***24 Songs is a triple album which features all 12 7" singles from the 2022 Hit Parade Singles Club all in one package with extended versions of a few tracks and 5 bonus tracks. The vinyl comes in full color inner sleeves with liner notes and lyrics along with a DVD featuring a full length concert and documentary on the recording of 24 Songs. Limited to 500 copies in the USA. Throughout 2022, The Wedding Present’s 24 Songs series saw the legendary indie band release two new tracks a month as double A sided 7”s, ultimately creating a much-sought-after box set. David Gedge has now re-curated full-length versions of all twenty-four tracks for a new compilation album that will also comprise five bonus recordings including one featuring The Wedding Present’s first guitarist, Peter Solowka. 24 Songs was a doff of the cap to The Wedding Present’s Hit Parade project of 30 years previous. That series proved to be a real milestone for the band with them becoming only the second-ever artist to achieve twelve Official UK Top 40 hits in a calendar year—at the time something that only Elvis had achieved! David Gedge says: “When it came to compiling the ‘24 Songs’ album, I decided not to sequence the tracks in chronological order. With six sides of vinyl, you have six ‘beginnings’ and six ‘ends’ to play with, and I felt that the opportunity to build some kind of a musical journey was too good to miss! Listening back to...
3XLP+DVD $42.95
08/04/2023
***Locked Down And Stripped Back Volume Two features home recordings of Wedding Present and Cinerama classics, along with a previously unreleased song: ‘That Would Only Happen In A Movie.’ There is a bevy of guest stars on the album. Jon Stewart (of Platinum-album-selling Sleeper fame) reprises his new role as Wedding Present guitarist but is joined here by some Wedding Present members of old. Peter Solowka, from the band’s first line-up appears on ‘Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm’ playing his second instrument, the accordion, while Hit Parade guitarist Paul Dorrington contributes to a re-working of the Top 30 single ‘Blue Eyes.’ Long-time Wedding Present and Cinerama bass player Terry de Castro returns to infuse the album with her own unique style, while current Wedding Present bass player Melanie Howard takes over the lead vocal duties on a beautiful version of ‘At The Edge Of The Sea.’ Last, but certainly not least, Amelia Fletcher—backing vocalist on George Best and Bizarro—also returns to the party! As on the first volume, each musician recorded and filmed their parts at home and, as before, it is fascinating to see how stripped-back arrangements bring out different aspects of these brilliant songs.
LP $19.95
07/29/2022
***Locked Down And Stripped Back includes twelve home recordings of WEDDING PRESENT favorites along with two previously unreleased songs: ‘You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying To Break’ and ‘We Should Be Together’. The latter was originally recorded—but never released—by Britpop favorites, SLEEPER. With each band member recording and filming their parts at home due to lockdown restrictions, the recording process was far from easy, but the end result is, as always, typically satisfying. From the swagger of ‘A Million Miles’ (George Best, 1987) and ‘California’ (Hit Parade, 1992), to the joyous, previously unreleased ‘We Should Be Together’—featuring a special guest appearance from Sleeper singer LOUISE WENER—Locked Down And Stripped Back is an unexpected treat. Elsewhere, a re-working of ‘You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends'—originally released as a single in 1986—and a truly epic version of ‘Crawl’ (3 Songs EP, 1990), despite their ‘stripped back’ delivery, still pack a proverbial punch, while ‘You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying to Break’—a new song co-written with new guitarist JON STEWART—is classic Wedding Present. Furthermore, bassist MELANIE HOWARD takes over vocal duties on the sumptuous ‘Sports Car’ (Mini, 1995), while none of DAVID GEDGE's famous sardonic wit is lost on the majestic ‘My Favourite Dress’ (George Best, 1987).
LP $19.85
03/19/2021
***George Best became THE WEDDING PRESENT's first album in 1988. But Tommy, released one year later, was made up of the early songs from the singles and radio sessions that had catapulted them from being bedsit musicians into indie darlings: "Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy!" with its purposefully super-fast guitars, "You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends" an anthem for those long time Wedding Present fans, "My Favourite Dress" the only single in the collection that ended up on George Best, the classic, fraught tale of losing one's first love that perfectly played on the heart strings and began DAVID GEDGE's legacy of understanding everyone's heartbreak. Tommy 30, a brand-new re-recording of Tommy, did not come about simply as a "follow on" to George Best 30. The band felt, during a Tommy 30th anniversary concert tour, that the songs had grown and evolved. Enter a more confident vocalist... an altogether growlier guitar. A bigger sound. The urgency of a 25-year-old Gedge is replaced with a charming vocalist with years of experience. Everything's warmer and, maybe, gentler... but in a satisfying way. It's like your old friends have come home to see you. (STREET DATE - 11/29/2019)
LP $17.75
12/06/2019
CD $13.25
11/29/2019
***"It was early 2008, THE WEDDING PRESENTt had recently finished a twentieth anniversary tour for George Best and, having played the entire album dozens of times, it was fresh under their fingers. So after they had wrapped up recording the El Rey album, DAVID suggested they record a 'live' version of it in the same studio. STEVE ALBINI, who they were recording with, wasn't too keen on the idea, but David assured him it would be quick and easy, so he reluctantly caved. David was right; it was quick, done live, more like a Beatles recording than a drawn out modern one with lots of overdubs and multi-track layering. I imagine this version of George Best is what David would have liked to record in 1987. It is just so well recorded, which you’d expect from Steve Albini. You can feel David’s 20 years older self guiding the new recording in the same direction, but with more experience and warmth. Everything is bigger… the drums on the original recording were played live, but on a Simmons electronic drum kit. The combination of Albini’s recording and the ultra-talented GRAEME RAMSAY on drums brings the songs to life. However, the real difference comes out in the recording of those ever fast, ever jangly guitars… they’re warmer, bigger and more modern, more… Albini! Just to round everything off with a contemporary twist, award-winning mixer/producer ANDREW SCHEPS happily agreed to mix these recordings, having heard the original for the first time in his living...
LP $17.75
09/22/2017
***‘Going, Going…’ is the title of the widely anticipated ninth studio album from UK indie darlings, THE WEDDING PRESENT, but, in typical Wedding Present fashion... it’s not a conventional release! Going, Going... tells the story of a road trip across the USA, revealed across a collection of twenty ‘linked’ songs, each with an accompanying short film. Always challenging and experimental, the idea to release the new project in a multi-media format is something that has been marinating with bandleader DAVID GEDGE for some time. Recorded at Studios La Fabrique in the south of France and Parr Street Studios in Liverpool with multiple Grammy award winning producer ANDREW SCHEPS (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, Adele) the resulting twenty tracks represent arguably The Wedding Present’s finest work to date, with Gedge, as always, showing himself to be the unrivaled master at observing human relationships from an everyman perspective but with the touch and artistry of a poet.
LP+DVD $31.95
12/09/2016