paper

Metro: Doves are a delight at BBC Electric Proms

Whist the Evening Standard wasn’t so impressed, the Metro seemed to love it..

****

Metro: Doves are a delight at BBC Electric Proms

Last night saw Doves become the latest to give their back catalogue a new lick of sonic paint – with the vocal assistance of the fantastic London Bulgarian Choir.

Not that Doves need much help to make a venue-filling noise; they’ve quietly become past masters at building anthemic walls of sound.

This gig was certainly not lacking in moments of arms-in-the-air rapture – in fact, as it reached its climax, it could have been mistaken for either an Evangelist rally or an underarm deodorant commercial, as the Roundhouse (London’s finest venue by a country mile) turned into a sea of hands reaching for the heavens.

If anything, the London Bulgarian Choir were, perhaps, a little underused – not featuring on many songs, and providing little more than (albeit awesome) backing vocals on some others.

But when they were given a starring role and fully integrated into the songs, the effect was spectacular – never more so than on profoundly epic version of The Cedar Room, the band’s second ever single, sounding no less majestic almost a decade on.

To read full review, click here.

Whilst I wasn’t there, I have watched the BBC footage. I reckon the Metro review is spot on. As always with these one off shows, there will be moments that work, and some that don’t. Never been a big fan of Catch the Sun, but it sounded great last night.

Highlights for me was the stunning Birds Flew Backwards, Greatest Denier & Kingdom Of Rust. The Cedar Room probably has never sounded so good. Jez’s guitar never sounded good to my ears. The choir singing those high backing vocals was majestic.

Despite the duff ending, I also thought The Storm sounded great. A great night all round by all accounts. Again I wasn’t there, so I can’t really say. But watching the footage, it certainly looks like one of the best shows they’ve ever played. Would look great on DVD..

Doves For thelondonpaper Headliners Festival

Thanks to friend of the blog Chov for bringing this one to our attention. Doves have been confirmed to play the thelondonpaper headliners festival. Its the first year for the festival, which takes place Wednesday 16 & Thursday 17th of September. Where ever doves play its probably going to be the smallest UK show they have done in years.

thelondonpaper’s first ever music festival has gone rock – with the addition of the brilliant Biffy Clyro and Doves.

Our very own thelondonpaper HEADLINERS extravaganza is bringing music back to Soho with more than 50 bands across up to 20 venues over two fun-packed nights in September.

Doves (bizarrely another trio with twin brothers), have been playing storming festival sets this summer but the Manchester group everyone’s tipping for a Mercury nod next Tuesday will close the season with a rare intimate showcase of their exhilarating album Kingdom of Rust at thelondonpaper HEADLINERS.

After support slots with U2 and Oasis, the increasingly epic three-piece are effortlessly forging their way to becoming stadium fillers in their own right, so this could be the last chance to see the sweeping rock giants at such close quarters.

Readers of thelondonpaper can buy tickets at a discounted price via thelondonpaper.com/headliners or taking their copy of thelondonpaper into HMV to buy tickets.

1 night ticket: £17.50

2 night ticket: £30.

To get all the venue/ticket details visit the thelondonpaper headliners website here.