The Wedding Present are an indie rock group formed in Leeds, England in 198… Read Full Bio ↴The Wedding Present are an indie rock group formed in Leeds, England in 1984. They evolved from the ashes of The Lost Pandas. Their music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and The Go-Betweens, to more varied forms. Throughout their career, they have been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band's only constant member.

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

Dreamworld
The Wedding Present Lyrics

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I don't know how many times that I've tried to warn you
How many times I've heard you laugh and say,
"Underneath it all, he's okay"

And how many times have you rang and sworn
You'd given him one last chance and he let you down
But then he'd call and you'd go back round

You know I still care because you only have to phone me
And I'll be over there

Why can't you see just what he's doing to you
Is it all because of him? Well of course it is
And I hate to see you like this

You just won't understand
You don't want to listen do you?
Just because it's not what you like to hear
You ask me, and to me it's clear

You know I still care because you only have to phone me
And I'll be over there to lick your wounds

You know I'll always be here for you
You say you feel left out
Well I know exactly how to cure you

You just can't go on pretending
You just can't go on pretending
You just can't go on pretending
You just can't go on pretending
I'm on my way right over there to lick your wounds

You know I'll always be here for you
You say you feel left out
Well I know exactly how to cure you
You know you make me want to shout

Oh just tell me what is new, girl

You say you feel left out
Well you are living in a dreamworld

Overall Meaning

The Wedding Present's "Dreamworld" is a song about a friend who is in a destructive relationship with a partner who continuously disappoints her. The lyrics express the concern of the friend for the woman, warning her about the potential damage the relationship could inflict upon her. The song’s narrator has tried repeatedly to caution her friend, even after she's turned down their advice. While the friend continues to return to her partner, the singer passionately reminds her that she only has to call, and they will be there to support her no matter what.

The song's refrain, "You just can't go on pretending," insists that the friend can no longer ignore the reality of the situation, and that it is time for her to face the truth. The belief here is that the friend is living in a "dreamworld" - a space where the relationship is all she can see, and she is neglecting every other important aspect of her life. The dreamworld here likely speaks to the friend's romanticization of her relationship, and her inability to see the toxicity that is apparent to the singer.

The song addresses not only the negative impact of destructive relationships but also the difficulty of trying to convince someone to leave one. The final verse sees the singer expressing impatience with the stubbornness of the friend and longing to hear something new. The song ends with the singer reassuring the friend once more that they will always be there for her, but it may be a long journey before the friend is ready to break free.

Line by Line Meaning

I don't know how many times that I've tried to warn you
I have warned you many times, but you don't seem to listen.

How many times I've heard you laugh and say,"Underneath it all, he's okay"
I've heard you say he's fine despite all the warning I've given you.

And how many times have you rang and sworn You'd given him one last chance and he let you downBut then he'd call and you'd go back round
You have given him chances before and he keeps disappointing you, yet you still go back to him.

You know I still care because you only have to phone meAnd I'll be over there
I still care about you, and I'm always ready to be there for you when you call.

Why can't you see just what he's doing to youIs it all because of him? Well of course it isAnd I hate to see you like this
I can see that he is causing you harm, and it's all because of him. It pains me to see you go through this.

You just won't understandYou don't want to listen do you?Just because it's not what you like to hearYou ask me, and to me it's clear
You refuse to understand or listen to my advice, only because it's not what you want to hear. But to me, it's very clear.

You know I still care because you only have to phone meAnd I'll be over there to lick your wounds
I care about you, and I'm always ready to be there for you to comfort you when you call.

You know I'll always be here for youYou say you feel left outWell I know exactly how to cure you
I will always be here for you, and I know how to make you feel better when you feel excluded.

You just can't go on pretendingYou just can't go on pretendingYou just can't go on pretendingYou just can't go on pretendingI'm on my way right over there to lick your wounds
You can't keep pretending that everything is okay when it's not. I'm coming over to comfort you.

You know I'll always be here for youYou say you feel left outWell I know exactly how to cure youYou know you make me want to shout
I will always be here to support you when you feel excluded. You make me feel frustrated when you refuse to listen to my advice.

Oh just tell me what is new, girlYou say you feel left outWell you are living in a dreamworld
Tell me what's new because feeling excluded from someone who keeps letting you down is not new. You're living in a dreamworld if you expect things to change without taking action.

Contributed by Sophie I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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