So, while they went about signing different tracks to different labels, and took every booking going - to the point they were often doing eight sets a week around the party towns on the Mediterranean from Ibiza to Ayia Napa - they found themselves royally ripped off left, right and centre. The pair had assumed that the mainstream would operate in the same ad-hoc, mates-in-it-together way that kept the underground just about functional, but the industry had other ideas. Hill smiles, but is not joking when he says “I’m just happy we got through it with all our limbs”. I’m proud of the fact we’ve come through it … older, wiser and working with good people that we like and trust Pete Devereux But Re-Rewind, along with Shanks & Bigfoot’s Sweet Like Chocolate, marked the tipping point for UKG: for the next three or so years, the sound was a chart fixture, and Devereux and Hill unwittingly became pop stars.Ĭlick here to listen to Millionaire, a new tune by Original Dodger ft Daecolm, P Money and DaVinChe. Their ambitions never extended beyond clubland (“We never wanted to make high art, just create some good vibes and make a living,” says Hill). Though the scene was very London-centric, Devereux was running a club and would book the big names from the capital “then slip them copies of our latest tracks with their fee at the end of the night”, and one by one, Artful Dodger tracks became anthems on the circuit. He came to do a session at the recording studio Hill had set up (“At rip-off prices!” he laughs), the two hit it off and started working on their own tracks and material for a variety of local vocalists, including Craig David, who was barely into his teens when they met via a Southampton FC youth project.Īrtful Dodger were perfectly placed to catch the mid-90s wave of UK garage, which added heavy British bass to the funky shuffle of US house. Both were seasoned musicians: south Wales-born Hill was playing in acid jazz bands while at the university, while Devereux was an accomplished violinist as a child, but had his head turned by club culture and was a working DJ playing soulful US house. The pair first met in Southampton in 1993. An 11-track mixtape of new songs called Soundtrack is due this summer, and an album proper not long after. Now Devereux and Hill - both family men in their 40s - say they are ready, as Hill puts it, “to do it properly, and really enjoy it, this time”. The likes of Ed Sheeran and Disclosure have been celebrating the Dodgers’ return, with Sheeran telling them that Craig David’s Fill Me In, which Hill produced, was his favourite song to do as a busker. And there is a buzz of excitement online, not from nostalgic old fans but from a young generation who see UK garage as unfinished business. In six months, Original Dodger – as they must now call themselves – cooked up at least two albums’ worth of material, featuring names such as Shakka, Nadia Rose, P Money and Big Narstie. Photograph: Sal Idriss/Redferns We never wanted to make high art, just create some good vibes and make a living Mark HillĪll of which has led to a rich productive streak. “We just met thinking we might put out a statement, or maybe do a DJ gig or two, to set the record straight.” Devereux and Hill, both still working DJ-producers, say this was making it difficult for them to get bookings. Worse, the new “Artful Dodger” had been answering interview questions as if they had made the original records. But they were aggrieved that promoters had been advertising the new duo using photos of them. Devereux and Hill were partly to blame: in 2002, and under somewhat unclear circumstances, they had signed the name away. Instead, they were simply convening to vent their frustration that a completely separate duo were touring the DJ circuit under the name Artful Dodger. They certainly hadn’t intended to cause such a reaction. Then last summer, when a selfie of the pair together emerged from their personal Facebook pages, they were staggered that people still cared enough to make it go viral. Indeed, for the entirety of their 18-month flash of mega-success as figureheads of the UK garage movement, they never got used to it. When their 1999 Artful Dodger track Re-Rewind with Craig David took them from “struggling to pay the rent” to “doing Top of the Pops every other week” it caught them completely off-guard. P ete Devereux and Mark Hill seem to be perpetually surprised by their popularity.
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