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
Drive
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Because I've only one thing on my mind
And I don't dare
Don't these bends hold any fear for you?
Well my friends are suddenly all left behind
But I don't care
If you're driving, I'll go
In fact I'd rather not know
Just tell me when we get there
You're fast, I have no doubt of it
It's a blast and I would go anywhere with you
Just say
Don't stop, don't even consider it
You're on top and girl that is just where I want you
To stay
If you're driving, I'll go
And I don't care where
In fact I'd rather not know
Just tell me when we get there
If you're driving, I'll go
And I don't care where
In fact I'd rather not know
Just tell me when we get there
If you're driving, I'll go
And I don't care where
In fact I'd rather not know
Just tell me when we get there
If you're driving, I'll go
And I don't care where
In fact I'd rather not know
Let's just go
The Wedding Present's song Drive is a poignant exploration of the complex emotions of a person who is willing to let go and allow someone else to take charge. The singer in the song seems to be struggling with being in control and is willing to surrender and let the other person drive. However, this surrender is driven by a singular focus on a specific idea or purpose, which is not revealed in the song, but it appears to be important.
The driving metaphors that permeate the song add to its significance and depth. The unrelenting pace of the music and the repeated lines further symbolize the urgency of the situation. There's a sense that the singer is being left behind by his/her friends or peers, but this doesn't affect the desire to let go and move fast.
The song's lyrics play with an idea of relinquishing control to someone else and, in doing so, discovering greater liberation. It taps into the fear we sometimes feel about being in the driver’s seat but also the allure of letting go and trusting someone else to guide us.
Line by Line Meaning
You drive, no, no, I want you to
I want you to drive because I have one thing on my mind.
Because I've only one thing on my mind
I'm focused on one thing and one thing only.
And I don't dare
I'm too scared to do it myself, hence I want you to drive.
Don't these bends hold any fear for you?
Aren't you afraid of these turns and curves while driving?
Well my friends are suddenly all left behind
I'm leaving my friends behind to be with you.
But I don't care
Even though I'm leaving my friends behind, it doesn't matter to me.
If you're driving, I'll go
I'm willing to go anywhere if you're the one driving.
And I don't care where
The destination doesn't matter to me as long as I'm with you.
In fact I'd rather not know
I don't even want to know where we're going.
Just tell me when we get there
I'll be satisfied just knowing when we've arrived.
You're fast, I have no doubt of it
I'm sure you're speeding and I love it.
It's a blast and I would go anywhere with you
Riding with you is so exciting, I'd go anywhere you wanted to take me.
Just say
Tell me what to do and I'll do it.
Don't stop, don't even consider it
Don't slow down or even think about stopping our adventure.
You're on top and girl that is just where I want you
You're in control and that's exactly where I want you to be.
To stay
I want you to stay in control and keep driving.
Let's just go
I'm excited to start this adventure and see where it takes us.
Contributed by Keira K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.