the boys are back and we got to ask Andy some questions.

what has triggered the original line up re-formation?

A spell of some kind, someone out there maybe had 3 voodoo dolls with our likeness, then strapped us  together while saying 'reform, reform, reform yer b*stards!!'.

I'd written to Nigel the year before asking if he'd be interested in getting together to re-record a couple of tunes like Staying Out For The Summer and Good Enough for the purpose of... well, i'll tell you later. But anyway Nigel declined due to him having other commitments that needed fulfilling. He'd only just finished his first album since leaving Dodgy and he wanted to take the album out on tour etc... Which was fair enough. But he didn't entirely rule out the idea of reforming, just not that year.

I think we were just waiting for someone to hand us a tempting offer to reform. And that eventually  happened a few months ago and now here we are.

This planned tour in November is purely set up to help us get on the list for next summers festivals and is not a money making adventure that many would jump to assume, journalist that claim this are just plain amateur and don't know what they're talking about. We'll be lucky to break even. You got to consider that there are other bands like The Verve that have decided to reform. And they've chosen to tour at the same time as us. That won't help. And we're running on IOU's to our press agents, promoters, venues, management, internet marketing, regional press, including ads in mags etc etc... Time to sweat, thanks for reminding me, cheers.
 
Will we be seeing any new material with it being over decade since the release of free peace sweet?

There has been talk of it between us. I can’t say I wouldn’t be a little curious about what would come out. I'd like to but my hands are a little tied with me being involved with another band Hey Gravity and having our french label boss breathing down my neck wanting a second album before i play a single note for Dodgy! I'll try and meet Nige and Math under the cover of darkness and in a heavy disguise, full weather coat, dark glasses and hat, I'm sure i'll fit in amongst a crowd if i find one at that time of night.

what have you all been doing for the past couple of years, kids, marriages etc or any other unusual hobbies like Ironing or something?

No marriages or kids, still dating and touring. No boring job to talk of, been lucky in that respect. I've moved flat 3 or 4 times. Now living in Dalston and hanging around Stoke Newington. There were a few messy years in 'Stokey' which is why i now choose to live on the edge of it's borders, gives me time to recover. I'm still creative and actively involved in my band HG who do well on the continent where things are just done better, where we're paid and fed would you believe?!!

 
I seem to remember you selling out the Brixton Academy for two nights on the bounce in the mid nineties, would you like to go back to that sort of exposure? Or is the reformation more like an "old skool" re-union rather than attempt to reclaim any status?   

That would be tempting, those days were such a fantastic experience and there’s nothing quite like it. I often felt it was something that wasn’t real, like a dream. You become incredibly popular and strangers quickly become your friend. If you don’t keep your close friends close, you start to find yourself alone and in unfamiliar surroundings with people who only know you superficially.

But to be honest I can’t see a return to those former heights of success and stress. We haven’t got the big record company with a bottomless purse, young looks and we’re still trying to find our fanbase who could be anywhere right now, a lot changed in 10 years.

No, i'm happy where I am. It's just a simple old get together with one goal in mind. We used to have a real laugh being in a band with eachother and it's only now that we find that this could be a laugh once again. We all get along, the ego's have dwindled and it's now time to enjoy the moment and not get lost up our own arses like some bands do.

 
Looking back over your past achievements and gigs are there any that really stand out?

Doing the BBC sessions from '92 to '97, walking in and out of the maida vale studios each year with different coloured hair and the look of innocence retreating in our eyes as the years passed. Being a part of that establishment ment a lot to a band like us then. Which is why we're damn well putting it on a cd and selling it to anyone who's interested. Release for October.

Other memorable moments, more importantly i'd have to say, was when we turned down a support at Knebworth with Oasis to go and gig a war torn Bosnia. Playing in a disused hospital morgue in Sarajevo, where the kids kept requesting that we play the Sex Pistols. All on borrowed instruments.

I met a lad of 18 in Mostar who was fighting in the war from the age of 16. Six foot tall and very self confident for his age, he said, 'Don't forget me, my name is Ohar, you are good person, you come back'. I walked along the old front line, which was quite simply, a street. Serbs on one side and Bosnian muslims on the other. One side peppered with a 100 thousand plus Serbian made bullet holes in return for a couple hundred from the Bosnian defenders. That country left such an impression on me and the rest of us. Can't say i missed anything at Knebworth.
 
You were always perceived as a "nice" bunch of chaps perhaps down to your summery sound ,but did your really succesful years bring on any shocking events like drunken abuse of airline stewardesses, or the classic tv's out of windows sort of nights?

We could be nasty if we wanted to. But too many bands waltz about with an oversized sense of self importance. We found that our place in those surroundings was to be approachable and kindhearted. Throwing tv's out of a window had been done before.

We did get up to a lot of silly things like planting a custard pie in the face of Damon Albarn backstage  at Glastonbury and a number of cameramen. Nothing plain nasty though, well, apart from one time where we'd been invited back to a house by some chaps who promised beer and smoke. Lovely guys, happy to see us. We stayed for an hour or so and had a good laugh with them. Only to discover as we left that Math and a mate sneaked upstairs into one of our hosts bedrooms and found a 3 foot tall lego model of a sailing ship and a long sword on the wall. After knighting his mate with the sword he suddenly couldn't help himself. That ship must have taken days to build. For which Math repents to this day.
 
Are the any bands about at the moment that are floating your boat? Have you got on the "new rave" bus?

Yeah there are some good bands out at the moment. I like the Klaxons. Well done to them for their recent Mercury prize. Also CSS are a great band. But i don't really follow the music press much anymore so i would know which band are on which bus. Doesn't really matter to me as long as it sounds good. But I have been on a bendy bus, though i still miss the old route masters.
 
Whats in the cd player at the moment?

Dust and crumbs. It hasn’t played anything since my mate put a waffle in it. Before that it was Wolfmother.
 
If you had the chance to go back to one particular time when together as band what or where would it be and why?

Math and me spoke about this, if we could go back we'd choose the months leading up to when the band split. We wished we'd payed more attention to what Nigel was saying. We should've communicated more and tried to find a way of keeping it together. Instead of splitting we should have  given it a rest for a while, slow things down a bit if you know what i mean? We could've done things differently and maybe now we'd be on our forth or fifth album.

It's up to us what to do with the time we are given, is what my old mate Gandolf told me once. And then you get on and live with the consequences. And don't be bitter about it you old git.

All the best

Andy

To see Dodgy on tour go to www.myspace.com/dodgyuk