Blue Plate Special: This Picture
This Picture emerged from England’s Bath–Cheltenham corridor at the very end of the ’80s, a moment when alternative rock was still wide-open and hungry for big, emotional guitar bands. Fronted by the magnetic Symon Bye and powered by the muscular rhythm section of Duncan Forrester and Austen Rowley, with Robert Forrester’s chiming guitars providing lift and atmosphere, the band quickly gained a reputation for songs that blended poetic melancholy with stadium-sized hooks. Their 1989 EP Naked Rain put them on the map, especially the title track, a slow-burning anthem that exploded into one of the most memorable British alternative singles of its era.
That promise fully crystallized with their 1991 debut album A Violent Impression, produced by Kevin Moloney and released in the U.S. by RCA and in the U.K. by Dedicated Records. When the re-recorded “Naked Rain” hit American modern rock radio, listeners famously mistook it for a new U2 song, flooding request lines and pushing the track into the Top 10 just as MTV’s 120 Minutes gave it heavy rotation. It was a final flash of soaring, new-wave-inspired guitar pop before grunge detonated across the airwaves; by the time the exhilarating follow-up single “Breathe Deeply Now” arrived, Nirvana and Pearl Jam had already rewritten the rules, leaving This Picture caught in a shifting musical climate they never quite escaped.
The band returned in 1994 with a darker, more troubled sophomore album, City of Sin, but by then Britpop and American alternative had both moved on, and This Picture quietly dissolved the following year. While the members went their separate ways, with Bye briefly resurfacing with new projects and film music, the band’s legacy settled into cult status, anchored by the enduring power of “Naked Rain.” Today, This Picture remains one of alternative rock’s great almost-stories: a group that captured lightning in a bottle at exactly the wrong moment, leaving behind a small but fiercely loved body of work that still resonates with fans who stumble upon it and wonder how something so good could ever have slipped through the cracks.
Some of my favorites from their catalog:
Naked Rain – from the EP Naked Rain (1989)
Highrise – from the album City of Sin (1994)
The Great Tree – from the album A Violent Impression (1991)
As Deep As This One (Live) – from the album A Violent Impression (1991)
Heart of Another Man – from the album City of Sin (1994)
Breathe Deeply Now – from the album A Violent Impression (1991)
Hands on My Soul – from the album City of Sin (1994)
