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» Add News | The Wedding Present
"The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock ânâ Roll Era. You may dispute this, but Iâm right and youâre wrong!â John Peel.The Wedding Present have had eighteen UK Top 40 hit singles⌠not bad for a band that has, from its inception, stubbornly refused to play the record industryâs game. In 1985 David Lewis Gedge boarded a National Express coach in London with 500 records packed into a pair of his motherâs suitcases and, in this fashion, the bandâs debut single GO OUT AND GET âEM BOY! was deliveredto the distribution company, and The Wedding Present wa ...read more
"The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock ânâ Roll Era. You may dispute this, but Iâm right and youâre wrong!â John Peel.The Wedding Present have had eighteen UK Top 40 hit singles⌠not bad for a band that has, from its inception, stubbornly refused to play the record industryâs game. In 1985 David Lewis Gedge boarded a National Express coach in London with 500 records packed into a pair of his motherâs suitcases and, in this fashion, the bandâs debut single GO OUT AND GET âEM BOY! was deliveredto the distribution company, and The Wedding Present was born. That pioneering spirit has been at the core of the bandâs philosophy ever since. From GEORGE BEST, âan unmitigated delightâ [NME], the first full-length release on their own Reception Records onwards, the band has charted an appealing, if often eccentric, course of its very own.With their early releases The Wedding Present had acquired a reputation for bittersweet, breathtakingly honest love songs immersed in whirlwind guitars, so it was extraordinary that UKRAINSKI VISTUPI V JOHNA PEELA, with the band exploring traditional EasternEuropean folk music, should be their major label debut on RCA. â(They) carry off what is basically a bold experiment with verveâ [NME]. However, this was soon followed by the more traditionally incendiary BIZARRO, âsimply unbeatableâ [Melody Maker] whichfeatured their first hit single KENNEDY.The next step, made with characteristically twisted Wedding Present logic, was to enlist noise-mongering [and, at that point, relatively unknown] sound engineer Steve Albiniâs aid at a time when everyone else was releasing âMadchesterâ dance mixes. The resulting SEAMONSTERS, recorded in the snowy wilds of Minnesota in just 11 days, suggested a more thoughtful Wedding Present.The Guardian newspaper noted that: âAlbini has given The Wedding Present considerable weight, with Gedgeâs voice trickling between banks of scowling guitarsâ. Indeed, the singing ranged from sensual whispering to feverish screams.The band came up with their next intriguing idea in 1992. By the end of December, The Wedding Present had released twelve singles, one per month, equalled Elvis Presleyâs 35 year old record for âmost hits in one yearâ, rekindled everyoneâs interest in that ultimate pop format, the 7âł and led the NME to describe the band as âcasually revolutionary and underhandedly uniqueâ. A gang of impressive names, including Ian Broudie from The Lightning Seeds and legendary Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller collaborated on the industry-challenging project, ultimately to be compiled on the two HIT PARADE albums and awarded ârecord of the weekâ byTony Parsons in The Daily Telegraph.WATUSI, produced by Steve Fisk (a prime mover in the celebrated avant-garde scene of Seattle), whisked the band off into another new area with its lo-fi pop, three-part a capella harmonies and Waikiki-ready surf strains. This âstrong, multifaceted albumâ [Select], sprinkled with 60s and 70s pastiches, was described by critics as their most varied and dynamic to date. âWatusi is (their) âWhite Albumâ, a re-assessment of their sound that finds them doing what they do bestâ [Melody Maker].The band returned to England to record their next release, the car themed MINI, âa gem of a recordâ [Melody Maker] in which Gedge cloaked his tales of love, lust and infidelity with automobile symbolism. To commemorate this release, the band played [with two drummers!] at the BBCâs Sound City Event, which was held that year in Leeds. During the concert, the winner of a prize drawwas announced, and a lucky Wedding Present fan became the owner of a real life classic Austin Mini motor car provided by the band and delivered by David Gedge himself!The follow-up, self-produced album, SATURNALIA was again released to a flurry of critical approval. The NME exclaimed that âDavid Gedge has just written one of the best pop albums of the yearâ while The Melody Maker noted that in the new recordings, which were completed in the London studios belonging to The Cocteau Twins, you could âhear an experimentalism that would send half of New York back to the labâ.It was at this point in 1997 that Gedge started work on a new project called CINERAMA in which he indulged his love of film music from John Barry to Ennio Morricone. Cinerama started life as a duo [Gedge and his girlfriend Sally Murrell] together with a shifting line-up of collaborators. 1998âs VA VA VOOM âturbo-driven melodies and bittersweet vignettes taking in everything from John Barry to the Zombiesâ [The Times] featured The Churchâs Marty Wilson-Piper and Emma Pollock from The Delgados. Following its release, Gedge recruited the rhythm section of the disbanded Goya Dress (Terry de Castro and Simon Pearson) together with WeddingPresent guitarist Simon Cleave for his new band.Cinerama released a clutch of singles in support of their debut LP, as well as a number prior to 2000âs Steve Albini-recorded DISCO VOLANTE âdangerously, seductively sweetâ [Melody Maker]. Notable were the heart-rending SUPERMAN (complete with alternativeSpanish take) and the six and a half minute epic HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY (also available in French!).The third Cinerama studio album, TORINO (released in 2002), was much darker than the first two, with Gedge returning to a more guitar driven sound and deciding to write predominantly about infidelity. âCinerama are escaping the shadow of Gedgeâs illustrious indie-legend past. Torino is a giant beast of adulterous lyrical fantasies, cult soundtrack flourishes and the screams of Albini-engineered guitarsâ [Uncut].At the end of 2002, Gedge and Murrell unexpectedly split up, and he decided to leave Leeds, his home for the preceding twenty-four years, and move to Seattle, Washington. Following the end of this fourteen-year relationship, Gedge began writing a collection of songs apparently influenced by his despair over the split. TAKE FOUNTAIN, the resultant album, was recorded in Seattle by SteveFisk [who also produced The Wedding Presentâs WATUSI in 1994] and released, perhaps ironically, on St. Valentineâs Day 2005. This saw Gedge reviving The Wedding Present name for the first album since 1996âs SATURNALIA to a torrent of critical acclaim. TAKE FOUNTAIN âis as eloquent an emotional discourse as he has mustered.â [Mojo]. âFans have long since recognised Gedge as more poet than pop star. Like Byron without the marsh fever, TAKE FOUNTAIN confirms his status as an extraordinary songwriterâ [The Times].In the wake of TAKE FOUNTAINâs success, and after almost an eight-year hiatus, The Wedding Present set out on a mammoth twenty month concert tour of Europe and North America which included most of the major festivals and ended in November 2006. The following month Gedge relocated to Hollywood, California but ventured back across the Atlantic in October 2007 when The Wedding Present performed the GEORGE BEST album live as part of a George Best âTwentieth Anniversaryâ Tour of Europe.In January 2008 the band assembled in Steve Albiniâs Chicago studio to record EL REY, which was released in the summer of that year to further critical acclaim. The NME described the album as âa beauty⌠some of the funniest, cleverest and most relevant indie youâre likely to hear this yearâ while The Guardian newspaper agreed that âGedge has consistently been way ahead of other, morelauded musiciansâ. At the end of 2008 Gedge fulfilled a long held ambition by releasing a bona fide Christmas song, HOLLY JOLLY HOLLYWOOD, a duet with Los Angeles based chanteuse, Simone White.In April 2009 Gedge collaborated with the BBC Big Band for the biannual Fuse Festival which was held in Leeds. For the event he performed Wedding Present and Cinerama songs backed by eighteen world class musicians including legendary trumpeter Derek Watkins. In what proved to be a busy yet unusual year for Gedge he also made his debut as a radio DJ in Texas, released his bass playerâs solo album on his label Scopitones and launched his own mini-festival, AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA, in Brighton.2010 will see The Wedding Present celebrating the 21st Anniversary of the release of their BIZARRO LP by playing the album live on tour throughout Europe, North America and Japan. « hide |
Similar Bands: Cinerama, Half Man Half Biscuit, CUD, The Fall, The Dream Syndicate Contributors: GhandhiLion, SandwichBubble, Observer, brutusrock, SandwichBubble,
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