2012 starting with a Dodgy Secret and Twittering as we mean to go on

2012.. a New Year; we've made thirty three and a third resolutions which just about equates with the speed of the revolutions that the vinyl version of our new Dodgy album Stand Upright In A Cool Place will be spinning at - it really is now just 7 weeks until the album is finally released and we can't wait for people to hear it. Orders are coming in thick and fast apparently via www.dodgyology.com

We're not wasting any time and will be beginning the year with what we'll call an 'under the radar' appearance, another live preview of the new album in London of the semi-acoustic variety. Dodgy are rubbish at keeping secrets but here's the deal on this one - we've got a major London album launch gig coming up at The Bush Hall on February 22nd. If you purchase your tickets for Bush Hall this week or have already got them then just let us know the ticket number or confirmation code and we'll let you know the full details about where Dodgy are playing next Monday (Jan 9th) and we'll make sure you can get in on our special guest list for a fiver. Can't say fairer than that. Very intimate.

It was nice to get a mention in the pre-Christmas edition of The Guardian Guide
www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/dec/24/2012-guide-film-television-music
- although OK, you could smell the sarcasm as they bunched us in with a few other bands releasing albums after a break. Slightly annoying though was that they managed to avoid properly linking Dodgy to www.dodgyology.com whereas most of the rest of the article was studiously linked to relevant websites... don't worry, we expected the cynicism from some quarters and are confident that the music will do the talking once they actually get to hear it. Though I must admit, being bunched in with NOFX and Garbage is no bad thing really.

So New Year's resolutions. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the developments that come with being in a band. This time round we have been advised to Twitter, Blog, Facebook and Tumble (might have made that last one up) in order to ensure we're 'in the game' apparently - and there's silly me thinking all I had to do was help write a bunch of songs and bang a few drums. So before I go off on one I'll come clean with you, the short version of this blog is FOLLOW @DodgyUK on Twitter, sorry.. PLEASE, follow @DodgyUK on Twitter - we keep communications short, sweet and relevant and you'll get all the Dodgy news and gossip first.

This might be one of my own 2012 New Year resolutions, or I might have been sat down in a chair and threatened ...  I'm not sure but whichever it is, in 2012 Dodgy are going to try and get to grips with Twitter.
We can add a bit of personal historical context here; just up to and before we started writing and recording the new Dodgy album I was involved in managing bands amongst other projects (hoped you checked out the Tribute bands podcast/radio show I contributed as part of the Dodgy Advent Calender) and it seems only yesterday we were attending meetings with A&R executives who would try and justify going to less gigs to check out new music as it was easier for them to check out stuff on MySpace - anyone remember MySpace? .. and I was quietly informed that if a band didn't have a healthy quota of MySpace Friends then record companies wouldn't even consider signing them. All this seems to have gone one step further now, listening to the radio the other day and in the midst of a conversation about a new website called Live&Loud a representative from the A&R community was on and actually said, that for a band to get signed now "they should be trending well on Twitter"
- What? WHAT?? ...At least on MySpace there is/was some music to listen to....

So applying the principle "if you haven't bought a ticket you won't win the lottery" (or if you haven't got a ticket for Bush Hall you won't know where the secret gig is) @DodgyUK Twitter account is up and running. What use is it? Well, it's instantaneous communication, people can be informed immediately of developments in the world of Dodgy and we can sign up to follow other 'interesting' people on Twitter and check out what they are Tweeting? then if they are expounding words of absolute wisdom or information that is essential to a Dodgy follower's well-being at that very moment, well we can press the 'retweet' button and that will go to all our 'followers' too. The big question is, how many potential Dodgy fans are signed up to Twitter and how many new converts are we likely to reach and how do we reach them?

At current count we only have 500 or so people following @DodgyUK - when this blog is finished we might even close our eyes and wish it over the 600 mark... fingers crossed eh? It can be sometimes dispiriting though, because it's always interesting just to check out 'who' is actually following you and sometimes you look, only to discover that a bunch of ladies have joined up to follow you, looking very much like their reputations are in dispute, offering weird and wonderful services, usually in $ dollars.
I have mentioned the mighty Grandmaster Gareth before, front man and genius behind the band Misty's Big Adventure - after he came to see us near Birmingham on our tour last year it was nice to see that of the half dozen or so new Twitter followers we had after that gig, he was one. However,  a minute either side of the time he signed up were two very orange buxom ladies from California. It gave the impression that Gareth might have left our gig with one of these ladies on each arm and when inside a limo outside perhaps, he insisted they all gather round the smart phone and Twitter up to follow @dodgyuk - nice image but obviously a long way from the truth. Who are these people? Spammers obviously because their Twitter accounts seem to get removed as soon as they arrive.
Personally it's extremely heart warming to know we can follow the Twittering of a few of our favourite bands, comedians and venues; the likes of Sarah Millican and my personal favourite Brian Blessed and it seems that Twitter is the main means of communication from Dexys Midnight Runners at the moment, who also have a new album  ("a few tweaks and it should be there" via Twitter) out next year.
So come on Twitter, 2012, let's have it - let's be trendy and get trending..

Don't forget to let us know when you've got your tickets for Dodgy at The Bush Hall on February 22nd and if you're in London ... see you next Monday....

Dodgy Iceland Christmas, new single and UK recessions

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

Nigel Clark (Dodgy) Top 10 Tracks from 2011 (Dodgy Advent Calender)

What tunes from now and then that have been rocking Nigel from Dodgy's world in 2011
01. OBSERVATORY CREST - Captain Beefheart
Putting this list together, it's the anniversary (17th Dec) of the Captain leaving us but he and the magic band left us with some of the most amazing music.

02.HELPLESSNESS BLUES - Fleet Foxes
Fleet foxes, with the new album this year this was the first single.
Such a talented band of musicians with voices of angels.

03 EVERYDAY PEOPLE/DANCE TO THE MUSIC MEDLEY - Sly And The Family Stone
Had these on my I pod since I brought it. I rarely skip these tracks.
Probably the funkiest band ever And you get 2 for 1 on the video

04. GUIDING LIGHT - Television (album Marquee Moon)
Another great band, hard to pick a track off the album because they are all great. I chose this one because it's not the most obvious but a great track all the same

05. I WILL TAKE YOU THERE - Harry Nilsson
Just a beautiful song, Simple but true.
The Beatles loved Harry, this explains why.

06. WALKABOUT - Atlas Sound (ft. Panda Bear)
Bradford cox the singer from deerhunter. A real feel good track from the Logos album released a couple of years ago featuring Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear) from Animal Collective .

07. RED LIGHTS -  Holy Fuck
Saw holy fuck live this year. Four guys making this sound live, Awesomeness

08. WOMAN, WHEN I'VE RAISED HELL - Josh T Pearson
An album I bought and paid for this year. Such an emotional rollercoaster, but utterly engaging. Just pick the right time to listen

09. COLOR ON THE WALLS (DON'T STOP) - Foster The People‏
Heard these first on Dermot O'Leary's radio show; they did a cover of heart of gold and I had heard pumped up kids on the TV ad
Goes without saying that they are going to be a big band. Just hope they can keep making good pop music

10.CROSSEYED AND PAINLESS live (Stop Making Sense) - Talking Heads
This will forever be my fave talking heads track. Get the studio album version, it's amazing

AND A BONUS TRACK - came to me just after the 10
MARIE - Willie Nelson/Townes Van Zandt 
Just listen to this. So much honesty, emotion and experience. Just beautiful

That's all for now... looking forward to 2012

Andy Miller's Top 10 Tracks from 2011 (Dodgy Advent Calender)

Here's a list from Dodgy guitarist Andy Miller on what tunes have rocked his boat in 2011, somethings old, somethings new, somethings borrowed and somethings sounding pretty damn fine - over to you Andy...

01. THE WEIGHT – The Band
The Band were and are in many ways 'the band' and have rediscovered this song on the road with Dodgy this year, it's a lovely song and is always one of the inspirations for me to pick up a guitar and play along.

02. HONEY ALL OVER - Gruff Rhys
The first time I heard Honey All Over by Gruff Rhys earlier this year, I thought 'What a great tune, why don't I put this on a playlist if anyone asks' and here it is. Top marks for this video as well...

03. THEME FROM THE PERSUADERS – John Barry
You cant' beat a good instrumental and John Barry certainly knew how to put together an instrumental, he sadly passed away at the beginning of the year but won't be forgotten while his tunes like this are around.

04. DEVIL TAKES CARE OF HIS OWN - Band Of Skulls
Band Of Skulls proving that the south coast of England (Southampton) can produce rock and roll that's dark and dirty, just how I like it. This is  a great tune and the first single apparently from their new album due next year, recorded at Rockfield Studios, where Dodgy have been known to lay down a few tunes in the past, most notably when The Stone Roses were in the studio next door...

05. COST OF LOVING – Dogs
Recently discovered and got hooked on Dogs (the band ;-) - great band shoulda been bigger! A crime of this music industry! Me doth protest.

06. CHAMPAGNE AND REEFER – Muddy Waters
This year, last year, next year, Champagne and Reefer is always welcome. Grooving, no need for a middle eight - why bother? Found this video though - were there no bouncers to stop the skinny chap stage invasion?

07. FREEDOM – Jimi Hendrix (Live at the Isle of Wight)
This Jimi Hendrix record was one of the first I had in my collection at 15 years old. Could not stop playing it then and still keeps blowing me away today - there's been a lot of talk about the Isle Of Wight Festival recently and of course *ahem* if asked, Dodgy would love to play in 2012 alongside Bruce, Noel, Petty Tom and ... The Christians.

08. YOU SAID SOMETHING - PJ Harvey
This particular track reminds me of living in Nantes in France with my ex-band Hey Gravity (M.A.S.S.). Great time lovely friends there. PJ won the Mercury prize this year for Let England Shake - by all accounts it's a mighty piece of work and a deserved winner, it's on my Christmas list but haven't heard it yet, perhaps when I have one of the tunes will make my list next year.

09. REVENGE – Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. Wayne Coyne
Another great tune discovered this year - apparently, my friends in the know tell me, to get a single in the upper reaches of the UK single charts these days you have to 'feature' someone who's not in the band but rarely do collaborations come off as good as this - had to be included.
Dangermouse has also produced the new Black Keys album 'El Camino' that has come out in the past few weeks and interested in hearing that too #andyschristmaslist

10. DOWN ON THE CORNER - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Oh, last tune already? Well it's a peach. There's rumours that CCR might be reuniting for a tour next year but in the meantime John Fogerty has very much returned after years of bitterness and record company rangles. Best just get out there and play the music eh? Mind you, this vid is from 1969 and it looks as if the record company weren't exactly providing a budget for equipment and stage clothes even then...

Enjoy my playlist as much as I've enjoyed putting it together and ... a happy Christmas and new year to all you adventers from me
Andy

Mathew Priest's Top 10 Tracks from 2011 (Dodgy Advent Calender)

This is Mathew from Dodgy and I'm pleased to be delivering this list of my Top 10 tunes discovered this year as a contribution to the Dodgy Advent Calender 2011 (you can still get more offerings as part of the Dodgy Advent Calendar by signing up to the mailing list @ www.dodgyology.com) and they are... in no particular order...

01. TREEFIGHT FOR SUNLIGHT – Facing the Sun
What would we do without BBC 6Music? ... I'm pretty sure that's where I first heard this track and full marks to Denmark, firstly for giving us some great TV with The Killing and then this; a prime cut of Scandinavian indie 60's pop - what's not to love?
On the new Dodgy album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' we've got a track called 'What Became Of You' and Treefight For Sunlight appear to have a track called 'What Became Of you... and I', so we're obviously thinking on similar lines somewhere.

Treefight For Sunlight website: www.treefightforsunlight.com

02. WALLPAPER – #STUPiDFACEDD
Dodgy have adopted this tune to get us vibed up before we go onstage. Amazing song - even better video. Met the guy who is Wallpaper in San francisco when I was on tour playing with Electric Soft Parade and he was playing in this crazy but brilliant prog rock band Facing New York. This guy is in a different league and very much one to watch and listen out for...

Wallpaper website: thisiswallpaper.com/music

03. SYREETA - Harmour Love 
A tune I 'discovered' this year heard as the play out song on the film Junebug that I saw for the first time. For some reason it took me ages to find out the name of the song. Syreeta's best known UK hit was probably 'Your Kiss Is Sweet' and sadly she died of breast cancer aged only 57 in 2004, she looks so beautiful in this video.....

04. THE LOVELY EGGS - Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It) –
God knows where I first came across this, probably Facebook. Just ace pop-punk with a belting cameo from John Shuttleworth, presumeably a nod towards his previous musical alter ego creation Jilted John, in the video. Just noticed their new single is out on Monday (Dec 5th) so might be also be worth a listen.

The Lovely Eggs website: www.thelovelyeggs.co.uk

05. LAURA MARLING – Sophia
I’m very rarely onto an artist early; when I am, I feel like the coolest fella in the world. Then somebody invariably comes along and says “Oh yeah, she’s ace, have you heard her first album” ..shit.

Laura Marling website: www.lauramarling.com

06. H.HAWKLINE – You Say Love Me
If you haven't heard Cerys Mathews' show on 6Music you should, wonderfully eclectic and some great discoveries. That's where I first heard this and it leapt out at me from the car radio. He's got a lovely Welsh twang and sounds likey a mixture of Gruff and Syd Barrett. Worth seeking out the full band version as well.

A H Hawkline website: hhawkline.bandcamp.com

07. CHASE AND STATUS – Chase & Status - Blind Faith ft. Liam Bailey
There's an article somewhere about the high percentage of collaborations and 'featurings'(ft) in the singles chart this year, don't know whether you should be expecting Dodgy featuring......??????.. Chipmunk? anytime soon as we attempt to crack the upper regions of the charts - perhaps not.
Anyways got to have a banging tune in this list and this is it. Great UP tune. Amazing video, I never thought I could get flashbacks from watching a video until now.

 Chase & Status website: www.chaseandstatus.co.uk

08. BLAKE SHELTON – Austin
We were lucky enough to get to go over to Texas in July to mix the new Dodgy album and admitedly I was a little tiddly on the plane when I became obsessed with this song... I played it over and over, much to the chagrin of Dodgy guitarist Andy Miller who had drawn the short straw and was seated next to me. It set us up for our adventure over there. OK it is cheesy beyond Gorganzola and might be percieved by some as being a bit crap as well but it soundtracked an important part of 2011 for us and for that time me and and Blake were like brothers..

For some reason, Blake (or his people) don't want us to embed the official video, in all it's shiny red car glory here but you can get it by following the link below
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb1DTsxBOfE
Blake Shelton website: www.blakeshelton.com

09. WHITE DENIM – It’s Him
First track on the utterly bonkers album ‘D’.  First heard about these Texas, psychedelic indie-prog-rockers on the brilliant website www.anydecentmusic.com and then with their single “Is And Is And Is” on BBC 6Music which to these ears sounds a bit like Coldplay mixed with Deep Purple - should be wrong but it's right...

 White Denim website: whitedenimmusic.com

10. MVPs – Turning My Heartbeat Up
That’s the great thing about Northern Soul, you keep discovering absolute BELTERS and this rocked my sox this year not just because it opens with the line "listen to the sound of a drummer...". I’m pushing for Dodgy to do a cover of this as we’ve got a scooter rally to play next year- I'll keep you posted.

What tunes have rocked your world this year?

Dodgy Advent Calendar, give it a rest X-Factor, women and the NME Cool List

In 2012 the Olympics and the Euro Football finals take place but no Glastonbury Festival. Shame - but weirdly it got us thinking about the X-Factor and it would be prudent perhaps, to apologise to Michael and Emily Eavis for the following analogy and case that we will attempt to expound here.

On Saturday nights these days you will most likely find Dodgy playing a gig somewhere so the main X-Factor TV show doesn't taint our world but sometimes we are home when the results show is on and on our travels the subject still inevitably crops up in conversation - sad that somehow you know who Frankie Cockohza is. Our thoughts on this great national treasure of a TV show and similar programmes are sometimes sought in interviews but generally the answer is that we are involved in creating and making music, they are involved with making Saturday Night tele, you know like the Generation Game and the music part is just a bit of an incidental.
It does appear though, that the media and (usually the lower reaches of) the charts are full of winners and runners up of one year or another, of these competitions. Now, we're not going to suggest we can immediately freshen the air for good but here's a thought ITV, something you might do with your Saturday night cash cow, similar to that which Mr. Eavis does with his cows at the dairy farm which is the location for another much frequented institution, the Glastonbury Festival - HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE IT A REST? - even, like Glastonbury if it's just for a year. Michael Eavis understands that when thousands and thousands flock to a particular brand year after year an extraordinary amount of effluent is produced, things get tired and you've hardly launched Matt Cardle's career when another bunch turn up fighting to squeeze into the dinghy called 'No Dignity'.... Perhaps the public might want a Christmas song for the Christmas #1, not a prescribed cover suitable for one of a bunch of wannabee talent show finalists.

It's funny how lots of the pre-publicity for X-Factor suggested that Gary Barlow might write a new song for the winner (or dig up some discarded Take That out-take) but that seems to have slipped by the wayside and now the producers of X-Factor have come up with the brilliant idea for a shoe-in for the Christmas No.1; a version of..... 'Cannonball' by Damien Rice. Christmas and Cannon And Ball perhaps but Christmas+Cannonball...  take that for a Google search festives.
ITV/X-FACTOR producers - STOP, OK; just for a year, CAN you? WILL you? If people can do without Glastonbury for a year - the country can do without X-Factor for a year and then everyone can take their own view on how much they miss it...

So with the Christmas No.1 cannonballed.... it's a nice little lead in to Dodgy's plan to bring a bit of festive spirit to our new fans and old this year -  so from December 1st we will be opening the first door on our very own (fanfare - sleigh bells please)
*DODGY ADVENT CALENDAR*
- you just need to be on or subscribe to the Dodgy mailing list and then well... NOTHING.. as we will deliver the gift or link direct to your inbox every single day right up to and including CHRISTMAS EVE and what, ladies and gentlemen of the Yule, a tidy collection of gifts they are!
We hope you like the PRESENTS we have lined up for you, so if you haven't already, you can sign up to our mailing list here www.dodgyology.com  and while you're at it, why don't you invite your friends so we can all share the love this Christmas.

We will be bringing you this Calendar in partnership with Cancer Research UK and have an exciting little project that we'd like to involve as many of you in as possible that will require Minimum Effort for Maximum Satisfaction. All will be revealed later this week but look out for our first FREE GIFT on December 1st.

Last weekend we were in Norwich.
On the touring map of Britain it's deceptive. You think that it's just over there, when in fact, it's WELL over there, with only a farm track and footpath to get you there. Perhaps that's why our gigs there are so good, we think 'well it's taken us a day to get here, we may as well play our socks off'.
Here's a pic of me looking excited outside the Waterfront + a pic of Nige looking hard during the soundcheck

So there we were after a belting show, talking to some very juiced up but very happy Dodgy fans about how far we and they had to travel and I mentioned the journey back to Wiltshire and someone piped up... "Wiltshire.. ah, the Nebraska of England" A new one on me but got my interest as the American states are a bit of a geeky interest round here - yes, when pushed, we can name all 50.. AND point to them on a map. After pursuing this and coming to the conclusion that Manchester would be Chicago and Brighton San Francisco (yeah, bit obvious that one), I enquired what US city would Norwich be and someone made the brazen claim "New Orleans of course"..
without entering into a conversation why (I'll let you come up with all those bands and music from Norwich), this did throw up a bit of synchronicity though as 'The Big Easy' has been on our minds quite a bit recently, just having finished watching the first series of the HBO TV show Treme, which is based in New Orleans in the recent period just after Hurricane Katrina and was made by David Simon and the same team who made The Wire. If you haven't seen either show then you are missing out. The Wire is generally regarded as one of the finest pieces of TV drama ever but Treme beats it; it's outstanding, beautifully made and uses music in such an instinctive way. The Season 2 DVD is on our Christmas list.. if you were wondering what to get us.... *coughs*

We also grabbed a moment to go and see comedian Sarah Millican live this week and laughed our faces off. What a hilarious, naturally funny FILTHY woman, if you are one of these poor misguided puppies who believe that comedy is the preserve of men you should go and watch her live. It's an often repeated falsehood that women aren't as funny as men and both Christopher Hitchens and Germaine Greer have recently chipped in to this 'debate', proving that even the great thinkers make mistakes and talk bollocks.
In fact is it just me or has there been an upsurge in old fashioned misogyny in the media recently? There was Brian Sewell 'promoting' his autobiography in the Observer on Sunday recently demanding "Where is the female Mozart? Where's Mrs Shakespeare?"  Then there's the  very disturbing 'revelation' of the vile abuse that's aimed at woman commentators, spotted here in The Guardian
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/07/abusive-sexist-comments-online
Just check out  #mencallmethings , 'trending' apparently, on Twitter but prepared to be shocked. 
And finally, giving support to girls with attitude - it's good to see that the NME have been getting it right recently. Last week they were one of the first to report on Dodgy's new album and then they put the potty mouthed Azealia Banks on the top of their NME Cool List 2011, this is an amazing tune if ever we heard one, oh and congrats to Jarvis for his inclusion and for those that haven't seen it  No.s 11-13 are taken up by the members of Dodgy.. apparently. Over to you Azealia...

So just two more dates left on the current Dodgy tour - Bristol Fleece on Dec 1st and our final gig in St Albans @ The Horn the next day, which might prove to be rather large so we have ordered in some spare bibs and nappies just in case.

Until then....

Dodgy Weller, new album tracklisting, Kaiser Chiefs pizza and The Queen Of Hoxton coming soon

When Dodgy embarked on the current tour and laid out our stall so to speak, we stated quite plainly that whereas a lot of bands are going out and playing previous albums we would be previewing our new album Stand Upright In A Cool Place  in its entirety. So excuse us for a slight nod, wink and a giggle and possibly even a sniff of the word 'vindication' when Paul Weller announced his week that he had come up with the novel idea that his new album Sonik Kicks will be performed in full this spring at two shows at The Roundhouse in London previewed as "Weller is hardly one to wait 20 years to be invited to perform his 'classic' album, he'd rather do it here and now, no need for nostalgia to play its part". Indeed... though thinking... if, for instance, we ever were to play  the Homegrown album from start to finish.. the first three songs would be 'Staying Out for the Summer', 'Melodies Haunt You' and 'So Let Me Go Far'.. just a thought.

And talking of tracklistings, song orders etc; the committee has sat, the votes have been counted, tempos assessed and we can now exclusively reveal that the song order for 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' has been finalised. You might think that this would be the easy bit after the album has gone from actually nothing existing - thin air, to a germ of an idea, to writing the songs, to eventually recording the songs, to travelling to Texas and mixing then mastering the songs, to deciding on the album title and the artwork, to finally manufacturing the album so you can hold a physical copy (or not, see previous blog) in your hand - it's a long, arduous but obviously utterly rewarding experience. The one process I missed out there, which would seem like the easiest to some people but can in fact be the biggest ball ache out of them all, is deciding upon the track listing. Have you ever played your favourite album on shuffle? It's like alcopops, it's fun for a while, but it's not right. You like to think that the artist has sat for hours, painstakingly playing through every permutation of the tracks until finally deciding upon the correct order and most of the time, they have.

What we have tried to come up with, is a coherent collection of songs - It was great to hear Kate Bush weighing into the debate recently in a BBC interview saying  that she would hate to see the album die out and that listening to an album is a totally different and immersive experience, and although I applaud their pioneering spirit, I wasn't a fan of Kaiser Chiefs' 'create your own album' marketing around The Future Is Medieval, where you could choose your own 10 tracks from 20 on offer - rather like going into Pizza Express, being handed a ball of dough, and some onions, peppers, olives and mushrooms and told "there's the oven!" - well not exactly but you get the idea. For us though, playing the new Dodgy songs live around the country has helped point towards the best way to present the songs on the new album and also knowing that we will be able to release it on vinyl, hence the added parameters of splitting the songs into two sequences. Anyway we're satisfied that this is the right order for these songs - unless a certain chap in Swansea wants take up his ukulele in protest ...

1. Tripped and Fell
2. What Became Of You
3. We Try
4. Shadows
5. Did It Have To Be This Way
6. Waiting For The Sun

1. Raggedstone Hill (7. CD)
   
2. Only A Heartbeat (8. CD)
3. Find A Place (9. CD)
4. Back Of You (10. CD)
5. Happy Ending (11. CD)

I suppose one of the biggest sticking points was whether to end the album with Happy Ending which some thought was rather cliched but it's not every day you get such a powerful song called Happy Ending to...er...actually END an album with :-) and like Primal Scream starting Screamadelica with the obvious 'Moving On Up' or When The Levee Breaks ending Led Zep IV, we decided to walk down rock and roll's well worn path for this decision.

We had one live date this week in Cardiff @ Clwb Ifor Bach, which brought our tour of Wales to a close. Well a sort of tour - 2 dates, over 3 weeks, with two dates in England in between - but we won't tell if you don't, right ;-)
And what a belting gig, thanks to the audience who were so appreciative of the new album in the first half, so much so that they inspired us to include 'If You're Thinking Of Me' for the first time on this tour (are you reading Norwich ...see what I did there?). Also, nobody was punched, which can only be a good thing.

On December 10th Dodgy are taking a side step from the new album tour, adjusting the set accordingly when we play the This Feeling club night in London. The club is @ The Queen Of Hoxton and so there has been much idle chat and laughter about one of our fav TV shows Nathan Barley and indeed how prophetic it was/is, especially when you see blogs like Hackney Hipster Hate starting up..
So it gave us immense joy to see that it's not just restricted to Hoxton now (see poster below)
"Yeah mate, I'm off my mash, you got any speedo fraudsta shit, yeah? It's well fucking futile"

This Friday (Nov 25th) Dodgy play @waterfrontUEA in Norwich of which we have very fond memories as this was the venue back when we were a mere fledgling band, which was a real turning point for us where we realised that people actually liked what we were doing, big time, so we have high hopes. Norwich is also the home of one of our favourite bands The Rockingbirds (who are also working on new material) and as we made the official announcement for the album release this week it was nice to get lots of news pieces, NME etc. but surprising that on the usually reliable digitalspy.co.uk website, they added a photo of their own, god knows how they came by it, purporting to be Dodgy but in fact featuring just our Andy, along with two imposters; the legendary Andy Hackett from The Rockingbirds and um Razorlight's tour manager??? - can't quite work that one out. As it happens, for 5 minutes, sometime in the dim and distant past, Andy Hackett did step on the stage playing an additional guitar as part of Dodgy, he's currently playing guitar with Edwyn Collins and here's a vid of them playing the classic 'Rip It Up' at an acoustic set in London just last Sunday - Andy H is the one looking distinctly David Crosby on the far left....

And also in anticipation of Norwich, we will now revisit our occasional feature,
"ANAGRAMS and ACRONYMS of TOWNS and CITIES of the UNITED KINGDOM"

Hello, a few weeks ago we brought you NEWARK being and anagram of WANKER
Today we bring you NORWICH being an acronym of NICKERS OFF READY WHEN I COME HOME

Thanks now, until next time..