NOT on the Dodgy agenda - no CD formats after 2012?

As we ease our way back in to the business side of this thing called show, we like to keep abreast of new developments, for instance in Side-Line music magazine a couple of weeks ago, there was an article headlined "CD-format to be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012". It's not a particularly well written or edited article, ex: "It's a move that makes completely sense." ??? -  but basically its claiming to blow the whistle on how the major labels plan to abandon the CD-format by the end of 2012 (or even earlier) and replace it with download/stream only releases via iTunes and related music services.

It just struck us as interesting, as Dodgy have been putting a lot of effort into making sure that our new album Stand Upright In A Cool Place is as complete a package as possible. In many ways the loss of packaging, which is in essence what discontinuing CD formats would be, is something which takes this era of rockandroll pop music back to its origins. Digressing a bit and you may not be aware of this but for instance,  up to including and beyond Dodgy signing our major record deal with A&M, most record contracts include a 'packaging deduction' which was always a rip off and means that the record company deduct 25% of the artist's royalties for putting the release in a record or CD sleeve (a matter of pence in costs if you're producing in bulk). I was about to say, that hopefully in this digital age especially where downloads are concerned that 'deduction' doesn't happen anymore. .. Hey look - wrong... enter Mr. Chuck D.
It turns out that Chuck is in the process of suing Universal Music on the grounds that for each download that's bought for 99cents.. he gets just 8cents and guess what? The first thing that the record company do when calculating how much of the money they are going to pass on for sending a track from their server to your computer is in US language ... a 25% 'container charge for audiophile records' - yes, you've got it, a packaging deduction. Now as a practiced recycler, I hope that all you people downloading tracks out there are behaving responsibly and disposing of any extraneous packaging you find sensibly, if you're running out of disc space...now you know why, it's all the packaging from the downloads!! - Check out the story on Chuck D vs Universal Music @ http://www.digitalmusicnews.com it even has a photocopy of the royalty statement showing how it's calculated.

Anyway, where were we, ah yes... it would appear that in the 50's and 60's, packaging and/or artwork wasn't considered important, it was all about the 'song' in many ways, so not that different from iTunes etc. now. B-sides were considered throw away tracks and the format 7" inch vinyl singles, were mostly sold in functional generic single bags for each record company. Though it's ironic that even these have now become interesting design artifacts in their own right. Here are a couple, we particularly like the Tamla Motown one
- essentially though, it was just about the music - the vinyl and the packaging just being the means of delivery.

I don't think it was really until the advent of the second wave of vinyl albums that the real heyday of album artwork came into its own - the first wave of albums, The Beatles / Rolling Stones etc usually had to include a pic of the band.
There you go - a question - what was the first Beatles album not to feature a pic of the band on the cover?
And while I'm in Bob Holness mode - what's your favourite album artwork? (after The Dodgy Album by Dodgy, of course) - answers on a postcard. (or you could just reply below, after all, we're trying to save on paper)
For singles it was really the coming of punk at the end of the 70's where the art work and picture sleeves gave a colourful boost to the music and as CDs became the norm, the artwork still retained its effect, albeit on a smaller scale.

In the early days of Dodgy we were lucky that my brother was a graphic artist, he lived in the Dodgy house (nearly burnt it down, twice) and was getting to be as on top of his game with the artwork as we were getting there with the music. Again he was essential to the whole Massive Dodgy Vibe and was probably from that point of view, just as much one of its architects and still has a beady eye on what we are doing with the band. Here's the artwork for the very first Dodgy single ... the three of us are all to be seen in the photo somewhere, along with a young cherubic Bluetones or two and a variety of other Dodgy characters from our story.

For the new Dodgy album we are extremely lucky to have hooked up with Russell Hardman (www.growabrain.co.uk) another inspired and inspiring artist. Let's say fate brought us together. Perhaps if we'd decided to come back releasing singles then we might not have bothered with artwork, or we may have even created our own Dodgy, Tamla Motown/Stax inspired generic sleeve, but as we began writing it quickly became clear that what we were creating was 'an album' - a collection of songs that mean a lot to us, need to be played together and deserved an encompassing artwork to complete the package. Which is why we are happy that Strikeback Records are making the album available as a CD and also a limited edition heavy vinyl version - you can order it now if you like, sorry couldn't resist the plug.  And that is why, for the moment, we believe that getting rid of physical formats of our releases, is definitely not on today's Dodgy agenda and while we'll probably be popping into Spillers Records in Cardiff tomorrow to see what bargains we can find before our gig at Club Ifor Bach in the evening... anybody know the Welsh for 'see you there'? x

Dodgy Twin Towned in Swansea, cupcakes and "Yes, you may go to the Noel"

As everyone probably knows by now (with the apparent exception of one particularly annoying chap in Swansea), Dodgy are currently touring the UK with the specific brief of previewing live our new album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place', before its release early in 2012.
The pace has stepped up a bit this week; we popped up in London @thebowerylondon on Tuesday before continuing around the country with gigs in Swansea @garagevenue, Warrington Osale Rooms and Stratford @coxsyard. The London gig was a one-off, as it turns out 'not so secret' gig, enabling us to get a few media/press types along. It helped that we've had a few weeks sharpening the songs up and at the end of the night the verdict seemed to be a smiley thumbs up from everyone involved. A big thanks also to The Rise, who were our guests on the night and did a great set.
Check out Chapper's blog for a more comprehensive take on London here clairchapman.wordpress.com

A slight departure from Dodgy activity on Wednesday, staying in London for an event at the Royal Festival Hall to see @stephenfry and friends celebrate the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens, the journalist, free thinker, drinker and smoker. Sadly he has cancer and was supposed to actually be in conversation with Mr Fry but he just wasn't well enough, hence the legion of friends lined up to talk about the great man. Oh Boy and what friends he has - Sean Penn, Richard Dawkins, Salman Rushdie, James Fenton, Martin Amis, Ian Mcewan, Bungle and Katie Price*. OK, a couple of those were made up but a fascinating evening and I urge you to look up his books if you don't know his work. My favourite quote of the evening came from a text to Stephen Fry from Ian Mcewan who was by Hitch's bedside, "the Rolls Royce mind is still purring"

After that cultural interlude, it's back to Dodgy in Swansea. We perhaps regret alerting people to the connection between Dodgy and the film 'Twin Town'. The film set in Swansea, was probably the first major film role for Rhys Ifans and as 'Good Enough' is on the soundtrack, Dodgy performed at the film's original premiere there.

TT is a tough spirited film, peppered with dark humour, pretty random violence, vandalism and miscreant characters and now, as the three of us stood staring at the shattered window of Nigel's car,  with him one sat nav and pair of sunglasses the poorer and we having to cope with post-gig inyourface ramblings of an audience member complaining about the way we ordered the songs in the set, can only think that sometimes art reflects life in uncanny ways. We were just as surprised as our haranguer though, when behind us he was struck to the ground by a more supportive fan who had overheard the somewhat one-sided conversation. Now, Dodgy do not condone violence in any way but have to admit, it Twin Towned! the situation and curtailed the harassment, it was like a living embodiment of the Internet forum, where the trolls get policed by the decent folk. If he felt that he had a point, it was that we didn't play any old songs in the first half of the set but as mentioned above, we couldn't have made it clearer, that the whole aim of these current tour dates is exactly that; we are playing the new album in its entirety at the beginning of the evening and we also make efforts to explain that during the set - luckily the rest of Swansea responded with great feedback and we continue to be assured that we are doing the right thing. Onwards and upwards

Warrington, the following night was another sold out gig and calm by comparison, in fact there was a distinctly village fete feel, with Dodgy cupcakes for sale courtesy of a dodgy fan called Sarah Beardmore who is raising funds to rebuild an orphanage in Mombassa in Africa with the Girl Guides www.stoneoutward.co.uk/

Dodgy, girl-guides, stop smirking you there at the back, no girl guides were allowed in the venue, apart from the lovely Sarah who's more like a Big Girl Guide. She also made a big Album cake which we should auction off really, shouldn't we?

Nice support again in Warrington from Selfish Lovers and Bill Davro, definitely worth checking out.

And so all roads lead to the birthplace of the bard with a sold out Stratford Upon Avon show and a homecoming of sorts for Nigel and myself. It was also a chance to meet up with some fans/friends from further afield who had booked B&Bs making a night of it and the guitarist and bass player from the very first band that Nigel and I were in back when the 80's became the 90's - Four was the band and no, there are no Facebook or Myspace profiles, there was however a shout for one of our songs from way back then. Crikey!
On stage our guest support band was the mighty Electric Soft Parade who have been zig zagging across the country, alternating support slots with us and Noel Gallagher - there, a band endorsed by Dodgy and Noel, a sure ticket to success - anyway, after the gig they came up with a special request, asking our permission (bless em - as if it was needed) to not do the last two dates of our tour in Bristol and St. Albans, as they'd been asked to continue with Noel on his European dates. Well, what would you have said, a no brainer really, we hugged and wished them well on their way with a little wink that they should nudge Noel to listen to the new Dodgy songs, as we quite fancy being his guests when he plays UK arenas next year.
Another old friend that turned up in Stratford was Grandmaster Gareth, as well as being the creative force behind and in front of the ever wonderful Misty's Big Adventure , he is a pretty mean force with a mix tape - you might well have caught Misty's on tour with Dodgy before and if you haven't heard them yet they are on tour at the moment and have a new album The Family Amusement Centre out now.

While I'm on the plugs and recommendation tip, look out for the reissue/revamp of one of the greatest albums ever made - Quadrophenia by The Who. It's a towering piece of music and quite rightly Pete Townsend calls it his favourite Who album. It's an album we keep going back to and it never disappoints. This reissue comes with a CD of almost complete demos that Pete made in 72/73, which is amazing to listen to as the songs are almost fully formed and certainly makes me marvel at the genius of the precocious 27 year old. One of the greatest nights in the pantheon of great Dodgy nights is when we tried to blag tickets to see The Who performing Quadrophenia at the MEN arena in Manchester in 1996 only to be told that we could.. but only if we turned up and became the support band - I'll let you work out what the outcome was....

back in Wales this weekend, so see you in Cardiff on Saturday...x x

*APOLOGY - for the gratuitous mention/link to KP in the context of appraising a serious cultural event

Dodgy looking forward to @thebowerylondon and 'Only A Heartbeat'

Having set ourselves the task of previewing all of the songs from the forthcoming album on the current tour, it's been educational to nurture the little buggers into blossoming flowers. Take 'Only A Heartbeat' for instance - it has always gone down well, especially on the recent gigs where it appears to be resonating with a lot of people. Nigel wrote it about losing someone very close to him and in Brighton @ The Concorde2 gig we had a request beforehand to dedicate a song to a chap who had died a year earlier, so that was the obvious choice and gave the whole performance an added poignancy.

Mormons and drunken men in England shirts are very high on my list of things to avoid, not far behind are using the words 'mature' and 'grown up' to describe our new album. It's lazy and an easy trap to fall into and I'm as guilty as anyone, whenever I feel those words forming in my mouth I immediately think of Dennis Locorriere and Charlie Landsborough, with their beards......er..... shit. (see pics)

I prefer what some chap said at the weekend - "the new material is like Dodgy but a bit older and a lot better" - I know it's not ideal but as I was explaining to a journalist last week, we're not writing about the same things we did when we were younger and themes like religion, dishonesty, regret, hardship and addiction don't quite match up to the happy-go-lucky, chirpy image some folk have of us, but hey.

We now make a welcome return to a our occasional feature - Interesting Facts We Learn as We Travel Around The UK, part 73

1. NEWARK is an anagram of WANKER (though any inferences weren't apparent in the people that turned out to see Dodgy)
2. The area in Brighton favoured by the dogging community is called Duke's Mound.

This week is a busy Dodgy week. We are all looking forward to our not-so-secret gig tomorrow (Tuesday 8th Nov) @thebowerylondon. You will find this gig in Saturday's Guardian Guide listed as 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' with no mention of Dodgy - that's because the set we play at 8.30pm will be the whole new album - perhaps if we'd added 'performed by Dodgy' it might have been clearer. Anyway that's what we are doing but are not ruling out any surprises or extra curricular activity later in the evening.
I will be staying down in London to see Stephen Fry interview the incredible but sadly, very ill Christopher Hitchens at the South Bank on Wednesday - before anyone comments, I realise that those words 'mature' and 'grown up' might come flying back to haunt me.. but hey...
Then its onwards and Dodgy will be coming to play for all of you folk in Swansea, Warrington and Stratford - This will be a good stretch of dates and I'm not sure Dodgy have been in Swansea since we played at the premiere of the film 'Twin Town' with our friend Rhys Ifans set in that fine city.. come along and I'll tell you the stories.... take care now

Dodgy Dara O'Briain , James Levy And The Blood Red Rose in London

This post is a postcript to the previous one:  'Dodgy Ryan Giggs, (not so) Secret London gig, Kingston and We Need To Talk About Winchester' which hopefully you've had time to read.

On route to the Dodgy gig in Newark, a night was spent out in London. Couldn't turn down the invitation from Heavenly Records to see their brand new signing James Levy And The Blood Red Rose at The Social, performing as a duo involving  the dark one (Alison)  from The Pierces - you should deffo check out 'Sneak Into My Room' - lush. Then popped in to a friend from the BBC's leaving party and hassled Dara O'Briain. Do I look like I'm bothering him? Mentioning the fact that Dodgy will be back down and performing live in London next Tuesday (Nov 8th) to whoever would listen.

Dodgy Ryan Giggs, (not so) Secret London gig, Kingston and We Need To Talk About Winchester

On Tuesday (Nov 8th) Dodgy are bringing 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' to The Bowery in central London. This is a tiny showcase gig and as we just intend to play the new album live - it was originally listed just under the name of the album and a 'secret gig' for Dodgy but even before Gary Crowley announced it ... TWICE ...on BBC London Radio,  it was already heading towards the record books, as one of the worst kept secrets ever, I mean we never even managed to persuade the cat to get IN the bag.
Dodgy will be hitting the stage at 8.30pm sharp, we'll be playing the album in full and be quickly followed by a set by our guests, support band The Rise. After that there may be further surprises involving Dodgy and we're hoping to run a quick seminar with Ryan Giggs on how to keep a secret.

Tickets for Tuesday's London gig are still available at £10 plus booking fee but everyone who buys a ticket will be able to take advantage of our *£5 Cashback Offer* if they pre-order the new album at the gig.
You can get tickets HERE via strikebackrecords.sandbag.uk.com/Store
- and feel free to spread the word, Twitter, whatever, to your friends

EVERY GIG has had it's special moments and we would be the first to admit, that even though we are growing in confidence and encouraged by the by the overwhelming amount of positive feedback about the new songs, that it's a big ask of audiences to take a big chunk of something so new in one sitting. However, We Need To Talk About Winchester. Now firstly, The Railway, is one of the best and invaluable small venues in the country but we  would just like to focus on one person in particular, wearing the checked shirt, standing down the front appearing to use his i-phone voice boost app to talk very loudly through the first 5 songs; for us, he represented the 'face of adversity' which we had to overcome, which can only be a good thing. He had a good excuse though, he was talking to his mates about when he saw us at V97. That's OK then, he obviously had more memories of it than I do.
One of our favourite ever artists, Nina Simone was famously severe on anyone who talked during her shows and I can understand why - even though it may be just a couple of people, onstage it feels like everyone and it's very off-putting, but hey, it's a rock and roll show and the talkers generally get the message eventually. If they don't, we put them in the grudge book where their names remain ;-)

It certainly led to a bit of hesitation at the start of the next night's gig @ The Peel in Kingston-Upon-Thames but we needn't have worried, even though we asked the audience to bear with us at the start of the gig and held Mr Chatty up from the night before as a reason why. Indeed the gig turned out to be one of the best of the tour so far, up there with St Helens. A few factors contributed towards this - it was the first time we had played Kingston since we ran the Dodgy Club at Bacchus Wine Bar there 21 years previously (see our pilgrimage there in the video below); also because it was the 4th anniversary of our friend and associate, Andy Moore's death.

Andy was the lighting tech for Dodgy since the start, he was such an integral part of our gang, so much so that he features somewhere in most of the funny stories we tell from those times. He was the reason why we got back together, asking us to reform for a couple of songs at his testimonial. The cheeky bugger knew we couldn't exactly say no.
Besides the spirit of the Gary Numan loving Manc at the gig, there were also a couple of other vitally important people to Dodgy - Dave Ripp and H (who can be spotted in the background of the pic above with Moorsey and a particular handsome drummer). Maybe by coincidence or cosmic design but we hadn't all been in the same room since 1997. We played his favourite song for him, Big Brown Moon and you can see the video below of the version we played at River Cottage the week before... anyone for a crisp sandwich?

Hope to C U nxt Tuesday and if you're not following us on Twitter yet @dodgyuk please feel free to sign up.

DODGY'S KINGSTON RETURN

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, The Stone Roses and the reunion rollercoaster

by the way.... this is Math, drummer with Dodgy and a few people have enquired as to why I've started to sport facial hair and my answer is simple - I'm playing to my strengths. I'm not tall, I'm not slim but I have the power to grow a beard to Brian Blessed proportions.... which brings me nicely on to The Stone Roses...
already a lot has been written and said about this but The Roses are one of THE most important bands both to us as fans and being in a band... the rumours began on Friday and all weekend I was texting some good friends who I know are massive Roses fans, like Jo who I play with in the Yellow Moon Band, who founded and runs the Green Man Festival and who by her own admission is like a giddy teenager again over The Roses news, our ex-manager who claims that The Stone Roses at Blackpool Empress Ballroom was the best gig of his life, and Mark Morriss, who actually hadn't heard until I told him and indeed the irony of The Bluetones going their separate ways as the Roses reunite, was not lost on him.
It's fair to say that The Stone Roses had an influence over most of the major UK bands in the 90's - certainly Oasis, The Charlatans and The Verve wouldn't exist without them but also Blur (listen to 'She's So High') Radiohead, Muse, Prodigy, Pulp, Supergrass and er.. Dodgy would all acknowledge them as a major influence.

Obviously the announcement resonates with our situation. Personally, I'm not sure about the word 'reforming', it always sounds like such a big statement; the fact is, as a band, if you gain any kind of success, you find yourselves on a roller coaster which doesn't stop after one circuit but continues round and round and round until after a while you just want to get off. Doesn't mean that you won't want to get back on at a later point, just that at that moment you want to step off for a breather.
We went through quite a lot of line-ups and band names (ask and we'll tell) before we finally found the chemistry that was the three of us as Dodgy, and having spent a bit of time apart you appreciate more that there's something special about that chemistry. At the Stone Rose press conference, when (man of few words) John Squire said it was not just a band getting back together but best friends burying the hatchet, we thought "blimey, that's us". Talking about him and Ian Brown he said "I think in some ways it's a friendship that defines us both" and the same applies to all three of us in our case. The Roses got back together after Mani's mum's funeral, for us it was the sad loss of lighting fella and good friend Andy Moore, for all of us it's a case of life's too short, so here we are.....

Some people are saying that they are worried it will be shite and they don't want to be disappointed but that's fine, no one's forcing you to buy a ticket or think about it more than you want to... in fact the Roses have already disappointed many with the debacle of Reading 96 (we were there) and some of the shockers off Second Coming (Straight To The Man - er....no) so I know they've made howling (literally) mistakes but we STILL LOVE THEM and have memories of a gig in Pilton (September 1st 1995) where Dodgy were the named 'headliners' and they were the special guests ... .and that is why, Friday morning 9.30am we'll be on the phone trying to buy a ticket.... and while we're waiting, if enough of you request it, then I'll trot out my story again, of how little old Mathew from Dodgy christened Ian Brown, 'King Monkey'.....

So till next time, feel free to keep spreading the word about Dodgy, with your help we can start making things better.
As Ian Brown said at the press conference - "for positive thinkers everywhere"