And so nearly Christmas....
It's funny; we've just been asked to write some notes on our song 'What Became Of You', with the exciting news that a slightly edited version is going to be the first single from the new Dodgy album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' next year. It got us thinking, how similar circumstances are now to when we were first trying to break through as a a band. It's been a little contemplative round here because last week Dodgy completed all live dates for 2011 and after being humbled by the positive reaction to the tour where we played the whole of the new album, it was nice to bring things to a close with a club date at the This Feeling Xmas Party at The Queen Of Hoxton. It was a suitably boisterous jolly-up and I think Dodgy guitarist Andy summed it up quite succinctly "the gig was fun .. with an attractive young crowd.. who had the span of their attention pushed to the extremes of our 45 minute set and appeared relieved there wasn't an exam at the end ;-)".
The Dodgy set list included 'What Became Of You, 'Staying Out For the Summer' went down a storm and we finished with a cover of The Who's 'The Kids Are Alright' .. sweet. A big shout out as well to the other bands that played: the Kasabianesque rocking of The Bibelots, the truly dynamic Elsie and great to catch up with DJ Maggot from Goldie Lookin Chain, who told us all the secrets of Celebrity Big Brother.
So live dates over for another year and the legendary Sir Keith of Richards best sums up how it can be very disorientating when a tour comes to an end, he compares it to withdrawal symptoms from hard drugs, something that he may well know something about but we couldn't possibly comment. It's particularly hard, when with all our time and resources spent this year getting the new album together, our main source of income is Dodgy playing gigs. So having returned to the hearth to discover last year's tinsel brushing our heads as we came through the door, there's the realisation that no more gigs before Christmas means that littl'uns in Dodgy households will be somewhat Tiny Tim'd this year, we find ourselves paying more attention to the Iceland TV ads than the Waitrose ones and our Christmas trees, though standing upright in a cool place, droop well short of the ceiling. For some reason other Blog subjects present themselves, like; will we allow the new album to be streamed on the likes of Spotify, with growing evidence that the financial implications might be damaging? Should we line-up with the likes of The Black Keys and say 'No'? Current feeling is that may well be the case but we'll discuss it later.
>moving off topic alert!
OK, it does however bring me back to my point, that at a time when we are all feeling the pinch of recession, the last time this happened in the UK was in the early 1990's, the time when Dodgy were first trying to break through as a band. As far as I can remember music-wise, at that time there seemed to be too much bad grunge about and UK bands seemed a bit aimless. Personally I remained a big Dexy's Midnight Runners fan and The Stone Roses held a lot of the weight of hope for British music, the band we liked going to see was Primal Scream, then cue Dodgy and 'Staying Out For The Summer' which we never envisaged as a poignant anthem but to a certain degree was, though you wouldn't know it if your only knowledge of the song was via the video... perhaps the less said about that the better.
So now guess what? 2012 coming round the corner, another recession and new recordings expected from The Stone Roses (recently signed two new recording contracts), Dexy's new album in the bag expected soon and Dodgy likewise - Oh come ye merry gentlemen, saviours we'll see.
We'd like to think that there's a case for 'What Became Of You' being a song of and for these times and lyrically at least is our take on the old adage of 'don't let the truth stand in the way of a good story', which is quite sweet when recalling a harmless tale about your auntie but when it comes to vitally important issues that affect peoples' lives then you’d think the truth is essential, yet major institutions still rely on spin, mistruths and blatant lies to convince us that their ideals hold weight and probably at least partly to blame for the mess we are in now. All that and a catchy tune - what more could you ask for?
There were plans to include in this post some hard cutting edge pontificating on the subject of Twitter but that can be left until a later date but yes, if you are Twitter inclined you can start to follow us @DodgyUK and if you haven't already signed up to our emailing list then do so at www.dogyology.com if only to catch the benefits of access to remaining days gifts on the Dodgy Advent Calender 2011 where we've still got some goodies to give away. Also if you do whatever it takes to 'like' us on Facebook there's some exclusive stuff there as well.
Finally we are awaiting a schedule of album launch dates in February but we can announce the London date at The Bush Hall on Wednesday 22nd February - click HERE for details
It's funny; we've just been asked to write some notes on our song 'What Became Of You', with the exciting news that a slightly edited version is going to be the first single from the new Dodgy album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' next year. It got us thinking, how similar circumstances are now to when we were first trying to break through as a a band. It's been a little contemplative round here because last week Dodgy completed all live dates for 2011 and after being humbled by the positive reaction to the tour where we played the whole of the new album, it was nice to bring things to a close with a club date at the This Feeling Xmas Party at The Queen Of Hoxton. It was a suitably boisterous jolly-up and I think Dodgy guitarist Andy summed it up quite succinctly "the gig was fun .. with an attractive young crowd.. who had the span of their attention pushed to the extremes of our 45 minute set and appeared relieved there wasn't an exam at the end ;-)".
The Dodgy set list included 'What Became Of You, 'Staying Out For the Summer' went down a storm and we finished with a cover of The Who's 'The Kids Are Alright' .. sweet. A big shout out as well to the other bands that played: the Kasabianesque rocking of The Bibelots, the truly dynamic Elsie and great to catch up with DJ Maggot from Goldie Lookin Chain, who told us all the secrets of Celebrity Big Brother.
So live dates over for another year and the legendary Sir Keith of Richards best sums up how it can be very disorientating when a tour comes to an end, he compares it to withdrawal symptoms from hard drugs, something that he may well know something about but we couldn't possibly comment. It's particularly hard, when with all our time and resources spent this year getting the new album together, our main source of income is Dodgy playing gigs. So having returned to the hearth to discover last year's tinsel brushing our heads as we came through the door, there's the realisation that no more gigs before Christmas means that littl'uns in Dodgy households will be somewhat Tiny Tim'd this year, we find ourselves paying more attention to the Iceland TV ads than the Waitrose ones and our Christmas trees, though standing upright in a cool place, droop well short of the ceiling. For some reason other Blog subjects present themselves, like; will we allow the new album to be streamed on the likes of Spotify, with growing evidence that the financial implications might be damaging? Should we line-up with the likes of The Black Keys and say 'No'? Current feeling is that may well be the case but we'll discuss it later.
>moving off topic alert!
OK, it does however bring me back to my point, that at a time when we are all feeling the pinch of recession, the last time this happened in the UK was in the early 1990's, the time when Dodgy were first trying to break through as a band. As far as I can remember music-wise, at that time there seemed to be too much bad grunge about and UK bands seemed a bit aimless. Personally I remained a big Dexy's Midnight Runners fan and The Stone Roses held a lot of the weight of hope for British music, the band we liked going to see was Primal Scream, then cue Dodgy and 'Staying Out For The Summer' which we never envisaged as a poignant anthem but to a certain degree was, though you wouldn't know it if your only knowledge of the song was via the video... perhaps the less said about that the better.
So now guess what? 2012 coming round the corner, another recession and new recordings expected from The Stone Roses (recently signed two new recording contracts), Dexy's new album in the bag expected soon and Dodgy likewise - Oh come ye merry gentlemen, saviours we'll see.
We'd like to think that there's a case for 'What Became Of You' being a song of and for these times and lyrically at least is our take on the old adage of 'don't let the truth stand in the way of a good story', which is quite sweet when recalling a harmless tale about your auntie but when it comes to vitally important issues that affect peoples' lives then you’d think the truth is essential, yet major institutions still rely on spin, mistruths and blatant lies to convince us that their ideals hold weight and probably at least partly to blame for the mess we are in now. All that and a catchy tune - what more could you ask for?
There were plans to include in this post some hard cutting edge pontificating on the subject of Twitter but that can be left until a later date but yes, if you are Twitter inclined you can start to follow us @DodgyUK and if you haven't already signed up to our emailing list then do so at www.dogyology.com if only to catch the benefits of access to remaining days gifts on the Dodgy Advent Calender 2011 where we've still got some goodies to give away. Also if you do whatever it takes to 'like' us on Facebook there's some exclusive stuff there as well.
Finally we are awaiting a schedule of album launch dates in February but we can announce the London date at The Bush Hall on Wednesday 22nd February - click HERE for details
