The Wedding Present

The Wedding Present are a British indie rock group that was founded in 1985 in Leeds. Their music has evolved from the fast- played indie rock of " C86 - scene " to an ever more versatile sound. In addition to the singer and main songwriter David Gedge, the band over the years had many changing members.

From 1997 to 2004 The Wedding Present was inactive until Gedge had revived the name of his former band Cinerama.

  • 3.1 Studio albums
  • 3.2 Singles
  • 3.3 EPs
  • 3.4 Compilations

Band History

Early-stage and Reception Records- period

Gedges first group was The Lost Pandas broke up in 1984, however, when their drummer Janet Rigby, the former girlfriend of David Gedge, left him for guitarist Michael Duane. Gedge and the bassist for the pandas, Keith Gregory, decided to continue the band under the name The Wedding Present.

Gedge had this name for some time in the head, but he had been problems because of the similarity of the name with one of his favorite bands, The Birthday Party fears. When the Lost Pandas, however, parted, also broke up The Birthday Party. Therefore Gedge had the impression that The Wedding Present was appropriate now.

Together with Gregory he recruited Peter Solowka, an old school friend, as a guitarist. They also left a lot of drummers play for, including John Ramsden and Mike Bedford, with whom she took up a demo tape. In the end they decided on Shaun Charman.

The band went on tour in British clubs to prepare for the recording of their first self-financed single. Go Out and Get ' Em, Boy! was used instead of Will You Be Up There? selected, although the latter was one of the favorites of the fans.

Charman lacked confidence in his musical abilities; therefore instead took Julian Sowa once the drum parts on the A- side of the single, but Charman played on the B-side. In 1985 the single at the record company the band, Reception Records.

After the veteran BBC radio DJ John Peel had highlighted the band with praise, followed by two more singles that could have success in the indie charts. Peel invited the band one to include a radio session for his show ( three songs which appeared on the 1988 compilation Tommy (1985-1987 ), the whole session was in 1986 on the EP Do not Try And Stop Me, Mother published).

At the time when the band began work on their debut album, a number of independent and major labels had shown interest in them. However, it refused all offers to publish their own works on itself.

The album was titled George Best, was named after the famous British football player and was released in October 1987. Due to disagreements over the production with her music producer, Chris Allison, the recording of the band and their sound engineer Steve Lyons has been remixed.

George Best was hailed by critics, and the band soon became a member of the C86 scene - a categorization that is strongly rejected; Nevertheless, the band was represented at the compilation C86. The sound of the album was characterized by rapid rhythm guitars and Gedges lyrics of love, lust, heartbreak and revenge, which should be his trademark.

Soon after the album's release their first singles and radio sessions appeared on the compilation Tommy (1985-1987 ). As Solowka that has its roots in Ukraine, while another John Peel radio session hinspielte a Ukrainian folk song in front of him, had to take the band to the encouragement of Peel back the idea, some Ukrainian folk songs. For this they enlisted two guest musicians: singer / violinist Len Liggins and mandolin player Roman Remeynes. With this line took three " Peel Sessions " Ukrainian folk songs.

Between the recording of the first and second " Ukrainian" session Charman was fired from the band. The replacement person was Simon Smith, who stayed with the band until 1997. The band planned eight pieces of the " Ukrainian " sessions on a 10 " record to be published. While these albums pressed, however, was the distribution company Red Rhino, with the worked the band broke. Instead of looking for a new distribution company, chose the band to adjust their record company Reception Records, and signed a contract with the major label RCA.

Change to major label

Although the band was now under contract with a major label and was therefore criticized by some sites, they could make their own choice of music producers and singles under the terms of the contract, and also all the singles that RCA rejected, at another company without publish breach of contract.

The new record company bought the band's remaining " Ukrainian" vinyl records, pressed a further amount, and finally the album was released in April 1989 under the title Українські Виступи в Івана Піла ( "Ukrainian John Peel Sessions ").

The first regular album, collected by the band for their new label, was released in the same year. For " Bizarro " you did again with music producer Chris Allison together, and although the structures and themes of the songs pretty much the same as before were so, the album was due to its larger budget a higher production quality. The only single from Bizarro, Kennedy, the band released their first success in the UK Singles Chart.

With their growing popularity in the American college radio turned to the band for their next project in the USA. It was decided to Bizarro track Brassneck resume, this time with the American music producer Steve Albini. Thus began a two- year collaboration: both the next single ( Corduroy ) and the next album ( Seamonsters ) the band recorded with Albini in his Pachyderm Recording Studio in Minnesota.

Unlike its predecessors, Seamonsters sounded more American alternative rock this time, therefore, the British music magazine Melody Maker likened the album with " sandpaper for your ears ". The reader survey by the end of the year, however, showed that the lead single from the album, Dalliance, 1991 was among the most popular songs. Immediately after recording the album, the band announced that they had fired in the meantime Solowka. His replacement was Paul Dorrington of the originating also from Leeds group Tse Tse Fly. Solowka came again with Liggins and Remeynes together to form The Ukrainians.

In the next year the band took a single project, in which they published every month a new 7 " single. Every single had a limited run of only 10,000 copies, and all reached the top 30 in the UK Singles Chart, making Elvis Presley's record of most British Top 30 hits was set in a year.

To relieve the songwriter Gedge, passed the B-sides not new songs, but from different cover versions. The singles that were created with various music producers, including Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds) and Jimmy Miller ( The Rolling Stones), were re-released in 1993 on the Compilations Hit Parade 1 and Hit Parade 2. Soon after the end of this project, the band announced that they would leave the RCA label.

The band spent most of 1993 with free time, and was only occasionally concerts. When they re-entered the public in the spring of 1994, soon followed by the press release that the bassist Keith Gregory had left the band due to motivation problems; he was replaced by Darren Belk.

Mid-90s

Flew for their next album The Wedding Present back to the U.S., and promoted the U.S. music producer Steve Fisk on to take Watusi. Compared to the Seamonsters album had a more versatile sound, warm pop songs to psychedelic overtones.

Nevertheless Watusi did not sell as good as the previous albums, and the two singles (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah and It's a Gas ) missed the top 50 in the UK Singles Chart. Finally, it was the only album that was released in Iceland Records of the band.

1995, guitarist Paul Dorrington the band. Instead of looking for a replacement, Belk took over both the guitar and the bass parts. The band performed this year, only rarely, and only with Sucker appeared a new single, which is self-financed.

The Wedding Present returned to an independent label, in 1995 when they signed a contract with Cooking Vinyl. The now three-person group took on the short mini album, which turned to cars. Although Darren Belk played both guitar and bass on the album, the band was enlisted soon after the publication Jayne Lockey as the new bass player. Shortly after Belk left the band completely, and was replaced by Simon Cleave.

This new lineup went into the studio to record the album Saturnalia. This marked a new step because now co-wrote the whole band on the songs. After a tour to promote the album, The Wedding Present took a long break.

Break and Cinerama project

Although several compilations have been published in this pause, the first new material from Gedge came out in 1998 on the album Va Va Voom, which he recorded with his girlfriend Sally Murrell under the band name Cinerama.

Gedge turned his forces increasingly on the Cinerama project; under this name three studio albums were released from 1998 to 2003. At first, the sound of the band differed greatly from The Wedding Present, eg used to orchestral instruments, similar to film music. By the time he approached, however, more and more on the The Wedding Present.

Approximately 2003 Gedge separated from Murrell, who then left the band. During the recording of the next album Cinerama he decided because of the ever-growing similarity of the sound of his old band to release the album under the name " The Wedding Present ". However, rather than retrieve the old members in the band, Gedge held at the Cinerama musicians.

Return as " The Wedding Present "

2004 its decision was publicly announced, and the first new " Wedding Present " material appeared in eight years: The September 2004 single released Interstate 5 was a foretaste of the album Take Fountain. Both were published in Scopitones, the record company that had established Gedge for Cinerama.

The band spent several years on tour, including also to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album George Best. The Wedding Present completed since then, other " anniversary tours " for both Bizarro and Seamonsters for. During this time, the composition of the group underwent many changes.

My next studio album led the band again with Steve Albini together, who had produced the Seamonsters album as well as some Cinerama albums. The result, El Rey, appeared in 2008. Their last album of the band, Valentina, was released in March 2012.

Members

  • David Gedge: vocals, guitar (1985 to now )
  • Peter Solowka: guitar (1985-1991)
  • Keith Gregory: Bass (1985-1993)
  • Shaun Charman: drums, vocals (1985-1988)
  • Simon Smith: drums (1988-1997)
  • Paul 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)
  • Terry de Castro: bass, vocals (2004-2010)
  • Kari Paavola: drums (2004-2005)
  • Simon Pearson: Drums ( 2005)
  • Graeme Ramsay: drums, guitar (2006-2012)
  • Christopher McConville: guitar (2006-2009)
  • Charles Layton: Drums ( 2005, 2009 up to now )
  • Pepe le Moko: bass, vocals (2010 to now )
  • Patrick Alexander: Guitar ( 2012 to now )

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

EPs

Compilations

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