By: Blerim Shala (published for the first time in 2002, in the Albanian Political Weekly "Zëri")
Outstanding rock bands, among others, receive this designation also because of the great influence they have on current rock trends.
For example, in the early nineties, Kurt Cobain's "Nirvana" made grunge rock stand out, which was the mainstream in the years 1991-1995.
The second half of the nineties brought Thom Yorke's "Radiohead" as a leading group in rock, especially in England.
In both cases, in "Nirvana" and "Radiohead", the common goal is for a rock band to be exactly that, for rock not to be a variation of computer and technology, which happened in most cases. .
"Radiohead" continues to be far from the figures of "Nirvana" in terms of sales and popularity, but has a more favorable position in rock criticism. Then, it seems that the influence of "Radiohead" will be more long-lasting than that of "Nirvana".
There are a bunch of groups that appeared after "Radiohead" in the years 1997-2002.
Here it is worth mentioning only a few, or the most successful ones such as: "Coldplay", "Doves", "Elbow", "Starsailor", "Haven". Here we could add that each of these groups has its own characteristics that distinguish it a little or even a lot from "Radiohead". Of course, if they didn't distinguish themselves from "Radiohead", they wouldn't be able to make a name for themselves in the English and world rock scene. But "Radiohead" was the band that recreated the space for rock bands that manage to combine a clear musical idea, the articulation of muttering and frustration through the energy of the electric guitar and verses that are increasingly introspective and do not pretend to change the world.
"Doves" is one of the groups that took advantage of this opportunity offered by the "Radiohad" effect. In fact, "Doves" is a pretty old group, whose beginnings, under another name, like "Sub Sub", date back to the early nineties. At home, "Sub Sub" was greatly influenced by the club "Hacienda" of Manchester, one of the most famous in England. Hacienda was formed after Ian Curtis' Joy Division (who committed suicide in 1980) morphed into New Order. Bernard Sumners and friends made "New Order" a group that made pop music and synthesizers coexist. "Hacienda" was thus a dance club. How important this club was is proven by the fact that this year in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival there was a film dedicated to this club.
"Sub Sub", which consisted of the brothers Jez and Andy Williams and Jimi Goodwin, were a group that followed in the footsteps of "New Order". But, the club "Hacienda" was closed due to big problems, "New Order", after editing the album "Republic" (in 1993), they decided to retire for a while (this lasted almost nine years) and the English scene started to be dominated by groups like "Oasis" and "Blur".
However, as Williams and Goodwin now claim, if it wasn't for the time spent at the "Hacienda" club, they would never have reached where they are today. Where is the "Doves" group currently located, among other things, shows data that their second album "The Last Broadcats", debuted in first place on the list of best-selling albums in Great Britain.
"Doves" is from Manchester, the city which in the past gave a lot of very popular groups: From "Joy Division", "New Order", "Happy Mondays", "The Stone Roses" to "The Smiths", i which is probably the best English pop-rock band of the eighties.
Brothers Williams and Jimi Goodwin, after being vegetarian for years, in 1998 started recording the songs that will be found on their first album, "Lost Souls". This album will be released in 2000. "Lost Souls" was met with a lot of very favorable reviews and with a popularity that will initially surprise the band members.
In this album "Doves" revealed influences from the psychedelic period, from English pop music, from soul. The melancholic colors of the melodies and lyrics, the boredom of the usual and the everyday, made "Doves" close to many. But, above all, "Lost Souls" was a very high quality album.
The second album of "Doves", "The Last Broadcast", released this year, has many connections with the first one. It is therefore a continuation of "Lost Souls". This can be an advantage but at the same time a big drawback. The advantage of "The Last Broadcast" is that it uses the successful recipe of "Lost Souls". In this context, once again, we have a bunch of songs that stand out for themselves and prove that "Doves" is a very good group.
But Radiohead, let's face it, became extraordinary with their ability to change things on every album, while maintaining almost the same quality.
In this respect, it turns out that we have to wait for the third album of "Doves" to understand if Williams and Goodwin will continue to recycle success with the same approach, or if they will try to change. If "Radiohead" is an example for good, for bad here we can mention "Oasis".
In fact, before this test there are also "Coldplay", "Elbow", "Starsailor", which today dominate in England. /Telegraph/
