Doves’ origin story involves a fire. Jimi Goodwin, Jez Williams, and Andy Williams were Sub Sub in the early 90s — dance producers who had a top 5 hit with Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use) in 1993. Their studio in Ancoats burned down, destroying years of equipment and recordings. Most bands would have packed it in. They picked up guitars instead and became Doves.
Lost Souls came out in 2000 and it was immediately clear this was something different. Big, atmospheric guitar music with dance structures underneath — Catch the Sun had a momentum that felt physical. The Last Broadcast in 2002 was even better. There Goes the Fear remains one of the great Manchester singles: that building intro, the drums kicking in, the whole thing lifting off. Some Things Best Forgotten and Pounding showed a band that could do both scale and intimacy.
They were a live band above all. The Apollo suited them — their sound needed a big room to breathe. They played the MEN Arena, Glastonbury, all of it. Then they went quiet. A hiatus that started around 2010 stretched on for years. The Universal Want finally arrived in 2020, nearly a decade after anyone expected it. It was good — not as good as The Last Broadcast, but what is.
Doves never quite got the recognition they deserved outside of people who actually bought the records. They weren’t laddish enough for the Oasis crowd, not experimental enough for the post-rock lot. They just made consistently brilliant, emotionally honest music that sounded massive live. Wilmslow and south Manchester can claim them, but that sound — wide open, slightly melancholic, full of light — belongs to the whole city.