Jimi & Martin played a couple of tunes this morning for 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne. Jimi again spoke about the hiatus Doves will be taking after touring the Best Of. Asked of his own plans, Jimi hoped to be able to do some collaborating, naming Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis as the top pick if it was possible! Good luck with that one. :)
They performed acoustic versions of The Cedar Room & Kingdom Of Rust.
Another short review of Doves set at the Snowbombing festival, this time from the Independent.
Crowd size had no bearing on the quality of the acts. Doves’ set, though sparsely attended –perhaps the band’s thoughtful and melancholic indie did not appeal to the ravers’ party vibe –was a highlight. With a “best of” album on the shelves, the trio provided a set spanning their 20-year career, including “Kingdom of Rust”, “There Goes The Fear” and the Motown pounding of “Black and White Town”. Doves are used to playing in the UK to crowds 10 times the size of this one, so perhaps Jimi Goodwin could have been forgiven for thinking they were performing for Austrians who had no idea who they were. “I can sing that in German”, he said, unaware that the majority of Snowbombers are British.
Don’t forget, you can catch Doves live on Lauren Laverne’s 6 Music show later this morning. Doves will be playing a couple tracks acoustic, then will do an interview. Expect to hear Doves around 11am-12 noon.
Finally, some sales stats for the Best Of album..
The Best Of Doves: The Places Between is this week’s highest new entry debuts at number 12 selling 9,714 copies.
Gaga’s album sold a total of 25,211 copies to stay at number one, the lowest sale for a number one artist album since The Last Broadcast by Doves topped the list selling only 22,437 copies eight years ago next month
Quite revealing figures, I’m sure you will agree. Apparently they are blaming the weather for the poor sales… I should point out that those sales figures for the Last Broadcast, was for its second week at number one. It sold over 52,000 copies first week.
The Places Between: The Best Of Doves is 6 Music’s album of the day.
Also on 6 Music: Next Tuesday Doves will be performing a live session on the Lauren Laverne show, which airs from 10am. Cheers to Baldilocks at the forum for the info.
Of course in the future, all this may not be possible…
Music week reports that the best of is on course to slot in the top 10, though overtaking Lady Gaga (again) seems unlikely.
Doves’ greatest hits set The Places Between, as well as new albums from Rufus Wainwright and Jonsi are all set to debut within the top 20 this Sunday, as Boyzone and Lady GaGa continue their tussle at the top.
The Places Between (Heavenly) sold more than 3,000 copies yesterday despite the bank holiday to sit at five in midweek sales flashes, the highest of a number of new entries.
Jez gave an interview to 6 Music where he gave his views on the music scene today..
Guitarist Jez Williams told 6 Music that money from record labels for touring and recording has dried up –which he put down to the effects of file-sharing.
“It’s really difficult for bands to go out on the road and tour,” he said. “It costs a lot of money to take a band on the road to do 10 UK dates.”
Referring to the pot of cash traditionally provided by labels for their artists to go on the road, he said: “It’s really tricky for new bands to get tour support because there’s no such thing as tour support any more.
“So people haven’t got that back-up any more. And that’s a direct link to people downloading albums without paying for it. It’s suffered because of that.”
The Manchester trio have just released their greatest hits album, called The Places Between, which is heading for the top 10 this weekend.
The process of choosing the tracks caused some friction within the band, he revealed.
“Everyone’s got their own favourites so it was a bit of a long painful process of trying to pick [songs] and compromise where we all were happy,” he said.
Going back to third album Some Cities gave him a particularly pleasant surprise.
“That sounds a lot better than I remembered it,” he explained. “There are some great songs on there and I was really proud of most of that CD.
To read the full interview, click here.
Frank Bough Sound III
I don’t recall flagging up this really cool article last year from Sound On Sound, who interviewed Jez & Dan Austin about producing Kingdom Of Rust. A great insight into the recording process.
Williams admits that it wasn’t just this democratic approach, along with an obsessive attention to detail, that created such a long gap between Doves albums. There was a bit of writer’s block involved too, which the guitarist tackled by employing the radical Immersion Music Method, invented in 2001 by a pair of songwriters from Oakland, California.“I was finding myself getting into bad habits,” he says. “Like music avoidance — instead of knuckling down and getting on with songwriting, you might find an excuse to get your emails or pop out and see your mates. So I read this amazing book [The Frustrated Songwriter’s Handbook, by Karl Coryat and Nicholas Dobson]. I’m simplifying it here, but basically what it boils down to is you have to write a song every half an hour for 12 hours. It’s incredible. I had my Logic all set up as a template, everything plugged in ready to go. Then quite a few songs started to come out of these sessions.”In the tradition of their previous facilities, their latest studio is — bizarrely — named after former breakfast TV host Frank Bough. “It’s Andy’s perverse sense of humour,” his brother explains. Not that Frank Bough Sound III is likely to last much longer than its predecessors, since Doves are already becoming keen to move on.“We’re getting a little bit tired of it now, ‘cause it was such an intense, long period to record this fourth album,” Jez laughs. “There’s only so much cowshit you can take.”
Also some good 6 Music news from Baldilocks at doves board. Doves will soon be doing a live session on the Lauren Laverne show. Will flag up more info when I get it.
A note from Jimi regarding the shocking decision by the BBC to close 6 music and The Asian Network.
Hello ,
Been meaning to say hi and talk about this and that but right now feeling rather bummed out by the proposed BBC cuts.
Save BBC 6 and the Asian network !
Facebilge , Twatter and numerous other petitions online , choose your poison …..
Make your voice heard though. Huh ?
Jimi x
http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/0/1/
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bbc/?vl
http://38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-BBC-cuts
6 Music is looking to chart the top 40 songs of 2009. Doves Kingdom Of Rust is featured in the 100 short listed tracks. The top 40 will be played by Steve Lamacq on New Year’s Eve.
Some mixed media reviews:
***
Doves miss an opportunity
All things considered, last night was a good for one multiculturalism and dear old Doves did their bit by inviting the 30-strong London Bulgarian Choir to join them for a BBC Electric Prom that came frustratingly close to being one of 2009’s great concert events.
The two camps were a delightful contrast: one being badly dressed post‑punks with instruments to hand and two No 1 albums under their belts; the other neatly turned out traditionalists with only their voices to share and a CD available only on their web site or at concerts.
That, though, was as bold and brilliant as it got, for (excluding their Doves-free slots that book-ended the encore) as choir were immediately relegated to the role of multi-layered backing vocalists. Even here though, on Kingdom Of Rust where they added Ennio Morricone-esque gravitas or Catch the Sun where they were as uplifting as Polyphonic Spree, the Bulgarians made already fine songs even better, transforming the good to great, the earthbound to celestial.
More frustrating still, for too much of the set, the choir had no part to play and were marooned at the back of the stage in darkness, not underused but simply unused.
To read the full review, click here.
A cross fertilisation of northern soul with east European heart brought the third installment of the BBC Electric Proms 2009 to a shimmering euphoric climax tonight with Doves and the London Bulgarian Choir.
Resplendent in traditional Bulgarian costume the choir brought elements of vocal percussion to some of Doves most loved tracks expanding the scope of the songs and adding another dimension to the Manchester band’s rich layered sound.
Composer Avshalom Caspi, who was responsible for arranging the tracks for the 40 strong choir told 6 Music before the show that Doves and the Bulgarian choir are uniquely suited to a collaboration:
Doves were also joined onstage by north Indian c
lassical musician Baluji Shrivastav for the track Birds Flew Backwards which added another more delicate element to the mix. The unique phrasing techniques used by the choir perfectly enhanced Doves soaring post Dance melodies, creating real moments of transcendental beauty on tracks like Kingdom of Rust and The Last Broadcast, and on final track There Goes the Fear pushed the band’s famous supersonic Samba wig out to a new zone.
To read the full review, click here.
An excited Jez Williams declared from the stage: “Roundhouse, man! Top!”, before the band kicked off their show with 2005 single ‘Snowden’, with the choir chipping in behind the band.
The choir took centre stage when frontman Jimi Goodwin introduced the ensemble for a choral version of ‘Firesuite’, their instrumental opener on 2000 debut album ‘Lost Souls’.
“Eh, they’re giving me tingles again and again,” joked Goodwin, as the band pushed on to perform recent single ‘Winter Hill’.
Doves went on to play a host of other hit singles, including ‘Pounding’, ‘Black And White Town’ and a powerful rendition of ‘Kingdom Of Rust’.
To read the full review, click here.
doves at Electric Proms. Picture by the BBC.
You can now watch video of doves Electric Proms performance at the BBC. The video is UK only, click here to watch.
Audio is also available to stream at the 6 music website here. This is good for anyone, anywhere in the world!
For even more top notch pictures, visut the BBC doves gallery here.
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