The Lost Pandas fell apart in 1984 when guitarist Michael Duane (later of dustDevils) was sacked, and Panda's drummer Jaz Rigby followed in protest. Gedge and the Pandas' bass player, Keith Gregory, decided to continue the band, renaming it The Wedding Present.
Gedge wanted to use the name "The Wedding Present" in honour of one of his favourite bands,The Birthday Party.
Gedge and Gregory recruited an old schoolmate of Gedge's, Peter Solowka, to play guitar and auditioned a string of drummers, including Mike Bedford, with whom they recorded a demo tape, before settling on Shaun Charman. The country's clubs and bars were toured as the band prepared for the recording of their first, self-financed single.
After some consideration, "Go Out and Get 'Em, Boy!" was chosen over early favourite "Will You Be Up There?". The A-side features drumming by hired hand Julian Sowa with Charman on its B-side. The single was released on the band's own Reception Records label with distribution through Red Rhino. Although Reception was only intended to be a vehicle for the release of their own material, it also released a number of singles by This Poison! and Cud.
Two more singles followed that did well on the independent charts and the band was spotted by veteran BBC radio DJ John Peel, who immediately started championing them and invited them to do a radio session, starting a long collaboration.
By the time the band started work on their debut album, a number of independent and major record companies showed interest, but the band declined all offers and decided to keep releasing their material themselves. The album was released in 1987 and titled George Best after the well-known Northern Irish football player. Disagreement on production values with the record's producer, Chris Allison, led to the product being remixed by the band and their engineer, Steve Lyon. The larger part of these conflicts seemed to lie with the personal and musical incompatibility of Allison and Charman.
Upon its release, the album was critically acclaimed and the band were soon lumped in with some of their peers as the 'shambling' or C86 scene, a categorization that they vehemently declined (although they were featured on the original C86 compilation). Musically, the album featured fast-paced rhythm guitar attacks; lyrically, apart from a few tentative excursions into social critique ("All This and More") and politics ("All About Eve"), Gedge's main concerns (which would become his trademark) were love, lust, heartbreak and revenge. Soon after the release of George Best, the early singles and radio sessions were compiled and released as Tommy (1985-1987).
With the departure of Charman very early on in 1988, Simon Smith took up the drum stool and follow up album, 1989's Bizarro was again popular with the music weeklies.
When Solowka, who has Ukrainian roots, started fooling around with a Ukrainian folk tune during one of their many Peel sessions, the idea arose to devote some of their radio time to recording their versions of Ukrainian and Russian folk song, encouraged by Peel. To this end, two guest musicians were invited, singer/violin player Len Liggins and mandolin player Roman Remeynes, and three Peel sessions were recorded with Gedge temporarily limiting himself to playing rhythm guitar and arranging the songs.
The band planned on releasing eight cuts from the Ukrainian sessions on a 10" LP and an initial batch was pressed when Red Rhino went into receivership. Rather than trying to find a new distribution company, the band decided to fold their Reception label altogether and sign with a regular record company: RCA. Solowka, Liggins, and Remeynes later split from the band to concentrate on the Ukrainian material as the band The Ukrainians.
Seamonsters is the third studio album by English rock band The Wedding Present. It was recorded in ten days in 1991 by American producer Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Albini had previously recorded two EPs with the group, Brassneck and 3 Songs and, like those records, Seamonsters has a rougher, harsher overall sound than the group's earlier two albums.
Solowka was replaced by Paul Dorrington and the band in 1992 released a single every month, and each of these songs charted before being released as compilations of both the A and B-sides. Each of these 12 singles hit the UK Top 40 and the band tied Elvis Presley's record of most Top 40 singles in the span of a year.
Following a quiet 1993 in which Gregory left and was replaced by Darren Belk, they followed up their record-breaking 1992 year with a new LP in 1994 called "Watusi". Following this, Dorrington left, Belk moved to guitar and they temporarily became a 3-piece before Jayne Lockey arrived. A mini LP, helpfully called "Mini" drove up early '96 shortly before "Saturnalia" zoomed in Summer '96 (along with the addition of new guitarist Simon Cleave after Belk's depature).
Following a gig in January 1997, Gedge decided to rest the Wedding Present name and started performing as Cinerama however while recording a new Cinerama album in 2004 he decided to resurrect the name the Wedding Present.
The first Wedding Present single in 7 years was released in November 2004 followed by an album in February 2005. This line-up was Gedge, Cleave, bassist Terry de Castro and drummer Kari Paavola. Paavola declined to tour and subsequently left replaced by Simon Pearson and then Graeme Ramsey. Simon Cleave left early 2006 but rejoined in 2009. His 3 year void was filled by guitarist Christopher McConville.
In more musical chairs, guitarist Cleave departed again later in 2009 due to ill health. The vacant guitar position was actually snabbed by the drummer, Ramsay, who was replaced on the drum stool by Charlie Layton (who had previously served for a very short time in 2006). Following this in Summer 2010, long-serving bassist, Terry de Castro, also vacated to be replaced by Pepe le Moko. A year later, in late 2011, after the recording of the band's 8th studio album, Valentina, Ramsay departed to be replaced by (ex-The Young Playthings and The Pipettes), Patrick Alexander.
The band emerged in February 2013 with yet another new line-up after the sacking of le Moko and Alexander - bassist Jen Schwartz (from Me of a Kind) and guitarist Geoff Maddock (from Goldenhorse).
For more information please visit www.scopitones.co.uk
Bewitched
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But I thought I heard you say
"I just walked past him"
But why can I never do anything before you go
I don't know
And outside the streets are empty
There was no time then
And now there's
When you're on your own
If there's nothing that I want more
Why do my steps get this small
When I reach your front door
And I wait outside for you to come back out
And your light goes out
You don't know me but I'm still here
And God the last time I saw you
You were, oh, this near
And there's a thousand things I wished I'd said and done
But the moment's gone
The Wedding Present's song Bewitched appears to be about unrequited love and missed opportunities. The singer of the song seems to have strong feelings for someone they encounter regularly but feels unable to express them. The lyrics suggest that the object of the singer's affection may be someone who is not available to them, as the singer says that they heard the person say that they had just walked past someone, but they are not sure who that person was. The singer laments their inability to act on their feelings and to speak to the person before they leave.
The songwriter conveys the sense of frustration and helplessness that accompanies unreciprocated love by describing the empty streets outside, meaning that there is no one else around to distract the singer from their thoughts. The singer's sense of powerlessness is also emphasised by the fact that they seem unwilling to take action when they have the opportunity. They seem to be frozen by their feelings or indecision, as they say that their steps get smaller when they get to the person's front door, and they just wait outside in the hope that the person will return.
The song encapsulates the longing, uncertainty, and regrets that can come with having feelings for someone who is unattainable or who we are too afraid to approach. The song's wistful tone and melancholic lyrics make it a poignant portrayal of this kind of love.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm not sure and I'm not asking
I'm uncertain and not inquiring
But I thought I heard you say
Though not sure, I believe I heard you utter
"I just walked past him"
The phrase you said which caught my attention was 'I just walked past him'
But why can I never do anything before you go
I question why I'm never proactive before you leave
I don't know
I'm unaware
And outside the streets are empty
The streets are desolate outside
There was no time then
We didn't have any time at that moment
And now there's
Currently, there is
Oh why do I never get the chance to say a word
Why do I never have the opportunity to speak my mind
When you're on your own
When you're unaccompanied
If there's nothing that I want more
If there's nothing I desire more
Why do my steps get this small
I'm wondering why my steps feel timid
When I reach your front door
Upon arriving at your front door
And I wait outside for you to come back out
I patiently wait outside for you to reappear
And your light goes out
When your light extinguishes
You don't know me but I'm still here
You're unaware of my existence, but I'm still present
And God the last time I saw you
My last encounter with you
You were, oh, this near
You were close to me
And there's a thousand things I wished I'd said and done
I regret not saying or doing many things
But the moment's gone
Unfortunately, the time has passed
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: DAVID GEDGE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@paulfletcher9333
Absolutely wonderful rendition of what is the best song in a long and illustrious catalogue of great love songs by Mr Gedge. This is the pinnacle of The Wedding Present - not much in life, if anything, gets better than this.
@davegasman
Still one of the greatest Wedding Present Songs!
@csquire3
Totally authentic, honest, non-commercial talent.
@MatDurrance
An amazing live radio studio performance...Such a great song...
@ForViewingOnly
I absolutely love this song, and every track off of Bizarro. David's voice has really mellowed with time. Gone is the growl when he sang "If there's noTHING that I want more..." on the studio version of Bewitched. Don't get me wrong, I loved the old growl, but it's good that his vocals have evolved to keep the songs as fresh as the day they were written. I'd love to see these guys live one day... wish they'd play at Glastonbury.
@jefftube99
Great version of a great song. Love the diiferent tone on those low notes on David's guitar near the end.
@beatniksvintage
Oh my gosh I love this!! Wish I could see them, do they ever tour the US anymore?
@benbunny1970
Just love this…
@clivelee5708
Just recently been introduced to this band by a good friend phenomenal
@anthonypauls7218
what a tune!