Jez and Andy Williams from Doves joined Dan O’Connell on the Evening Show on Radio X where the duo gave an update on singer Jimi Goodwin after he took the decision to step away from the band for mental health reasons, saying he’s ‘not out of the woods’ as they ‘learn to deal with the cards they’ve been given.’ The band also recalled being laughed at by Oasis in the early 2000s for ‘freaking out’ ahead of playing in front of 90,000 people at Wembley!
Jez Williams – JW
Andy Williams – AW
Dan O’Connell – DOC
Doves says they are ‘learning to deal with the cards they’ve been given’ after Jimi Goodwin stepped back from the band for mental health reasons
JW: “The three-headed beast is temporarily the two-headed beast for now.”
DOC: “Does it feel like a sort of new era for Doves then?”
JW: “Yeah, it kind of is. I mean, we're just, you know, we've had a lot of false starts of late, so it's quite nice to… You know, we've done three gigs already. Towards the end of 2024, we did some warmup shows, so it feels like we're ready now. So yeah, it's good, man. We're in a good place. You know, we've had to deal with certain things and problems, and we've kind of navigated our way through that difficult time. Feels like we're coming out the other side, doesn’t it?”
AW: “Yeah, it’s exciting at the moment, you know? First tour in 15 years, which is pretty mad. I mean, we’ve done the odd gig here and there. An actual UK tour, it’s been 15 years. So yeah, you know, we’re learning to deal with the cards we’ve been given, so to speak. You know, we’re survivors.”
JW: “Yeah, we are survivors. That’s what it feels like.”
DOC: “I bet. I mean, it's been a long journey. You know, ups and downs.”
AW: “Oh yeah, but I wouldn’t swap it for the world though at the same time. You know, we were saying this earlier. We're no good at doing anything else. So, it's a good job we are in a band, because there's nothing I can… I'm rattling through things, ‘What could I actually do?’ No, being in a band.”
[…]
DOC: “Now, as we mentioned before, Jimi is, of course, taking a break at the moment. Doing his own little thing, but he was part of the album. It was a whole thing. It was a group thing, and you've taken it out on the road. Is there a difference in how you approach the set list now then?”
JW: “I've sort of had to relearn stuff. Replay it. Obviously, when Jimi was singing, I was more guitar, but now I'm predominantly… Andy does songs as well, but I've had to relearn things, how to redo it all again. You know, sing and play. So, it's almost a bit like that. Yeah, it took a bit. It took a long time. But I think the most important thing is, we had these three gigs. I mentioned it before, at small places, little club gigs, and there's nothing like doing a gig to put perspective on it. You can do all the rehearsing you want, but at the end of the day, you got to get out there and get on the stage. First one was very nervy. Second one was a little bit easier, and by the third one, we were kind of on a roll, weren’t we?
AW: “The audience just carried us.”
JW: “The audience carried us for a lot of it. And obviously it's amazing, because you never know what the response is going to be. But everyone's been amazing. And we've been properly upfront about it as well. You know, Jimi’s got stuff to work on, and he's, you know, not out of the woods yet and he's very much with us in in spirit. This decision was made by the three of us. You know, Jimi included.”
DOC: “I actually think originally, Jimi was one of the first people to be quite open about his mental health. I mean, I know things have changed dramatically in the last 10 years about conversations around how we think and feel as people, as human beings. But Jimi was one of the first people to start sort of like alluding to that and being open and honest with that.”
AW: “Yeah. I mean, you know, you don't get to our age without even knowing a loved one or close friend or a family who's going through this sort of stuff. So, like you said, probably 10 years ago, it's almost a taboo subject, really. So, the more people talking about the stuff, the better. So, like you say, Jimi’s always been open about it, and we tried to carry that through in terms to be very clear that, you know, he's not on tour with us. It's us doing it. We don't want anyone going and being disappointed he's not there. To just be very open about it and talk about, you know, what we've all been through, really?”
Doves recall Oasis laughing at them for ‘freaking out’ ahead of playing for 90,000 people at Wembley in 2000
DOC: “Talking about that sea of Manchester bands, of course, this year is the big year for Oasis fans, and I know you've played with them on and off over the years. In fact, you did Noel’s show in Heaton Park as well. Are there memories? Are there thoughts? Did you know this was coming? Had you heard the rumour? Were you part of that?”
JW: “Well, I mean, we go back to when we first played Wembley with them. They did as a real solid by putting us on; we just put our first album out, called Lost Souls. And they were big fans.”
DOC: “Was his 2000?”
JW: “Yeah, 2000. Ages ago. The old Wembley, 90,000 people. And everyone turned up early for that one. Because obviously at that stage, we were playing like pubs. Ha! To go from that to 90,000 it was insane. It was completely insane. And they were there at the side of the stage.”
AW: “We freaked out when we got on stage.”
JW: “We were freaked out. I went, ‘Holy F!’ And they were c****** themselves laughing because they knew it was freaking us out. But it was a brilliant day, and a brilliant night.”
AW: “I think we were pretty much the last ones out of Wembley at night. We have a habit sometimes of overstaying. I think eventually security just had to get rid of us.”
