For the past 8 years the Forest Commission has organised a series of concerts at various forests around the country. Each venue host different headline acts over a weekend and this year at Delamere Forest the Saturday night band was DOVES, a homecoming gig for the boys from Wilmslow.

Delamere is a bit off the beaten track for an outdoor gig, located in the Northwest of Cheshire equidistant between Chester, Winsford and Runcorn with access via scenic country roads. However the journey to get there and worse, the return from packed car parks is very easily worth the effort. The natural sloping amphitheatre of the venue used at Delamere is a superb location for an early summer concert. Added to this is the mature approach taken by the Forestry Commission at these events allowing punters to bring in alcohol in plastic containers, folding seats, blankets and picnics, thereby creating a real British party feel to the proceedings.

I reviewed DOVES a couple of months ago during a quality performance at Birmingham Carling Academy. After completing a hectic UK schedule, then to their US tour promoting Kingdom of Rust and jetting back just a few days before this gig, you could forgive the band for being fatigued and a bit off colour. Nothing could be further from the truth. DOVES were bang on form and really lifted by the huge turnout and beauty of their surroundings. In fact it was difficult to judge who was more awestruck, DOVES or their audience. Both guitarist Jez Williams and lead singer Jimi Godwin made several references during the set expressing disbelief as the beauty of the location they were playing and the huge turn out.

The set list was basically the same as the Birmingham gig, one of the new songs off Kingdom of Rust was dropped from the main set but the band wowed their loyal following with the inclusion of the evergreen Cedar Room to open the first encore sequence. Then the band completely surprised the majority of the audience by reprieving their old SUB SUB acid house instrumental Spaceface to close proceedings with a second encore.

The only criticism I had of their Birmingham concert was that the stage and light show was somewhat basic, not so this night. The music was studio note perfect, sound quality excellent, the lights and backdrop videos better brought out by the bigger arena and even plenty of audience interaction between Jimi Goodwin and the crowd.

If you like your live music with that special summer party atmosphere, put a Forestry gig on the top of your wish list for 2010. Get your ticket early and plan ahead for your night out. You’ll love it! Better still, try to catch DOVES while they’re remain on such banging form – hopefully they’ll announce a few more dates in 2009 after their summer festival commitments.

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

Review by Tim Statham