We have to admit, when we saw this story on a lazy Easter Sunday, we thought it was an April Fool. But apparently not.
According to an interview in The Oberver newspaper promoting the band's forthcoming best-of, The Places Between, Doves guitarist Jez Williams recently bounced a riff off the moon, using it as his own interstellar delay pedal at Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire, UK.
Assisted by the facility's resident astrophysicist Dr Alastair Gunn, who "had a load of dials on a box", Williams "plugged into it, [then] he just dialled the moon, like you do... and two and half seconds later it [the riff] comes back.
"It messes up the signal beyond recognition, it's pretty wild. We've got a recording of it that we'll definitely use at some stage."
"Put that in your fucking pipe, Rick Wakeman!" added Doves frontman Jimi Goodwin.
Click here to read the full Doves interview, which includes a more scientific description of the process involved.
Back in March 2009, we checked out Jez Williams' live guitar set-up on tour in Coventry ahead of the release of fourth studio LP Kingdom Of Rust. Sadly, the moon doesn't feature, but you can see our video walkthrough here:
“Notes dance rhythmically, almost creating a reverb diffusion. Those notes are held together with tape-style effects”: Keeley Electronics and Andy Timmons unveil the Halo Core – same modulated dual echo magic, simplified controls
Up to $124 off JHS Pedals at Sweetwater might just be the best pedal deal of Black Friday so far - and yes, it includes the Colour Box V2
“Notes dance rhythmically, almost creating a reverb diffusion. Those notes are held together with tape-style effects”: Keeley Electronics and Andy Timmons unveil the Halo Core – same modulated dual echo magic, simplified controls
Up to $124 off JHS Pedals at Sweetwater might just be the best pedal deal of Black Friday so far - and yes, it includes the Colour Box V2
