THE THRASHING DOVES
The Marquee, London
By Mat Smith

I REMEMBER reading how a reviewer once spotted a Rush tee-shirt in the unlikely setting of an early Howard Jones gig. Tonight I saw someone sporting a Seducer one. A sartorial sign of things to come? Is history about to repeat itself?Certainly lead Dove Ken Foreman could pass for ol' hamster head any night of the week. That squiffy mane, that dimpled smile, those unashamed whoops and yells, that same charismatic shyness calculatingly designed to send the little girls' fluttering hearts into coronary alert and the nation's cash tills ringing like Quasimodo on piece rates.
Tonight, The Thrashing Doves played with the assured youthful cockiness of a band that knows every major in town is sniffing round its Cuban heels. So what is it that's got every expenses-respecting A&R man doing the unholy round of London's pits? Well, The Thrashing Doves have already mastered the basic rule of popdom. Get the look right and the music can catch up later. Thing is, later is now. While we were boogying to the Bronskis, posing toPrince or simply screwing to The Icicle Works, The Thrashing Doves skipped five steps on pop's playing board and, judging by tonight, are now more than ready to present themselves for industry and public consumption. A song, a stagecraft of sorts and even a following!
Playing a sweet but not sickly style of Seventies' pop, The Doves come on like a down-to-earth Cockney Rebel — a bit T. Rex but without the fake rebellion. Like any pop group, they invite a whole host of comparisons — to the above you could just as easily add anyone from a lightweight Echo to a heavyweight Teardrops — though their songs are a little too soft and their smiles too wide for those Television rumours to stick.
The Thrashing Doves want to be number one. Sure enough they'll toy with psychedelia and fiddle with feedback but only in the way The Thompson Twits might. To their credit, they bow out with a wicked trashing of The Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil". They'll never be as young as The Jesus And Mary Chain but that's not what it's always about, is it?