OUT IN THE OPEN ACOUSTIC TOUR 2014

We are pleased to announce DODGY will be touring the UK in May & June 2014. 

The "Out In The Open" Acoustic Tour will feature the first airing of new songs written for their forthcoming album to be released of Cherry Red, plus reworked selections from their back catalogue including HITS, fan favourites, covers and rarities. 

For ticketing information, please visit www.dodgyology.com/gigs

Want to help promote the shows?

Help us by putting up posters and flyers on the street, in bars, record stores, coffee shops and creative places that music fans go online and off. 

Get us on your local radio station, in your paper, or local music press.

Impress us with your promotional prowess, and you could win prizes, maybe a chance to attend the soundcheck and some signed stuff.

Winners will be chosen and notified one week prior to show date. 

*All prizes selected and awarded at discretion of judges and based on fan participation.

Email us at dodgymerch@hotmail.co.uk with photos and a summary of where you’ve promoted your show. Don’t forget to include the town name in the subject line.

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dodgyoutintheopen/

To get you started, download our tour poster below 

and visit www.dodgyology.com/press for more material

Dodgy roll - rocking the 'L's Liverpool and Leeds

Thank U Lomax (@LomaxLiverpool)
thank you Cockpit (@CockpitLeeds)
thank you Merseyside
thank you Yorkshire
thank you alcohol.
Well we gave it a go but it doesn't have the same effect of that shonky Alanis Morissette (@morissette) song does it?

And so the Dodgy machine rucked and cajoled past the finishing line of the first leg of our Back To Back Tour last weekend; the tour where we have set ourselves the challenge of playing not one but two albums in their entirety - the latest album Stand Upright In A Cool Place and our debut The Dodgy Album celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year.

LIVERPOOL and LEEDS what a tremendous couple of gigs you were too (the gloriousness of which we can probably slip in as an excuse for the delay in updating this post).

Such is our attention to detail that we made sure that it was these two cities, the first that really took us to their hearts back in the beginning, that we came to nearest this date in May.
Because May 24th is the actual 20th Anniversary date when our first album The Dodgy Album was released - and you know what our memories are like, there is no doubt about this because we have the original poster confirming this (see poster pic on left).

When arrived at the Lomax in Liverpool we were greeted by Frank Hedges, the manager, with open arms saying 'WELCOME HOME!!'.

Well it could only go one way. The Poste House pub opposite the Lomax is now officially Dodgy's Favourite Pub In The World - Half past three on a Thursday afternoon, rammed full of lovely, tiddly pensioners singing and dancing along to Tony and Tony - The Two Tones playing saucy old tunes. Maybe £1.40 a double had something to do with it. It could only go one way.

We had a great time and many thanks to Frank for this lovely Facebook post which says it all really

"nights like last night make it all worthwhile. The Dodgy gig was amazing. The love in the room was awesome. I have all the time in the world for those gentlemen, low maintenance and high yield."

Aw ...and reciprocated in buckets Frank our friend... and he continued

"The after madness was as good again with Nigel doing an acoustic set downstairs as well.... after a two and a half hr set.... diamond. I must thank Math for trying to impart some undoubtedly sound advice but... the road less travelled my friend......... thank you for the sentiment with which it was give."

And finally there are many unsung heroes in the Dodgy camp but he even noticed and gave good words for...

"Their tour manager Jack deserves a mention in dispatches. Adaptive, professional, understanding and low maintenance mo fo indeed."

LOL .. and how true and very well deserved and nice to have in print.

So Liverpool was magnificent but it seems like LEEDS and promoters @GehoEvents might have had Gig Of The Tour (so far) lying in wait for us at The Cockpit the following night and Dodgy were refreshed, up for it and getting in our stride.

It seemed like we'd finally got it right.

Firstly a special mention must be made to Johnkneem who supported us. The note on his Facebook page says it all "Flight Instructor career curtailed by unfortunate bout of lung cancer. Back to song-writing it is then!" - it was his first ever gig apparently and the boy did well.
We are fully aware that this tour is a tough sell. Setting the parameters of our nightly set list by playing one entire album of new material followed by a complete rendition of the least commercially successful of our three albums but the response has been great, especially to the new album songs and there are more in the wings, we are enjoying a rich vein of writing at the moment we can't wait until sooner rather than later we can record those and play them live.

The way this tour has gone (as you might glean from previous posts) we were a bit nervous about the challenge and just about getting through it but in Leeds everything seemed to flow and the audience with us, even 'As My Time Goes By' from The Dodgy Album conducted itself in a tuneful becoming way.
By the time we got to the encore in Leeds we were definitely in the moment and slipped into our version of Frank Wilsons 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)', the song we recorded for our limited edition northern flavoured single last year and then finally 'Good Enough' - exhausted ...but boy what a gig
- thank you Leeds and a mention for the nice review in the Yorkshire Evening Post from Duncan Seaman (@DuncanSeamanYEP) with what look like some stunning accompanying live shots from Anthony Longstaff (@_alphotography) (one pic purloined below - we'd like to see more) - we really appreciate this recognition of our new songs and the only reason there are not more 'hits' played on this tour is purely the time constraints/curfews set by playing two other albums in full.

So took us a bit of time to post this and now we are in the midst of our Scilly Isles and Cornwall adventures but will save a report from here until later.

Next week the Back To Back Tour resumes at Bideford in Devon at The Palladium  and then the tour winds up in the North East - Whitley Bay and Hull at the end of June (we're also playing Stockton whilst we're up there)
Looking forward to it... on a roll...

DODGY hit LIVERPOOL, LEEDS on Back To Back Tour and Dodgy Day in Scotland

OK, we have two biggies this week for Dodgy on the BAck To Back Tour, where we are playing two albums in their entirety; Stand Upright In A cool Place the latest album by Dodgy ("They've just made the record of their career by a country mile" - thank you Word Magazine) and our debut The Dodgy Album.

It's the two big 'L's - LIVERPOOL (oh, Liverpool) @LomaxLiverpool tonight (Thurs May 23rd) and then LEEDS @CockpitLeeds tomorrow.
Liverpool because it's where it all began for Dodgy, certainly our recording career as The Dodgy Album was recorded in Parr Street Studios (@parrststudios) at the tail end of 1992 and early '93 - the studio was called Amazon back then and owned by the band Genesis and Leeds because May 24th is the actual day 20 years ago that The Dodgy Album was released. Please send all cards and flowers to the dressing room please.

DODGY have just returned from the last two Back To BAck dates around Scotland,

Dodgy Day in Greenock on Saturday and then Edinburgh on Sunday and as predicted it was a merry old occasion all round, hence the delayed bloggin here.
We arrived at Word Up (@worduptxt), the venue in GREENOCK at around 4pm in the afternoon and it might be construed that certain members of the local congregation were a little pished as Dodgy Day had been in effect for a few hours - we had some catching up to do. Organiser of the event was our good friend McD and other bands he had chosen to play with us were outstanding and top gents to boot, well certainly the ones we saw - The Soviets (@TheSovietsLive), Knock-On effect (@KnockOnEffect1), The Beat Movement (@BeatMovementThe) and The Method One, who featured a face we remember from a few years ago on bass, Sheer Taft who was signed to Creation. Incredible musicians and musicians being musicians we allowed ourselves to be persuaded by McD to attend the aftershow party.

EDINBURGH was as majestic as usual even though it was grey and cold.

The venue was the Voodoo Rooms (@voodoorooms), a beautiful place above a fantastic pub called the Cafe Royal that served rare single malts - it would have been rude not to. It was great to bump into dear old friend @scottmuldoon from @TheBluetones, who's greatest claim to fame was almost certainly appearing on the sleeve of 'Summer Fayre'  the very first release by Dodgy. Scott looked on fine form and discussed the idea of The Bluetones reforming - our lips are sealed.
We continue to be humbled by the general response out there to us playing these two albums in full, again we are sure there were some tears in the room in Edinburgh and that's not just from Stu who is playing bass with us and mislaid his pint.

We are gutted to here that the venue for our Bangor date on the Back To Back Tour has fallen through and been forced to cancel but hey, this is rock and roll there are bound to be casualties.
LOVE - LIVERPOOL - LEEDS

SCOTLAND - DODGY love you

Last night we hit Glasgow on the Back To Back Tour where DODGY are playing our latest album, Stand Upright In A Cool Place and The Dodgy Album our debut in full.. and yes, Glasgow turned out to be a stupidly ace gig and a very appreciative crowd you were too. There was actually a grown man shedding tears at the front but maybe that was because his wife had left him, we're not sure. It sounded great to us at the time so are looking forward to hearing the recording.

Got to give a shout out to Ripley (@ripleymusic) our opening act last night, they set things up nicely for a great evening.
Generally, we would avoid playing the O2 venues unless there is no alternative - charging £4.50 (FOUR POUNDS LONDON PRICES FIFTY!) a pint isn't our idea of enhancing a good night out and last night the venue management excelled themselves by warning us that if we played beyond their strict NINE THIRTY curfew they would ... fine us - now we know exactly how Bruce must have felt at Hyde Park last year. Playing two albums, in full, before half past nine - referee!
As a result we had to pull a couple of songs from the set - we had no qualms about sending 'As My Time Goes By' to the naughty step as readers of previous posts will appreciate but 'Never Again' had to take one for the team as well - ouch O2, these are our children and it hurts us to leave them behind.
Thanks to those in attendance though, who didn't seem too bothered and in fact a few of you said that you would come to Greenock tonight to hear the full set - that's the spirit.
There were plenty of requests for what we played in the encore last night covering a surprising range from our back catalogue - 'Summer Fayre' and 'Every Single Day' anyone, in fact we did manage a couple of bars of that one and for the first time on this tour we trotted out 'In A Room' and from where we were it sounded immense.

TONIGHT (Saturday 17th May) WORD UP (@worduptxt) GREENOCK
Today, in the lead up to tonight's gig, has been designated DODGY DAY in Greenock, a special place for us, it's not too late, pack your bag and Be there - Back To Back just gets Better and Better

DODGY from Cannock to Dodgy Day in Greenock (remembering '96)

Oh Cannock, Cannock... Cannock (did we slur that last one, sorry). Yes, Cannock on a Friday night and Dodgy rolled into town last Friday with the Back To Back Tour, playing two albums in their entirety; our latest STand Upright In A Cool Place and the debut The Dodgy Album which we delivered to the world 20 years ago - hard to believe eh?

Each new tour is a journey .. of course it is, a silly thing to say, it IS literally a journey but it's also ... a journey, especially when you take on a particular challenge which we have set ourselves on this particular excursion.
Each new gig you learn something new about the songs and yourselves and in Cannock we discovered that even at this point in the proceedings it is sometimes difficult to tame one's exuberance. A big thank you to the promoters for looking after us, this was one of their first gigs and well handled and we wish them all the best with future events.

This coming weekend 17-19th May DODGY say loudly "HELLO SCOTLAND"
Three gigs over three nights Friday (May 17th) in GLASGOW @O2ABC , Saturday (May 18th) (designated Dodgy Day) in GREENOCK @worduptxt and then on Sunday (May 19th) in Edinburgh @voodoorooms
Normally when approaching Scotland we might make sure that we play either Glasgow or Edinburgh and then if it's Glasgow everyone in Edinburgh says "Why didn't you come to Edinburgh?" and if it's Edinburgh the opposite happens - so for the BAck To BAck tour we have thrown caution to the wind and are doing both. Sandwiched between, on Saturday we return to one of our favourite towns on these isles Greenock where we have great memories of bringing our Big Top Tour to Battery Park.

Our Big Top Trip was one of the first of it's kind at the time - previously Ronnie Lane from The Faces had tried touring in a circus tent but it was considered a folly and our promoter was very sceptical but as was typical with Dodgy we wouldn't be told and once we pulled it bands like Radiohead and Primal Scream followed suit.
Each Big Top gig was special in it's own way and we have great memories of each one but there was something that carved Greenock with some special memories. It seems that the same goes for the people of Greenock, so much so that our return on Saturday has been designated Dodgy Day - honoured we are. We are also extremely pleased that we will be catching up with our old friend McD - he was responsible for bringing our original Big Top to Greenock and now the return and has had some enormous recent challenges but he will be there, which brings big smiles and MDV to all of us.
COME ON SCOTLAND - LET'S AV IT! - Who's coming to all three?

An inspiraled gig with Dodgy in Bury - BAck To BAck

So BURY @themet was the second of the BACK TO BACK Tour dates with DODGY and what a night - we are getting to grips with playing all the songs from both our most recent album Stand Upright In A Cool Place and The Dodgy Album and even  'As My Time Goes By' our personal bugbear remains on the set list, stubborn little fella that it is.

Once again Dodgy were quite humbled by the audience reaction, which is proving to make this seem not the mammoth task it appeared when we began. Although we have been painstakingly clear what the Back To Back Tour is all about and how beyond focusing on those two albums we simply don't have the time to play many more songs, we might expect to hear at least one heckle of dissent, a jarring "Grassman!" yelped from the back but as yet the crowds have been lovely, so thank you.

Last night's special guest was Tom Hingley (@tomhingleymusic), a proper gentleman he was too and a great pleasure to have play with us. Tom played an impressive set of his own songs before our first set and then jumped back on and played a few Inspirals hits before our second set of The Dodgy Album songs. Listening to you lot sing along to Tom performing This Is How It Feels To Be Lonely was a special moment - thank you Tom.

After the two albums there was enough time and feedback from the audience for us to play Good Enough and Nige wanted to play If You're Thinking Of Me which we did and an inspired choice as it went down a storm. Song of the night had to be 'Only A Heartbeat' from Stand Upright In A Cool Place though. For those that didn't manage to catch the video for this song when it was released as a single check it out below.

So all in all a great gig in Bury and thanks to Jane Lavender (@janelavvieBN) @TheBoltonNews for the Twitterpic of last nights gig above and this smashing hot off the press REVIEW:
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/leisure/boltonmusic/music_reviews

Tonight (Fri 10th May) we expect even bigger things from Cannock and there's a rumour that  Jon Brookes from @thecharlatans might be popping down, who's new documentary #MountainPicnicBlues about the making of Telling Stories we are looking forward to seeing very much.
This just gets better and better - hope to see you at one of these shows soon

Dodgy Back To Back Tour underway

SO, the Back To Back Tour is underway, with Dodgy playing latest album Stand Upright In A Cool Place in it's entirety along with our debut The Dodgy Album.

AT this very moment knocking this out as we are about to do a live session for @BBCLancashire and then on to BURY @themet for tonight's gig. Here we are soundchecking at the BBC

It was a great tour opener last night in Wales at Theatr @Brycheiniog in Brecon, a few nerves beforehand as the enormity of our self-inflicted epic adventure was realised. We still hadn't quite decided which set of songs to begin with but in the end opted for Stand Upright In A Cool Place and never have those songs sounded so sweet all together and appreciated by you out there in the audience.

We had a couple of rehearsals revisiting the songs on The Dodgy Album but launching into playing them live brought the memories flooding back, not simply because we are playing songs that we haven't played for 20 years but also because an important member of our team at that time Damage, turned up, he used to handle all the merchandising for Dodgy and much much more. Playing these songs is wonderful, fun and only occasionally a bit of  "what were we thinking there?" - If you can be blown away by one of your own tunes then 'Satisfied' gets it from all of us and by the looks and response from the audience, you are going to think so to.
We do have a problem child though and that is the little one we called 'As My Time Goes By'  he's naughty bad and generally wrong - some corporal punishment might be required in the coming nights or might even consider grounding - we will let you know.
We are doing a bit of audience consultation on the Back To Back Tour and last night managed to squeeze in two extra songs 'Good Enough' and 'Staying Out For The Summer' which is enjoying a bit of chart action in this week's @NME at No.72 - NUMBER SEVENTY TWO! in their 100 Greatest Britpop Songs which is ... interesting.

Tom Hingley @tomhingleymusic is joining us tonight in Bury  - should be a stormer
OK back to that radio session - listening 'll
Back To Back - we'll keep you updated x