‘Heading For An Early Grave’- On the road with DOGS

  Tour features are enough work as it is - you follow a band around the country (or if you’re lucky you go international), find a shower and something that’s not fried “chicken” or kebab “meat” for dinner, get the gig done, bear witness to the backstage debauchery, get smashed, get wasted, wake up in a different city and it all begins again. But this is child’s play for one band; a feisty "Laahndan" based five piece with gallons of attitude and more strut than the Stones.   The Dogs are on a sell-out tour, and Gigwise is on it with them. It takes us nearly four hours to get 40 miles outside of London - in the time that we’ve spent on the road we have had a reassuringly unhealthy breakfast on the pavements of Islington, read the newspaper - sport section only, and raided the bank. We had to stop off in Islington for Dogs soundman Alex, who is dragged onto the bus after having woken up in the gutter - from the looks of him it was a good night out n’ all.   “SO WHAT’S THE PLAN?” shouts Gigwise over the radio. “What?” replies their tour manager. Dana dan dan danana! “THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD” yells front man Johnny Cooke as he nearly gives Gigwise a black eye throwing both fists up into the air. They’re actually touring with the Modfather in November and finish with two dates at London’s Alley Pally in December - Weller rang them up and personally asked them to support him, and with three massive Jam fans in the band there’s nothing that’s going to stop them from sharing his stage. It’s only after The Jam classic is over that any sense can be made of the initial question. This is not just a tour - on every date the Dogs are filming the video for their next single ‘Tarred And Feathered‘. Gigwise is told that on their site Dogs fans who are as mad about footie as the band, can enter a competition to appear in the video and meet the band; but they have to turn up in their football strips. “Won’t that cause trouble between rival clubs?” “We don’t think it will, but if it does it’ll be a good fight!” comes the reply. Oh my sainted aunts.   First stop is “the home of underground music in Stoke” - The Underground in the picturesque city of Stoke-on-Trent. A sound check later and… “special fried noodles” says drummer Rich in his broad northern accent. The Dogs and their crew have taken over a small Chinese restaurant bedecked in tacky red and gold decorations with a suspiciously empty fish tank bubbling gently behind the boys, much like the conversation. It’s like the lull before the storm, listening to snippets of band gossip before they head back to the venue. “What’s the time?” quips Jeff their tour manager. Literally two seconds later Dogs are haring down the road and burst into The Underground screaming for the storm to begin.   Amid dimmed lights they step onto the stage and the opening riffs of ‘London Bridge’ peel out of the amps as they drip from the fingers of guitarist Rikki. This song describes Dogs perfectly, “When battered heads dissemble and descend into a mess upon the city/When bleeding hearts awake from single beds and paint themselves so pretty”  they manage to do what few bands can. Pulling at your heartstrings, whilst throwing two fingers up to the world, the poetry of this perfect opener hits hard with stomping bass lines, cascading guitars and vocals that are spat out to the beat of the drums.   “Highs.” begins Johnny “Stoke, Glasgow, London”.Why Stoke? “Cos it was the first night and I couldn’t hear the lyrics over the crowd and it’s the first time that’s happened and it just put big smiles on our faces!” It’s also the first time for a long while that they played ‘Red’. This is a song so personal and painful that only three lines appear in the album sleeve- “She loves you, like you know she would / She’ll echo through the cold just like you know she would / So Long” . It’s a song that’ll make you weep - no matter what mood you’re in, listen closely to the lyrics and you’ll understand. When they play it Johnny stands on the stage staring into another world, completely lost amid the crowd and football shirts that have invaded the stage. It’s amazing, almost frightening to watch.   Johnny: “We played it once before at the Barfly (Camden) and yeah… because the album’s out now you gotta play everything ‘avent ya? I can’t just not play it cos it sometimes makes you feel uncomfortable. People wanna hear it. So you give ‘em it…plus the rest of the band wouldn’t let me get away with it!” They’ve also got new songs in the pipeline “but we’re not going to unleash them yet", to use a dog pun. ‘This Stone Is A Bullet’ is gonna be a great tune, the other titles are not set yet.”   As the night proceeds, more and more of the 33 Litres/8 Gallons/One Keg of red wine is drunk. Yes the Dogs bring a keg of red wine on tour with them. A ****ing keg. Two days later the band stomp through Norwich, set the fire alarms off in Canterbury where they’re dragged off stage to wait in the car park and later finish the set back inside the venue. But it’s the next date that is perhaps the most important and one of the highest points of their career. London’s Kings Cross Scala.   The film crew are tearing around the place faster than greyhounds on speed and the crowd that’s just burst into the main room all run for the barriers. Wires, battery packs and gaffer tape fly across the stage as the cameras are set up. The chaos out front is matched only by the band’s excitement that’s building up in the less than clean dressing room; with a leaking roof it’s exactly the kind of place you have to look before sitting down, but it might as well be Buckingham Palace tonight cos everyone is ****ing buzzing. “Aaaaamaaazing Graaaace!” Rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Luciano Vargas is warming up. And as this handsome Argentinean belts the hymn out in an interpretive style everyone is stood there with shocked smiles as they listen, but the best expression by far is the grin plastered across Duncan’s (bass) face.