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Bio |  |  | | 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.
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. However, this was soon followed by the more traditionally incendiary Bizarro, "simply unbeatable."
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 dance mixes. The resulting Seamonsters, recorded in the snowy wilds of Minnesota in just 11 days, suggested a more thoughtful Wedding Present.
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. 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.
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.
It was at this point, in 1997, that Gedge called a temporary halt to THE WEDDING PRESENT and started work on a solo project that would eventually see the light of day under the banner CINERAMA. |
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Links | | www.scopitones.co.uk
www.myspace.com/theweddingpresent |
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Press | | Covers
(Hi-Resolution JPEGs For Promotional Use)
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Releases | |  | | |
| El Rey - the first new album in over three years from The Wedding Present - was recorded in early 2008 in Chicago by Steve Albini.
The band returned from an eight-year hiatus in early 2005 with the release of Take Fountain. This long-awaited album brought them back into the spotlight with all the style and sophistication associated with a legendary group, but fans were also pleased to see the band had lost none of the growling angst with which they had burst onto the scene with their 1985 debut, George Best.
That intensity has been turned up even further for the new album, El Rey, The Wedding Present's first collaboration with the legendary Albini since the renowned Seamonsters in 1991.
Written while David Gedge was living in Los Angeles, El Rey burns with West Coast sunlight; Hollywood seen through the eyes of a gritty Northerner.
Speaking about El Rey in Mojo magazine recently, Gedge said: "I've been living in West Hollywood for the last year or so, and while I'm not going to claim that this is my 'L.A.' album, there are some references. I suppose the themes are lust, jealousy, betrayal, regret, obsession, super-heros... the usual. We chose to record with Steve this time because the new songs were sounding very guitarry and quite dark. It's been good. As you'd imagine, really; Albini knows his stuff".
The Wedding Present will be touring North America in Fall 2008 with the line-up of: David Gedge (guitar & vocals), Terry de Castro (bass), Graeme Ramsay (drums), and Chris McConville (guitar). |
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| | '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. Fans eagerly collected them and the first two tapes quickly became very rare. 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 Wedding Present
Search For ParadiseCD + DVD [Click Here To Purchase][Download From iTunes] |
| | This CD + DVD collection features the three singles from last year's critically-acclaimed "Take Fountain" album, plus all the B-sides, previously unreleased acoustic versions of the A-sides and a track remixed by the German pop group, Klee. It comes with a bonus DVD of videos made for the singles and the outstanding album track "Don't Touch That Dial" together with a film made for an acoustic live version of "Perfect Blue," and bonus behind the scenes footage. |
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| | Somewhere it's raining, and a heartbroken teenager listens to the Wedding Present on headphones while staring out at the raindrops sploshing against the earth outside. Formed in Leeds in the mid '80s, this "miserabilist" pop band was huge in the U.K. back in the '80s and '90s, though they never approached the charts here. In 2005, the Wedding Present is David Gedge plus whoever he wants in the band. In fact, Take Fountain, the first WP album in 8 years, allegedly started out as a new record by his post-WP orchestral pop act, Cinerama. Gedge has always demonstrated very Catholic indie-rock taste. His band covered Pavement's "Box Elder" -- a song off their first single -- before most knew who they were. And here he re-enlists versatile veteran Steve Fisk as the producer. There are poppy mid-tempo dirges ("Don't Touch that Dial") and vaguely detuned, mopey but not emo anthems ("Mars Sparkles Down on Me"). The now-Seattle-based Gedge has made another Wedding Present album filled with pretty songs that gracefully shout to the heavens, "Woe is me!" --Mike McGoniga |
|  | | The Wedding Present
Hit Parade 1CD [Click Here To Purchase] |
| | Compilation of the band's first seven singles of 1992, produced by Chris Nagle and Ian Broudie. |
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