IT’S unlikely that Dorset pupils bat an eyelid when a bearded unassuming-looking music teacher visits their school to teach them the art of drumming.

But sit him at a drum kit and put two bandmates with bleached blond hair belting out breezy pop songs either side of him and you’re looking at one of the biggest bands of the 1990s.

Dodgy, famed for radio-friendly hits Good Enough and Staying Out for the Summer, are back and are set to perform in West Dorset next weekend at a new festival.

The band’s drummer, Matthew Priest, is a regular visitor to the county’s schools, where he works with the Dorset Music Service to inspire youngsters.

But with school out for summer, Dodgy are back on the road and touring again.

They’re performing at the first Jurassic Fields Music Festival, to be held in Bridport on Saturday, July 12.

Matthew said: “I live near Shaftesbury and I teach in schools all over Dorset – in Salway Ash, Broadwindsor, Blandford and Gillingham so I know the area really well.

“It’s a gorgeous area. I really love teaching the drums to kids.

“Sometimes I feel a bit like I’m in All Creatures Great and Small travelling around to these lovely little places.”

The band recently recorded a single to raise money for the Trussell Trust, a charity which provides food banks.

It is a cause Matthew feels passionately about.

He said: “The Trussell Trust is about inequality. The majority of the people using food banks are working people who need it.

“It’s a very mean, selfish type of society we have where you can’t look after people who are not doing that well.

“The only way you can get a food parcel from the Trust is to get a referral and the lies that have been spilled about this when a reporter went undercover saying foodbanks are being abused by scroungers was unbelievable.

“It’s a caring, lovely charity and it makes me angry that someone would want to ‘expose’ them.”

Matthew isn’t one to shy away from having an opinion on the industry.

Gary Barlow and two fellow members of Take That were recently reported to have avoided paying tax through a £66 million investment in Icebreaker partnerships, billed as music industry investment schemes.

Matthew said: “With Gary Barlow, the amount of tax he didn’t pay is pretty much equal to the amount of benefit fraud that goes on in this country.

“You look at some of these people with wages of £200 million and they’re trying to save £1 million a year in tax.

“These people shouldn’t even be earning this amount of money in the first place.

“The problem is that there are loopholes in the law to avoid paying the tax and people like Gary Barlow use it and they don’t care.”

After the success Dodgy experienced releasing three albums and 12 Top 40 singles, the band parted ways in 1998.

They sold out the Brixton Academy for three nights in a row and were awarded a Saturday evening slot on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival in 1997 just before Radiohead.

Matthew said: “We split up in 1998, we’d stopped talking to each other.

“Now we’re back together we’ve realised the most important thing is to listen and communicate with each other.

“The satisfying thing for all of us is being in a band and playing music together and being influenced by people like Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and John Lennon.

“It’s all about looking after each other in the music industry.”

The band has been uncovering local talent after requesting videos through social media.

They’ve given a number of young performers a chance to play alongside them at open mic nights across the country.

And while Dodgy are proud to have released Stand Upright in a Cool Place in 2012 and have new songs to be released soon, Matthew is aware that their old material is still in much demand.

“We’re well aware that a lot of people are going to want us to play the old stuff.

“When we play a show we do a mixture of material and we’ve made sure that our new material is really strong and that has got the best reviews.

“But if you’re a boxer and you’ve got a really strong right hook and you need to use that right hook to win the match you’re an idiot if you don’t use it.

“In some ways Good Enough is very much like that right hook,” he said.

FESTIVAL in a day Jurassic Fields will be held at Asker Meadows, Bridport, on Saturday, July 12.

The music starts at 10am and continues to 11pm.

Acts performing alongside Dodgy include The Rising, Vanilla Radio and Jonathan Cotton. Dodgy will take to the main stage at 9.30pm.

Headlining the acoustic stage are local band The Leggomen.

It will be held over two stages with one main stage and one smaller acoustic stage.

There will also be a comedy cavern with a host of comedians performing throughout the day.

There will also be a children’s area with various entertainment and workshops taking place to keep them occupied throughout the day as well as a kids’ fun fair.

Tickets cost £26 for adults, £15 for concessions and children under five go free but require a ticket.

See jurassicfields.com for more information.