primal Scream all-nighters, so it was great to be able to do our own.
Being Christmas and our biggest gigs to date we wanted to do everything we could to make it special. Firstly, if you are going to do a big show, get a big stage and yes, a big stage set. After getting a blank from the record company and our management for a massive budget for set building, the drummer's brother came up with a perfect idea; he had trained at St. Martins College Of Art And Design in London and suggested we approach some of the students about the possibility of getting involved. We got a number and called the college rather speculatively enquiring "have you any student prodigies who would like to design and build a set for Dodgy on very little budget?"
Not only did they say yes but they enthusiastically gathered together most of their year group and did us proud. Game on. This is a while ago, what are you up to now boys and girls? We do know that at least one has gone on to bigger and better things, that's Pearl Bates who's now an artist as well as still working in theatre, TV design etc. but we'd love to hear from some of the others as well.

Also, at the time Dodgy were big fans of comedy and one of our favourite comedians and generally all round nice people we had met was @mrmichaelsmiley, now a top class actor who frightened us to death not so long ago in the movie Kill List. He hooked up with another up and coming comedian at the time @simonpegg, where's he now?
They did an amazing job, music and comedy, live on the same night, don't always best compliment each other but we were able to get away with it by dispensing with a snooty VIP bar upstairs and turning it into our very own comedy club - people still remember it, so it must have worked.

It also appears that we were somewhat trailblazing a way for this damn thing called t'internet at the time. Up until that point, without the help of modern social media, we used to write out a newsletter under the auspices of a made up character called George Winterbourne. We had books of postal addresses and if it hadn't been the faithful support of people like Damage and Chrissy H, the thing would never have worked but every time we put together a newsletter there would be a big envelope and stamping party - god knows how much it would cost with today's Royal Mail prices.
So, valuing the contact with our fans getting something called a website seemed to be ideal for us and slowly we were converting the mail addresses into email addresses to propel us into the modern world. Then someone suggested, what if we were to try and 'broadcast' the show onto/via the Internet - how good would that be?. Looking back on it, probably not very, as those people lucky enough to have access to the Internet did so via their phone lines. We enquired how this might be possible and were told that someone would have to install an ISDN line into Brixton Academy, we cheekily asked BT and to our surprise they said they would install one at the venue because they were testing out all this stuff too. The idea was that the system would be tested at lunchtime with us doing a live interview with Japan who were hours ahead in the day and then the big event and show broadcast would be in the evening.
We had already done a cracking show at the Academy the night before, so when we arrived on the day it was funny to see some changes in the venue. The webcast team had purloined a room at the academy and there were what looked like a motley collection of boffins and hippies (just about sums up the Internet then) looking at various computers - it was like Nasa mission control - Brixton, we're receiving you.

Apparently, the Japan connection went well - they were slightly more ahead on the Internet front and could see and hear us doing our interview from Brixton at the lunchtime. Later that night after Dodgy came off stage, we heard that the webcast itself was somewhat of a disaster, perhaps we'd overloaded the system and were probably at least five years in advance of where the technology actually was. In fact our tour manager had a portable computer (that's what they were then before laptops) and seeing Hippies vs Scientists taking an ugly turn he stepped in and at least, apparently those with suitable connections could hear audio, if not actually seeing us.

At the stage in Dodgy's career when we played the Brixton Academy Christmas show, we had a sizable live band, Richard on keyboards, a brass section and occasionally a backing singer or three. Plus a fantastic crew and some ever present friends - the stage set was impressive to say the least, so on the afternoon of the gig we got a banqueting table set up on stage and had a full Christmas dinner for everyone, with ALL the trimmings, rock and roll excess, you bet but it had to be done - it had been our hardest working year to date and everyone had contributed.
The music lineup consisted of ourselves and El Vez. El Vez is a larger than life Mexican/American rock and roll artist who we'd come to hear about through his campaigning and political edge to his songs which were funny and satirical. He had a Christmas album called Mexmas including songs such as 'Oranges for Christmas', 'Poncho Claus' and 'Brown Christmas' and put on a great show in true Christmas spirit, luckily we were able to get involved in bringing him over to do Brixton and a couple of other dates at Christmas including a memorable night at Liverpool Royal Court, anyone remember that one?
We also had a special guest lined-up, staying true to our Birmingham roots, with Roy Wood agreeing to join us on a version of 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day'

We've always been massive fans of Roy's music and can't be sure but think the only reason that he agreed to do it was that his daughter was a fan. Roy turned up with his guitar but chose to go to the front door rather than the artists stage door. He looks offstage, the way he does on, mad coloured hair and yes, he actually looks like a Wizard, the full Lord Of The Rings etc and of course had a load of trouble getting in as the bouncers were apparently unaware of who he was. Luckily one of our crew was on the look out for him and managed to get him in. As we're writing all this through faded memories, it's throwing up the question - did this really happen? And what do you know, we put it in google and this post came up on Frank Turner's forum - apparently he was asking his fans where was a good place to do a Christmas gig

"In 1996 I went to see Dodgy do an Xmas all nighter at Brixton, at one point they got Wizard on stage and played 'i wish it would be Christmas everyday' and as the song ended a load of fake snow fell from the roof. I was rather fucked on various things and the whole thing was amazing -a great memory. The gig finished at 6am and I made it to work by 9am. Half way through the day some old lady said to me 'i know what you;ve been taking' and winked at me. :wink:" Thanks to @atpmusic for that reminisce.

 Oh dear, snow - did we really have snow - actually we had met Snow ("Informer") in Jamaica earlier that year, during filming for the 'Good Enough' video but that's another story.
Hopefully a few of you who remember that Brixton night will actually be in a fit enough state to come this year for the Dodgy Christmas show at the O2 Academy in Islington on 14th December.
Remembering, that we also did special Xmas merchandising for that gig, Dodgy Christmas hats, Christmas mugs - yes you've got it, with our mugs in silly Xmas costumes and T-shirts - anyone owns one of these items perhaps get em up on Twitter to prove it wasn't all a dream
In fact anyone with any photos/memories of the Brixton christmas shows - get in touch.
See you on the 14th - for the gig goers it's an early show so you can get home if you have a fair way to travel or for those who want to party you get free entrance into the club after with majestic comedian @russell_kane on the decks - whooppee.

Great night at Northern Soul allnighter with DODGY in Wigan and new vinyl single

We wondered for moments, how wise it was to add a little diversion to promoting the new album by Dodgy, 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' but on Saturday our Northern Soul all-nighter in Wigan hosted by Dodgy turned out to be a resounding success and suggested that in fact we aren't mad to have written and recorded our own 'northern soul' single. Thank you to everyone who came and danced...

As mentioned in the preview podcast, the idea came to us a few months ago after seeing how well our cover of  the late great Frank Wilson's 'Do I Love You (Indeed I do)'  was going down at the early Summer festivals.  So Dodgy set about writing and recording our own northern inspired single and had the idea of hosting our own northern soul all-nighter - all that was needed was an appropriate venue. Enter the ever diligent Wing Commander Berry, Dodgy's Northern attache who found The Rose Club which was formerly the Monaco Ballroom and what a find; sprung dance floor, balcony and indeed it had held a soul night in Wigan in the early 70's before the Casino opened it's doors.

It was a great to see a whole bunch of faces, old and new and good to hook up with Brian Cannon. We know Brian from our early days, he's got a bunch of Oasis artwork to his credit amongst a great portfolio and his current photographic project is called Northern Soul - A Photographic Journey , his new amazing photos and he brought his camera along on Saturday - we'll put a couple of his shots (of us ;-) up here.

We were aware from the beginning that we might produce varying reactions of the tribal variety, especially if we succeeded in pulling in some of the more devoted northern soul purists. A minority were not very keen at all,  you might even describe them as hostile but as the aim of the whole venture was to create something special and vibrant around music Dodgy love, so if a few were offended (hopefully for not too long a time) then so be it. We were front-line participants in the indie snob wars of the 1990's, so a bit of northern soul outrage wasn't going to derail us too much.

... and by the end of the night, as the talc cleared, it looked from where we were standing, that everyone was left with a smile on their face and a spring in their step with an overwhelmingly positive reaction, from the 45 Carat Soul Club and the Wigan Young Souls who agreed to host the night with us, to legendary DJ Pete Mitchell ( @petemitchelldj a regular down the Casino back in the day) who interviewed me for his Soul Time show on Absolute 60's. It should be up on his Mixcloud page here http://www.mixcloud.com/soultime/

One thing we knew was, that if Dodgy was going to release a northern soul single then in the spirit of the music, the main format we should release it on should be vinyl 7-inch. These days Dodgy don't have a record company to do all the practical work so it was an interesting adventure getting our recordings from the masters onto vinyl.
- CZECH REPUBLIC - EVESHAM - NEW YORK - WIGAN -

It seems that most vinyl now is manufactured in Czech Republic, so considering the songs were recorded in Vale Studios near Evesham in September, mastered in New York and arrived in Wigan via Eastern Europe just in time for the first date of the tour in Leicester, our little songs have had an International adventure to rival Phileas Fogg himself. No wonder they are so popular.

In fact interest in the single has been so phenomenal that in a couple of weeks it will also be available for download. Don't worry, we'll let you know when.

Quite a few years ago when I, drummer Math, was doing a series of Northern Soul shows for what was then the BBC radio station in London, GLR, called 'Where's Wigan? The Londoners Guide To Northern Soul' I had no idea that I would be part of our own Northern all-nighter... in Wigan! It was an ambitious project but there's a lot of interest in northern at the moment and a film currently in production called Northern Soul that promises to be both authentic and very good indeed. In fact as we mentioned before, the Wigan Young Souls who helped us host the night, are featured as young dancers in the film and boy, what dancing we were treated to on Saturday.
We tweeted during the night that you forget what an absolute visceral thrill it is to hear Northern Soul cranked up loud with a dance floor full of proper dancers, giving it plenty. We heard some incredible tunes that night also, some of them very rare, there were nearly tears when they played three of our fav tunes - Little Anthony and the Imperials - 'Better use Your Head', MVP - 'Turning My Heatbeat Up' and Darrell Banks - 'Open The Doors To Your Heart'. So once again, thanks to all the DJs on the night. But while we're on a thanking tip we have to heap a whole load of thanks on the Soul Queen, Vanessa Best from Ultrasound who joined us for the St Albans and Wigan date. She is simply incredible and we love playing with her. If you haven't yet checked out Ultrasound's brand new album, Play For Today then you absolutely must, it ranks as the best album this year ....next to Stand Upright In A Cool Place of course.

Now that the new single from Dodgy is launched, we need to spread the word. It was great getting a play on Radio 2 from Dermot the other Saturday, so give it a listen and if you like what you hear feel free to email / text your favourite DJ and 6Music etc. to let them know Dodgy are very much alive and well.

The tour didn't end in Wigan though. This week Dodgy are looking forward to live dates on Weds (24th Oct) near MILTON KEYNES @ The Stables, Thursday (25th Oct) BRIGHTON @ The Haunt, Friday (26th) ROCHESTER @ The Royal Function Rooms (sounds grand) finishing up on Saturday (27th) in BURY ST. EDMUNDS at the APEX. That sounds like a tour to us and expect to see at least half of you at one of these or another.

Got your tickets for the Dodgy Xmas show in London yet on December 14th yet? better hurry
www.livenation.co.uk/event/332672/dodgy-the-dodgy-xmas-party-tickets

Frank Wilson RIP - Do we love you? - Indeed we do

Frank Wilson RIP

5Th Dec 1940 - 27 Sep 2012

Want to keep things positive but we were genuinely shocked when we started hearing rumours coming through yesterday that soul singer Frank Wilson had died.

Dodgy have spent the whole summer showcasing his classic song 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)' and have just been in the studio to record our version as one of the tracks on a new northern flavoured single - so yes we were shocked and saddened to hear that Frank had lost his battle with cancer #anotheronebitesthedust

The best short biography we could find was here at www.frankwilson.co.uk

and in his time Frank wrote and produced hit records for Brenda Holloway, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes,The Miracles, The Four Tops, Eddie Kendricks, and more.

The story goes that his own single “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" was set for release on the Motown subsidiary label 'Soul.' Supposedly 250 demo 45s were pressed, but by that time Frank decided he would rather focus on producing (or Berry Gordy made that decision!!) and had the demos trashed. Somehow at least two known copies survived, one of which fetched over £25,000 (aprox. $37,000) in May 2009 to a mystery buyer, some say it was Frank Wilson himself.

Because of the scarcity of the original single and the high quality of the music (it was one of the most popular records in the Northern Soul movement), it has been championed as one of the rarest and most valuable records in history.

Hopefully our version is a fitting tribute you can check it the full version included in our latest podcast at pcdodgy.blogspot.co.uk or HERE

FRANK WILSON RIP