Doves will return to Somerset House on July 16th as part of the Somerset House Summer Series. A pre-sale will begin at 10am on Thursday with the full general sale on Friday at 10am. Links to follow!

Doves last played Somerset House on July 6th of 2005. The tragic events of the following morning in London obviously overshadowed what was a epic gig in a glorious setting. If you get the chance to go, I would certainly recommend this venue highly!

After much speculation, Doves today announced they will play a warm up show at Warrington’s Parr Hall. The same venue they kick things off at in 2009.

Tickets go on sale at 10am here and at the Parr Hall website.

Band said of the gig: “On familiar territory, looking out to see the faces of friends old and new, Doves return to Warrington Parr Hall. This is where a page is turned and the new chapter begins.”

See you there!

Much loved London independent bar & venue The Social is under very serious threat of closure. For full details visit the crowdfunder page set up to try raise £ 95k. As I write this, so far they have raised over £38k! Keep on going…

The few times I have been in whenever I have visited London, its a warm and inviting venue, the type that is in very short supply in the that part of the city. Best of luck to them!

I go away for a weekend and it all happens..

Q mag May edition runs with an exclusive interview with band. Go out and buy a copy, its well worth a read. The short of it is the band confirms they have some new music in the works with a possible release next year.

Also confirmed is the much rumoured vinyl reissues which are scheduled for May 31st, the first 3 albums are due to be released on limited edition, numbered, coloured vinyl. Take my money already!

As the band have mentioned previously they do hope to do some live shows later this year of their own. To preview new music perhaps? We sure hope so!

Finally, Jimi was the special guest on Andy Votel’s RANDOMINIUM show, to talk about random picks from Votel’s record collection. Not too much Doves talk, but its quite entertaining hearing them discuss some really random records! Give it a listen here.

We continue to acknowledge the Cedar EP 20th anniversary with this neat find from the Reform Doves twitter campaign. Whilst the 1st page isn’t new to me, the second page is and has some pretty good lines from the band! It also would have to be one of the earliest band shots of them as Doves.

Good find Scott! Thank you for allowing me to share on DMB. Keep on digging..

Earlier today Doves announced they would playing their own headline show in Glasgow at the SWG3 Galvanizers Yard on Saturday June 8th. The Yard being the outdoor portion of the SWG3 complex.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday February 15th) at 9am here.

10 years ago today Doves Music Blog was born! The first ‘intro’ post came a few days later on Feb 16th 09. I initially set up the blog to last through the year, or for however long the band would tour and promote Kingdom of Rust. I had recently moved to the USA in 2008 from the UK, the recession had hit so without a job and time on my hands, DMB was one of the projects I set up to keep myself busy..

Its been quite the ride these past 10 years, obviously quite lean in terms of Doves activity, though the first couple years were quite active as the site documented the band from Kingdom of Rust through to the last show in 2010. Then the site and its twitter handle helped the band connect with their fans with the ‘solo’ projects whilst Doves was on a hiatus.

Too many names to mention but I couldn’t have done this without encouragement from the band, the fans that kept the faith and followed the band through their solo work. Justin who was a big part of the early days for the website and the twitter account!

I almost took the site down last year, busy with other projects/life and really I had let the site go a bit once the solo activity died down. I toyed with the idea that the site could live on in social media. It then occurred to me the Cedar EP would be turning 20 years old later in the year and so that idea was something worth keeping the site online for! Just as well I did as the news of the band ‘reforming’ soon followed.

Apologies I didn’t mean to write so much! If your still awake, I like the rest of you cannot wait to see the band return live next month! It promises to be an epic time.

Doves will perform at Victorious Festival in Portsmouth. The festival takes place over the weekend of August 23-25. Tickets for the festival are on sale now at the festival website.

Doves announced today that joining them at the Royal Albert Hall on March 29th will be two Liverpool bands, The Coral & The Fernweh.

The Coral are no strangers to Doves of course, having played with Doves several times, the Nottingham BBC 1 Radio show in 2002 comes to mind.

The Fernweh released their debut last year to critical acclaim. It promises to be a brilliant night for those lucky to hold a ticket!

Keep yer eye on Doves social media for more announcements…

I’ve had quite a few folks ask about what Doves have been up to for the last 9 years… The known ‘solo’ albums can be checked out by visiting their respective websites. Jimigoodwin.com and Andy & Jez’s Black Rivers band website. There was other stuff released you may have missed..

The Bird Effect

Jimi wrote a piece of music for a documentary by Ceri Levy called The Bird Effect. I’m not sure if the film was ever released? So as a result the finished version of the score is not available. Jimi performed the track live with his Bird Ensemble several times. You can listen to a live version..

Raised By Wolves

Initially released to much mystery and speculation. Raized by Wolves was revealed to be a project by Jez, Martin Rebelski & Mike TV. The Call featured vocals by Editors Tom Smith. Released on Mau5trap, the track got a bit of attention when it was released Sept 2011. The follow up track Spirit World didn’t quite get the attention the Call did. I asked Jez in 2015 what happened to RBW…

“We finished 10 tracks They still sound great imo …I guessed we flirted with the pop/ electronic world and didn’t work out …But we had so much fun doing RBW ….Currently the songs are being used for other Artists …Probably released in 2015 but not under “rbw”

Whatever your thoughts are on the music, Jez did exactly what he said he would do in 2010 when he said he wanted to get as far away from Doves as possible! Several of the RBW tracks have since surfaced. My favourite is this one released on their soundcloud page.

Jake Evans – Sun Goes Down

Jimi contributed backing vocals. Jimi’s involvement maybe is not so apparent but its a song that’s well worth checking out! Great album too, Jake Evans was part of Jimi’s live band. Jimi also provided backing vocals to Elbow’s New York Morning in 2014 from their The Take Off And Landing Of Everything lp.

Justin Velor

Justin Velor’s 2013 album released in 2013 naturally, the alias of Dom Thomas. Perhaps my favourite post Doves track. Galliano Rocks which features and was co-written by Jez…

Jez co-wrote and is featured on 3 other tracks on the album – Energiser, Manchester & Back To The Source. Now go give it listen, its well worth your time.

Whyte Horses

Another project with Dom Thomas. The debut record Pop or Not features Jez quite a bit. He’s credited with co-writing 3 tracks the title track Pop or Not, The Snowfalls & Feels Like Somethings Changing. Jez performs on five tracks, I won’t name them just check out the album, its quality! This Vice interview with Dom Thomas on Vice helps give more background on Whyte Horses.

Jez is also credited with mixing a track for Amber Arcades. It Changes released in 2017 on the Cannonball EP released via Heavenly Recordings.

Trojan Horse

Salford’s finest Trojan Horse who provided support at a few of Jimi’s gigs. Jimi’s vocals can be heard on the above track The Modern Apothecary from the band’s third album Fukushima Surfer Boys. Jimi sounds great on this one. Again an album worth checking out, its a wee bit of a change from their second album World Turned Upside Down which is a heavy psychedelic beast. The third album features more electronic sounds not unlike the Postal Service, its beautiful!

So all of the above is what I’m aware of, I’m sure there’s more out there that I’m not aware of. For all you Andy fans screaming what about Andy? I’m not aware of Andy being involved with anything that’s been released. I asked Andy in 2015 what he had been doing pre Black Rivers..

I was making some music with friends, with Jim noir (a Manchester solo artist)Laurie laptop who was in Durutti Column & Also Ian smith who was in Alfie among other bands, we recorded a lot of material,but never finished stuff!! so there is nothing released of yet, some of us had other projects and a couple of the guys had ‘proper’ jobs, so it got harder & harder to get together to record/write but hopefully when everyone’s less busy we’ll finish some of those songs,as there is some good stuff there & had a lot of fun recording with them all.

Feel free to let me know if I missed something…