Tattersall's naturally flourishing linguistic ability, paired with his guitar licks slicker than water off a well-oiled duck's back, renders him a rather peculiar, if truly special great British talent, a modern-day wordsmith of a classically poetic persuasion in beige slacks and nondescript 'Brazil' tee. Bafflingly however, the trio that also comprises bass solo enthusiast Franic Rozycki and stumbling, mumbling drummer Jonny Helm seem predestined to an eternal existence in the back rooms of pubs, bars, and similarly insalubrious situations, left to noodle away on Squier Telecasters atop the sort of perpetual hum of nattering that tonight crawls in from the rear of the room.
Setlist-wise, My Head Gets Screwed On Tighter Every Year pertains to their typically wry humour ("My heart bounced round like a basketball in a gym" a remarkable lyrical spin) and is perpetuated by a blues solo smoother than melted caramel oozing about on marble tabletop, while Eskimo Kiss (a name that may or may not be altered following the discovery that Brighton's perennially abysmal The Kooks christened one of theirs with the very same title) is a somewhat more spunky punk number and befits the sweat-drenched cesspit that the room promptly becomes. The crooked bluegrass slant of Little Surprise is engaging as ever, although it's Spaghetti that provides perhaps the night's most startling moment, "Wild hair tumbling from the centre of your skull like spaghetti / I knew then that you'd never forget me" one of Tattersall's more memorable couplets of recent times. Drummer Jonny Helm warbles of Johnny Cash on Now You Are Pregnant, ahead of a rousing a capella rendition of Strawberry Cables before Helm returns to the fore for the consistently heartstring-yanking Sleepy Eye. Despite fervent heckling for Instant Coffee Baby highlight I Love You Like A Madman, it's duly neglected, although it remains absurd not to adore them so: Tattersall scales his fretboard like an ambitious mountain clamberer on closer Canary Wharf, before slipping all the way back down it like said adventurer bottling it and clattering down the prickly face of a shingly scree and while he may profess to have "made myself a drama out of absolutely nothing", while not particularly dramatic theirs is a show that is both riveting and scintillating throughout, once again setting the trio apart as more than mere nothings.
