doves

Norwich UEA Review

The East Anglian Daily Times has posted a good review of last night’s UEA show:

DOVES are without doubt one of Britain’s best bands – so why are they still playing relatively small venues?

I shouldn’t complain too much. I got to see them up close at the UEA at Norwich last night. It was a great gig – brilliant songs, brilliant musicians and a thrilling performance.

If a band can get away with playing a song as great and rabble-rousing as Pounding as early as fourth or fifth song in the set, they must be good.

So why aren’t they way of out of this league? Why aren’t they at least on the arena tour? I can only guess it’s in the presentation. They’ve never been the most attention seeking of bands, or the most photogenic. There wasn’t a lot of banter at the gig – just head down and get on with it.

To read the full review, click here.

Kingdom Of Rust Acoustic Video

A new video of the band performing an acoustic version of Kingdom Of Rust, can now be viewed at nme.com. To see the video, click on the image above.

Southampton Guildhall Review

A slightly indifferent review of the Southampton show in today’s Southern Daily Echo:

And 2009 is already being tipped as THE year the miserable and majestic trio from Manchester finally turns critical acclaim into mainstream success.

Rave reviews for their new album Kingdom of Rust saw it shoot to Number 2 on the charts last month and their return to Southampton Guildhall after years in the wilderness was highly anticipated.

Which is why it was so surprising that the gig proved to be slightly disappointing.

To read the rest of the review, click here.

NME.com has uploaded some excellent photos of Saturday’s Brixton show. There are also some pictures of the soundcheck and of the NME competition winners that were let in for the soundcheck. To view the pictures, click here.

Free Official Doves Download

Doves have released a free download of an alternative version of Birds Flew Backwards. All you need to do is fill in your details at the official micro site linked below. The link to the free mp3 will be emailed to you, once you have submitted your info. Not bad for a boring Wednesday!

Go get it..

Free doves download

Nottingham Review

This is Nottingham have reviewed last night’s Rock City show:

At times, it seemed as if everyone in the room was lost in their own private world: concentrating on the exquisitely played material, without letting their faces give anything away. And then occasionally, an anthem like Black And White Town or Pounding would punch through: breaking the spell, and sending hands flying skywards.

A four-song encore climaxed with There Goes The Fear, whose coda had the whole band bashing out funky percussion rhythms, their regular instruments abandoned.

To read the full review, click here.

Spaceface In Nottingham

By all accounts, last night’s show in Nottingham was a right stormer. The regular set was played, but with the inclusion of Spaceface after The Fear. Well done Nottingham! I have fond memories of seeing the band at Rock City in the past, so to hear of a great show last night does not surprise me at all.

On the topic of great gigs. Scotland’s Sunday Mail rated the recent Glasgow Barrowland show as the concert of the week:

SundayMail.co.uk

Gig of the week: Doves *****

Barrowland, Glasgow, April 22

Doves are a band for our times. Down-to-earth Jimi Goodwin and twins Jez and Andy Williams deliver songs about love, loss, death, grime, gritty cities, bad times, good times and hope.

If ever a venue was suited to them it’s the Barrowland as Jimi spoke lovingly about the peeling paint and sticky floor. With his furry beard, he looks a bit like a kindly uncle but when one of his crew was hit by flying beer, he made the crowd say sorry to his mate.Tight, muscular and pounding, Doves gave a steely performance and there was an easy chemistry between the band.

They kicked off with Jetstream and tracks like The Greatest Denier, The Outsiders and an excellent 10.03 showed the crowd are taking the new material to their hearts.

Kingdom Of Rust again proved a brilliant live track. Old Doves staples will always please and in the perfect surroundings of the Barras, the hot and sweaty crowd jumped to Black & White Town, Words and the grand finale of There Goes The Fear, which merged into a samba-party style track.

Win Tickets To Glastonbury

Glastonbury affiliates; Greenpeace; WaterAid and Oxfam, are holding a competition to win tickets to this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Doves are due to perform at this year’s festival, on the John Peel stage (date tbc).

Visit LeaveNoTrace.org.uk to enter the competition.

DJ Sasha Remixes Doves

In a recent widely-syndicated interview, DJ Sasha has revealed that he has just “remixed the Doves single.”

No further information has been given to confirm if the single in question is the forthcoming ‘Winter Hill’ or a third single release from the Kingdom Of Rust album.

To view the quote in its original context, click here.

UK Album Chart News

Kingdom Of Rust dropped seven places to number 19 on the UK Album chart. One place below Elbow’s The Seldom Seen Kid!

For the final word on doves and that swine flu (imagine the panic & puns had it been bird flu!) Check out this article. There goes the fear indeed.

Archive: BBC Radio One, Session Obsession

We still have more live recordings from the past month to bring you, but as a change of pace, here’s Andy discussing the records which influenced him, with BBC Radio One’s Session Obsession. I’m unsure of the original broadcast date, but I’m guessing it was just after the release of The Last Broadcast.

Click here to download the archived MP3.

Please note that the MP3 file is of low-quality, due to it being transcoded from its original lossy source.