Paperjam

Doves at the Birmingham Academy

Gigs // Jim // 14th April 2005

There are going to be some really complicated delays on the railway in the next month or so. The announcement on the train listing them all takes about 10 minutes, get ready for some emergency taxi journeys if you live round here. Fortunately all is running smoothly on Friday night as I travel to Birmingham to see Manchester indie icons Doves.

Accompanied by two companions who for reasons of homeland security I can only refer to as “Gary” and “Neil” we are in town nice and early for the first of the evening's alcoholic refreshment at the Newt, under the ramp at New Street (the food is very cheap but the sausages are nothing to write home about I am informed).

We move on to the academy at what seems an astonishingly early seven pm to find that people, including what appears to be a primary school outing, are already in there forming a perimeter around the upstairs balcony. Down at stage level we decide on a spot near the mixing desk while the place gradually fills and we embark on a series of not quite big enough pints which I can already tell are going to give me a filthy head in the morning. I don’t think drinking out of plastic cups agrees with me.

After half an hour taking the piss, staring at girls and going for the occasional slash, support band and indie scenesters The Magic Numbers amble into view provoking the kind of comments that I am not cruel enough to report here. The funniest one is that they are sort of like Abba (you had to be there). They don’t start too well, being a bit twee and lightweight. However once they get going things improve and by the end the burgeoning crowd is fairly into it, definitely better when they cut loose a bit, the last couple of songs were great.

The interval brings more nearly-pints, trips to the increasingly packed gents and a series of the worlds tallest fucking people standing right in front of me.

Then something unprecedented happens, Gary (widely acclaimed as probably the luckiest man on the planet) loses a massive £1 bet to me that Doves will be on by half eight, he only misses by a few minutes and the band storm on to one of their songs but unfortunately due to the gambling induced excitement I can’t remember which. Sorry about that.

From the off, Doves are great. Much less dour than I expected, despite the fact that they confess to a rather heavy night previously in Manchester. The crowd are enthusiastic (but not too enthusiastic) which brings “You have made our fucking night, Birmingham” from a smiling Jimi Goodwin at a surprisingly early stage of their set.

Doves: Invisible on film, really very good

They play a variety of tracks from all three of their albums, not just recent stuff, some bits I can remember are:
A big punchy crack at Words (actually that might have been the opener)
Sea Song, one of the best tracks off Lost Souls
The Cedar Room, which I must admit I’ve always found a bit dull, but is much better live
Black and White Town during which a bit of dangerous looking crowd surfing finally breaks out, but it is hardly the Milan derby.
An emotional Caught By The River which goes down well with Neil
N.Y. which also features some great projected images
Snowden, which I believe is the new single

All too soon they are off and back for the encore, Goodwin and one of the Williams brothers swap places for the highlight of the evening, Here It Comes which, in my little corner of the world, is absolutely the best thing they have ever done. They belt it out while video projections of forgotten northern soul heroes play on the wall behind them.

Proceedings draw to a close with an all-conquering and all-drumming There Goes The Fear, leaving us to discuss how great it was while waiting for the train.

An impulse to go home and listen to all of the Doves albums is put on hold for a curry that could be described as “a touch lively” while a group of gentlemen nearby attempt to shut down their livers by knocking back wine glasses full of vodka. I have to go to a wedding the next day so I prepare by watching violent revenge drama Man On Fire (pretty good) while drinking Tequila (because it is set in South America, theme drinking is ace).

The wedding of one of my oldest friends all goes well and as I know he may well read this I will now attempt to sum up my humbling experience of his special day in a series of bullet points:
- Tried not to laugh in church when the vicar started talking about “Love ACTION”
- Hangover began to kick in properly
- Champagne
- Accused the photographer of being a Nazi
- Red wine
- Deployed shockingly inappropriate conversation tactics at lunch with people I barely knew/didn’t know at all.
- More red wine, red teeth issues
- Tried to not heckle during speeches
- Warned off various people by overly concerned step-sister
- Beer (no more red wine left)
- Witnessed a fairly terrifying Slipknot impression that I wasn’t expecting

Easily the best wedding I’ve been to in ages.

Back on message, some relevant links...

Doves very own blog

All the latest news etc

The Magic Numbers

Check the little cartoon versions of the band, very good