Sub Doves are as far as I’m aware the first ever Doves Tribute band! They are based in the North West of England where they hope to play their first gig very soon. Their website is now live complete with band pictures (without the keyboardist of course!) but I’m told he will be in future photo shoots. They will soon have a live performance video up, so keep your eye open for that! From their biography:

Why have we set up a Doves Tribute Band?

Doves are one of my favorite bands ever. They epitimise the talent of the North West music scene with their diverse and unique style of sheer brilliance. What better way to pay tribute to them, than by playing their superb music!

We are all missing them terribly and if we can play their songs, it will fill the void for us, until they bring out their next masterpiece album and start touring again…..guess who will be at the front of that next first gig?

I have collaborated with three excellent musicians to make sure we do Doves music justice. Two are from an excellent up and coming Band called Watershed and the keyboard player is one of the best keys players in the North West.

We will have more on Sub Doves over the coming weeks & months!

Link: Sub Doves

With thanks to Nick Yates (aka Substance) we have added The Places Between Disc Two to the tablature section of the blog. Nick has been working his way through Doves catalogue, we previously brought you all the studio albums and the Places Between disc one. At the last count we only got six more tracks to cover!

The tabs are designed so that you can strum along to Doves tracks. The tabs may not reflect exactly how Doves play the songs as some of the recordings are detuned and they are designed so that you don’t have to be Jez or play a right-handed guitar upside down to enjoy them!

We invite you to submit any corrections where necessary.

Link: The Places Between Disc Two Guitar Tabs

Happy New Year to you all! Here’s to a healthy and happy 2012!

Inspired by Parray over at Doves Forum I have decided to take up the calendar year music challenge. Its quite simple, I have to listen to one album per day for the next 12 months. Instead of updating the main DMB blog everyday I have set up a separate blog on the site here, where I will attempt to review every album. Then at the end of every month I will update the main DMB blog with a spreadsheet listing my picks for the month with a few short words summing up my feelings for each album. For each review I will be using the five star rating system.

First off I listened to Youth Lagoon’s The Year of Hibernation.

Link: Nicky’s 2012 Music Challenge

Here is a belter from March 2000. Never seen it before myself, so a nice gift from soulbrotherjimmy!

Probably not the only thing to be looking forward to in 2012. With mention of Jimi putting out an album next year, and no doubt we will hear from both Andy & Jez in some form it should be an interesting year. Thanks for all the support this year, take care and enjoy Christmas and we will see you back here in the new year! Until then…

Jimi with Cherry Ghost. Photograph: James Goulden

Jimi made an appearance at the Other Voices festival in Dingle on the west coast of Ireland with Cherry Ghost.  Here are a couple media reviews found so far:

The Guardian

Finishing the third of Other Voices’ four nights were Cherry Ghost, from the north-west of England, who’d been encouraged to come to Dingle by previous festival attendees Elbow. Like Guy Garvey’s band, Simon Aldred’s outfit make sensitive, literate rock music; they can do epic, but not at the expense of thought (this is a band whose debut single was called Mathematics). Then they were joined by their friend Jimi Goodwin of Doves, who battled a cold he was suffering heroically and who played two similarly brooding new songs, one a homage to his own part of the world, Didsbury Girl. But better was a song sung by the guesting harpist Esther Swift called Stillness of the Night Time.

Their best the ensemble saved for last, a beguiling cover of Jim Pepper’s Witchi Tia To, a song also covered by Harpers Bizarre and Jan Garbarek. It took on the quality of a mantra – you could imagine Spiritualized, who are playing on the final night of Other Voices, also essaying it – which in the context of the church made compelling sense.

Finally a review from the Other Voices website:

The night finishes with an ensemble cast. Cherry Ghost are a Bolton band of folk musicians who have been playing together since 2005. You may know their ‘People Help The People’ single which was most recently covered by up and coming singer Birdy. Tonight’s performance has a collective feel. They are joined by close friend and collaborator Jimi Goodwin of Doves. Both are good friends with Elbow who recommended that the band play here (even ringing our host Philip King on the night to see how things were going). The set was a pleasant one of gentle symphonic songs adorned with bluesy slide guitar, harp and synths including early hit ‘Mathematics’, the church-suitable ‘My God Betrays’ and songs from the band’s second LP Beneath This Burning Shoreline. Doves’ singer Goodwin joins the band for the remainder of the set and they play works in progress from his own solo forthcoming LP with ‘The Panic Tree’ and ‘Mystery Girl’ being the standouts. There’s still time though for an edifying solo song from the harpist Esther Swift called ‘Stillness Of The Night Time’ and a cover of saxophonist Jim Pepper’s ‘Witchi-Tai-To’ to finish.

Fancy winning this signed and framed 2002 tour poster? Its being auctioned off on ebay as part of the annual Music Beats Mines auctions.

After only a few days the bidding currently sits at £155!

Bid Now

Jimi has another live performance lined up, this time in Dingle Ireland early December as part of the Other Voices Festival. Good luck getting a ticket, they are not easy to get! If you want to try then check out the Other Voices website for info on the various competitions! I’ve been told Jimi will some tracks himself then also some with Simon Aldred of Cherry Ghost. They usually broadcast the Other Voices performances on RTE in Ireland, which inevitably ends up on youtube so will keep an eye on that!

Finally, if you are based in the US then have a great turkey day on Thursday. Eat lots and drink even more!

With thanks to Nick Yates (aka Substance) we have added Lost Sides to the tablature section of the blog. Nick has been working his way through Doves catalogue, we previously brought you all the studio albums and the Places Between. Next up will be tracks from the Places Between second disc not yet covered.

The tabs are designed so that you can strum along to Doves tracks. The tabs may not reflect exactly how Doves play the songs as some of the recordings are detuned and they are designed so that you don’t have to be Jez or play a right-handed guitar upside down to enjoy them!

We invite you to submit any corrections where necessary.

Lost Sides guitar tabs

To listen to the track and full interview at 6 Music click here.