Dodgy, River Cottage and How To Make A Crisp Sandwich

Been a very busy week and before we begin, congratulations to Noel Gallagher for his No.1 album with High Flying Birds; nothing against Matt Cardle but it's reassuring that Noel wasn't pipped to the post by an X-Factor winner, another strong argument for bigging up Why Music Matters.

So Dodgy are at the halfway point, on our tour previewing the new album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place', the legs are starting to ache but encouraging cheers from the crowd are spurring us on to the end. To continue this marathon / fun run analogy, we also seem to be surrounded by men dressed as chickens and we're taking in far too much fluid for this stage of the race.
Indeed our show at Whitstable on Sunday marked the half way point for our Autumn Tour and all is calm in Camp Dodgy. Top DJ Gary Crowley played 'What Became Of You' from the new album on Saturday on his BBC London new music show (you can listen to the show HERE ) and we heard the news at River Cottage which made us all very happy bunnies and also provided a delicious slice of serendipity as Gary reminded everyone that he was the first DJ EVER to play Dodgy, back in 1990 on his 'Demo Clash' part of his Sunday afternoon show on BBC GLR.
 
The weekend started in mighty Frome on Friday. Oi, if there are any bands reading this - go to Frome! There's an amazing venue there called the Cheese And Grain (Cheesy Groin to friends) and it's seriously under used and join in with the anti-Tesco campaign whilst you're there http://saxonvalesupermarket.blogspot.com/

On Saturday it was the Dodgy @ River Cottage event (above) and we were determined to keep the price for Dine With Dodgy At River Cottage as low as we possibly could and certainly below the £100 mark and because of this we knew we wouldn't be making a penny from the evening (though we did get a free meal) so it's understandable why quite a few...er...more money minded folk asked us why we were doing it. Well you just have to look at the pics and messages on dodgyuk Facebook wall this week to see why.
Here are just a few of the many messages we've had -

"Definitely one of the best nights ever"
"Awesome evening. Truly one of those once in a blue moon events that the wife and I will remember and treasure.
I truly hope that the new album is a runaway success for you all"

Well there you go. Just a couple of reasons why we did it.  A special mention must go to the French contingent who were so keen that they arrived an hour early as we were setting up and then proceeded to make friends with EVERYONE in England.
Here's a little video blog that hopefully gives you a flavour of the day for us.

Also, I'm sorry but how on Earth do you expect us to have the free run of the place and not do this

And we must thank the wonderful folk down at River Cottage who were beyond helpful, in fact they reached a plane of zen helpfulness where they knew what we wanted before we knew. Just amazing.

If our starter was the cheese (and Grain) in Frome on Friday, River Cottage the main course on Saturday, then Sunday in beautiful Whitstable was a top class dessert of a gig to finish off the weekend, where Nigel tried to take the piss out of my beard onstage by saying I looked like a fisherman. In a fishing town. OOPS. But he somehow managed to pull himself out of that mess by writing a brand new impromptu song, Everyone Loves A Fisherman, such an instant classic that it was played twice in a row and was in danger of over shadowing our 'proper' new songs. If anyone at the Whitstable gig managed to film or record that then please send it through or put it up on facebook.
We made another wee video bloggy whilst we were there. Just waiting for the call from the Whitstable tourist office now

This weekend we'll be playing 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' in Winchester @ The Railway on Friday (28th), scene of a tremendous gig earlier in the year and then a triumphant return to Kingston on Saturday (29th) @ The Peel, the place where it all started for Dodgy back in 1990 when we used to host the Infamous Dodgy Club in Bacchus Wine Bar on Union St. If any old Dodgy Club members are reading this then please get in touch. Will let you know how it goes...
This crisp sandwich is delicious....

Dodgy in Guildford, St. Helens - A Tale Of Two Towns

Last weekend we had two gigs on the Dodgy tour, where we are focusing on playing the new album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' in it's entirety. The purpose of the tour is to give you people out there a preview of the new album, see if you like the songs as much as we do and hopefully encourage some pre-orders on the night, so that the album gets a good lift off when it is released next year.
We are honestly loving all of these gigs to bits and hopefully giving the new songs a boost everytime we play them but it's certainly a learning experience. A couple of people have tweeted and texted about the Guildford gig for instance, at the Boileroom, saying that they were annoyed that some people talked through the songs. Honestly, don't worry, it's a gig; we expect people to come along, meet up with their mates and enjoy it however they might seem fit, and we know it's a big ask, playing a whole bunch of new songs in one go, however much faith we have in those songs. Luckily there's also been loads of positive feedback and we learnt some lessons in Guildford that we were able to put into action the next night.

The weekend certainly was a tale of two cities, well more like towns actually; A Tale Of Two Towns is alliteratively (hope any past English teachers aren't reading this) a lot better, so you were missing a trick there Mr. Dickens old son - and a tale of two very contrasting towns at that .
There's Guildford, with its art galleries, top of the range cars, its busy Karen Millen and Kath Kidson shops and its recession proof glittering jacket - though I was put right by a recently made redundant Dodgy fan that hard times (you see, got another Dickens book in there) are indeed hitting Surrey as well.
Then on Saturday it was up north to St. Helens and before anyone says anything OK, I've googled it and of course St. Helens does have galleries but gives the impression of being like a different country, a different decade even. It was 8pm on Saturday night and the streets were deserted, no-one around - pubs and restaurants boarded up and the few pubs that were open had posters in the cracked window advertising "£3 entry / 50p a pint" and scared looking bouncers outside giving me a look that said "please don't come in here, you look relatively normal, flee while you still have the chance".
Dodgy have got quite friendly over the years with Johnny Vegas, actor and comedian, he comes from St. Helens and told us how it was a 'new town', developed with fine intentions after WW11 to get people out of what were becoming slums in the bigger towns but unlike Crawley, St. Helens hadn't quite worked, especially when there's only one major employer left in the town, Pilkington's glass. But as you find with a lot of these towns and cities - the bleakest looking place conversely contains the warmest and most generous inhabitants.
We were impressed by the fine looking audiences in both towns but a big shout out to some of you in Guildford; we are very much digging the 'vietnam vet' chic that several of you rocked up sporting on Friday - the tye dye, beard, sunglasses and cap look is seriously rocking our world  -  and that's just the ladies.

In St. Helens, the ritual of the pre-gig drink took us to one of the only bars we could find open in the town centre on Saturday (apart from the fighting arena mentioned earlier) and it was empty apart from a group of about 8 people of both sexes and varying ages acting out what can only be described as the old English definition of BEDLAM - madness, chaos and confusion. We'd get shouting, football songs, arguments, crying, kissing and laughing but all simultaneously and as LOUD as they possibly could. It was quite amazing to watch. They were obviously quite excited about the new Harvey Nichols opening up in town...
the gig turned out to be one of the best yet on the tour. We felt we were better and more inviting and as a result the audience were incredible - singing along to the the new ones, dancing, smiling and just thoroughly enjoying themselves, us and each others company. We loved it and made it all worthwhile. So thank you, any doubts we had have been well and truly swept away...

This coming weekend takes on a distinctly culinary feel. We commence with the fromage at the Cheese And Grain in Frome on Friday (21st Oct), enjoy fine cuisine at the special Dodgy night at the River Cottage on Saturday night (22nd) and then pop down to Whitstable for oysters at East Quay on Sunday (Oct 23rd)....yum yum