hatfield forum

The setlist from the Hatfield Forum show, with thanks to Christina!

As if I can’t squeeze enough from the Hatfield show, Now a review of the show by the Daily Mail. Though I suspect they were there to review the venue, doves just happened to be playing! Though the reviewer seemed to enjoy it regardless.

doves perform at the Hatfield – The Daily Mail

Six years ago Doves frontman Jimi Goodwin lost his temper. During an early evening set at the Reading Festival he ranted at the crowd for not being lively enough, for not dancing, for really not caring whether they were present or not.

The truth was the audience weren’t really interested in the trio on stage –they just happened to occupy the same field – and an ego was bruised.

So flashing forward six years to the Doves gig at University of Hertfordshire’s brand new purpose-built venue, The Forum, things were a little touch and go as there didn’t appear to be any interaction between band and fans.

But the problem seemed to be that on the night the 1,500 punters were, at least initially, more keen to see what £38million had been spent on.

And so as Doves shuffled onto the stage and started their set 1,500 pairs of wide eyes scanned the room, looking at the shiny bars, the lights, the huge modern chandelier –everywhere but the stage.

And so it was for the next 20 minutes.

Swirling, passionate, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes uplifting songs were punctuated by polite clapping, gentle head bobbing and more chin-scratching than you would find at a philosophers’ convention.

For the first three songs it was hard to believe that the new auditorium contained Doves fans at all.

But after a creaking start, slowly and thankfully, things changed. Pounding, Winter Hill, Kingdom of Rust, Jetstream… the band dragged the audience out of their mire with such a powerful set of anthems that stone statues would have ended up dancing.

Words made the crowd whoop, Black and White Town united the audience in a stomp-along and as the opening notes of There Goes The Fear heralded the beginning of the end the shaky relationship between audience and band was finally banished for a glorious finale.

This was the night we had expected at last. Thanks to a ‘best of’ set with tracks handpicked from all four albums, our collective hair had been let down, shaken round and even Doves looked like they were enjoying themselves.