After a three year absence, DOVES have returned with a new album and a smaller venues promotional tour before tackling the major festival scene again later this year. Expectations are high with predictions of DOVES emulating the recent successes of ELBOW with their no nonsense, earthy style that is anticipated to meet the value for money criteria emerging in 2009. So it would be interesting to see how DOVES match up.

‘The Kingdom of Rust’ is the band’s fourth album and following their previous successes, together with the break from the spotlight, the pressure is certainly on. The band has most definitely backed their new material on tour with almost half the main set coming from the new album. Pretty bullish given the album release was only 11 days previous giving their faithful audience little time to digest the new material.

The set opened with ‘Jetstream’ the first track off ‘Kingdom of Rust’, a slow burning opener that swings into life with Jez Williams’ vocals. The set and crowd then burst into life with the melodious anthem of ‘Snowden’ as Jimi Goodwin takes his opportunity to bring his laid back yet powerful vocals to the gig, beautifully complimented by Martin Rebelski’s keyboard riffs on this track. The third song sees the band showcase ‘Winter Hill’ from the new album before switching the vocals back to Jez Williams and slowing things down a little with ‘Rise’. The audience thrills as always to the band’s famed Pounding anthem with almost all of them bouncing along to Andy Williams’ thumping drum and Goodwin’s pulsating bass rhythms.

The middle of the set is peppered with the new songs of ‘10:03′, ‘The Greatest Denier’ (DOVES in denial, rather than a penchant for hosiery!) and title track ‘Kingdom of Rust’, split by ‘Words’ where the vocal baton is passed once more to Jez Williams. ‘Black & White Town’ quickly revs the crowd up after the slow pace of ‘Ambition’, which is followed by the curious yet enjoyable new number of ‘Compulsion’. Goodwin ditches the four string bass here for a regular six string that provides the bass on a track that is somewhat of a throw back to the band’s SUB SUB dance origins. The upbeat ‘Outsiders’ and the ever popular ‘Caught by The River’, where Jez Williams displays his acoustic guitar talents, close the main set.

The inevitable encores commence, opened with the unusual selection of ‘Northenden’ a B side track yet to appear on an official album. But it’s a melodious song that quickly captivates the audience as Goodwin’s acoustic playing excellently compliments his laid back vocal style and Rebelski’s keyboard harmony. ‘Hear It Comes’ finally affords Andy Williams the opportunity to leave the drum kit behind, take the lead vocal and demonstrate his harmonica abilities whilst Goodwin fills in on percussion. ‘Last Broadcast’ moves things along a pace to the final and total predictable end to proceedings of ‘There Goes The Fear’ where the show is brought to the ritual close of the entire band simultaneously playing percussion.

All in all an excellent night of no frills, does what it says on the tin entertainment. Whilst the mainstream music press seem to be taking delight on heaping pressure on DOVES as the next mega Manchester band with the expectations of 2009 being theirs for the taking, DOVES are much more difficult to pigeon-hole. The sound quality was superb, if the stage and light show were somewhat basic. Goodwin has such a wonderful laid back vocal, whose bass technique superbly compliments Andy Williams exceptional drumming. Twin brother Jez is a solid guitar technician seeming to find different styles on each song, although riffs do tend to be at a premium and Rebelski provides more than just glitter on keyboards. If you’re new to DOVES the lead vocal switching will most likely take you by surprise but on subsequent plays makes perfect sense. Will 2009 be DOVES year? – Let’s hope so. ‘Kingdom of Rust’ debuted at number 2 last week, pipped at the top spot by LADY GA GA – and that makes no sense whatsoever.

DOVES Set List: Jetstream/Snowden/Winter Hill/Rise/Pounding/Almost Forgot Myself/10:03/Words/The Greatest Denier/Kingdom of Rust/Ambition/Black & White Town/Compulsion/The Outsiders/Caught By The River/Northenden/Here It Comes/Last Broadcast/There Goes The Fear.

Review by Tim Statham