BLACK GRAPE + DODGY – CHALK, BRIGHTON 12.12.25
Thirty years ago, a group of Salford misfits emerged from the wreckage of the Happy Mondays and the Ruthless Rap Assassins to create the gloriously unhinged, irreverent Black Grape.
Formed in 1993 by Shaun Ryder and Bez from the Happy Mondays, alongside Paul ‘Kermit’ Leveridge from the Ruthless Rap Assassins, the group became an unlikely success story in an era plagued by the waning UK rave scene and dissemination of Manchester’s Factory Records. The band’s history reads like an epic tale penned in white powder and raucous lyricism. Shaun Ryder’s stint in a detox program, band dissension, and a wave of mixed critical reviews once seemed to signal the end. Yet here they are in 2025, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their seminal debut ‘It’s Great When You’re Straight Yeah’, touring with the current lineup of Ryder, Leveridge, Ged Lynch, and Mikey Shine, having released ‘Pop Voodoo’ in 2017 and ‘Orange Head’ in 2023 via DGAFF Records.
Dodgy opened the night, walking onto Chalk’s stage to the strains of ‘Bella Ciao’. It nodded to a past shaped by political engagement and support for protest– an unexpected edge for a band known for sunlit staples like ‘Staying Out For The Summer’ and ‘Good Enough’, both football-compilation mainstays and TV ad favourites.
Formed in Hounslow in 1990, Dodgy rose to prominence during the Britpop era yet never quite wielded the heavyweight status of their Northern relatives Oasis or the Stone Roses. Yet, it’s difficult to not like them. Dodgy may be considered the overly earnest, slightly embarrassing distant cousin of Black Grape, but the band knows itself. Dodgy are comfortable in their own skin, putting out simple tracks that are done cleanly and cheerfully. Sure, they are an unlikely support for the night. Yet when quizzed on the choice of support, Black Grape’s Shaun Ryder noted “Have what you want, get the singing choir from ASDA Christmas carols if you want”.
It’s the sixth night of their tour and the band opens with ‘So Let Me Go Far’. There is something endearing about watching a group of older men, all synched in matching black outfits, harmonising with each other 23 years after their first album release. The layered vocals often sparked fission, with the ensemble’s hooks fusing to form a compelling whole. My companion dubs their sound as the “unlikely meeting of rock and gospel”. It works. Following the crowd-pleasing ‘Staying Out For The Summer’, frontman Nigel Clark debuts new material with ‘Hello Beautiful’, the lead track from their upcoming sixth studio album of the same name. Scheduled for release in May 2026 on Flip Flop Records, it will be their first album in a decade, following 2016’s ‘What Are We Fighting For’.
Dodgy’s sound carries an unlikely American country quality, spliced with distinctive Northern accents. Their setlist isn’t confined to the usual cheerful ballads, venturing instead into ‘In A Room’, a strikingly melancholic track that stands out against the otherwise sunny repertoire. They may lack the snarl so beloved of other graduates of their era, but their audience at Chalk don’t mind one bit. Sheepish or not, the crowd is a sea of lip-syncers. The band ends their set with the eponymous hit ‘Good Enough’. Their next gig in Brighton is set for 23rd May at Quarters which is located at 187-193 Kings Road Arches and in it’s time was most famously known as The Zap Club. Grab your tickets HERE.
Dodgy setlist:
‘So Let Me Go Far’
‘Staying Out For The Summer’
‘Summer Forever’
‘In A Room’
‘If You’re Thinking Of Me’
‘Hello Beautiful’
‘Good Enough’
Black Grape is up next around quarter past eight. It is hard to review a band like this as the image of Ryder and Kermit have almost subsumed the band itself. They could’ve had a chat on stage and the crowd would still be enamoured. For a group that yields a distinctly older fanbase, Black Grape’s mythology does half the work. Despite this, Ryder and Kermit’s chemistry is ablaze now more than ever.
As a 30th anniversary tour for their debut album ‘Its Great When You’re Straight Yeah’, Black Grape’s setlist is charged with hits from the release that topped UK charts and reached platinum certification. The historic album fuses rap, funk and club-ready beats with lyrics nasty enough to unclench even the meekest wallflower loose from the sidelines. ‘In The Name Of The Father’, followed by ‘Tramzi Parti’ and ‘Nine Lives’ kicks off their set. Ryder’s signature sprechsang (a vocal technique combining singing and talking) still reigns supreme and Chalk’s floor throbs like an enormous bass bin. The oldies are out in force tonight. Despite the staple barrier dwellers that are standard to a band that boasts an older fan base, chaos returns to Chalk- flying beer and all.
Ryder takes no shame in reading the setlist off the floor, shrugging at their newer songs and asking the crowd “What album is this off?’, ‘Orange Head’? Is that what it’s called?”. They know the routine and Kermitt makes his way through three pints on stage, yet each track lands with decisive bite and a clean ease. The ‘Happy Monday’s’ formula is still latent in Black Grape’s delivery, yet when Ryder and Kermit share the microphone on ‘Reverend Black Grape’ and ‘Kelly’s Heroes’, the duo’s distinctive sound and undeniable chemistry comes to full fruition. Despite Ryder and Kermit’s prominence, it is perhaps the rest of the band that keeps these two in check.
For an album that the band wrote “in a seven bedroom, seven f*cking showers, house in Los Angeles, smoking crack in a f*cking wardrobe”, it’s a miracle that ‘Its Great When You’re Straight Yeah’ was even released. The absurdity of Black Grape’s repertoire is a force emanating from their lyrics. In ‘Reverend Black Grape’ Ryder sings “Oh come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant gather ‘round while I blow my own trumpet”. Ryder does the impossible and simultaneously satirises rap’s narcissism as much as he magnifies it. It doesn’t get old.
Black Grape continue their UK tour at the Electric Brixton before venturing further North, ending their stint in Manchester on the 20th of December.
Black Grape setlist:
‘In The Name Of The Father’
‘Tramzi Parti’
‘Nine Lives’
‘Pimp Wars’
‘Get Higher’
‘Yeah, Yeah Brother’
‘String Theory’
‘Dirt’
‘A Big Day In The North’
‘Set The Grass On Fire’
‘Reverend Black Grape’
‘Shake Well Before Opening’
‘Kelly’s Heroes’
‘Little Bob’
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