 |
|
|||||||||||
|
THE WEDDING PRESENT "Live double 1987, double CD" 'LIVE 1987' collects the first two of The Wedding Present's popular "Live Tapes"; cassettes that the band sold at gigs and through their fanzine in the late 80's. The recordings were unavailable anywhere else. Fans eagerly collected them and the first two tapes quickly became very rare, especially as they include encores, which the band hasn't done since 1987. This is the first official 'live' release by The Wedding Present and features live versions of ten songs from their classic debut album 'George Best'. The two-disc set comes with sleeve notes written by The Wedding Present's original drummer, Shaun Charman, who was the main archivist at the time and recorded the original live tapes for the band.
CD [DISC ONE] THIS BOY CAN WAIT; EVERYONE THINKS HE LOOKS DAFT; ALL THIS AND MORE; A MILLION MILES; YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR FRIENDS; ANYONE CAN MAKE A MISTAKE; SOMETHING AND NOTHING; IT'S WHAT YOU WANT THAT MATTERS; MY FAVOURITE DRESS; NEVER SAID; GIVE MY LOVE TO KEVIN; GO OUT AND GET 'EM, BOY!; GETTING NOWHERE FAST; ONCE MORE CD [DISC TWO] NEVER SAID; DON'T BE SO HARD; EVERYONE THINKS HE LOOKS DAFT; ONCE MORE; NOBODY'S TWISTING YOUR ARM; THIS BOY CAN WAIT; A MILLION MILES; I'M NOT ALWAYS SO STUPID; ANYONE CAN MAKE A MISTAKE; IT'S WHAT YOU WANT THAT MATTERS; WHAT DID YOUR LAST SERVANT DIE OF? GIVE MY LOVE TO KEVIN; SHATNER; MY FAVOURITE DRESS; YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR FRIENDS; FELICITY; IT'S NOT UNUSUAL; GETTING NOWHERE FAST
"Take Fountain" - BIOGRAPHY "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. Introduction Having called a temporary halt to The Wedding Present in 1997, David Gedge embarked on a duo project with his then girlfriend Sally Murrell that was soon to adopt the name Cinerama, releasing their debut album, VA VA VOOM, in 1998. Cinerama was to become the primary creative output for David Gedge's writing, recording and performing, but, by 2002's TORINO, the melodic Cinerama sound was becoming darker in tone and, stylistically, more guitar driven. They had also taken to mixing the odd Wedding Present song into the live shows. Gedge's personal life then entered a darker place itself following the break up with long time girlfriend Sally. He moved to Seattle and began writing a series of songs that appear to be influenced by his despair over the split. The resultant album, which was recorded in Chicago and Seattle by Steve Fisk [who also produced WATUSI, The Wedding Present's 1994 LP for Island Records] is scheduled for released on St. Valentine's Day 2005, and will see Gedge revive The Wedding Present name for the first album since 1996's SATURNALIA. Titled TAKE FOUNTAIN, it was preceded by a single, INTERSTATE 5 on 15th November 2003. After almost an eight-year hiatus, The Wedding Present will also be touring through the UK, Europe and North America in the wake of the album's release with the line up of David Gedge, Terry de Castro, bass, Kari Paavola, drums and guitarist Simon Cleave, a member of the previous Wedding Present line up. See below for a list of tour dates. For Gedge it will be full circle, almost 20 years since he started out with The Wedding Present, a band which has remained true to itself albeit without ever taking or acknowledging the full credit and recognition it deserves as one of the UK's most influential and successful indie pop bands for a decade onwards from the mid-eighties. TAKE FOUNTAIN is a body of songs so heartfelt it's impossible not to be moved by them and an album that is the equal, if not surpassing, anything The Wedding Present has previously recorded and released.
The full story The Wedding Present have had seventeen UK Top 40 hit singles… not bad for a band who have stubbornly refused to play the record industry's game since their inception. That was back in 1985 when David Lewis Gedge boarded a National Express coach in London with a handful of dreams and a pocket full of ideas. Oh, and about 500 records packed into a pair of his mother's suitcases. In this fashion, the single GO OUT AND GET 'EM BOY! was collected from the pressing plant, delivered to the distribution company, and The Wedding Present was born. That pioneering spirit has been at the core of the band's philosophy ever since. From GEORGE BEST "an unmitigated delight" [NME] the first full length release on their own Reception Records onwards, the band have charted an appealing, if often eccentric course of their very own. With their independent releases, The Wedding Present acquired a reputation for bittersweet, breathtakingly real love songs immersed in whirlwind guitars, so it was quite extraordinary that UKRAINSKI VISTUPI V JOHNA PEELA, with the band exploring traditional Eastern European folk music, should be their major label debut on RCA. "(They) carry off what is basically a bold experiment with verve" [NME]. However, this was soon followed by the more traditionally incendiary BIZARRO, "simply unbeatable" [Melody Maker] which featured their first hit single KENNEDY. Sounds Magazine said: "it's their major label debut, but it's a transition they've mastered beautifully". The next step, made with characteristically twisted Wedding Present logic, was to enlist noise-mongering [and relatively unknown, at that time] sound engineer Steve Albini's aid, at a time when everyone else was releasing Madchester style 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: "Albini has given The Wedding Present considerable weight, with Gedge's voice trickling between banks of scowling guitars". Indeed, the singing ranged from sensual whispering to feverish screams, as the singer investigated more challenging subjects. 1992 brought another intriguing idea. By the end of December the group had released twelve records, one in each month, equalled Elvis Presley's 35 year old record for "most hits in one year", rekindled everyone's interest in that ultimate pop format, the 7" single, and led the NME to describe the band as "casually revolutionary and underhandedly unique". 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 "record of the week" by Tony Parsons in The Daily Telegraph. WATUSI, produced by Steve Fisk (a prime mover in the celebrated avant-garde scene of Seattle, Washington) then whisked the band off into yet another new area with its trademark lo-fi pop, 3-part a capella harmonies and Waikiki-ready surf strains. This "strong, multifaceted album" [Select], sprinkled with 60s and 70s pastiches, was described by some critics as their most varied and dynamic to date. "Watusi is (their) "White Album", a late period re-assessment of their sound that finds them doing what they do best" [Melody Maker]. In 1995, just before they signed to Cooking Vinyl [Britain's largest independent label] the band released yet another 7" single, Sucker, and completed a British tour with two drummers. Although the record sold several thousand copies and reached No.3 in The Festive 50 (veteran BBC DJ John Peel's end of year listeners' poll) you won't see it in any other charts, because, typically, it was only available at the concerts or by mail order. The band returned to a more traditional form of record distribution with the car themed MINI - "a gem of a record" [Melody Maker] in which Gedge cloaked his tales love, lust and infidelity with automobile iconography in what can only be described as a concept album! To commemorate this release, the band played at the BBC's Sound City Event, which was held that year in Leeds, the group's home town. During the concert, the winner of a "Mini Prize Draw" was announced, and a lucky Wedding Present fan became the owner of a real life classic Austin Mini motorcar provided (and delivered!) by the band. For the next full length LP, the group decided to apply a decade's worth of studio experience and produce the recording themselves. Thus, the Top 40 album SATURNALIA was released by Cooking Vinyl to a flurry of critical approval. The NME exclaimed that "David Gedge has… just written one of the best pop albums of the year" while The Melody Maker noted that in the new recordings, which were completed in the London studios belonging to The Cocteau Twins, you could "hear an experimentalism that would send half of New York back to the lab". It was at this point, in 1997, that Gedge called a halt to The Wedding Present and started work on a solo project that would eventually see the light of day under the banner CINERAMA. A fittingly titled outfit, Cinerama indulged Gedge's love of film music from John Barry to Blaxploitation via Ennio Morricone, as well as the classic song writing of Bacharach / David. Cinerama actually started life as a duo that Gedge shared with his then girlfriend Sally Murrell together with a shifting line-up of collaborators. 1998's VA VA VOOM "turbo-driven melodies and bittersweet vignettes taking in everything from John Barry to the Zombies" [The Times] featured The Church's Marty Wilson-Piper and Emma Pollock of The Delgados. Then, in 1999, Gedge rescued the rhythm section of the disbanded Goya Dress (Terry de Castro and Simon Pearson) and combined them with Wedding Present guitarist Simon Cleave. Since 2000 the line-up has remained relatively steady, apart from Finnish drummer Kari Paavola replacing Pearson and Murrell's retirement from live performance. Gedge, Cleave, de Castro and Paavola went on to become The Wedding Present in 2004. Surely on pace to rival the abundant shelf filling of The Wedding Present, Cinerama released a clutch of singles in support of their debut LP, as well as a number prior to 2000's Steve Albini-recorded DISCO VOLANTE "dangerously, seductively sweet" [Melody Maker]. Notable were the heart-rending SUPERMAN (complete with alternative Spanish take) and the six and a half minute epic HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY (also available in French!) which came backed with a lilting version of the classic Bond theme: "Diamonds Are Forever". The third Cinerama studio album, TORINO (released in 2002), was an altogether darker and more substantial record than the first two, with Gedge returning to a much more guitar driven sound. "Cinerama are finally escaping the shadow of Gedge's illustrious indie-legend past. Torino is a giant beast of adulterous lyrical fantasies, cult soundtrack flourishes and the screams of Albini-engineered guitars" [Uncut]. At the end of 2002, Gedge split up with his girl friend of 14 years, Sally Murrell, which kind of broke his heart. So he moved to Seattle, and busied himself with writing a new Wedding Present album. www.theweddingpresent.net |
|||||||||||
