From Duncan's Parcel of Pop (Part 6)

More goodies from my friend in New Zealand today. Two of the three 7" singles from the Wedding Present come from their Reception days, including one with additional singing from Amelia Fletcher. Let's find out how Duncan discovered Gedge & Co. It is a story that might sound familiar to many of you in the UK. Duncan, the floor is yours...

In 1985, a couple of friends and I started listening to John Peel's Radio 1 show. As with many others of our generation, it opened us up to a whole new world of music and changed our lives. We would excitedly meet up at school the next day to compare notes on the previous night's listening and swap tapes of missed sessions or new singles. I remember vividly the conversation we had the day after Peel played "Go Out and Get 'Em Boy", by the Wedding Present. We'd never heard anything like it; never heard guitars played so fast or at such ear splitting levels of treble. We loved it, just like we'd loved "Never Understand" a few months earlier. Just hearing the feedback screaming in at the start of the song still brings shivers to the spine.

Between us, over the next year or so, we collected all their singles and taped their two radio sessions. And in November 1986, we went to see them play live at the Garage Club in Nottingham... a very special night, where the crowd refused to let the band leave the stage at the end of their set until they'd finally agree to play "Felicity". It was hot, crazy and tremendous fun. One of those nights when the sweat was literally dripping from the ceiling.

But I have to admit that, by this stage, I'd started to think the band had painted themselves into a bit of a corner. In an early interview they said they would never record an LP, and there was only so many mad thrash-y singles a band could release before people got bored and moved on. Let's face it, how could they possibly top the exhilarating rush of "Living and Learning"? So it was a bit of a shock when the "My Favourite Dress" 7" EP came out. The band had taken quite a major shift forwards. No longer was it all about the guitars, the melodies and the sheer energy of their early singles. Now the focus was all on Mr David Gedge: his voice and his words had taken centre stage, and the music had become more controlled and more of a vehicle for the songs. I'd never paid too much attention to the lyrics in the past, but now there was no choice.

In each of the three songs on the EP, Gedge paints extremely vivid portraits of a peculiarly Northern English white working class milieu. Like Morrissey, but stripped of any of his romanticism, pretension or self-mythologising. Gedge's words are memorable and affecting, but also grim and uncomfortable. Perhaps his most famous line, "jealousy is an essential part of love", is arresting, but it's not a sentiment I recognise or have any empathy with. And even at the age of 16 I found the line "I must have walked behind you for more than an hour" from "Never Said" disturbing and a bit creepy. But it was becoming clear that the Wedding Present would be around for a while, and that Gedge's everyman persona would now be their USP.

Over the next couple of years and through to the release of their debut LP, the Wedding Present seemed to be constantly on tour, and I got to see them four more times during this period. The crowds were getting bigger and bigger and, suddenly, they were a "major act," which even the weeklies started taking seriously. And of course, 'George Best' became a massive seller. But for me, it will always be the period captured on the 'Tommy' retrospective that I return to and cherish. Three classic singles and the euphoric "Living and Learning", and then on to "My Favourite Dress", creating the link to 'George Best' and all that followed.

Duncan also included a couple of early articles from the music papers that were great reads. I particularly liked these quotes from Gedge in a piece by Neil Taylor that appeared just before a repressing of "Go Out and Get 'em Boy!" (repressed by Taylor's own City Slang label, by the way) and the release of "Once More." As Duncan mentioned, here's how David saw it: "I don't think we could ever make an album, unless it was a compilation of singles or something." He followed that up with, "If at the end of a couple of years we've made four great records then I'll be really proud, and that will do for me!" With roughly 36 years of hindsight, that's a smile, eh?

As for my all-too-brief history with the Wedding Present, it doesn't really make any sense. You would assume someone who worships at the altar of 'C86' would be a longtime fan of the band. Truth is, I never owned a single or album until the blogging era. I know. I know. Crazy. After a recommendation by retired blogger (sadly) Friend of Rachel Worth, I picked up the 23-track version of 'George Best' that Cooking Vinyl had released back in the late '90s. It was nothing short of a revelation. A couple of years later, Edsel did that blowout reissue campaign of eight of the band's albums. Rather than spend big bucks on those, I waited for fans to trade in their old copies for the deluxe editions. The only one of those reissues I bought was 'Tommy.' Although I have found plenty to enjoy on all of the albums, like Duncan, it is the fast and furious early singles and 'George Best' I like the most. In the ensuing years, I have been making up for lost time, concentrating specifically on picking up used vinyl copies of everything from the '80s but more recent releases as well. This was my favorite pickup because of the odd place where I found it. All of this fandom culminated in finally seeing Gedge in the flesh in 2017.

Yes, I lost a lot of good quality years when I should have been listening to the Wedding Present, but I'm doing my best to make up for the slight. Thanks for this further nudge, Duncan. I was going to feature the "Kennedy" single, but JC just posted it at his place yesterday. "My Favourite Dress" has appeared on these pages before. Hopefully, you don't mind a repeat.

My Favourite Dress
Every Mothers Son
Never Said