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
Don’t Laugh
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But then I guess everybody'got to live somewhere
Four tins of paint made this our home
Oh I got less on the walls than I got in my hair
When we moved in here the dog was still a pup
Oh do you remember the time he chewed those curtains that we found?
I laughed the day you put them up
The day you left I tore them down
I touched your skin last night
But your half of the bed was empty
And so I guess I must have dreamt it
I don't know why
Don't laugh, don't even try
I touched your skin last night
I didn't fall asleep til morning
And then the next day I couldn't stop yawning
Oh how I try
And these bedroom walls are paper thin
You took a side in every neighbor's row
And those kids next door make such a din
But sitting here it seems ever so quiet now
The lyrics to The Wedding Present's song "Don't Laugh" paint a picture of a person trying to adjust to living alone after their partner has left. At the start of the song, the singer reflects on how they never thought they could live on their own and how they made their home with four tins of paint. They remember when they first moved in with their partner and how they used to laugh about their dog chewing the curtains. But since their partner's departure, the singer can't help but feel lonely as they lie in bed, remembering how they touched their partner's skin the previous night, but their side of the bed was empty. The song conveys a sense of melancholy as the singer tries to move on, but the memories of their partner and how things used to be keep creeping up on them.
The lyrics of the song also include descriptions of the singer's new living conditions. They note how the bedroom walls are thin, and how they can hear their neighbors fighting. The noise from the kids next door is also a constant nuisance. But even though the singer acknowledges how disruptive their surroundings can be, they still find comfort in the quietness of their own space.
Overall, the lyrics to "Don't Laugh" are a poignant reflection on how hard it can be to start over after a breakup. The singer is trying to move on and adjust to their new life, but it's clear that they're struggling to let go. The memories of their ex continue to haunt them, preventing them from fully embracing their present circumstances.
Line by Line Meaning
I never thought I could live here on my own
Initially, I thought I couldn't cope on my own in this place without you
But then I guess everybody'got to live somewhere
Well, everyone has to live somewhere, so here I am
Four tins of paint made this our home
We made this house our home with only four tins of paint
Oh I got less on the walls than I got in my hair
I got more paint on my hair than on the walls
When we moved in here the dog was still a pup
We moved in here when our dog was still a young one
Oh do you remember the time he chewed those curtains that we found?
Do you recall the time our dog chewed the curtains we found in this house?
I laughed the day you put them up
On that day, I laughed as you put them up despite our pooch's antics
The day you left I tore them down
However, the day you left, I ripped them apart
Don't laugh, don't even sigh
I'm pleading with you not to even crack a smile or make any sounds
I touched your skin last night
Yesterday night, I reached out and felt your skin
But your half of the bed was empty
It was strange as your side of our bed was vacant
And so I guess I must have dreamt it
Therefore, I assume it was a dream that you were next to me in bed
I don't know why
I cannot explain the reason
Don't laugh, don't even try
Please, don't even attempt to ridicule me about it
I touched your skin last night
Again, I had the sensation of touching your skin yesterday night
I didn't fall asleep til morning
However, I was unable to sleep until the next day's morning
And then the next day I couldn't stop yawning
The following day, I couldn't stop yawning and was overcome with fatigue
Oh how I try
I desperately try to forget about you and move on
And these bedroom walls are paper thin
These walls separating me from the outside world and my neighbors are flimsy and easy to hear through
You took a side in every neighbor's row
You always had an opinion and picked a side in each dispute with our neighbors
And those kids next door make such a din
The children next door are making a lot of noise
But sitting here it seems ever so quiet now
Nevertheless, sitting here alone in my thoughts, everything seems quiet now
Lyrics © A SIDE MUSIC LLC D/B/A MODERN WORKS MUSIC PUBLISHING
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Michael McNeill
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