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The Wedding Present

Locked Down And Stripped Back Volume Two

     Locked Down And Stripped Back Volume Two features home recordings of Wedding Present classics along with a previously unreleased song: ‘That Would Only Happen In A Movie’.The first volume in the series came about when David Gedge’s annual festival At The Edge Of The Sea went ‘virtual’ in 2020 and the band recorded semi-acoustic versions of songs to be streamed. An album of the tracks was compiled and released due to popular demand. The same thing happened the following year and so Volume Two features tracks initially recorded for 2021’s online festival. There’s a bevy of guest stars on this second album! Jon Stewart [of Platinum-album-selling Sleeper fame] reprises his new role as Wedding Present guitarist but is joined here by some Wedding Present members of old. Peter Solowka, from the band’s first line-up appears on ‘Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm’ playing his second instrument, the accordion, while Hit Parade guitarist Paul Dorrington contributes to a re-working of the Top 30 single ‘Blue Eyes’. Long-time Wedding Present bass player Terry de Castro returns to infuse the album with her own unique style, while current Wedding Present bass player Melanie Howard takes over the lead vocal duties on a beautiful version of 1986’s ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’. Last, but certainly not least, Amelia Fletcher – backing vocalist on George Best and Bizarro – also returns to the party! As on the first volume, each musician recorded and filmed their parts at home and, as before, it is fascinating to see how stripped-back arrangements bring out different aspects of these brilliant songs.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Brassneck
    2. No
    3. Careless
    4. Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm
    5. What Have I Said Now?
    6. Perfect Blue
    7. Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
    8. That Would Only Happen In A Movie
    9. At The Edge Of The Sea
    10. Blue Eyes
    11. Dare
    12. Octopussy

    The Wedding Present

    Live 2012: Seamonsters Played Live In Manchester

      The Wedding Present, recorded and filmed at the Ritz, Manchester, on 9 November 2012. This double disc release includes both a CD and a DVD of the concert. Following the release of Seamonsters in 1991 the Guardian newspaper noted that: “Engineer Steve Albini has given The Wedding Present considerable weight, with Gedge’s voice trickling between banks of scowling guitars” and went on to feature the LP in its list of ‘1,000 albums to hear before you die’. Despite its uncompromising sound the album reached No. 13 in the British album charts and has been hailed as a classic.

      TRACK LISTING

      01. End Credits
      02. Sports Car*
      03. The Girl From The Ddr
      04. You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
      05. My Favourite Dress
      06. Don't Touch That Dial*
      07. Deer Caught In The Headlights
      08. Dalliance
      09. Dare
      10. Suck
      11. Blonde
      12. Rotterdam
      13. Lovenest
      14. Corduroy
      15. Carolyn
      16. Heather
      17. Octopussy
      18. Click Click
      19. What Have I Said Now? *DVD ONLY

      The Wedding Present

      Live 2010: Bizarro Played Live In Germany

        The Wedding Present, recorded and filmed at the Atomic Café, Munich, on 24 October 2010. This double disc release includes both a CD and a DVD of the concert. Of the original Bizarro release, Allmusic says: The Wedding Present's second proper studio album, Bizarro, cut down a bit on the frenetic jangle the band was known for in its early days and replaced it with healthy doses of darkness and power. Adding some fuzzy, crunchy distortion to give the guitars some hefty impact, slowing the tempos down to speeds that allow vocalist David Gedge to squeeze more heartbroken despair and bleak sarcasm out of every line, and generally upping their game in every way, the album was the fullest realization of The Wedding Present's sound yet. Leading off with the unstoppably hooky ‘Brassneck’ which features a brilliant Gedge reading of lines that rhyme "grow up" and "throw up," the album plays like a collection of thematically related singles.

        The most single-y among them is ‘Kennedy’ which has some brilliant sing-along lyrics and an intensely dramatic guitar strum buildup that crescendos into a maelstrom of sound. The rest of the record isn't far behind; whether it's the sparse ‘What Have I Said Now?’ or the slowly grinding ‘Bewitched’ one could extract any song and it would feel like a highlight - even the epic-length ‘Take Me!’ which closes the album in a fury of strums, drum fills, and chugging bass that builds and builds until it seems like the song is going to levitate and take the listener right along with it. The Wedding Present didn't necessarily need to improve their already winning template, but they did and it pays off big time on Bizarro

        TRACK LISTING

        01. Heather
        02. What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
        03. Interstate 5 [Dvd Only]
        04. End Credits
        05. Real Thing
        06. Mystery Date
        07. Brassneck
        08. Crushed
        09. No
        10. Thanks
        11. Kennedy
        12. What Have I Said Now?
        13. Granadaland
        14. Bewitched
        15. Take Me!
        16. Be Honest.

        April, 1985. At the very moment when the first few notes of ‘Go Out And Get ’Em, Boy!’ twinkle out of BBC Radio 1’s John Peel show to herald the birth of The Wedding Present, David Gedge is listening intently at home along with the population of late teens that would become his ardent fans. In the beginning, The Wedding Present were resolutely not an album band. In fact, David had often been quoted as saying that they would never release an LP. Pleased to have recorded and released that debut single... they just started on the next one. This continued for a couple of years, while the band went from organising their own concerts in pubs around Leeds to playing at Glastonbury Festival. That all changed, of course, when George Best became The Wedding Present’s first album in 1988. But Tommy – released one year later – was made up of the early songs from the singles and radio sessions that had catapulted them from being bedsit musicians into indie darlings: ‘Go Out And Get ’Em, Boy!’ with its purposefully super fast guitars, ‘You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends’ – an anthem for those long time Wedding Present fans, ‘My Favourite Dress’ – the only single in the collection that ended up on George Best – the classic, fraught tale of losing one’s first love that perfectly played on the heart strings and began David Gedge’s legacy of understanding everyone’s heartbreak.

        Tommy 30 – a brand new re-recording of Tommy – did not come about simply as a ‘follow on’ to George Best 30. The band felt – during a Tommy 30th anniversary concert tour – that the songs had grown and evolved. Enter a more confident vocalist... an altogether growlier guitar. A bigger sound. The urgency of a 25 year old Gedge is replaced with a charming vocalist with years of experience. Everything’s warmer and, maybe, gentler... but in a satisfying way. It’s like your old friends have come home to see you. You’ve all changed, you’ve all had broken hearts... but you’re all still friends and you still enjoy each other’s company after all these years. "The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the 'Rock 'n' Roll' era. You may dispute this but I'm right and you're wrong!" - John Peel 

        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: There's no denying that the Wedding Present are one of the most respected and long-running bastions in indie music, and 'Tommy' was seen by many as their finest point. This 30 year reissue (30!?) is just as essential as the day it came out, and comes in a lovely indies-only blue vinyl version to brighten up the place too. Get on it.

        TRACK LISTING

        1/Go Out And Get ’Em, Boy!
        2/(The Moment Before) Everything’s Spoiled Again
        3/Once More
        4/At The Edge Of The Sea
        5/Living And Learning
        6/This Boy Can Wait
        7/You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
        8/Felicity
        9/What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?
        10/Never Said
        11/Every Mother’s Son
        12/My Favourite Dress 

        The Wedding Present

        EP 4 Cân - Clear Vinyl Edition

          THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

          The Wedding Present’s 'Record Store Day' releases seem to have become something of a little obsession for David Gedge. The yearly 10” EPs make him little profit; he just gets the satisfaction of singing and recording in other languages… and producing Extremely collectable records. In 2012 he tried his tongue at French and 2013 brought us his Teutonic warblings. This year, he’s really gone all out… this 10” vinyl only release has been sung in Welsh! A big fan of Wales and the Welsh in general, David doesn’t actually speak the language, but this didn’t stop him. He called in renowned Welsh actor, Andrew Teilo, who translated and created demos of four existing Wedding Present songs. David then travelled to Penarth where he and Andrew recorded the vocals with some recording expertise from Arwyn Davies. They kept the Welshness going with a little help from Andrew's fellow actor, Llinor ap Gwynedd, on backing vocals. The songs [recorded in the same session as the recent album, ‘Valentina’] are different from the songs on the other two ‘language’ EPs from Record Store Days past… and include the charming ‘Valentina’ album track ‘Meet Cute’. There were a few little hiccoughs during the translation from English into Welsh… the first song, 1000 Fahrenheit, had to be translated into Welsh as 10,000 (Deng Mil) Fahrenheit... not because there is no word for 1000, but apparently it just sounded better! Perhaps the songs all sound better in Welsh! All Welsh album next time Mr. Gedge?! The band will be promoting the release of ‘EP 4 Cân’ with a performance at the 'Wales Goes Pop’ festival in Cardiff during the evening of April 19 following an acoustic set at Spiller’s Records during the afternoon.

          TRACK LISTING

          Side A
          1. 1000 Fahrenheit [Welsh Version]
          2. Meet Cute [Welsh Version]

          Side B
          1. Journey Into Space [Welsh Version]
          2. Can You Keep A Secret? [Welsh Version]


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