Spent a few days in Edinburgh for the festival, and managed to grab a ticket to see Doves perform at Edge Festival.
Quite literally rising from the ashes of 90s one-hit wonder Sub Sub, Doves, comprising of singer Jimi Goodwin and twin Andy and Jez Williams, have been one of the best bands over the past decade.
The band are currently on a recording haitus as such, but are currently touring their Greatest Hits album ‘The Places Between’
Their biggest known hits are ‘There Goes The Fear‘, ‘Black And White Town‘ and ‘Pounding‘, but they are the sort of band that people will know more of their songs than they think they know.
The venue is centrally located in the city and is a contradiction of being recently refurbished, yet old-fashioned in feel, very similar to Manchester Apollo.
Despite it’s name, the Picture House isn’t actually a former cinema (Well, according to it’s official website)
Support was provided by local act, The Ray Summers. For the first couple of songs, they seemed to be fighting against a mental block of playing for a crowd who haven’t paid specifically to see them.
However, they stuck at it and won the crowd over, and are well worth checking out.
Finally, one came Doves and just went into their first song with a minimum of fuss.
Being left-handed and Spelling their name ‘Jimi’ are the only things Jimi Hendrix and Jimi Goodwin have in common, as Goodwin didn’t need to put on a show for the crowd, who were already hanging on his every word.
No showmanship, just getting their head down and playing tunes, it’s how Doves do things.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest roar of the night was saved for ‘Black and White Town’ as an amazing set had the crowd baying for more.
And for an encore, they gave them exactly that, playing ‘Hear Comes The Fear’, with Jimi Goodwin playing a samba drum solo in the middle of the stage.
It’s sad that they’re planning to take a break from recording. On tonight’s evidence, it’s a lot sadder if they take a break from touring.
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