“Are you sure this is actually England? Are you in the Euro-zone here?” asks Dodgy front-man, Nigel Clark, as he surveys the Fat Tuesday crowd in The Carlisle pub on Hastings seafront for their third gig of the evening.
Indeed, there is something unique about Hastings as far as music is concerned, and not something most of us would expect to find in England. In my quarter of a century being based in London I had the joy of attending some very memorable gigs. But never could I stroll along to my local and expect to find a top-ranking act from the Britpop era performing a gig in the pub – and for free!
Now in it’s ninth year, Hastings Fat Tuesday ( a long weekend of endless gigs and celebrations) has been been building a formidable reputation. The grand finale night, Fat Tuesday itself, saw 24 bands play 3 gigs each across 12 different venues venues. Unfortunate timetabling on my part, before I’d got fully acclimatised to Hastings’ seemingly never-ending calendar of events, meant I had a long-standing engagement doing a talk at the White Rock Hotel on the same evening. But as soon as I was finished I was able to hotfoot it down the road to see Dodgy do their third and final performance of the evening.
Always a welcome part of the 90s Britpop scene when guitar-based, accessible tunes were back in vogue and back in the charts, Dodgy made some catchy, memorable, era-defining songs. Having reformed a decade ago, they were clearly loving being part of Hastings Fat Tuesday. And the crowd were clearly loving having them there, too. It might have been a freezing cold February 2017 outside. But inside the Carlisle, with the late thirty-somethings and forty-somethings dancing away as the likes of Staying Out For The Summer, So Let Me Go Far and Good Enough rang out, the sun was beating down and it was Glastonbury 1997 all over again.
Dodgy, it’s good to have you back and it was good to have you around for Fat Tuesday.
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