Happy days down on the City Farm

WILLIAMS TELLS ALEX GREEN ABOUT AFTER AN 11-YEAR BREAK

READERS have called for Coventry City Farm, which stood in Hillfields for more than 20 years, to reopen.

Coventry City Farm was an attraction that Coventry loved and lost, after it closed its gates in 2008 after nothing more could be done to save it.

The farm was a rare chance for children to get up close and personal with the various animals that lived there, from Shetland ponies Popcorn and Petunia to tiny lambs and exotic Vietnamese Kune Kune pigs.

The good news is that the site moved into the hands of an organisation with a community focus, Motorvate UK, which has been at the site since 2011.

In an article published last week, we looked back at the popular city spot, which would attract up to 60,000 children a year in its heyday.

Scores of readers shared their reaction, with many calling for the farm to return in a new form, some spotting themselves in our archive pictures, and one reader even recalling her wedding there!

Here’s just some of what you had to say on our Facebook page:

Alison Mitchell said: “Could it reopen? I used to go up there for a cuppa , sit in the sensory garden, I loved the rabbits and pigs and hens.”

Tagging in some of her friends, Esme James said: “Remember the brilliant times we had here with Environment Club and Holiday Club. This place was brilliant.”

And Rachael Baldwin, granddaughter of farm manager Pat Baldwin, even got in touch and said: “My nan ran this farm all the years it was open. All my childhood pictures / memories are here.”

And some of you even shared your memories of working there. Charlene Devonish Taylor said: “Used to work there it was some of the best times of my life.”

Ruth Carrington George added: “I remember leaving school and working at the farm in the canal basin for a short time. Ran with Barrs Hill School I think our first week we stayed up till three in the morning to deliver 13 piglets.”

Kelly Baker Cunliffe said: “Spent almost all my childhood here as living so close and used the holiday clubs. I have any fond memories of this place and was shocked they closed the place.”

Yolande Knowles said: “Great place many memories of feeding the animals at weekends with my Nan, Pat and her family were so friendly it’s a shame it closed .”

Sandra Fitzpatrick said: “It was a great place to bring kids in the middle of an inner city.... I brought my own son there and loved going as a child myself.”

Shazzy Ayres said: “I say bring it back!! Used to love going there.”

PJ Singh said simply: “Open a new one.”

N 2009, Doves released Kingdom Of Rust, considered by many as their creative peak, but then they went their separate ways, suddenly and without fanfare.

The Cheshire band, who rose from the ashes of Britpop to pioneer a world-weary, introspective sound, were run down after years on the treadmill of recording and tours.

Twin brothers Jez and Andy Williams (on guitar and drums respectively) and singer-cumbassist Jimi Goodwin needed some time apart.

“We never called it a day, it was just a long break,” explains Andy, 50, over the phone, as Doves prepare to release their fifth album, The Universal Want.

“It was a tough record to make, Kingdom Of Rust.

“People were going through personal stuff and it had been solid recording and touring up to that point. Everybody was quite ready for a break but we never intended it to be nine years,” he adds with a sharp laugh.

“It’s crazy when I think about it. It was too long a time, but there we go. It’s just one of those things.”

Doves found their feet during the early 90s, performing as a ravey house music-influenced act called Sub Sub.

As schoolboys they had been inspired by regular trips to the hallowed dance floor of Manchester’s Hacienda nightclub. They even reached number three in the charts with the club favourite Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use). But in 1996, the band’s Ancoats studio burned down and they were faced with a decision: rebuild or start anew.

They chose the second option and recalibrated as Doves in 1998, releasing four albums of atmospheric, alternative Northwestern noir, culminating in Kingdom Of Rust.

That album was lauded as a perfect summing up of their career.

“There was never any big falling out or anything,” recalls Andy.

“A lot of bands get to a point where they can’t stand the sight of each other. I’m sure at the back of a tour bus after a long tour we took each other for granted.

“I felt that when we regrouped everyone was really ready for it.”

While on hiatus, the Williams twins continued to work together under the name Black Rivers.they were drawn back to Goodwin by chance during recording sessions in a rented house in the Peak District.

“We started songwriting together in 2017 but we didn’t tell anyone for a year or two.

“That way there was no pressure because it might not have worked out.

“Me and Jez were up in the Peak District working on a second Black Rivers album and Jimi was close by so we invited him over, just to hang out,” says Andy.

“We played him some material and he really liked some of it. He asked to play bass on it. It was just quite organic.

“It was clear early on that the chemistry was still there. After three of four songs we knew we had an album in us.”

The album’s title, The Universal

Want, points towards a message of anti-consumerism.

“I’m as guilty as the next person. I always want the next thing,” Andy admits.

“It’s an eternal impulse that things are better elsewhere. Trying to acquire that is this continual cycle we seem to be stuck in. Getting older is trying to fight against that,” he concludes drily.

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, Andy says, has imbued the album with extra meaning, as the British public are forced to weigh up their physical and mental needs at home.

“It seems weirdly resonant now,” he observes.

Time has changed Doves but not so much that they have lost their essence.

The holy trinity of guitar, bass and drums is still present, as is their brand of melancholic euphoria.

The song Carousels recalls hazily the seaside amusements of their youth, while the title track harks back to the heady days of acid house.

Returning to the flock: Doves is made up of brothers Andy and Jez Williams and, centre, Jimi Goodwin

But the last decade has matured the Doves sound and new influences, such as the jazz-shuffle of Afrobeat, have crept into the mix.

Andy says: “We have no desire to do The Cedar Room part two. It’s about trying new stuff.”

Doves have returned to the fold on their own terms.

“We have been lucky to make a living out of this for so long. It’s easier to not be swayed and put commercial pressures aside now.”

Doves played a comeback show at the Royal Albert Hall for The Teenage Cancer Trust in March last year, after being personally invited by organiser and Who frontman Roger Daltrey. They wanted to do their old material justice and so steered clear of performing the new songs. “The reception was just ‘wow’. “Personally, I won’t lie. I was really nervous. There was a lot of expectation. But it was brilliant.”

The Universal Want is out now. Doves will tour the UK in 2021.