The Wedding Present – Live, Edinburgh Liquid Room, Wednesday 24th October 2007
I would describe this as something of a quasi-religious experience for me, but there’s something so relentlessly normal about The Wedding Present that it wouldn’t seem right. Twenty five [D'oh! - see comments!] years since the release of their brilliant debut album George Best the Weddoes are on tour, playing the album in its entirety. Sort of the musical equivalent of the testimonial match footballers get after ten years of service.
To large extent The Wedding Present are a teenage boy’s band. If you’ve ever been a lad at that age, Gedge has an uncanny ability to nail every alienated, rejected and bewildered emotion you ever felt with no more than a few simple lines of almost uniquely conversational poetry. He just talks and it seems to come out in perfectly metered verse almost by accident, without any noticeable artifice whatsoever. Coupled with this is some of the most archetypal indie guitar you either have or ever will hear. ‘It’s just not natural to play a guitar that fast’ he quips rather exhaustedly after Brassneck.
Archetypal indie they are indeed. Ed, who was there too, points out that they were on that genre-defining C86 compilation which is generally described as being the big bang at the origin of the indie universe. After a quick trip through Gedge’s extensive back catalogue, the group settle into the meat of the gig – every song on George Best in order. At this point the heart of this band comes sharply into focus. A deliriously happy mosh pit of men in their late thirties bounces into existence: ageing indie kids – like Gedge himself – revelling in the music that made them who they are.
I am a Wedding Present neophyte in relative terms. It took university, and the relentless persistence of the legendary Mr. James Strath to open this particular door for me. I was aware of them by the time of Watusi, but Mini was the first record of theirs that I bought for myself. So watching the joy of this heady blast from the past was always going to be a bit of a spectator sport for me, but it was still a privilege to stand there, bouncing away happily to myself whilst classics like Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft, My Favourite Dress and, later, Kennedy rattled through the venue.
They are superb live – more passionate and more reckless than on albums, but nevertheless technically right on the money, as you might expect from such stalwarts. Hearing songs this good belted out with such expertise and yet such passion really throws the enthusiasm generated by virtually any of the new groups I write about into sharp perspective. There will be few bands who ever match what the Weddoes have achieved, in my view. You could put George Best, Watusi, Seamonsters, Bizarro and Saturnalia up against pretty much any album ever recorded and they would be highly unlikely to outshine them. A shuffling, unassuming indie kid he may be – perhaps the original shuffling indie kid – but David Gedge is one of the best there has been. And this gig was a chance for us all to acknowledge the fact.
The Wedding Present – My Favourite Dress
The Wedding Present – What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
The Wedding Present – Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
From Bizarro:
The Wedding Present – Brassneck
The Wedding Present – Kennedy
i adored TWP back in the day (absolutely still do, actually, & have been trying my best to slot in “You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends” into any TWR playlist – but they are so unique, soundwise, they stick out like a raging man wand. I’ll get there…).
in my school, when they hit the wider concsiousness of the head-slung Smiths, Kitchens of Distinction, James & Cure disaffected, the ‘in thing’ was to refer to ’straights’ as “Kevins” & “Sharons” – a direct reference to “Give My Love To Kevin”, which became the anthem of choice for the lonely indie wallower round my parts.
over on 17 Seconds I’ve dropped an account of my dalliance with the crazy-as-fruit-flavoured-toothpaste woman who inspired most of Gedge’s broken/desperate relationship lyrics for “George Best”. I’d forgotten about her until I started getting nostalgic about TWP again… I think I’ll even include the story as a “Horror” piece in this week’s Halloween spesh.
Ta for now.
DC
Believe me, it’s one of those stories that you couldn’t make up, or at least, it’s so bizarre it could quite conceivably be true…
Oh, just one pedantic point Mr. Toad, George Best is twenty years old, not twenty five. Had it preceeded The Smiths by two years…we can but speculate…
Both,
here’s a link to a site previewing the Wife Swap episode:
here’s a preview blurb for the episode from thecustard.tv:
Two househusbands swap places in the final show of another great series. Former miner Nigel Bailey, a house-proud father of seven (aged two to 17) from Worksop, swaps with hippy Darren Duce Mills, who breeds dogs in the kitchen and cares more about spiritual healing than cleaning and breeds dogs in the kitchen. Nigel’s wife Marina is used to having everything done for her; Darren’s wife Alexandra is used to mess. A difficult 10 day swap results.
& here’s a typically tabliod sour-faced photo of her (with dog):
I hope those htmls work as I’m fairly lame interweb wise.
DC
Going on Wednesday. Can’t wait.
Can’t wait! Gonna be seeing them for the first time next month in London and, if I can get tickets, Berlin too. How very gauche.
You know Ed I just wrote that off the top of my head and didn’t even bother to count. What a fuckwit.
Beth & Shaun, you’ll be impressed I think. They’ do seem to be trotting out all the classics, which makes it ace to be there. I could have easily listened for another hour or two.
Oh…your making me jealous, sounds like you had a blast !! I have to go and see em when they come to London !!! It’s sold out, but i’ll find a way.
Oh come on! George Best was good, but I really can’t understand why the two finest Weddoes albums are so criminally overlooked; Seamonsters and Watusi.
The latter being possibly one of the all time greatest forgotten albums of the last 20 years.
Watusi and Seamonsters are absolutely my favourites. I too am amazed by how little credit Watusi gets. Gedge himself said recently that he doesn’t think George Best is their best album, but for some reason people seem to love debuts.
It’ll be interesting to see Gedge and co in front of a London crowd. I’ve seen em umpteen times up here in Leeds and it’s always ace – bit of an emotional crowd, a homecoming and a t-shirt-off (bonus points for Ukranian numbers). Will report back. Good times!
Oooh – proper fan t-shirt contests – the ultimate indie-kid face-off!
“George Best” just kinda kicked the shit out of what was happening at the time of its release with a great big smirk on its chops, which is why it (& “Tommy”) will always have an affectionate little cupboard space in my heart. That said, “Watusi” is a thumping great album. It really should have done the business (as should have “Seamonsters”) but they appear to both have been ever-so slightly one step ahead of their time &, as a result, got lost/buried in the deluge of the immediate years that followed each.
Right then, the t-shirt scores are as follows:
One Tommy (well-loved), a couple of faded Bizarros, loads of freshly minted new ones hot off the merch stand, sadly no Ukranian ones. Top marks to the bloke in the alarmingly-new looking Senseless Things ‘Pop Kid’ number.
PS London is vile.
Tommy! Wow, I really am impressed!
The one bastard thing about being in Canada for 4 months was not getting back in time to see TWP.
Mrs V was an absolute angel though. She went along, had a great time and bought me a t-shirt (something that is a bit of a tradition at TWP gigs)
Top 3 TWP LPS?? In alphabetical order, Bizarro, Seamonsters and Take Fountain (yup, I though the comeback LP was astoundingly good.)
Jesus, you must be the only Weddoes fan I know who likes that one much more than reasonably. I don’t mind most of it, but the classics JC – where are the classics?
I saw them in Brussels last saturday, & they blew me away. Had not expected them that impressive. Been to Paris in august to see The great great great Jesus and Mary Chain, and now this. Best gig year in years.