Black Rivers and nostalgia..

After Doves there was somewhat of a hole. A dull ache.

Yes, yes, of course continual listening to Lost Souls was going to be obligatory, there was Jimi Goodwin's solo stuff, and forever held in the highest of esteem was the beautiful electronica of Rebelski. But then Andy and Jez Williams decided to release an album. Under the name Black Rivers some of the tracks floated onto the internet and I was thoroughly hooked.

Voyager 1 is a personal highlight. Instantly familiar -- but if you mainlined Jez Williams voice as frequently as I did then it is bound to be familiar -- the track is paced with total abandoned and joy. That voice. Such comfort.



And when asked t'other day if Doves might ever reform...

..Never say never. https://t.co/1XhpissU2s

— Black Rivers (@Black__Rivers) July 20, 2016

And it is 14 years today since Pounding had its single release. I used to request this so frequently on nights out that one DJ used to play it almost as my entrance music.

Autumnal Impulses

The end. Beauty, life, love. You signal the end.

Dread envelopes the looking back at the past and the venturing forward into the new.

The dark impulse to run. Into the unknown, into the new, into the fire, into the sea.

Editors gig..

The first picture from last Thursday night's (18/10/07) Editors' gig at the Carling Academy in Newcastle.

Editors have always had a certain appeal to me. Even seeing them when Ten Feet Tall hosted them at Empire, waaaaaay back when. All said though, it was a pretty rubbish gig then, about 20 people in the crowd, Editors were late coming on stage, obviously not happy, played a short 20 minute set and left. As disappointing as it had been I enjoyed the time they were on stage. So having seemed to miss every tour or festival appearence they had made for about the past two and a half years I was looking forward to last Thursday.

The Back Room for me deserved all the praise it received in 2005. It fitted perfectly with my temperment to become the soundtrack to my mental breakdown of the time. As apprehensive as I was about An End Has A Start this year, and with my initial reaction to it being "Tom's vocals sound like Danny McNamara!!", I grew to love what is obviously a very different album from their debut, with feelings that the progression fans would have liked to hear from them not happening and a slightly more mainstream sound being adopted.

Having not been to the Carling Academy since Doves in 2005 I was pleasantly suprised by the venues capacity to home a lot of people comfortably. We walked in to see the end of the Ra Ra Riot, who didn't really find their flow til their last song, bit too late.

Queue Editors:



Shockingly energetic. Pounding through their recognisable tracks from the latest album. Crowd never missing a word. Yet, something not quite right. Slight dischord here, accidental changes in tempo there, mismatching of sync of band members.

"Maybe they are drunk" suggests Paul.
"I don't think so, you know when you are watching a drunk band. The Aliens?" I reply.
"Yea. You're right."

Thrashing out some of the highlights of The Back Room and utterly enthrawling the crowd, if somewhat haphazardly in places. Let's get this straight though. In the main, they were great, fantastic, a lot better than I had ever anticipated. But the musicianship and communication of the band members let them down somewhat.

This makes it especially hard to pass comment on all the new material they featured. One in particular had an incredibly atonal first chorus, and not in a cool-Cut-Copy-atonal kind of way, just atonal and wrong. But if I'm honest I really did like the sound of the new stuff. Sorry I can't name titles of songs, but, meh, I was at a gig.

The only other disappointment of the night? Missing The Kissaway Trail. Definately worth a look.