THE WAVE PICTURES + B. SPANKS – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 30.4.23
The Wave Pictures are twenty-five years into their career, have released nineteen albums, and yet remain one of the best kept musical secrets in the UK. Indeed, they have taken the concept of having a cult following to a whole new level. Tonight’s show was postponed around a month ago after one of the band injured himself. The atmosphere of anticipation within this small but perfectly formed venue is palpable.
Support tonight at The Con Club in Lewes comes from B. Spanks. I am assured that this is purely his stage name. B is a solo performer who sings and plays guitar, and is accompanied by a backing track consisting of bass, drums and one-finger keyboard melodies which he recorded himself. There are also other sound effects on the backing track, including what sounds like a roaring lion. I presume that he didn’t record that himself.
B entertains us with some energetic late 1970s new wave inspired material. The songs are short and sharp. B is clearly an expert in concision. He treats us to some nice economical lead guitar playing. B is no one-trick pony however: there are elements of pop classicism on display too. Indeed, every song is a memorable earworm. An artist who deserves further investigation methinks.
The Wave Pictures take the stage on the dot at 9pm. For those who don’t know, the band comprises David Tattersall on vocals and guitar, Franic Rozycki on bass, and Jonny Helm (later introduced by David as “Jonny Huddersfield”) on drums and vocals. Jonny is from Yorkshire. David and Franic come from Wymeswold in Leicestershire, and have been friends since they were four. Which is nice.
They open with ‘Hazel Irvine’ from their most recent album ‘When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings’. They apologise for previously postponing tonight’s show, and tell us that they’re not in the least bit sorry to be missing the snooker on TV tonight. This is clearly a big fat lie. Indeed, when I chat to them later it transpires that they are pretty passionate about snooker.
Early in the set we get a bass solo. It won’t be the last one of the evening. It turns out that Franic is a bit good. In fact as a whole the band are pretty hot instrumentalists. David Tattersall’s guitar sound is clean, but his soloing is absolutely biting. He uses no pedals, and changes his guitar sound purely by using the controls on his guitar. A lot of his soloing is really fast. This man could shred if he wanted to. However, the solos he produces are rather better than that. Jonny doesn’t get a drum solo, but he sings whilst playing. Technically that’s doing five things at once, and my wife says that men can’t multitask!
David tells us that Jonny has proven that the venue isn’t drummer proof, having hit his head twice on the low dressing room door. In order to check that he hasn’t caused himself too much damage, they play ‘Jennifer’ from the current album, which Jonny sings. He performs this task with aplomb, so clearly he’s okay! The song has a lovely descending guitar solo, which has a Spanish or Greek feel.
They play the title song of ‘When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings’, which oddly reminds me of XTC, which is certainly no bad thing. This is followed by a song that David tells us is called ‘Frogs Sing Loudly In The Ditches’. He’s got to be winding us up right? Wrong. It’s from the album ‘Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon’, and it’s really good too!
One thing that’s good to know about The Wave Pictures is that they never play with a set list. After the show, David tells me that the reason for this is that they have such a huge back catalogue, it’s almost impossible to decide what to leave out, let alone what to include. Therefore, when they ask the audience for requests, they’re being deadly serious! The band’s responses to the requests are mostly positive, although one or two are deemed “too difficult”, and some they haven’t played for years and can’t remember. The Wave Pictures’ audience are pretty hardcore, and know all of the obscure stuff. What this means is pretty much every Wave Pictures show is different, so it would actually be worth attending an entire tour! I don’t get commission on ticket sales incidentally.
It seems that every one of their songs has a story of some kind behind it. ‘Atlanta’ from ‘City Forgiveness’ (2013) and sung by Jonny, was written around twenty years ago after they visited the city. David claims that they haven’t been allowed back since! Who knows – he may be telling the truth!!! Let it not be said that The Wave Pictures lack variety either. ‘Sugar’, from ‘Look Inside Your Heart’ (2018) has a country rock feel. The guitar solo is quite mind boggling, as most of David Tattersall’s solos are.
They play a brand new song, which apparently as yet has no title. A wag in the audience suggests “Chicken Soup”, and why not? Just remember that when the song eventually appears on an album, it received its title in Lewes. It has a quite wonderful falling bass line, which develops into a solo until the song fades. A much older song (well, there won’t be any much newer than the one we’ve just heard) is ‘Friday Night In Loughborough’, which may be written from experience. It’s reminiscent of Friday night in pretty much any small town when you’re young, and is well received here. David notes “songs about Loughborough go down well in Lewes”. It has a fab Chuck Berry influenced guitar solo. To show how the songs are open to physical artistic interpretation, bass player Franic runs on the spot during ‘The Running Man’.
As the main set ends I realise that I can’t remember whether The Wave Pictures do encores or not. It turns out that they do, and the first one is probably the closest that they have to a bona fide hit: ‘Spaghetti’ from 2013. That’s followed by ‘Smell The Ocean’, but the star turn is about to follow. Jonny steps from behind his kit to sing a song that may or may not be called ‘Style’.
This is the fourth time that I’ve seen The Wave Pictures, and as on the previous three times that I’ve seen them, the self-same question is bouncing around my head: how is this band not massive??? They’re a great live band, they have great tunes and lots of them, so therefore…… As it stands, twenty-five or so years into their career, they are one of the most underrated, unappreciated and undervalued bands in the UK. Dear readers, please promise me this: that next time they play, you go and see them.
