As promised, here is the pre-sale link for the Somerset House July 16th show.

Pete McKee has designed posters for each of the artists playing at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Signed by the band and Pete these are endorsed by the TCT with all proceeds going to the charity. Doves poster will go on sale 10am on Saturday the 30th, day after the event priced at £145 each, only 100 are available. They are only available to buy from Pete’s website.

Of course the Warrington Parr Hall gig sold out in seconds! The first gig back after almost 9 years away was always going to be a bit of a mad scramble for tickets.

The Warrington Guardian reports the gig sold out in 4 minutes! Some folks on social media report tickets were unavailable at 10am! Apologies to those asking, I have no ‘in’ to get tickets. The best thing you can be doing is join the ticket waiting list. But really keep checking the ticket & venue websites on the off chance returns are made available. Don’t give up, best of luck!

A bit of a return for Doves who opened the Kingdom of Rust tour at the same venue back in 2009. Here’s how we reported the show back then! It was a great gig by all accounts with the new stuff blending in well with the ‘classics’. Though the chatter from the night and that tour was the omission of The Cedar Room!

Having heard from those of you traveling from all over… North & South America, South Africa, Dubai, New Zealand, Australia, all over mainland Europe and Stockport…safe travels!

Doves will return to Somerset House on July 16th as part of the Somerset House Summer Series. A pre-sale will begin at 10am on Thursday with the full general sale on Friday at 10am. Links to follow!

Doves last played Somerset House on July 6th of 2005. The tragic events of the following morning in London obviously overshadowed what was a epic gig in a glorious setting. If you get the chance to go, I would certainly recommend this venue highly!

After much speculation, Doves today announced they will play a warm up show at Warrington’s Parr Hall. The same venue they kick things off at in 2009.

Tickets go on sale at 10am here and at the Parr Hall website.

Band said of the gig: “On familiar territory, looking out to see the faces of friends old and new, Doves return to Warrington Parr Hall. This is where a page is turned and the new chapter begins.”

See you there!

Much loved London independent bar & venue The Social is under very serious threat of closure. For full details visit the crowdfunder page set up to try raise £ 95k. As I write this, so far they have raised over £38k! Keep on going…

The few times I have been in whenever I have visited London, its a warm and inviting venue, the type that is in very short supply in the that part of the city. Best of luck to them!

I go away for a weekend and it all happens..

Q mag May edition runs with an exclusive interview with band. Go out and buy a copy, its well worth a read. The short of it is the band confirms they have some new music in the works with a possible release next year.

Also confirmed is the much rumoured vinyl reissues which are scheduled for May 31st, the first 3 albums are due to be released on limited edition, numbered, coloured vinyl. Take my money already!

As the band have mentioned previously they do hope to do some live shows later this year of their own. To preview new music perhaps? We sure hope so!

Finally, Jimi was the special guest on Andy Votel’s RANDOMINIUM show, to talk about random picks from Votel’s record collection. Not too much Doves talk, but its quite entertaining hearing them discuss some really random records! Give it a listen here.

We continue to acknowledge the Cedar EP 20th anniversary with this neat find from the Reform Doves twitter campaign. Whilst the 1st page isn’t new to me, the second page is and has some pretty good lines from the band! It also would have to be one of the earliest band shots of them as Doves.

Good find Scott! Thank you for allowing me to share on DMB. Keep on digging..

Earlier today Doves announced they would playing their own headline show in Glasgow at the SWG3 Galvanizers Yard on Saturday June 8th. The Yard being the outdoor portion of the SWG3 complex.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday February 15th) at 9am here.

10 years ago today Doves Music Blog was born! The first ‘intro’ post came a few days later on Feb 16th 09. I initially set up the blog to last through the year, or for however long the band would tour and promote Kingdom of Rust. I had recently moved to the USA in 2008 from the UK, the recession had hit so without a job and time on my hands, DMB was one of the projects I set up to keep myself busy..

Its been quite the ride these past 10 years, obviously quite lean in terms of Doves activity, though the first couple years were quite active as the site documented the band from Kingdom of Rust through to the last show in 2010. Then the site and its twitter handle helped the band connect with their fans with the ‘solo’ projects whilst Doves was on a hiatus.

Too many names to mention but I couldn’t have done this without encouragement from the band, the fans that kept the faith and followed the band through their solo work. Justin who was a big part of the early days for the website and the twitter account!

I almost took the site down last year, busy with other projects/life and really I had let the site go a bit once the solo activity died down. I toyed with the idea that the site could live on in social media. It then occurred to me the Cedar EP would be turning 20 years old later in the year and so that idea was something worth keeping the site online for! Just as well I did as the news of the band ‘reforming’ soon followed.

Apologies I didn’t mean to write so much! If your still awake, I like the rest of you cannot wait to see the band return live next month! It promises to be an epic time.