The Wave Pictures are something of an oddity within the UK ‘indie’ scene they have been part of for around two decades.

Their sardonic lyrics, partnerships with the likes of Darren Hayman and appearances at events such as Indie Tracks make them, on the surface, ideal for the C86 brigade. But at heart they are a blues rock band, more at home playing on the same bill as perhaps John Mayall or Dr Feelgood.

In recent years they’ve been doing their best to showcase their blues and classic rock roots, especially on the American influenced Bamboo Diner, the blues driven City Forgiveness and their Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute on Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon.

This late-night, booze fuelled blues offering certainly adds to those attempts. Recorded in one night, it aims to recreate the feel of a vintage jazz, folk or blues live album.

Guitarist Dave Tattersall explains:

Lots of bands pretend that they have made their Tonight’s The Night or Astral Weeks, that special album which is recorded in those rare, late-night, pressure-free circumstances; that loose collection of inspired jams. They haven’t done it really. They’ve spent bloody ages working on the thing. They’ve lost their nerve. This is the real thing. A genuine shitfaced improvisation.

Largely improvised, except for the lyrics, this nine-track collection shows how much of a tight knit musical machine they are after so long together.

It works best when based around a strong riff from Tattersall, as on opener The Red Suitcase, which features a lovely long rambling guitar solo too.

Jim is another strong track. Its dark, brooding lyrics and harmonica solo a world away from the fey pop of C86.

Crow Jane builds up nicely too as the album breaches the half way point.

But for the remaining three tracks I found myself getting a little restless and craving some of their more ballsy rock of recent years.

I get that this is an album designed to be slow and broody. But after 50 minutes of slow broody blues I got a little bored. But is that how all non-blues fans hear the blues?

While I admire Wave Pictures for trying out something different in the recording process, this comes across as more of an interesting add-on to their catalogue rather than a distinct high point.

6/10

by Joe Lepper

After taking some time in June to list our favourite albums so far this year, the time has come to reveal our Best Albums of 2016.

The surprise alternative pop album of the year has not budged from its number one slot, but our extended end of year list has given us the chance to add a further 10 albums to our selection.

There are a few more veteran performers here, but also plenty of new bands with some stunning debuts released this year.

It may have been a horrible anus  in terms of politics and the death of iconic legends but 2016 was still a great year for music. Sit back and enjoy our Best Albums 2016 list.

20. Picture Box – Songs of Joy

Robert Halcrow uses his brand ‘wonky pop’ to take you on a tour of the lesser known nooks and crannies of his home City of Canterbury, in Kent. The demise of its speedway team, its smelly former tannery and a pet fish shop are the stars of this thoroughly eccentric look at small town England. Read the full review here.

15. Robert Pollard – Of Course You Are

Incredibly, this is now the 22nd solo album from the hardest working man in music and proves another high point in an illustrious career. Read the full review here.

14. Bob Mould – Patch the Sky

Third album from the former Sugar and Husker Du man’s most settled line up for years. The key to its success is its ability to tackle the tough issues of life in the most fun way possible, as Mould’s rage and melody once again combine perfectly.  Read the full review here.

13. Woodpigeon – TROUBLE

Heartbreak, loss and a globe trotting meander prove the powerful inspiration for Mark Andrew Hamilton’s latest album. Beautiful and inspiring. Read the full review here.

12. John Howard – Across the Door Sill

11. Martha – Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart

10. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Nonagon Infinity

Like an extended rock jam, taking in science fiction, monsters and, naturally, some awesome guitar riffs this is another stellar release from the Australian psych rockers, with a little help from some robots and a gigantic wasp. Read the full review here.

9. Dressy Bessy – King Sized

Fabulous return from a six-year break for the US act. This works particularly well by merging their beefier pre- hiatus sound with the pop nous that made their early work so infectious. Read the full review here.

8. The Wave Pictures – Bamboo Diner in the Rain

Underneath what may very well be 2016’s crappiest album cover lies this year’s best blues LP, as The Wave Pictures take their fascination with American blues to new levels. Read our full review here.

7. Papernut Cambridge – Love the Things Your Lover Loves

Former Death in Vegas man Ian Button and crew have created their very own 1970s pop band. Full of fuzzed up guitar riffs and stomping rhythms there would have been plenty to satisfy the charts back in the day, especially the album’s title song, and its best pop tune, Radio. Read the full review here.

6. Darren Hayman – Thankful Villages – Vol 1

One of Hayman’s best pieces of work and possibly his most important, preserving the oral history of the relatives of those who survived the horrors of the Great War as well as paying tribute to the village life these soldiers left and thankfully returned to. Read the full review here.

5. Emma Pollock – In Search of Harperfield

Childhood memories and the toils of adulthood mix wonderfully on the former Delgados singer’s latest album. With the track Parks and Recreation she has also created one of the best songs of recent years. Read the full review here.

4. Arborist – Home Burial

3. Free Swim – Life Time of Treats

1. The Monkees – Good Times

The comeback to beat all comebacks. Originally planned as merely something to sell on their 50^th anniversary tour this album has ended up grabbing the headlines in its own right. With Fountains of Wayne man Adam Schlesinger at the helm, a stack of lost demos to dust off and new tracks from talented Monkees fans such as Andy Partridge and Ben Gibbard, Good Times both pays tribute to their place in 1960s pop history and creates a great, modern day indie and alternative pop album in its own right. A well deserved number one slot. Read our full review here.

Top Ten Albums of 2016 So far was compiled by Joe Lepper and Dorian Rogers

Underneath what may very well be 2016’s crappiest album cover lies this year’s best blues LP, as The Wave Pictures take their fascination with American blues to new levels.

From the riffs and solos of City Forgiveness (2013) to the gorgeous vintage feel of their Billy Childish produced Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon (2015) and the acoustic sweetness of this year’s A Season in Hull, this collection has elements of them all. As a result it is perhaps the best of the lot.

There’s a sense of growing resentment at the digital world across this album, in music and our lives. It possibly explains why the album cover, which features guitarist Dave Tattersall, bassist Franic Rozycki and drummer Jonny Helm clutching their instruments by what looks like a hedge, is so rubbish.

Why waste time digitally editing fancy covers when there’s good music to play?

And there’s plenty of it too, especially on Now I Want To Hoover My Brain Clean. This is one of half a dozen blues rock tracks that carries this ethos of going back to basics perfectly.

Others in this mold are opener Panama Hat and closer The Running Man.

There’s a break from these heavy riffs with a few acoustic numbers that fit in perfectly, especially Meeting Simon At the Airport and the slide guitar and brush drumming on the title track.

A great The Wave Pictures single too emerges with Pool Hall, which brings another common theme across the album – of focusing on everyday British life through the sounds of 1970s American blues rock.

As well as pool halls, here being torn down to make flats, David Tattersall’s wonderfully detailed lyrics take us to betting shops and pubs, complete with a landlord with crisps down his shirt. Even the colours of flowers in vases he passes get a mention. If ever a musician has a novel to write it is him.

In the press release Tattersall says that they don’t want to be a blues band, “but the blues is there” at the “core of everything we do. We love it,” he adds.

With his accomplished and original guitar solos and Helm and Rozycki’s moody rhythm section they have the musical expertise to be among the blues greats. They may not like it, but their metamorphosis into a modern day and thoroughly British Creedance Clearwater Rivival is satisfyingly nearing completion

9/10

by Joe Lepper

For more information about The Wave Pictures click here.

Slowly but surely The Wave Pictures are winning around Britain albeit via the increasing influence of American music on their albums. Over their last couple of releases they’ve picked up heightened attention thanks to the US influenced blues of City Forgiveness (2013) and last year’s Billy Childish collaboration Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon,  featured a pair of Credence Clearwater Revival covers.

Here they have delved even further into the US’s musical history, channeling the spirit of America’s early folk music recording pioneers, with guitarist David Tattersall, drummer Jonny Helm and bassist Rozycki here on acoustic instruments, gathered with friends around a single microphone

The idea to huddle around one mic came from their long time friend and collaborator Darren Hayman.

Tattersall says: “The idea appealed to me enormously. It’s a really beautiful sound, the one microphone sound. The results tend to be mysterious and lively, and it’s a very romantic way to record, too. It’s how Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys did it, after all.”

The bluegrass comparisons stop there though and although the trio are accomplished on acoustic instruments as they are in their usual amped up guise their ever so English lyrics and vocals of Tattersall still shine through. The result is yet again another great album from the trio, which is familiar but still refreshingly different.

The songs are also great, Slick Black River From the Rain and the wonderfully titled Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous are particularly standouts.

So too is Tattersall’s transition from electric to acoustic guitar, where his solos continue to impress.

After more than a decade of recording and more than a dozen studio albums A Season in Hull shows that The Wave Pictures seem to love being in a band as much as they did when they first started.

8/10

by Joe Lepper

Time is against me this week but I don’t want to let an excellent Waves Pictures gig go by without a mention. In the absence of a full review I’d like to present five bullet points and a few pictures.

• Support was nicely provided by The Creaking Chair. It would be lazy journalism by me to mention Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, so I won’t.

• Don’t chuck a pint over the band. Don’t do it at any point and least of all during the first song. I don’t care how excited you are. Don’t.

• How does David Tattersall play so well even down to four guitar strings? I’d have been interested to see how he’d have faired if the set had been longer and more had broken.

• What a great three piece band this is. The rhythm section is as superb as the guitar work and The Jam spring to mind. Even though they sound nothing like The Jam.

• Isn’t it great when Jonny Helm stands up and sings? Passionate balladry at its best.

The Creaking Chair

The Wave Pictures

The Wave Pictures

The Wave Pictures

Do try and see the band live, they are great on record but even better on stage. The good news is they gig a lot, the bad news is they often sell out. It looks like they may have some tickets left for Ramsgate this Friday (27th Feb) and they are back in London (after a European tour) on the 18th June.

By Dorian Rogers

Is this the best rock n roll album of the year? Sure, it’s only February but we’ve checked that Kanye West is not around so now’s as good a time as any to start dishing out controversial accolades.

I hereby declare this 13^th studio album by this once Leicestershire now London based trio, the best rock n roll album of the year.

There’s a raft of reasons for this bold declaration. In part it’s the uplifting high tempo tracks full of awesome guitar riffs, with the opening on Pea Green Coat among many standouts with Dr Feelgood pub rock feel.

It is also the attention to detail in guitarist and lead vocalist David Tattersell’s marvellous lyrics, such as on Telephone where the bleary eyed protagonist of the song is in a sleeping bag in a hallway at “The Pattersons” listening to the telephone ring three storeys up while looking at the “cigar smoke circle on a blood red wall”.

There’s a strong focus on story telling across the album as well which makes it utterly likeable as each track’s narrator seemingly stumbles through bizarre situations, romance, hungover stupors, hallways of giant homes and police cells.

The addition of painter, musician and all round arty chap Billy Childish on co-writing and co-production duties is clearly a key factor in its energy and strength. Another is it being a natural extension of their down and dirty blues influenced previous album City Forgiveness. The two Creedence Clearwater Rivival covers Sinister Purpose and Green River on this album act as a nice nod back to that album.

It feels tightly controlled under Childish’s direction as well with the songs never wearing out their welcome and Tattersall’s excellent guitar solos kept shorter to give them an even more dramatic effect. Childish is also responsible for  Pea Green Coat’s incredible opening riff, possibly the album’s best moment.

Bring all this together and it creates what all great albums do, transcend being simply a collection of tracks and create a world you can immerse yourself in, or in this case a world you can stumble drunkenly into.

9/10

By Joe Lepper

Travel broadens the mind, as the old adage dictates, and for those of artistic bent, it can also broaden the parameters of inspiration and result in a surge of profligate creativity. And so it was with The Wave Pictures’ David Tattersall who, after the band’s six week road trip touring the USA with Allo Darlin’ last year, wrote at least twenty songs in a “very jet-lagged and confused week.”

With clearly enough songs to justify this double album,  City Forgiveness is a testament to how experience garnered through peripatetic existence can excite the imagination while also highlighting the ‘patchiness’ that inevitably occurs when dealing with the concept of a double album.

The crunchy riff that introduces opening track ‘All My Friends’ is the first hint at a departure to a more blues rock sound but the words “Once I dreamed I saw your face on a carton of milk/Once I dreamed I spilt the milk all down my shirt” are a familiar reminder as to the quirky Morrissey-esque absurdities of Tattersall’s lyricism.

Following track ‘For This Day,’ heralded in with a melodically bouncy guitar riff reminiscent of Paul Simon’s ‘You Can Call Me Al,’ is a gorgeously wistful opus to the past and a highlight of Tattersall’s song-writing canon thus far; using his oft trusted predilection for minutiae (“Mum holds the ladder with a slippered foot”) and the recalling of his first conscious memory of running through “grass that has grown high above my head,” he captures a touchingly nostalgic ideal of childhood and early family life.

‘Missoula’ with its jaunty three chord shuffle is a pleasingly catchy two minutes of indie pop and, though it sounds as if the multiple declarations of ‘I Love You’ are aimed at the titular city in the US State of Montana, it captures the band in romantic mood. This outlook of romance is continued in the soothing ‘Whisky Bay.’ With its tiki style guitar and mellow rhythms, the music conjures up images of palm trees and tropical paradise while the lyrics “I love you more with each passing year,” are thematically redolent of Elvis Presley’s ‘Ku’uipo’ from Blue Hawaii.

While the slightly ominous minor chord strum of ‘Better To Have Loved’ places the listener on familiar terrain (it sounds similar to past Wave Pictures songs such as ‘Leave The Scene Behind’), the album has a myriad of blues rock grooves that sometimes feel as if they exist solely as a vehicle to showcase Tattersall’s considerable guitar playing talents. ‘Lisbon’ is at least as dense with guitar soloing as it is lyrics and drummer Jonny Helm and bassist Franic Rozycki lay down solid bluesy rhythms on ‘Chestnut’ and the more subdued ‘Yellow Roses’ to back Tattersall’s playing; by the time we get to ‘The Ropes’ it feels perhaps as if he is noodling for noodlings sake and, despite his undoubted skill as a guitarist, one wonders as to whether this style of music is conducive to bringing out the best in a group like The Wave Pictures.

The Wave Pictures’ David Tattersall

The album is unsurprisingly full of Tattersall’s usual linguistic whimsy, (the absurdity reaches its zenith in ‘Golden Syrup’- “I’m waiting for someone to take a bite out of my neck/I have become a nervous wreck/The furniture is made of liquorice like the little hairs growing on my arm) but he is at his best when under the employ of touching sentimentality; ‘Red Cloud Road (Part 2),’contains the sweet lyrical gesture of “Face it, if I had an aeroplane I would fly through the sky/I would write your name in mile high letters to better the blue sky with the mention of your presence.”

Final track ‘Like Smoke’ paints a bleak picture of a family funeral and the death of a grandfather but its pretty chorus and tasteful guitar chops make for a strong end to the album. The suggestion that “We will rise above the city like smoke,” is an perhaps an allusion to a destiny we all share and it manages to bring both a maudlin but strangely uplifting conclusion to this 19 song record.

City Forgiveness, while containing some of The Wave Pictures best songs, perhaps suffers from the inexorable challenge for consistency that any double album venture will entail. The nature of any 90 minute album will decree that, particularly in the digital age, listeners will pick and choose their favourite tracks and leave a considerable chunk of the others without attention. The Wave Pictures deserve kudos for trying though and, let’s face it, with The White Album, even popular music’s most prestigious songwriters couldn’t avoid the infernal dilemma of double album ‘patchiness.’

Rating: 7/10

By Scott Hammond

Having previously watched them aboard the good ship Thekla back in 2008, such was the dense compactness of a crowd sprinkled with folks vociferously calling for what was then the recently released single  ‘I Love You Like A Madman,’ I was more than aware of the reality that a cult appreciation of The Wave Pictures existed in Bristol. Marrying Morrissey-esque absurdities and Jeffrey Lewis style quirky confessionals with catchy indie pop melodies, frontman David Tattersall has written a unique body of songs that perhaps are more deserving than their meagre placing within the realm of ‘cult’ followings.

The Wave Pictures’ David Tattersall

So, five years later, it is no surprise to see The Louisiana crowd steadily swelling to capacity as the Leicestershire  trio take to the stage. ‘Lisbon,’ a new song from their forthcoming album ‘City Forgiveness,’ kicks things off and its bluesy drum and bass groove forms a foundation on which Tattersall can showcase his adept lead guitar skills. ‘Sea Gulls’ and ‘Spaghetti,’ both from 2012s Long Black Cars and each containing  3 way vocals, are met by the audience with the enthusiasm of old favourites before Tattersall then introduces the band’s “secret weapon.” He jokes that, “Like Phil Collins, Karen Carpenter and that bloke from The Eagles,” The Wave Pictures also have a singing drummer. Jonny Helm then takes leave of his kit to stand centre stage in order to deliver, and then amusingly on a high note at one of the song’s choruses fail to deliver, the vocal to ‘Sleepy Eye.’

In his jokey reminiscences as to the absurdity of some of his early song titles (I Live For My Cheese Dreams, I Bit My Own Foot On The Way To The Land of Teeth), and his appreciation of the “Sensitive lighting man” who instantly dimmed the Louisiana lights upon introduction to ballad ‘New Skin,’ Tattersall is naturally funny and a charming companion throughout. In introducing new track ‘Before This Day,’ he tells the story of his first memory after moving house at the age of 4 and, around this period, of being first acquainted with bassist Franic Rozycki. The gorgeous melodic bounce of a Graceland-era Paul Simon style guitar riff then heralds in a beautifully wistful ode to childhood. Containing Alan Bennett-esque minutiae (“Mum steadies the ladder with a slippered foot”) and Tattersall’s very first memory of running “through grass that has grown high above my head,” it is an absorbing image of vicarious nostalgia and certainly the best received of the new songs.

The Wave Pictures are not all about Tattersall, of course. “Give Me a Second Chance” sees Helm take up lead vocal duties again while also providing some spirited backing vocals to the attractively jaunty three chord shuffle of new song ‘Missoula.’ ‘Little Surprise’ features a duel guitar and bass solo during which Rozycki spars proficiently with Tattersall at the lower and upper ends of his bass guitar. Eschewing his drum stool once more, Helm stands at the mic to perform ‘Now That You Are Pregnant’ and lines such as “I don’t need therapy because I’ve got cigarettes” produce a laugh from the crowd and reveal the idiosyncratic humour behind some of the band’s lyrics.

New track ‘The Ropes,’ with its menacing blues intro is far less quaint but, with the lyrics “I rummage in the door light with the other young Baboons,” linguistic quirkiness is never far away. While another new song that feels like a blues jam on which Tattersall can pepper his pentatonic noodlings, it is with the more familiar melodic, strummed indie of “Leave That Scene Behind” that The Wave Pictures are at their best. A further example of this is when the band return to the stage to perform an encore with “Stay Here and Take Care of The Chickens.” Featuring crowd participation of the backing vocal “Stay Here” at the song’s close, it is an indication of the easy bonhomie that has existed between band and audience all evening.

Compared to all the famous bands that have graced The Louisiana in their incipient stages (The Libertines played here in 2002, The Strokes in 2001 to name just two) a group like The Wave Pictures will clearly not be well remembered. However, after a fun hour of great songs, accomplished musicianship and affable charisma, it is a reminder of how great talent often exists away from the limelight and instead dwells somewhere within the shadows. And in the affections of a knowing few.

 Words by Scott Hammond, picture by Conal Dougan.

The Wave Pictures have been playing and performing together for over a decade and it shows. Led by frontman David Tattersall, the band’s relaxed demeanour oozes skill and I can’t help but wonder why they haven’t made the big time yet.

After a slightly puzzling tussle with The Wave Pictures’ PR agency in trying to arrange getting to the gig, the band’s bassist Franic Rozycki ended up doing their job for them and sorted our guest list place himself.

The Wave Pictures

For this latest gig they’d opted for the ramshackle Cable Street Studios in London’s trendy east end where the band introduced material from their forthcoming double album as well as playing older classics.

The former Victorian sweet factory that now is Cable Street Studios has been remoulded into a charming, gritty and romantic performance area, which reflects the style of the band.

The intimate venue allowed fans to get right up close to the boys and see them work their magic, with David Tattersall chatting to the audience between songs. Such was the ease of the front man to engage his audience and hand out witty retorts, you’d be forgiven for mistaking their gig for a comedy night at points.

However, it’s the bands musical talent that really moved the audience. Their refreshingly creative song writing offers a catchy alternative sound, their performance effortlessly moving between foot-tapping upbeat guitar-lead songs and slower hauntingly beautiful melodies that leave you wanting to weep and wonder what experiences could have led to such writing.

A few tracks on the new album, which the band is considering calling City Forgiveness seemed to feel a touch rockier than some of their previous work.

The new double album launches in the autumn and will be their eighth. I’ve no doubt it will grow their small but almost cult following (one woman I spoke to had been to 15 of their gigs) and hope it will bring to The Wave Pictures the true acclaim they deserve. Tour dates for April will soon be confirmed.

by Sarah Robertson