May I introduce Chappers, she is a great writer and will be an occasional blogger for Dodgy. She also doubles up as band security, a connoisseur of exotic liqueurs and the sharpest tongue in Crewe.
Dodgy - M.A.N
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Hello,
Despite internet rumours to the contrary, Math has NOT dyed his beard orange, as a tribute to Bradley Wiggins' lovely gingery mutton chops. I can confirm this, as he was limbering up earlier at Dodgy HQ, for the band's very own Olympic event.
Nigel, being fairly athletically built anyway, was on hand to demonstrate the correct way to wear the newly delivered Team GB Lycra, that the boys are required to wear at the Friday's gig at HYDE PARK!! I know!! HYDE PARK!! Andy is exempt from the Lycra though, having already burnt a hole in the front of his. Tut.
BT London Live 2012 at Hyde Park is a massive FREE London event. The band will not only be sharing the stage with the likes of Amy McDonald and Cast, but our favourite ivory-tickler and synth-botherer, Richard Payne has created a special Olympmix version of "What Became of You". Go to www.dodgyology.com and get your lugholes round his brilliant mixing skills.
Word. *complicated 'street' hand gesture*
Scunthorpe Silhouettes VERY kindly invited Dodgy to play at their scooter rally this coming Saturday. Now the lads LOVE a rally, so they're going straight from the Big Smoke and off up to North Lincolnshire. I had to Google this if I'm honest. I always thought Scunthorpe was in Yorkshire! Ah well, maybe they've moved it. Anyway, this will be a brilliant night for scooterists and music fans alike. Its one of a couple of scooter rallies we're at this year. There's something about the heady mix of two-stroke and talcum powder, that gets the lads going, so prepare for some rare sounds and a hint of Northern Soul in the set...
From sunny Scunny, we're on to Sheffield, for the brilliant Sheftival music and sports event. We'll be performing at the Don Valley Bowl on Sunday with the likes of the Lightning Seeds, Marcus Collins, Mischa B and The Crookes. A bit of something for almost everyone (except Nige who wanted Sham 69 to be there), and DODGY are due on at 7:30pm. Hurry for tickets, there's still a few available from www.sheftival.com
REALLY important bit now. Can I have a drum roll? *drum roll* Good.
There are STILL a few tickets left for the Dodgy fan event in Shrewsbury. Its at the Four Crosses Hotel on 17th August and it promises to be a truly monster night out for Dodgy fans. We know of people coming from all the UK for this, and we're hoping to hear from a few international friends too...
But, that's not all! We have also arranged for the gig to be preceded by Priesty's Pretty 'Ard Pop Quiz, giving you the opportunity to show off your musical knowledge! Good eh? Not enough? Blimey, tough crowd.
Well how about if we throw in a solo set from our beloved MARK MORRISS of the Bluetones too?!? YES, now we've got you! It's going to be brilliant, all of us here at Dodgy HQ have had this in our drinking diaries for months. Book a hotel, book a babysitter, book a hang over, just be there!! :)
For all details of Dodgy gigs and festival appearances, get yourselves to www.dodgyology.com. The ticket links are there, venue details are up, and also if you're North of the border or planning a wee trip, check out details of Dodgy's World Tour of Scotland this September. The lads will be stopping off to play in Aberdeen and Forres on the Moray coast, as well as the re-scheduled Shetland gig!
That's if for now gang. More Dodgy details next week...
Take very good care of you and yours, we'll see you down the front!!
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.
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.
Hear Dodgy talk about 'Only A Heartbeat' in the clip below - thanks again to Kris
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.
Hear'Pitcheroak' and see the making of the song in the clip below:
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
“A second chance will never come Keeping on ‘til you’re done Don’t waste a moment of a single day...”
When it came to helping put together some words for the release of our new single - something they refer to in the industry as a Press Release (you see, we can impart some of our superior knowledge and experience and be educational here as well) we were struggling ourselves and are indebted to the journalist Terry Staunton for taking on the task and summing it up with the following, on the button, words:
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The sentiments of Only A Heartbeat, the new single from Dodgy, strike a universal chord. It’s a powerfully emotional song about loss and, perhaps more importantly, healing, speaking directly to a hurt all of us have faced, or will face at some point in our lives.
Oftentimes, a blow can throw us off balance, leaving us grasping for the words to try and make sense of what’s happened. Articulacy evades us, as we struggle to process our thoughts and find a way to move forward, and Dodgy’s Nigel Clark was no different – until music guided him towards, if not total understanding, at least a kind of acceptance, a glimmer of light in the darkness.
“In June 2008 my older brother died, totally out of the blue,” he says. “I felt really lost; if I was a turtle, it felt like I’d lost my shell, I’d lost my shelter. But I got to thinking about when my heart stops, I’ll be with him again."
“I was walking round my studio, which I do quite a lot, just pacing, and the words kept coming into my head: ‘Feeling, knowing, you’re only a heartbeat away.’ It was very simple, but very cathartic.”
Already a firm favourite in the group’s live set, Dodgy have heard stories from fans of how Only A Heartbeat has helped them deal with losses of their own, the song’s reassuring lyrics and tender melody offering genuine comfort.
In common with many tracks on the critically acclaimed album Stand Upright In A Cool Place, it addresses big themes with maturity and intelligence, clear hallmarks of the older, wiser 21st century Dodgy. It’s been 16 years since the release of their previous album, back in the heady ‘90s when the band delivered a seemingly endless procession of memorable tunes we took to our hearts (Good Enough, Staying Out For The Summer, So Let Me Go Far, If You’re Thinking Of Me, Found You, Melodies Haunt You, the list goes on...).
After such a long lay-off, there was bound to be questions as to whether Dodgy could recapture the magic of old, whether the muse was still there, whether they still had the instinctive knack of crafting joyously persuasive music that made us want to dance, sing, everything. The answer to all those questions is a resounding yes.
They’re still deftly fashioning the pop thrills of yore, but the bulging scrapbook of enthusiastic thumbs-up reviews for Stand Upright... are a testament to the fact that the new songs of greater depth and substance, of richer meaning, have been embraced by all who hear them, and that Dodgy have returned to the spotlight just when we needed them the most.
In that respect, the opening line of Only A Heartbeat isn’t entirely accurate. A second chance has come for Dodgy, and they’re determined not to waste a single note of it.
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There, we couldn't have said it better ourselves Terry. Well, we couldn't....
The exciting, young film-maker, Kris Thompson was first brought to our attention when he took some amazing footage of the riots in Ealing (just put Ealing into You Tube, it's the first video). We decided to ask him to produce the series of short films we made about the songs on the new album.
Here's one of the interviews; for the track 'Raggedstone Hill'
At one of our live shows with Dodgy, Kris was moved by the fact that people were coming up to Nigel afterwards, asking for the lyrics to Only A Heartbeat to help them over recent loss - so much so that he wanted to make a short film to accompany the song.
Interpret the song how he sees it, as all good film makers should
The resulting film is quite remarkable. We knew he was good, but not this good.
The film was having a dramatic effect on the few people we showed it to, and we realised that it was a different creature altogether to a pop video, so that's when we started talking to homeless charity Crisis. they saw the potential and were very keen to come on board and use the message of the film to draw attention to the vital work they do and especially their No One Turned Away campaign.
Chief Executive of Crisis, Leslie Morphy, said: “Sadly, what happens in the video is all too true for an increasing number of people as rough sleeping is on the rise. We would like to thank the members of Dodgy for supporting our No One Turned Away campaign calling for a real safety net so that no one needs to face the horror of sleeping rough.”
Dodgy have worked with Crisis before so when Kris Thompson pitched this story, we felt it would work for Only A Heartbeat. Homelessness is the most visible sign that some of the most vulnerable in our society are being let down. And there seems a tendency at the moment to vilify these people, "they’ve failed, they’ve done it to themselves" – therefore it’s okay for us to ignore them or even worse despise them and hurt them. These individuals aren’t different from us, they are us - except something’s happened, there’s been a crisis – in the case of the man in the film, a bereavement. It’s estimated at least 70% of homeless people have mental health problems, they need care and they need respect. Mainly due to the economic downturn, rough sleeping rose by 23% last year. Society is about protecting everyone within and this includes the most vulnerable. Homeless charities like Crisis and St Mungos are seeing a rise in the number of people on the streets… and that’s just not acceptable in the 21st Century"
This being the week of the Cannes film festival we saw no reason why they should have all the red carpets so we are going to have our own ONLINE PREMIERE of the Kris Thompson film to accompany 'Only A Heatbeat' this THURSDAY evening MAY 24th at 9pm, followed by a short Q&A on Twitter and the Dodgy Facebook page with the film-maker and some members of the band. Please comment on Twitter using #OnlyAHeartbeat
Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change. The charity’s award winning education, training and employment centres offer practical and creative workshops to over 3,000 homeless people a year in an inspiring environment together with formal learning opportunities that lead to qualifications and finding work. Sign up to be a Crisis campaigner and join the fight to end homelessness http://bit.ly/LlHD02?
Finally, if you would be happy to use social media to support Crisis, it would be great if you could tweet about the No One Turned Away campaign or post something on Facebook. Feel free to write your own, but an example tweet about the campaign would be: ‘Urgent: Write to the Housing Minister to tell him no one should be forced to sleep rough #nooneturnedaway @crisis_uk http://bit.ly/JwhLen’
FIRST OFF: Dodgy would like to apologise again for having to cancel our shows in Inverness and The Shetlands that were meant to be happening next weekend.
Dodgy hate to cancel shows, it's not something we've ever liked doing but a great friend of the band was taken away from us by cancer at a young age and his funeral is next Friday. We are in the process of re-arranging these shows and hope to be up in Shetland soon as it is an ambition of ours to play there - we've heard some great stories.
It's been a couple of months now since the new album by Dodgy'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' was released and we continue to get plenty of messages from folk with plenty of compliments and saying how much the new album means to them, which in turn, means a lot to us. Obviously this is the kind of feedback you might hope to get after working on an album but one of the big plusses this time is that a lot of people are saying that this is the first Dodgy record they have bought
- where have they been? Nevermind, better late than never.
There, did you spot the joke? beware there may be a few more of them, you may not realise it's a joke when you read it as you probably won't laugh but that's the point, they're sort of stealth jokes.
Last Tuesday we took to the stage at The Lexington in London for the 'A Word In Your Ear' event hosted by The Word magazine, it was our first full electric band gig for a few months, in fact since Worthing in March, The Word has been really supportive of the new album and it was a privilege to be asked to headline their night this month. They were very hospitable and brought out the best in us, Boo Hewerdine & Brooks Williamswere also part of the night, playing tracks from their transatlantic collaboration 'State Of The Union' - well worth checking out. There's a great review of the evening here: www.wordmagazine.co.uk
And some pics (thanks Twitterers)
and the beautiful crowd ;-)
Our day in the big smoke of London was packed with activity and stuff to do, no hanging about in the dressing room for Dodgy these days. Before we went onstage we bundled ourselves on the tube to get to Leicester Square for an interview with @gordonsmart for XFM radio. Gordon is also the editor for the Bizzarre column in The Sun newspaper and I hate to say it, but Gordon is actually a decent and upstanding chap. I know it's a bit like finding out that Tom and Jerry actually got on and it was all an act. He tells a good story as well, so I traded my Una Stubbs and Julie Goodyear stories for some hair-whitening stories about Paul Daniels and Jimmy Tarbuck and a story about Mike Tyson that will keep you awake at night. Just find me at the next gig and buy me a drink, I'm the drummer ;-)
DODGY will be part of Smart On Sunday on XFM this Sunday 6th May 12-3pm
Dodgy's time in London is a bit like a buffalo to the Native Americans - every bit of it gets used. So as soon as we'd played the last note of our set at The Lexington and said our thank yous, we were in a convoy of cars heading to the canal round the back of Kings Cross to shoot the last frames for the incredible short film that has been made for the next single from Dodgy, a revamped version of the track 'Only A Heartbeat' from the new album. The film maker, Kris Thompson, was first brought to our attention as he was the guy behind this amazing film from the riots in Ealing last Summer. Instead of using his camera phone like most people, Kris took to the streets with his HD digital camera
Kris is editing his film for 'Only A Heartbeat' in super quick time (sorry that sounds like an App!) but we hope to have a trailer available next Tuesday (May 8th) to coincide with Dodgy appearing on BBC Breakfast. Oh yeah, we forgot to mention, Dodgy have been asked to appear on BBC BREAKFAST!!! next Tuesday with Susanna and the lesser spotted Turnbill. Yes, finally the mainstream media are getting on board - where have they been? Nevermind, better late than never. There's one of them jokes I warned you about.
So besides the unfortunate cancellation of the gigs mentioned earlier, our other gigs over this next week are definitely STILL HAPPENING.
We have to give a special mention for DUMBFEST this Saturday (5th May) which takes place in Bordon in Hampshire, we are doing an acoustic set and it is an event set up in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust so well worth supporting.
Then it's off to the Lake District for a gig in Kendal at Bootleggers on Bank Holiday Monday(May 7th), sounds good to us. The next one is up to Scotland next Wednesday 9th May at Electric Circus in Edinburgh, if you live in Scotland and can get to that one will be great to see you there - for details and other gigs visit www.dodgyology.com.
And finally, due to a previous blog you are probably aware that I spent an hour on the phone securing tickets for the Sunday night performance of the Stone Roses at Heaving Park on July 1st. Which pleased me greatly at the time and caused much gloating. WELL, it looks like Dodgy have been offered a slot at The Eden Sessions in Cornwall that day and as much as I love the Stone Roses, I don't love them as much as Dodgy so I am auctioning my tickets. Contact me at info@dodgyology.com (subject- Stone Roses) with a sealed bid for 2 tickets and the proceeds will go to King Monkey World in Dorset. Or something. We will let you know who won in a couple of weeks.
Be in touch very soon, unless you want to get in touch before then.
DODGY don't often venture into the controversial world of child rearing but we have recently been sent irrefutable proof that feeding your child undiluted Dodgy when they are a baby not only calms them down and stops them crying but actually helps to turn them into creative young bucks.
See the evidence for yourself.
Here is a video of young Nathan 14 years ago, creating merry hell for his parents, but just watch and hear what the somnolent tones of Nigel's voice do to this little shouter
A double dip recession? Really? And we had so much faith in those boys. Of course there is a track on the new Dodgy album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' where Nige sings "I thought we'd seen the back of you"
expect 'Back Of You' to be trotted out a few times this Summer and we expect most of you to be singing along.
WELL, how are you? I ask that, because your happiness is of interest to us, so much so that we have endeavoured to make this Summer the busiest in the history of Dodgy. There are more dates to announce but we promise* that nobody in this country will have had to have travelled more than 50 miles^ to see the Dodgy flame live this year. From Shetlands to the Scillies. Dodgy are nailing Britain.
We can make this declaration because since the album release we have purposely had a fallow period fal·low/ˈfalō/ :
Adjective: Plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility .
Yes, we've stayed inside during the April showers and now, as the first signs of life are beginning to sprout, we're poking our heads out the door. As mentioned in the previous post, we have decided to release a second 'single' from the album, which will be 'Only A Heartbeat' and can exclusively reveal here the artwork. Once again a brilliant piece of work from Russell Hardman.
'Only A Heartbeat' being an emotional song ( you can still check out the short interview clip we did for it on YouTube ) we thought we would try and deliver some appropriate B-sides. Are they called 'B-sides' any more? Bonus tracks? Extra Tracks - that sounds like something Tesco might do and hey! they're not doing very well at the moment.
Anyway, last week we decamped to Vale Studios for two days; the glorious boys from The Smoke Feathers said it was a great place to record and they weren't wrong. The studio is based in a tiny village called Fladbury, near Evesham that has NOTHING....apart from a couple of pubs and a butchers that sold the best pork pies in the world. I know what you're thinking - NO jokes about the drummer and pies please! Word is obviously getting out about the studio as they had @TheUnthanks in straight after us, which when I heard gave me quite a little quiver in my stomach (no, it wasn't the pies) as I have rather a thing for those sisters. Lovely, earthy women, singing beautiful harmonies hits me somewhere deep, and apparently so for Nigel also, as we found out the next day when we watched @thestaves, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Going into the studio, we start to pick up on word on Twitter that our favourite singer and drummer from one of our favourite bands, Levon Helm from The Band, was not in good shape, so we decided to change our well made plans and record a cover of a Band song. Afficianados of Dodgy will know that we have already covered 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' - noone can remember if we ever recorded it properly (there might a bootleg somewhere) but we certainly played it live, probably on the 1996 tour. It all got spooky when we got back into the control room after we'd put down the final take of a version of The Band's 'Long Black Veil' to find out the sad news that he'd passed away. Apparently he'd been in a lot of pain for a long time so it was probably a welcome release. Hope you like our version, Mr Miller's one take guitar is rather splendid.
The other track Dodgy recorded is 'Pitcheroak', a song that Nigel wrote with a bunch of pupils he has taught at Pitcheroak School in Redditch and the kids who took part in the writing process have a whole range of special needs from severe autism, reading and talking difficulties. They were inspirational and the most caring young people we have ever worked with. The song is written especially for the school, the kids wrote the lyrics and if you listen to the track some of them are singing on it with us, all proceeds from the song will be going to the school to help fund further arts based projects.
You should be able to download the new songs from iTunes and other usual suspects from June 11th. 'Only A Heartbeat' (new single version) / Long Back Veil / Pitcheroak
After we said our goodbyes to Vale on Saturday morning, we jumped into the Dodgymobiles and headed up to Leeds for our first gig of the day outside @JumboRecords as part of Record Store Day. We don't necessarily enjoy these daytime 'in-stores', (as they're called in the 'biz'), as shopping malls and afternoons are not conducive for rock and roll (see Spinal Tap and Artie Fuffkin) but we had a good old time here, probably spurred on by the hearty crowd that turned up and also by the promise of @thestaves performance straight after us. If you've ever heard four more beautifully blended voices since the Beach Boys then please let us know. We even made a special trip to the @poundland across the way during their set to buy a bag of Fox's Butterscotch especially to offer them after their performance.
Only one of them wanted one.
We finished the day the best way we know how, by playing a cracking little acoustic gig at the Bohemia Project in Accrington, where Long Black Veil went down as well with the crowd as the phenomenal Mexican meal did with us that the promoter and 'our Julie' made for us.
So, the batteries have been regenerated and we're all awake now and RARING to go. Keep a look out for the updates on the LIVE page on the website and please keep sending us messages and emails.
Look after each other cuz it's plainly obvious that THOSE fuckers won't
As I'm writing this @WhisperingBob OBE is on the radio. He's opened his show appropriately, in many many ways, with Bob Dylan's 'Rainy Day Women #12 & #35' which Dodgy have also covered, a bunch of other Band and Levon Helm stuff, including 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' and what's this...? Ah.. @thestaves - perfect. Can't wait til we meet up with Bob and do the session for his show in July ;-)
A last reminder that we'll be in London on Tuesday (May 1st) doing 'A Word In Your Ear' for @TheWordMagazine at The Lexington and got to give a shout out for Dumbfest at the Phoenix Arts Centre, Bordon in Hampshire where we play next Saturday (5th May) should be a great event and all proceeds go the Teenage Cancer Trust
OH WELL, Easter is over, chocolate eggs eaten and the lord is all risen like a well baked cake. It's been a good time for Dodgy to regroup, refresh and review the situation and consider the next phase of Dodgy 2012 - and exciting it is too.
We have already achieved much more than we expected with the release of a new Dodgy album and 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place', continues to stand it's ground. We probably have you to thank for that and word continues to spread as day by day we get an email or see a complementary tweet, so all good there.
After a lot of discussion, feedback from you and talks with our label, it seems that everyone agrees that the next step would be to release a new 'single' from the album - but how do you pull a track from it's comfortable little space that's been made for it in the album track listing?
Well the answer is, that first you dust it down, change it around a bit and make sure everyone thinks it's up to the job. As to choosing which track, we also took into consideration the feedback we have been getting and which song(s) have been going down well and getting the best response from the live shows.
Now we can reveal exclusively, that the song that's been chosen as the second single from 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' is (insert fanfare)..... 'Only A Heartbeat'.
For the new single version we had another listen to the master tapes and sent them back over with our ideas to Matt Pence in Texas, who has revisited the track and done a sterling job - we are sure you will agree when you hear it.
We are currently finalising a May release date for the single (we'll let you know when actual release date confirmed). Now that the decision has been made there's lots to do. We'll be going into Vale Studios as soon as we can to work on a couple of new tracks to go with it, we've asked Russell (Hardman) to do the artwork and hopefully there'll be a short film/video to go with it. As these things happen we'll let you know - Hey, Dodgy have a new single coming - spread the news.
First stop for the new single will be getting it on the radio and as we speak, promo copies are making their way to all DJs, producers and radio shows now.
If you want to be one of the first people to hear the single and request your favourite DJ to play it then send us an email to info@dodgyology.com to let us know which DJ(s) you'll be contacting and we will send you a personal link to hear the new single.
IN MAY there are a whole bunch of gigs coming up with Dodgy playing live including a trip to Scotland and even the Shetland Isles. We are also hoping to pop into our favourite T-Pot Studios with Robin Evans who worked on the album with us, to do a bit of sneaky recording (might be a surprise in store when you hear the results of that one)..
As we mentioned in the previous blog, it all kicks off with a special London gig for Word Magazine, headlining their 'A Word In Your Ear' night at The Lexington on Tuesday May 1st. Just added to the line-up is Boo Hewerdine and Brooks Williams - Boo Hewerdine was the creative force behind the band The Bible and he's hooked up with American slide guitarist Brook Williams for his new album 'State Of The Union' - so should make for a very special night.
For tickets for A Word In Your Ear' with Dodgy click HERE
And don't forgetRECORD STORE DAY on Saturday April 21st when it's Dodgy Live In Leeds.
This is a worldwide event to support record shops. We were hoping to release an exclusive limited edition picture disc of the album for RSD but unfortunately time and practicalities got the better of us - Russell even did the artwork and sent it through to us for approval, to say it would have been a thing of great beauty is an underestimate (gets teary) but unfortunately it won't be hitting the shelves in the foreseeable future. So, instead we are going to be playing a special live acoustic gig at Jumbo Records in Leeds, one of the best independent record shops in the country, alongside a whole bunch of cool bands including The Staves. Then after that we'll be jumping from Yorkshire to Lancashire to play another acoustic gig in the evening in Accrington at Bohemia.
This post is written from the drum seat of Dodgy and as drummer I get invited to quite a few drum related events, which I don't tend to turn up to because I don't generally like drummers, thugs, the lot of them. But I decided to go to the Zildjian Artist's day at the Hard Rock Cafe in London, mainly because it was the Easter holidays and it was somewhere exciting to take my boy as an alternative to the motorway services + I'm sure there would be free stuff (a T shirt and sticks, thank you Zildjian). Anyway, I met a very nice chap who has got perhaps the cushiest job in Drummingham - he's the drummer for Blood Brothers in the West End and has been for 21 years!!!
Oh giz a job! I could do that!
He very kindly got us some discount tickets (they don't do free tickets anymore apparently, EVEN for me). I was told about the brilliance of Blood Brothers by one of the Dodgy Dollies, Ann (her and her daughter make a pilgrimage once a year) and she wasn't wrong. Written by Willy Russell who wrote Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine and is basically a heartbreaking story about class based in his native Liverpool, which as you probably know, Dodgy have had a lifelong affinity and love for. As musicals go, it's probably one of the best and well worth a pop if you've never dipped your toe in those waters - 24 years in the West End, they must be doing something right
Finally a word up for Graham Le Saux ( @graemelesaux14 ) and his mates. Those that follow us on Twitter might have caught some of the banter between Dodgy and Graham (he likes the album apparently) and now he's about to undertake a mammoth project as he's one of the key riders on a charity bicycle ride from Athens to London on behalf of Cancer Research and Great Ormond St. It's 2800km and takes place between April 23rd and May 18th. You can donate and support Graham and the team by going to the following web page http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=GraemeLeSaux
