Dodgy are back. Not with the brashness of the mid-1990s, but with a steadier resilience. Their new single, It’s Not The End, from the forthcoming album Hello Beautiful, feels less like a comeback and more like a band considering their past and present, and quietly deciding there’s still plenty left to say.
Following their Top 40 return with the title track, It’s Not The End – released on 20th February – reveals a more reflective shade. Melancholic but far from maudlin, it carries that unmistakable Dodgy melodic lift, now tempered with the perspective of three decades in the rear-view mirror. Nigel Clark’s vocal sits front and centre, weathered, and resolute, as if the years between then and now have only sharpened the band’s instinct for a hooky chorus.
Hello Beautiful, their sixth studio record and first since 2016, reunites Clark, Mathew Priest and Andy Miller with trusted collaborators Stu Thoy and Graham Mann. The result promises a rekindling of the melodic optimism that once made them a key brick in the wall of British guitar pop, now filtered through the realities of adulthood and survival.
A spring UK tour keeps faith with the independent venues that birthed them – from Norwich’s Adrian Flux Waterfront to Glasgow’s King Tut’s – a conscious nod to the grassroots circuit Priest rightly calls the lifeblood of live music.
And as if that weren’t enough, 2026 also marks 30 years of Free Peace Sweet, the record that cemented their place in the Britpop firmament. Anniversary shows this autumn, joined by The Icicle Works, will revisit an album that soundtracked a generation.
Indeed, it’s not the end. For Dodgy, it sounds very much like a new beginning.
HELLO BEAUTIFUL – UK TOUR DATES 2026
Tickets available now via www.dodgyology.com
Norwich – Thursday 30 April, The Adrian Flux Waterfront
Grimsby – Friday 1 May, Docks Academy
Buckley – Saturday 2 May, The Tivoli
Leek – Friday 8 May, Foxlowe Arts Centre
Nottingham – Sunday 10 May, Rescue Rooms
Aberdeen – Friday 15 May, The Tunnels
Inverness – Saturday 16 May, An Seomar
Glasgow – Sunday 17 May, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Tunbridge Wells – Thursday 21 May, The Forum
Southampton – Friday 22 May, Papillon
Brighton – Saturday 23 May, Quarters
FREE PEACE SWEET – 30TH ANNIVERSARY SHOWS
London – Saturday 26 September, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Bristol – Thursday 1 October, O2 Academy
Birmingham – Friday 2 October, O2 Institute
Manchester – Saturday 3 October, O2 Ritz
Liverpool – Friday 9 October, O2 Academy
