Thirty years after becoming one of Britain’s best-loved bands, Nigel Clark and Mathew Priest tell Lichfield Radio why Dodgy are still writing, still touring and still finding joy in making music.
For many music fans, Dodgy will always be synonymous with the soundtrack of the 1990s. Songs such as Good Enough, Staying Out for the Summer and If You’re Thinking of Me became anthems of the Britpop era, helping the band sell more than two million records. But spend just a few minutes talking to frontman Nigel Clark and drummer and lyricist Mathew Priest, and one thing quickly becomes clear: Dodgy are far from being a nostalgia act.
Speaking to Lichfield Radio, the pair were as funny, warm and self-deprecating as ever, happily veering off into conversations about home studios, grandchildren learning the drums, wedding disasters and even zombie apocalypses before settling into a thoughtful discussion about creativity, songwriting and their acclaimed new album. Although the band’s classic hits remain central to every live set, Clark says he still approaches each performance as if the songs are brand new.
I try and approach everything as though it’s new, It’s like cooking. You can make the same meal every day, but you’ll always try to make it a little bit better.
Rather than simply recreating old recordings note for note, Dodgy enjoy subtly reshaping familiar songs while introducing audiences to newer material. Priest believes the latest songs sit naturally alongside the classics. “It’s almost like they’re the songs we were missing all along,” he said, describing how tracks from Hello Beautiful have completed the live set in a way the band hadn’t expected.
Clark describes Hello Beautiful as the band’s most reflective work to date. The album explores growing older, looking back and looking ahead, while still carrying the optimism that has always defined Dodgy. “It represents what life is like today,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like there’s only looking back because the future looks dark and scary. But the hardest thing is to find joy in life.” That message struck a chord with Lichfield Radio’s own philosophy of ‘Accentuating the Positive’, something Clark says has always been at the heart of the band. “That’s always been Dodgy.”
The conversation also turned to how dramatically the music industry has changed since the band’s breakthrough. Back in the early 1990s there was a well-trodden route to success: move to London, build a following through live gigs, earn support from music journalists, radio DJs and promoters, and eventually secure a record deal. Today, Priest believes young musicians face a completely different challenge.
You have to be a content creator, there are brilliant young bands out there, but back then they’d have been signed.
Clark agreed, suggesting that today’s record labels are often investing in artists who have already built substantial online audiences, rather than discovering talent from scratch. Both felt enormous admiration for young bands trying to break through in such a crowded digital world. One of the most fascinating parts of the interview centred on the band’s early days in London. Before record deals and chart success, Dodgy created their own weekly night called The Dodgy Club in a restaurant basement. The band DJ’d an eclectic mix of soul, rock, indie, punk and pop before performing their own short set. “It became our legacy,” Clark recalled. The club eventually attracted journalists and industry figures, ultimately helping the band secure the record deal that launched their career. It’s a reminder that, even before social media, successful bands still had to find imaginative ways to stand out.
Away from the touring schedule, Clark has recently built a new home studio where he plans to spend the coming winter writing. Inspired by the collaborative studio culture in Sweden, he sees the colder months as a time for creativity and reflection. “I always write in winter,” he said. “Everything slows down and that’s when the ideas come together.” With new management, more festivals still to come and another writing period already planned, the future looks anything but quiet for the band.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the interview wasn’t the stories from Britpop’s heyday or the tales of chaotic weddings and touring adventures. It was the obvious affection Clark and Priest still have for making music together. Three decades after Good Enough first became one of Britain’s most-played songs, Dodgy remain driven by exactly the same thing that inspired them in the beginning: writing songs that connect with people. If Hello Beautiful is anything to go by, they’re succeeding.
Hello Beautiful is available now, and Dodgy continue to tour throughout 2026.