Thursday 20 September | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £12  Tickets

We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away for this one, read on to find out how you can get your paws on them…

Yup, Dodgy.  Them of the Britpop-era radio-friendly single, them who, by their own admission, ‘partied harder than Ewoks’ at the time, them who, let’s be fair, some of you may be ready to dismiss already.  This isn’t another nostalgic cash-in reunion jolly though;  far from it.  Rather incongruously, their new West Coast harmony-laden album “Stand Upright In A Cool Place‘ has garnered four and five star reviews right across the board, from The Guardian to Louder Than War.  We had a few words with the band’s drummer Mathew Priest to find out how all this came about:

So, Mathew, just when and why did the band get back together?

“We were brought back together about 4 years ago, it was a rather sad situation as our lighting tech, Andy Moore, who we loved, was dying with a brain tumour and he had a testimonial while he was still alive to raise money for his kids in Manchester.   He literally banged our heads together, “What you playing at?  Look at me, I’m dying.  Life’s too short lads!”  Bless him.”

How’s the reaction been to the new stuff at your shows?

“Oh yeah the songs from the new album sound fantastic live, it’s probably our best album. Certainly the reactions from our fans is that we’re playing better than we’ve ever played, we’re at the top of our game. Personal bests at every gig ” (asked for that, didn’t I?)

You’re playing Shetland after The Tunnels (always tickles me for some reason when bands make the effort to go up there*), looking forward to it? Getting the boat?

“Yeah we can’t wait to go to Shetland, we’ve been planning to go since we were first invited 16 years ago. We’re flying from Aberdeen so I REAALLY hope it’s not gonna be foggy.  I heard that Steve Earle got fogged off a few years ago.  That would be too much of a disappointment to travel all the way up and be denied at the last hurdle.”

*Just yesterday The Happy Mondays announced a show in Shetland.  At £50 a head. This tickles me less.  Dodgy is £12. 

So, there’s a wee bit of background, and here’s a tune from the album, the competition is below:

Right, to win a pair of tickets to the show, simply answer this stupidly easy question:

What is the name of Dodgy’s new album?

…and email it along with your name to info@thekiosque.com under the heading ‘Dodgy Comp‘ before midnight on Tuesday 18 September when we’ll pick a winner at random.

Good luck!

PS: There’s much more on the band here: dodgyology.com