THE THRASHING DOVES, THE MARQUEE, LONDON
Picture, if you can, Big Audio Dynamite with a real singer, Marc Bolan with a beatbox, or maybe even the Alarm with a hundred times more imagination. Then you just might be able to come to terms with the Thrashing Doves.
A year ago, this band was one of the first to combine rock and roll with electronic hardware and make it sound convincing. Now, they're sharp, confident, and are promising great things. In the world of the Thrashing Doves you'll find bar-room blues bunking up with a Prince dance rhythm, a melancholy ballad giving way to some vintage glam rock and more. There's nothing radically original in what they do, but it's managed with taste and vision, and their ideas are incorporated into some particularly excellent songs, like their first single, 'Matchstick Flotilla', most probably the first Arthur Baker mix to feature harmonica and bottleneck guitar. There's a toughness there, and the fragile, quavering vocals of Ken Foreman makes it something quite special. On stage, the band are still a little on the reserved side, but with more live appearances, this will surely sort itself out.
Musical influences are used sensibly, though there are times, such as on 'I've Got Jesus On The Payroll' that they stray rather close to Mick Jones territory. But not embarrassingly so. 'Magdalena' is a lament over a fallen woman that recalls Mick Jagger in one of his more tender moments, and when Ken gets to the bit about 'the whorehouses in Monterey', with just a hint of an American accent, you might be tempted to cringe. I'll just mark it down to poetic licence.
If you hate bootlace ties, guitars slung at the hip and songs about 'London Town', then this might not be your ideal band. Yet the Thrashing Doves have the talent and the scope to rise above the more predictable areas of rock and roll, and produce something much more engaging. You really ought to investigate.
Stuart Bailie