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
Blue Eyes
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But I couldn't possibly love you anymore
Oh, it's been ages
Let's not do that again
I think you said that when you wrote to me
But I'm not as certain as I ought to be
I lost the pages
It didn't seem to matter then
But there was so much I could not accept
I watched some film round Alexandra's place
But I kept seeing your blue eyes in her face
I tried to call you
You must have left by then
And you know that stuff about your being here?
I changed my mind, no, I just want you near
I don't have to own you
I just want you home again
There's a lot of things I used to say
But that all changes from today
In The Wedding Present's song "Blue Eyes," the songwriter expresses deep regret over a lost love. The opening lines suggest that the songwriter has never expressed their love fully and that they couldn't possibly love the person any more than they already do. They acknowledge that it's been a long time since they last spoke and they don't want to repeat the past. The songwriter is uncertain about the other person's feelings because they lost the pages of a letter that was sent to them. However, they realize that it didn't matter then because they were blind to the value of the connection they had.
Later in the song, the songwriter reveals that they tried to move on and forget their lost love by watching a film with someone new. But they couldn't escape the memories and kept seeing their blue eyes in that person's face. The songwriter then attempts to reach out to the lost love but finds out that they've already left. The songwriter changes their mind about claiming ownership of the lost love but instead simply wants them to come home again. The final lines of the song suggest that the songwriter has grown and evolved since the past and is ready for a new chapter.
The song explores themes of regret, longing, and the desire for re-connection. It captures the universal human experience of looking back on past relationships with a fresh perspective and wishing for a second chance.
Line by Line Meaning
I don't think I've ever mentioned this before
I might have missed saying this earlier
But I couldn't possibly love you anymore
My love for you is beyond what words can express
Oh, it's been ages
It feels like it's been an eternity since we last spoke
Let's not do that again
I don't want to go through that pain again
I think you said that when you wrote to me
I struggle to recollect if that's what you wrote
But I'm not as certain as I ought to be
I'm not sure I remember the exact words you used
I lost the pages
The pages with your words disappeared, and I can't find them
It didn't seem to matter then
At that time, it did not hold as much significance
There's a lot of things I should have kept
There are many things that I regret not preserving
But there was so much I could not accept
But sadly, there were many things that I couldn't come to terms with
I watched some film round Alexandra's place
I saw a movie at Alexandra's house
But I kept seeing your blue eyes in her face
All I could think of was you - your blue eyes, your smile, your essence
I tried to call you
I made an attempt to reach you through a call
You must have left by then
You might have already gone by the time I tried to contact you
And you know that stuff about your being here?
Remember when you said you are coming here?
I changed my mind, no, I just want you near
I changed my earlier decision; I want you close to me
I don't have to own you
I don't have to claim possession over you
I just want you home again
I want you back in my life again
There's a lot of things I used to say
There were many things I vocalized earlier
But that all changes from today
But everything is different now, starting from today
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: GEDGE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ash B
LOVE this song!
Cal Lat Man 1963
Before there was britpop there was the mighty wedding present. They did the groundwork.
no_marcy
His vocal is one and only.
HenryT22
not in a good way for me
Roy Fearon
@HenryT22 tut tut!
sizone
Shades of pixies guitar stylings... or so I imagine. Great track, great album.
JT P
sizone
Another Unforgettable Classic !!!!
Only 20thou views , I mean really ,.......... really ????
Von Beardo
Reminds me of My Dad Is Dead.
This is excellent!
Petter Leijon
amazing
Bussarin Boi
The legend that is Gedge