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
Click Click
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It hasn't seemed like that till now
I it's as if you almost were still mine somehow
I hope you've realized just how I'm being so civilized
But it's nearly time I went
We've got one last chance to have an argument
And watching you walk back to your car
Was the lowest point of my life so far
That I'm still desperately in love with you
And darling that's all I can think of
It'll get easier every day, well I'll be five thousand miles away
And I'm good at hiding pain but now I really should get on that plane
And watching you walk back to your car
Was the lowest point of my life so far
As if you still could ever do a single thing
That'd make me hate you
The Wedding Present's "Click Click" is a heart-wrenching song about a breakup. The singer of the song is talking to their ex-partner, who they are soon to part ways with for good. As they are saying goodbye, the emotions of the situation hit the singer hard. They confess that, until now, they didn't really believe that the breakup was real. It's almost as if they are still pretending that their ex-partner is still theirs. The singer tries to maintain their composure, explaining that they are being "civilized", but in truth, they are barely holding it together. The singer knows they have one last chance for an argument with their partner but it seems too trivial, too late. The low point of their life is seeing their ex-partner walk away for the last time.
In the chorus, the singer conveys the pain of the breakup. They acknowledge that it won't be easy to be apart from their ex-partner and are still very much in love with them. However, they understand that they must go, no matter how much it will hurt. The singer tries to convince themselves that it will get easier, that they can hide the pain they feel, and that they must leave now. The singer again relives the low point of their life, watching their ex-partner walk away.
"Click Click" is a poignant song about a very relatable human experience. The feelings of denial, sadness, and desperation that come with a breakup are all expertly conveyed in this song. The chorus's melody is especially memorable, capturing the raw emotions that the singer is feeling. The lyrics and overall tone of "Click Click" expertly convey the complexities that come with ending a relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
You ask me how I feel, well suddenly this is all for real
Now that the wedding is happening, I finally realize the gravity of the situation.
It hasn't seemed like that till now
I didn't think this wedding was ever going to happen.
I it's as if you almost were still mine somehow
I still feel like you belong to me and not to my friend who you're marrying.
I hope you've realized just how I'm being so civilized
I'm acting maturely and not causing any drama, despite my feelings for you.
But it's nearly time I went
I need to leave soon.
We've got one last chance to have an argument
Before I leave, I want to argue with you one last time.
And watching you walk back to your car
Seeing you leave is the worst feeling in the world for me.
Was the lowest point of my life so far
I've never felt so low in my life as I do right now.
Don't stare into my eyes, I couldn't bear for you to realize
I don't want you to see that I'm still hopelessly in love with you.
That I'm still desperately in love with you
My love for you is still as strong as ever.
And darling that's all I can think of
You're the only thing on my mind right now.
It'll get easier every day, well I'll be five thousand miles away
I hope that being far away from you will make it easier for me to move on.
And I'm good at hiding pain but now I really should get on that plane
I'm good at concealing my pain, but I need to leave now.
As if you still could ever do a single thing
I know that no matter what you do, I could never hate you.
That'd make me hate you
My love for you is unconditional and cannot be swayed by your actions.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: DARREN BELK, DAVID GEDGE, PAUL DORRINGTON, SIMON SMITH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind