Cold Chisel Album Cover: The Last Wave of Summer

Album cover for Cold Chisel's 1998 reunion album The Last Wave of Summer. The cover art was shot by Sydney photographer Adrienne Overall outside a service station in Wyong on the central coast of New South Wales. 

The image references the famous painting Nighthawks (1942) by American artist Edward Hopper. In a similar mood to the painting, the five members of the band seem exhausted and trapped by their nondescript surroundings. Is it daybreak or sunset? Only the harsh artificial light illuminates them. Presumably they are on tour and this location is a place for them to refuel, literally and figuratively.

Despite the album's title there are no 'waves' and no evidence of summer in the photo. But the service station location is a good updating of the 1940s American diner in Hopper's painting and is the kind of location familiar to Chisel's working-class audience. It is also a memorable and eye-catching image for an album cover because of its surreal edge and not least because it is so beautifully shot.