Rock and Dole is Sam Avery’s story of how his band dBh (dirty Blue hooks) went from humble beginnings with their mums backstage at their first gig to touring Europe and even opening for Motorhead, only to come crashing down to earth with a thud as, after three months of stardom, they found themselves in their local jobcentre looking for work.
Despite Avery’s success and his obvious skill as a musician and knowledge of the subject, he never comes across as aloof or distant to the audience. Far from it, he is down-to-earth and more than willing to see the funny side of his own failings and various calamities that befell his band during its short time in the spotlight. This Scouse ex-rocker manages to make his time in the music industry very interesting and funny, even though his material doesn’t immediately lend itself to comedy.
As Avery says at the end of the show though, the amount of time since his flirt with rock has mellowed his attitude towards what happened to his music career and he now feels able to laugh about it. As well as being a funny show, it is also very interesting to see the rise to stardom of a band from such a perspective as Avery’s. He describes how he and his mates never really did the whole ‘rock star’ thing, barring a particular episode in a limousine. Although Avery claimed David Lee Roth as his role model when he was a musician, he realised eventually that, essentially, ‘he’s just an arsehole, isn’t he?’ Avery’s reluctance to become a rockstar, the situations this created and the man’s own skill at spinning a tale with humour and personality, make this a very enjoyable show.
