The Wedding Present
are a British indie rock group based in Leeds, England, formed in 1985 from the ashes of the Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four.
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THE WEDDING PRESENT TICKETS
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History
Early stages and the Reception era (1985-1989)
The Lost Pandas fell apart in 1984 when singer
David Gedge's then girlfriend Janet Rigby, the drummer for the band, left him for guitarist Michael Duane. Gedge and the Pandas' bass player,
Keith Gregory, decided to continue the band, renaming it The Wedding Present. Gedge had wanted to use the name "The Wedding Present" for some time, but had been afraid of the perceived similarity with the name of one of his favourite bands,
The Birthday Party. By the time the Lost Pandas broke up, however, The Birthday Party had also split up, and Gedge felt free to name his new band The Wedding Present.
“
| I’ve always thought that The Wedding Present was an inappropriate name for a pop music
| ”
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Gedge and Gregory recruited an old schoolmate of Gedge's,
Peter Solowka, to play guitar and auditioned a string of drummers, including
John Ramsden, and
Mike Bedford, with whom they recorded a
demo tape, before settling on
Shaun Charman. The country's clubs and bars were toured as the band prepared for the recording of their first, self-financed
single. "Go Out and Get ’Em, Boy!" was chosen over early favourite "Will You Be Up There?". Charman felt somewhat insecure about his drumming abilities and so the
A-side features drumming by hired hand
Julian Sowa (Charman does, however, play drums on its
B-side). The single was released on the band's own
Reception Records label with distribution through
Red Rhino.
Two more singles followed that did well on the independent charts helped by veteran
BBC radio DJ John Peel who was one of their first champions. He invited them to do a radio session (three songs from the session are included on the 1988
compilation Tommy 1985-1987
; the entire session had already been released as an
EP in 1986), starting a long collaboration. By the time the band started work on their debut album, a number of independent and major
record companies showed interest, but the band declined all offers and decided to keep releasing their material themselves. The album was released in 1987 and titled
George Best
after the well-known
Northern Irish football player. Disagreement on production values with the record's
producer,
Chris Allison, led to the album being remixed by the band and their
engineer,
Steve Lyon.
Upon its release, the album was critically acclaimed and the band were soon classified, with some of their peers, as members of the '
shambling' or
C86 scene, a categorisation that they vehemently declined (although they were featured on the original C86 compilation). Musically, the album featured fast-paced rhythm guitar; lyrically, apart from a few excursions into social critique ("All This and More") and politics ("All About Eve"), Gedge's main concerns (which would become his trademark) were
love, lust, heartbreak and revenge. Soon after the release of
George Best
, the early singles and radio sessions were compiled and released as
Tommy (1985-1987)
. When Solowka, who has
Ukrainian roots, started fooling around with a Ukrainian folk tune during one of their Peel sessions, the idea arose to devote some of their radio time to recording their versions of Ukrainian folk songs, encouraged by Peel. To this end, two guest musicians were invited,
singer/
violin player
Len Liggins and
mandolin player
Roman Remeynes, and three Peel sessions were recorded with Gedge temporarily limiting himself to playing
rhythm guitar and arranging the songs.
Between the recording of the first and the second 'Ukrainian' session, Charman was fired from the band. His replacement was
Simon Smith, who remained the band's drummer until 1997 and for a long time was, next to Gedge, the only other stable factor in the shifting line-ups. The band planned on releasing eight cuts from the Ukrainian sessions on a 10"
LP and an initial batch was pressed when Red Rhino went into
receivership. Rather than trying to find a new distribution company, the band decided to fold their Reception label altogether and sign with a regular
record company:
RCA.
The RCA era (1989-1993)
Although the band were criticized by some quarters for 'selling out', under the terms of their contract they were allowed their own choice of producer and singles. They also had the option of releasing any singles rejected by the label independently without breach of contract. The band's new record company bought the initial Reception stock of the Ukrainian record from the band, pressed another batch, and released the record in April 1989 under the name of
?????????? ??????? ? ????? ????
(meaning 'Ukrainian John Peel Sessions'; the Latin
transliteration Ukraïnski Vistupi v Ivana Peela
appeared on the sleeve's spine only).
The first proper album that The Wedding Present recorded for their new label was released in the same year 1989 and reunited them with Allison.
Bizarro
’s lyrical themes were largely the same as before and the songs featured the same
three-chord structures, but its production values had increased due to a larger recording budget. The album's companion single, "Kennedy", provided the band with their first British
Top 40 hit. Seeing that they were growing more popular in the American college radio scene, the band turned towards America for their next project. The band decided to re-record
Bizarro
track "Brassneck" with the former
Big Black frontman
Steve Albini. It was the start of a two-year collaboration: the next single, "Corduroy" and album,
Seamonsters
, were also recorded by Albini at
Pachyderm Recording Studio in Cannon Falls, MN.
Melody Maker
likened listening to the record to sandpapering your ears. End of year readers polls, however, showed the opening track and lead single of the album, "Dalliance", amongst the top of the favourites list. Almost directly after recording the album, the band announced that they had sacked Solowka. His replacement was
Paul Dorrington of local band,
Tse Tse Fly (also formerly of
A.C. Temple). Solowka teamed up again with Liggins and Remeynes to form
The Ukrainians.
The next year saw the band release twelve 7" singles in one year. Each single had a limited pressing of 10,000 copies which all reached the Top 30 in the U.K. chart, equalling
Elvis Presley's record for the most U.K. Top 30 hits in one year. To economise on songwriting, the
B-sides consisted of cover versions of songs including
Julee Cruise's "Falling" (the theme tune from
Twin Peaks). The singles and their B-sides, produced by various producers such as
Ian Broudie (
Lightning Seeds) and
Jimmy Miller (
The Rolling Stones) were collected on two albums,
Hit Parade 1
and
Hit Parade 2
.
Seamonsters
,
Hit Parade 1
and
Hit Parade 2
were released in the
United States in 1991 and 1992 by New York based pseudo-indie label First Warning Records. Shortly after the 1992 singles scheme had ended, the band announced they were leaving RCA.
The Island era (1994-1995)
The band spent most of 1993 taking time off, occasionally playing gigs. A stopgap compilation of three more archive radio sessions,
Peel Sessions 1987-1990
, was released by
Strange Fruit. When they re-emerged in early 1994 with the news that they had signed to
Island Records, it was quickly followed by the announcement that Gregory had left the band, due to lack of enthusiasm, and was replaced by
Darren Belk. For their next album, The Wedding Present again left for the States and enlisted
Steve Fisk (
Screaming Trees,
Nirvana). The result was
Watusi
. The album's songs ranged from warm lo-fi pop ("Gazebo", "Big Rat") to semi-
psychedelic,
Velvets-like workouts ("Click Click", "Catwoman").
No further albums were recorded for Island, and the best part of 1995 was spent the same way as 1993: touring, writing new material, no recording. Paul Dorrington decided to quit the band; no replacement was made as Belk moved up from bass to guitar. In the autumn of 1995, The Wedding Present released "Sucker", a self-financed, no-label single that was sold at their gigs only (it has since been included on the international editions of their next album). Shortly after, the band signed with independent label
Cooking Vinyl.
The Cooking Vinyl era (1995-1997/99)
The band, still a three-piece, recorded their newly written material and issued the
car-themed six-track mini-album,
Mini
. Belk played both guitar and bass on the songs but struggled at the lead instrument. Shortly after releasing the album,
Jayne Lockey, who had already sung backing vocals on
Mini
, was announced as the band's new bass player. Belk decided to quit the band and was replaced by
Simon Cleave. Both Lockey and Cleave were former members of Tse Tse Fly, along with Paul Dorrington.
The band still had material from their sabbatical year and went into the studio again to record
Saturnalia
. This proved to be the last new material by The Wedding Present for a long time. After playing a number of gigs to support the album, the last one in
Liverpool on 18 January 1997, the band took a long sabbatical.
Contractual obligations and Cinerama (1997-2004)
To fulfill contractual obligations, two more compilations were released by Cooking Vinyl: another Peel sessions volume,
John Peel Sessions 1992-1995
(1998), and
Singles 1995-1997
(1999). Additionally, Strange Fruit offered another radio sessions compilation,
Evening Sessions 1986-1994
(1997), and the band's American label released
Singles 1989-1991
(1999), a 2CD package which added rarities and live tracks. Gedge recorded an album,
Va Va Voom
, in 1998 under the
Cinerama band name with his girlfriend, Sally Murrell, and some session musicians. The project became a full-time band.
Reformation (2004-present)
News came in early September 2004 that Cinerama would be rebranded as The Wedding Present. The line-up was to be the same as the last line-up of Cinerama, which included Simon Cleave. The first new single, "
Interstate 5," was issued on 15 November 15 2004, to lead off the new album,
Take Fountain
, which was released on 14 February 2005. A second single, "
I'm From Further North Than You," was released on 11 April 2005. Third and final single "
Ringway to SeaTac" was released on 24 October 2005.
All singles, their B-sides and acoustic versions from this period were compiled on the 2006 compilation
Search for Paradise: Singles 2004-5
. The release came with a bonus DVD compiling the videos for "Don't Touch That Dial" (a Cinerama single re-recorded for
Take Fountain
), "Interstate 5," "I'm From Further North Than You," "Ringway to SeaTac" and others.
The Wedding Present toured
Europe and
North America in the Spring of 2005 (with John Maiden on drums) and again in Europe towards the end of 2005 (this time, with Simon Pearson on drums). During Christmas 2006, guitarist Simon Cleave left the group and was replaced by the group's sound engineer Chris McConville - who played on the 2006 tours of North America (with Charlie Layton on drums) and Europe (with Graeme Ramsay on drums).
Since then, the line-up has remained stable with Gedge, De Castro, McConville, and Ramsay co-writing. They recorded 17 songs with
Steve Albini in January 2008, some of which have been played live at gigs in recent years. Titles include "I've Lost the Monkey," "Soup," "Drink You Eat You," "Model, Actress, Whatever...," "The Thing I Like Most About Him Is His Girlfriend," "Twenty Jackies," "Swingers," "Peek-a-boo," "Hulk Loves Betty," "Boo Boo," "Palisades," "Santa Ana Winds," "Pinch Pull Twist Release," "The Trouble With Men," "Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk" and "Spider-Man in Hollywood."
The band's new album
El Rey
was released on 20 May 2008 in
North America and 26 May 2008 in
Europe, accompanied by the
digital download-only single "The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend." A compilation of singles and remixes
How The West Was Won
was released towards the end of 2008 and accompanied by a single "Holly Jolly Hollywood". The Wedding Present also covered
The Cure's "High" for
American Laundromat Records tribute "Just Like Heaven - a tribute to The Cure".
Some months before a short tour of the UK and Japan in March 2009, Chris McConville left the band and was replaced by former guitarist Simon Cleave.
Personnel
David Gedge
: vocals, guitar (1985-present)
Keith Gregory: bass (1985-1993)
Peter Solowka: guitar (1985-1991)
Shaun Charman: drums, vocals (1985-1988)
Simon Smith: drums (1988-1997)
Pete Dorrington: guitar (1991-1995)
Darren Belk: bass, vocals (1993-1995), guitar (1995-1996)
Jayne Lockey: bass, vocals (1995-1997)
Simon Cleave
: guitar (1996-2006, 2009-present)
Terry de Castro
: bass, vocals (2004-present)
Kari Paavola: drums (2004-2005)
Graeme Ramsay
: drums (2006-present)
Christopher McConville: guitar (2006-2009)
Discography
Key to personnel: Because there have been a number of personnel changes over the years, a key has been appended to each entry to indicate which line-up was involved. Album compilations may, of course, feature multiple line-ups.
UK singles
- "Go Out and Get ’Em, Boy!" (Reception 1985/City Slang [reissue] 1985) GSGC
- "Once More" (Reception 1986) GSGC
- "Don't Try and Stop Me Mother" 12" (Reception 1986) GSGC
- "You Should Always Keep in Touch with Your Friends" / "This Boy Can Wait" (double A-side, Reception 1986) GSGC
- The Peel Sessions
EP (Strange Fruit 1986) GSGC
- "My Favourite Dress" (Reception 1987) GSGC
- "Anyone Can Make a Mistake" (Reception 1987) GSGC
- "Nobody's Twisting Your Arm" (Reception 1988) GSGC UK #46
- "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?" (Reception 1988) GSGS UK 42
- "????? ????" (promo, Reception 1988/RCA 1989) GSGS
- "Kennedy" (RCA 1989) GSGS UK #33
- "Brassneck" (RCA 1990) GSGS UK #24
- 3 Songs
EP (RCA 1990) GSGS UK #25
- "Dalliance" (RCA 1991) GSGS UK #29
- "Lovenest" (RCA 1991) GSGS UK #58
- "Blue Eyes" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #26
- "Go-Go Dancer" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #20
- "Three" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #14
- "Silver Shorts"2 (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #14
- "Come Play with Me" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #10
- "California" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #16
- "Flying Saucer" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #22
- "Boing!" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #19
- "Love Slave" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #17
- "Sticky" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #17
- "The Queen of Outer Space" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #23
- "No Christmas" (RCA 1992) GDGS UK #25
- "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" (Island 1994) GDBS UK #51
- "It's a Gas" (Island 1994) GDBS UK #71
- "Sucker" (no label 1995) GBS
- "2, 3, Go" (Cooking Vinyl 1996) GCLS UK #67
- "Montreal" (Cooking Vinyl 1997) GCLS UK #40
- "Interstate 5" (Scopitones 2004) GCCP UK #62
- "I'm From Further North Than You" (Scopitones 2005) GCCP UK #34
- "Ringway to SeaTac" (Scopitones 2005) GCCP
- "The Thing I Like Best about Him is His Girlfriend" (Vibrant 2008) GDMR
- "Holly Jolly Hollywood" (Vibrant 2008) GDMR
[2]
Studio albums
- George Best
(Reception 1987) GSGC UK #47
- Bizarro
(RCA 1989) GSGS UK #22
- Seamonsters
(RCA 1991) GSGS UK #13
- Watusi
(Island 1994) GDBS UK #47
- Mini
(Cooking Vinyl 1995) GBS UK #40
- Saturnalia
(Cooking Vinyl 1996) GCLS UK #36
- Take Fountain
(Scopitones February 2005) GCCP UK #68
- El Rey
(Vibrant May 2008) GDMR
Compilation albums
- Tommy (1985-1987)
(compilation, Reception 1988) GSGC UK #42
- ?????????? ??????? ? ????? ????
(compilation, RCA 1989) GSGC/GSGS UK #22
- Hit Parade 1
(compilation, RCA 1992) GDGS UK #22
- Hit Parade 2
(compilation, RCA 1993) GDGS UK #19
- John Peel Sessions 1987-1990
(compilation, Strange Fruit 1993) GSGC/GSGS
- Evening Sessions 1986-1994
(compilation, Strange Fruit 1997) GSGC/GDBS
- John Peel Sessions 1992-1995
(compilation, Cooking Vinyl 1998) GDBS/GBS
- Singles 1989-1991
(2CD compilation, Manifesto 1999) GSGS
- Singles 1995-1997
(compilation, Cooking Vinyl 1999) GBS/GCLS
- The Hit Parade
(2CD compilation, Camden Deluxe 2003) GDGS
- Search for Paradise: Singles 2004-5
(Scopitones 2006) GCCP
- The Complete Peel Sessions 1986-2004
(6CD Box Set, Sanctuary 2007) GSGC/GSGS/GDGS/GDBS/GCLS/GCCP
- Live 1987
(2CD compilation, Scopitones 2007) GSGC
- Ye Ye (Best Of The RCA Years)
(compilation, Sony-BMG Camden 2007) GSGS/GDGS
- Shepherd's Bush Welcomes the Wedding Present
(live album, Dreamcatcher 2008) GCCP
- How The West Was Won
(4EP Box Set, Vibrant 2008) GDMR
Video/DVDs
- *(S)punk
(BMG-1990)
- Dick York's Wardrobe: The Hit Parade Videos
(BMG - 1993)
- Search For Paradise: Singles 2004-5
[comes with a bonus DVD] (Scopitones-2006)
- An Evening With The Wedding Present
(Secret Films-2008)
References
- David Gedge quoted from the Wedding Present FAQ.
- British Hit Singles & Albums