Words: Ollie Hopewell
Photo: Jon Shard
Often coined as one of the nicest bands in music, Doves have always exuded class, sincerity, and a total generosity of spirit in each and every one of their all-too-seldom live performances, attaining a reputation that lends itself perfectly to the kind of intimate gig that we were treated to on the eve of their UK Tour, starting on 25th February 2025, back in late November. With the band’s first of three smaller shows being at The Sugarmill, intimacy and privacy were crucial ahead of the evening as Doves took to social media before the event and hung physical posters around the venue to ask gig goers to stay off their phones and avoid taking photos during their performance, a move made to respect the band’s well-established private nature and to get fans intimately reconnected to their music while living in the moment.
While there were neither photographers nor any supporting acts to be seen before Doves’ headline set, the Manchester band were serenaded by a mixture of Ennio Morricone’s Per Un Pugno Di Dollari, better known as the Fist Full of Dollars theme, and the rapturous applause of the audience as they entered stage right, applause that showed exactly how important Doves’ return visit to the Potteries was; having first played The Wheatsheaf in 1998, this long-awaited comeback was for more than band’s return to Stoke but to their overall return to live music, having last played to an audience in the November of 2020.
Opening their set with instrumental track Firesuite in all of its warm and layered glory before transitioning to ethereal Carousels, Words and Cold Dreaming were to follow before big hitters Black and White Town and Snowden really got the crowd up and at it, the people behind me on the balcony clambering on the settees just to catch a glimpse of the excellence on stage.
If there wasn’t already enough excitement for new album Constellations For The Lonely, the first live performance of headline track Renegade certainly generated plenty of anticipation for its Valentine’s Day release. If you’ll pardon the pun, Renegade feels like a return to the Darker side of Doves’ music; I’ve always felt that Doves create songs with a duality of sensibility, with a sunny and psychedelic sound rooted in hope being ever so slightly undercut by a sense of something slightly sinister just out of earshot, a sombre hopelessness which never quite rears its head when listening on a track-to-track basis, but a feeling that lurks more obviously when listening on a macro scale. Perhaps this is the ordeals and emotions of frontman Jimi Goodwin shining through, something emboldened by his all-too-conspicuous absence both on the night and for the upcoming 2025 tour.
The band have always put mental health at the forefront of everything that they do, and this was reinforced by provisional frontman Jez Williams announcing that “Jimi is here in spirit” to massive cheers of support and applause from the crowd. So while we weren’t witness to Jimi’s gorgeous voice and talents on bass, we were treated to band stalwarts Jez and Andy Williams, rhythm guitar and drums respectively, who were joined by Jake Evans on guitar, bassist Nathan Sudders, and band regular Martin Rebelski on keys. Each musician was excellent on the night and humble to a man, though there was a slightly show off-ish smirk when Andy Williams took to moonlighting as a harmonicist for Here It Comes and Kingdom of Rust during the band’s encore while Evans picked up on the kit.
Ending on the funky and monumental There Goes the Fear, Doves have shown that their first full tour in over 15 years cannot come soon enough after adding a splash of colour to our Black and White Town.