doves

Radcliffe and Maconie Show

Tune into the Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow night (Tuesday) from 8pm to hear Doves talk about the Best Of and other stuff I’m sure. No word on if they are doing a wee session or not. Cheers to gibbo for the heads up!

Doves official website has been updated with some new summer festival shows announced. For all the info visit doves.net

Popmatters have posted up a good review of the Best Of.

Those singles remain the primary reason this compilation works so well, however. One of the smartest things about the first disc that might fly over the head of those who either buy the album on iTunes or purchase the CD solely to rip it is the sequencing. Instead of going chronologically, which would have clearly illustrated just how much stronger Doves’ first two albums clearly are, all 15 tracks are arranged according to feel, and as a result it becomes an even more compelling listening experience, bouncing from opener “There Goes the Fear”, to “Snowden”, to “Kingdom of Rust”, to “Catch the Sun” to the closer “The Cedar Room”. The idea to choose now to put out The Places Between might seem strange, but the music inside is revelatory, even if you’ve already been listening to Doves for the past decade. It’s the strongest best-of to come our way by a UK band since Pulp’s Hits, but unlike that venerable, dearly missed band, we have every reason to be optimistic about hearing more extraordinary music from Doves in the future.

To read the full review, click here.

The album dropped down to number 37 on the UK album chart for last week. The album is released tomorrow (Tuesday) in North America at all good record/digital stores.

Hull Promo

A promo piece that appeared in the Hull press today, thanks to richtdev for the heads up..

As Doves prepare to kickstart their “best of” Family tour at Hull City Hall, drummer Andy Williams sometimes finds it hard to believe the group are still going strong.

The twice Mercury Music Prize-nominated threesome rose out of the ashes of Manchester dance-heavy outfit Sub Sub, who scored a number three hit with their song Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use).

They decided to radically alter their sound after their studio burnt to the ground in 1996, emerging phoenix-like from the ashes as alt-rockers Doves.

Now, armed with a selection of their greatest hits and some of their older tunes, many of which have seldom –if ever –been played live, the group is heading out across the UK in celebration of its acclaimed four-album career.

Not sure where they got their info from, but it would be great to hear unplayed tracks like Your Shadow Lay Across My Life or Push Me On alongside the obvious Best Of picks.

Have your say in what you want to hear live on the tour at Doves official forum here.

Blue Water Live at the Manchester Ritz

Doves official youtube channel: Video of Doves performing Blue Water at the Manchester Ritz back in November 2000.

Also uploaded onto the channel is a 10 minute Doves album megamix.

Doves For TT

Isle Of Man news reports that Doves will be performing on the Island at the Douglas Villa Marina during the week of TT. Doves are due to play on the Tuesday, tickets go on sale Saturday.

Doves last performed on the Isle of Man, at the back end of 2005.

Official TT website

Lauren Laverne 6 Music Session

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.

To hear the interview/live tunes. It all starts off at 1 hour 25 mins at the BBC iplayer here. Also available to folks outside the UK.
My take on the “hiatus”? Its gotta be good news, if it means Doves do return in a few years down the line sounding better than ever. To put it in context.. it was almost three years between the last Some Cities gig I saw and the Kingdom Of Rust shows last May. Didn’t expect much from them this year, so the tour/summer of festivals has been a Brucey bonus. Fully intend on enjoying the tour in a few weeks. So no tears at the front from this blogger, just a hand of appreciation.

Hartlepool Tall Ships

Looks like Doves will be playing part of the Hartlepool Tall Ships celebration:

Hartlepool will be centre stage between Saturday 7th and Tuesday 10th August when it hosts the magnificent Tall Ships fleet. The Hartlepool Tall Ships Celebration will be one of England’s biggest free events in 2010 with up to one million visitors expected from Friday 6th until Monday 9th August 2010 at Hartlepool Marina.

Line-up

Acts include Doves, Echo and The Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene, Sheelanagig, Stornoway, Goldheart Assembly, Golden Animals, The Woven Project, The Dave Moseley Band, Lithium Speed Dementia, The Standards, The White Negroes, and The Runwells.

Music Promoter Andy Kelly, who has been working with the Tall Ships team to secure the bands, said: “It’s great to have Ocean Colour Scene confirmed, they’re one of the best live bands in the country! Echo and The Bunnymen are still as effortlessly cool as ever!”

For more info, visit the Tall Ships website.

Mayrhofen Review #2 & Best Of Album Sales

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.

Andalucía Fails to Chart

Unsurprisingly Andalucía didn’t trouble the UK singles chart despite the best efforts of teps. With no physical release and all promotion focused on the album I don’t think anything other was expected. Here’s what the iTunes UK singles chart (where something like 95% of all single/song sales now come from) looks like..

241. There Goes the Fear – Doves
256. Andalucía – Doves
339. Black and White Town – Doves
576. Pounding – Doves

Not quite as exciting as the Bruno Brooks chart countdown I used to enjoy back in the day. What may be even more surprising, is that Radio 1 didn’t see fit to put Andalucía on any of its playlists. It seems like Doves are no longer cool for school..

Edit: To be fair, I don’t listen to Radio 1, so maybe R1 audience has changed somewhat? 6 Music has played lots of Doves of late, of course that wont be the case if the big wigs at the BBC get their way..

UK Album Chart Highest New Entry

Doves Best of The Places Between this week scored the UK album chart’s highest new entry, coming in at number 12*.

In the Irish chart, the album came in at number 57.

More Stats:

Official album download chart: 15
Scottish Albums Chart: 13

* Not Number 11 as the BBC album chart website first reported.

Information from the official UK charts website.

Chart Update

Doves forum regular teps has been campaigning all week to get Andalicua high up on the UK singles chart. It currently sits just inside the top 200, so if you want to help move the track further up the singles chart…

iTunes
7digital

As of yesterday, the album sits at number 7 on the UK album chart. So if you haven’t bought it already..

If you are in the US. The album is available to download..

7digital