The Wedding Present

Infobox musical artist
Name = The Wedding Present

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Origin = Leeds, England
Genre = Indie pop, Indie rock
Years_active = 1985–present
Label = Reception , RCA , Island , Cooking Vinyl , Scopitones
Associated_acts = The Ukrainians, Cinerama
URL = [http://www.scopitones.co.uk/ Official site]
Current_members = David Gedge
Chris McConville
Terry de Castro
Graeme Ramsay
Past_members = Peter Solowka
Keith Gregory
Shaun Charman
Simon Smith
Paul Dorrington
Darren Belk
Jayne Lockey
Hugh Kelly
Kari Paavola
Simon Cleave
Simon Pearson

The Wedding Present is a 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.

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.

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 and Russian folk song, 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 "Українські Виступи в Івана Піла" (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, 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 intermezzo (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.

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 January 18, 1997, the band took a long sabbatical.

uspended animation (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. David Gedge recorded an album called "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.

Resurrection (2004-present time)

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 November 15, 2004, to lead off the new album, "Take Fountain", which was released on February 14, 2005. A second single, "I'm From Further North Than You," was released on April 11, 2005. Third and final single "Ringway to SeaTac" was released on October 24, 2005.

All singles, their B-sides and acoustic versions from this period were compiled on the 2006 compilation "". 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 May 20, 2008 in North America and May 26, 2008 in Europe, accompanied by the digital download-only single "The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend."

The Wedding Present also covered The Cure's "High" for American Laundromat Records tribute "Just Like Heaven - a tribute to The Cure".

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 95
# Anyone Can Make a Mistake (Reception 1987) GSGC
# Nobody's Twisting Your Arm (Reception 1988) GSGC 46
# Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? (Reception 1988) GSGS 42
# Давні Часи (promo, Reception 1988/RCA 1989) GSGS
# Kennedy (RCA 1989) GSGS 33
# Brassneck (RCA 1990) GSGS 24
# "3 Songs" EP (RCA 1990) GSGS 25
# Dalliance (RCA 1991) GSGS 29
# Lovenest (RCA 1991) GSGS 58
# Blue Eyes (RCA 1992) GDGS 26
# Go-Go Dancer (RCA 1992) GDGS 20
# Three (RCA 1992) GDGS 14
# Silver Shorts (RCA 1992) GDGS 14
# Come Play with Me (RCA 1992) GDGS 10
# California (RCA 1992) GDGS 16
# Flying Saucer (RCA 1992) GDGS 22
# Boing! (RCA 1992) GDGS 19
# Loveslave (RCA 1992) GDGS 17
# Sticky (RCA 1992) GDGS 17
# The Queen of Outer Space (RCA 1992) GDGS 23
# No Christmas (RCA 1992) GDGS 25
# Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (Island 1994) GDBS 51
# It's a Gas (Island 1994) GDBS 71
# Sucker (no label 1995) GBS
# 2, 3, Go (Cooking Vinyl 1996) GCLS 67
# Montreal (Cooking Vinyl 1997) GCLS 40
# Interstate 5 (Scopitones 2004) GCCP 62
# I'm From Further North Than You (Scopitones 2005) GCCP 34
# Ringway to SeaTac (Scopitones 2005) GCCP 157
# The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend (Vibrant 2008) GDMR

tudio albums

# "George Best" (Reception 1987) GSGC 47
# "Bizarro" (RCA 1989) GSGS 22
# "Seamonsters" (RCA 1991) GSGS 13
# "Watusi" (Island 1994) GDBS 47
# "Mini" (Cooking Vinyl 1995) GBS 40
# "Saturnalia" (Cooking Vinyl 1996) GCLS 36
# "Take Fountain" (Scopitones February 2005) GCCP 68
# "El Rey" (Vibrant May 2008) GDMR

Compilations

# "Tommy (1985-1987)" (compilation, Reception 1988) GSGC 42
# "Українські Виступи в Івана Піла" (compilation, RCA 1989) GSGC/GSGS 22
# "Hit Parade 1" (compilation, RCA 1992) GDGS 22
# "Hit Parade 2" (compilation, RCA 1993) GDGS 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
# "" (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

External links

* [http://www.scopitones.co.uk/ Scopitones] The official home of The Wedding Present and Cinerama
* [http://www.myspace.com/theweddingpresentpeelsessions The Wedding Present Peel Sessions] The official page for the Sanctuary 2007 release of the complete John Peel sessions.
* [http://www.westnet.com/weddoes/ The Wedding Present] American fan page
* [http://www.lostpandas.co.uk/ Lost Pandas] Unofficial forum
* [http://www.phespirit.info/theweddingpresent/ The Wedding Present] Another fan page
* [http://www.somethingandnothing.net/ Something And Nothing] A site started in 2005 to bring together Wedding Present memorobilia and related news and stories. Contains many interviews with (ex-)band members
* [http://www.twpcinerama.com/ TWP-CINERAMA] Another fan site, this one from Japan
* [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=wedding_present Trouser Press entry]
* [http://www.gedgesongs.com/ GedgeSongsDatabase] A resource devoted to the songs of The Wedding Present and Cinerama