“I custard-pied Damon Albarn once. It was our first Glastonbury, and we were all on acid.”
Britpop’s Great Survivors:
Thirty Years On, and Dodgy Are Still Causing Trouble
Three decades after Britpop's glory years, Dodgy remain one of the most beloved survivors of the era, still making records packed with melody, still filling venues, and still carrying enough stories to make most rock biographies look tame. Their new album, Hello Beautiful, is a surprisingly uplifting record for troubled times, but it wasn't long before our chat veered from protest songs and billionaires to Olly Murs plagiarism claims, drunken indie frontmen, Lauren Hill sightings, and one of the greatest backstage Glastonbury pranks ever committed.
Darren caught up with Nigel Clark and Matthew Priest to talk about the new album, old mates, surviving the madness of the '90s, and why Damon Albarn probably still shouldn't turn his back on them at a festival.
How are you guys?
Matthew: It’s good to be back in Loaded. We were on the front cover years ago. I saw your former editor, James Brown, recently. I love James. He’s had his issues, but managed to come out the other end. I was telling him about the Loaded documentary on iPlayer. He said he hadn’t seen it, ‘cause he didn’t think he’d come across well, but it’s brilliant.
You released your latest album, Hello Beautiful, last month. I’ve got to say it was one of the most uplifting albums I’ve heard in a while. Clearly, a lot went into it. I know a lot of bands claim not to know what they’d made until much later on, but you must have had a grin on your faces when you heard it all played back?
Nigel: I think there’s a lot of magic in it. It was a good idea just to put nine songs on it. We recorded more, but the nine songs equate to 38 minutes of your listening time, and they’re all such important pieces. I think if we’d gone on any longer, we’d have diluted it a bit. And, yeah, we were all high-fiving each other at the end.
Matthew: I think we knew when we were writing and recording it. There was a moment during the recording when we were listening to all the bits people had put on It’s Not The End that felt magical. I said to Nigel that they’re some of my favourite lyrics. You can never be sure, but the reaction has been so incredible.
It feels like a moment in time for the band.
Nigel: I feel that. There’s a protest song on there, one about loss, one about looking back, and one about looking forward. It’s about ‘now’, and there’s a lot to protest about right now.
Where do you even start to heal the world these days?
Matthew: I think Nigel has a good theory that everything filters down from all the shit in the world to billionaires. It all comes back to them. They control the media and the misinformation. The classic one is net migration. It’s gone down 75%, but 50% of the country thinks it’s gone up.
Nigel: It’s just lie after lie.
Matthew: I heard a story the other day that Johnny Vaughan had an argument with Nigel Farage about Brexit. Farage said, “You can’t argue with 17 million people, Johnny,” to which Johnny replied, “You know that’s exactly the same number of people that Hitler had?”
Everyone has moments in their life when they can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on that day. Where were you guys when you first heard Thinking Of Me, by Olly Murs?
Nigel: My mum called me and said, “Someone’s ripped you off!” The weird thing was that his manager was Harry from A&M Records. There were too many links to them.
Matthew: I’d have passed it off as just a little tribute, but I had way too many people messaging me, including Ian Broudie and Clint Boon, telling me we should do something about it. The thing is, it was in the same key and the same tempo.
We talked to our publisher, and they were like, We’ll, it’s gonna cost ya.” They published Olly Murs, too, so there was no way we were going to win that argument. We got a musicologist to listen to it, and the wanker said Good Enough sounded like Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. So we thought, fuck that!
Who were your mates on the circuit, back in the day?
Matthew: We went on tour with Shed Seven, and they were great lads- well, three of them were. Gene were all great.
Nigel: Space and Cast supported us on tour, and they were great to hang around with. Chris Helm from The Seahorses has become a really good friend of mine.
Matthew: I mean, they're all great when you meet them…well, nearly all…
You can go there if you want. This is Loaded.
Matthew: I don’t know if I should, but it was at a point when he was at his narcotic worst.
We had a covers band. It was me, Andy and Pete from Cornershop. There was a Christmas do at the Eve Club on Regent Street, where Pulp did their Disco 2000 video. The idea was that we’d be the backing band, and different singers would come up and perform a Christmas song.
Vanessa from Ultrasound was there, and she doesn’t take any shit from anyone. She’s lovely. Liv Tyler was there, too. Liv wandered up to the mic and asked, “Hey, do you guys know any rock n roll?” to which Vanessa replied, “Fuck off! I don’t care who your father is.”
Anyway, the guy in question (editor- we’ll call him Brett) was completely off his tits and wanted to sing Starry, Starry Night. That’s not a Christmas song, it’s about Vincent van Gogh. He just came up, pointed at me, pointed at the piano, and pointed at the mic stand. He didn’t say a word. We started the song, and he went “Starry, Starry Night” three times and then got laughed off the stage.
He’s cleaned up now, of course, and I’ve got nothing but admiration for him these days. I think the band are as good as they were back in the day. Big respect for him nowadays, and I’m sure he’ll not mind me saying he was a bit of cunt back then.
Sounds like the time Blur got trashed when they supported Suede and almost wrecked their career
Matthew: Oh, he was a cunt! Haha.
Nigel: I ‘custard-pied’ Damon Albarn once. It was our first Glastonbury, and we were all on acid. We’d stopped at a shop on the way there, and all I could think of buying was shaving foam and paper plates. So, on Sunday night, Matthew and I went and custard-pied everyone backstage. Albarn was the first one I did. It was great.
Matthew: You have to understand that Glastonbury back then was all about workshops, and we were doing a custard pie workshop. It was a beautiful movement that Nigel had. Damon and Justine were just coming off the stage, and he was limping, ‘cause he’d just done his jumping off the lighting thing. You know how sheepdogs go round? Well, Nigel did that and landed a perfectly timed custard pie right in his face.
It was hugely entertaining for us, but I imagine, incredibly annoying for him.
Nigel: There was zero reaction from him, so we went into the bar and did it to loads of music biz folk.
Matthew: But he did invite us to the Mile End show in 1995, so he must have forgotten all about it.
Did you enjoy your Top Of The Pops experiences?
Nigel: It’s weird ‘cause you spend a lot of the time in the BBC bar and canteen. It was on the same set as Grange Hill and EastEnders, so you end up queueing for lunch next to ‘Ricky’. I found it strange how everyone was kept away from each other, like rare birds or something.
I remember the Fujees. They had a big guy on stage. I mean, he was really big. Seeing Lauren Hill in real life was something else, as well.
Matthew: She was tiny and beautiful. She’s a wonderful singer and pretty too. The perfect package.
Best celebrities you’ve met?
Matthew: I spent some time with Noddy Holder a while back. There was a period in 1996 when we just kept bumping into each other, and he invited me out to lunch. He was so down-to-earth and very shrewd.
You have another tour coming up later this year to celebrate 30 years of Free Peace Sweet.
Nigel: It’s gonna be brilliant. We did it a few years ago, and it was the first time we’d played it in its original running order. I remember saying afterwards that I didn’t want to do anything else. I just wanted to play the album.
It’s nostalgic and a lot of fun for people, and every song is a joy to play. We’re getting a lot of younger people at our gigs now. Mind you, everyone’s younger than us these days.
Matthew: All of the songs went down so well, and we’re lucky to be able to tour both a new album and- later on in the year- a nostalgic one.
Hello Beautiful is out now. And grab your Dodgy tour tickets while you still can.
