Hey folks,
So Dodgy have a new single out this week. You may have heard it a couple of times on Radio 2 in between JLS and Gary Barlow.
The new single from Dodgy is the song 'Only A Heartbeat'.
If you've seen us live this year or if you have the album, Stand Upright In A Cool Place (if not it's only a heartbeat/click away @ amazon.co.uk) then you'll know the song, though not this version. It has been rejigged for the radio (...ahem) for us by the Texan hero, known as Matt Pence who mixed the album for us as well as great albums by John Grant and Midlake.
If you've seen us live this year or if you have the album, Stand Upright In A Cool Place (if not it's only a heartbeat/click away @ amazon.co.uk) then you'll know the song, though not this version. It has been rejigged for the radio (...ahem) for us by the Texan hero, known as Matt Pence who mixed the album for us as well as great albums by John Grant and Midlake.
You also may know the song as it accompanied the incredible short film made with Dodgy by the super talented Kris Thompson. So powerful is this film that not only has it been known to make children inconsolable for half an hour (yeah, nice one Kris!) but the homeless charity Crisis used it to promote their campaign No One Turned Away, which achieved an, up until then elusive, feature in The Sun newspaper.
OK, so imagine that this new single release from Dodgy was an actual 7" single, well flip the single over and lets talk about the 'B sides'.
Besides being the centre forward with Dodgy, Nigel also works with kids with special educational needs in his native Worcestershire, shows them how to express themselves through writing songs, something he finds incredibly rewarding and indeed his experiences with these kids fed into his own songwriting and made Stand Upright In A Cool Place the album it is.
In one such school he works with, Pitcheroak School in Redditch, he and the kids hit upon the idea of writing a song for the school, so they wrote the lyrics together and Nigel recorded them singing it. Dodgy then worked on adding bits a few days later at Vale Studios near Evesham and 'Pitcheroak' is the finished song.
All proceeds from this song will be channelled back into further arts projects at the school.
When the Dodgy entered Vale Studios back in April, we had a plan to work on a couple of brand new Dodgy songs for the B sides, a couple of belters they are as well, but they were blown off course.
Firstly when Nigel came in with the bare bones of the Pitcheroak tune, which understandably took precedence, but also with the news that Dodgy paragon, Levon Helm from The Band was gravely ill. So the boys hit upon the idea of covering a Band tune, to send some love from the UK over to New York. We decided upon Long Black Veil (not strictly a Band tune, but one they made their own) and when we emerged from the live room after finally nailing our version, we were met with the news that Levon had gone.
"It was a bit freaky" Mathew said "I mean, if we were twats we'd say that the spirit of Levon was guiding us. But we're not. Well, not this time"
You can download all three songs from iTunes - just click the iTunes logo below
Catch the the phenomenal Dodgy show live this Summer www.dodgyology.com/
Watch this space for news of two very special shows happening later this year, one with a Northern twist, one involving tinsel.
Take good care now
M.A.N.
