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
Felicity
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When they took it away from here
Honesty that could not have been much more than me
One must be strong for without the weather will change
But within remain unchanged the things for which we strive
For happiness, I guess, when you lay it on the ground
Felicity, I guess so
Now I'm in a stupor
Behind the scenes which say
This was is OK
The clarity of my eyes
Shines both in memories of past victories
Fine scenes shining while, shining white
Felicity, I guess so
Felicity, I guess so
Take me to the bridge now
Happiness
Oh oh happiness
Oh oh happiness
This is the sound of happiness
In The Wedding Present's song "Felicity," the lyrics explore the themes of loss, change, and reflection. The opening stanza features the singer objecting to something being taken away, something that represented honesty or an essential part of their identity- "Honesty that could not have been much more than me." They lament that resilience is necessary for life, but it doesn't mean that what they strive for remains unchanged. Happiness is referenced, but the way it's presented- "when you lay it on the ground" - suggests something that is fragile and delicate.
As the song progresses and moves into the chorus, the singer repeats the word "Felicity" twice, which means the quality of being happy. The repetition of the word indicates the singer may be trying to convince themselves of this feeling, even if they don't feel it.
The final stanza of the song returns to the theme of happiness. The singer reflects on triumphs past and present, and the line "This is the sound of happiness" suggests that perhaps despite the challenges and loss, happiness can still be achieved.
Overall, the lyrics of "Felicity" utilize the concept of happiness in multiple contexts, suggesting it's something that can be lost, is often difficult, but nonetheless is sought after.
Line by Line Meaning
I objected
I disagreed with something
When they took it away from here
When it was removed (from this place)
Honesty that could not have been much more than me
I was very honest
One must be strong for without the weather will change
One needs to be strong as things can change
But within remain unchanged the things for which we strive
However, the things we aim for don't change inside us
For happiness, I guess, when you lay it on the ground
Maybe happiness can be found on the ground
Felicity, I guess so
Yes, I suppose that's felicity (happiness)
Now I'm in a stupor
Now I feel bewildered
Behind the scenes which say
Behind what's happening
This was is OK
What happened is okay
The clarity of my eyes
The clearness of my vision
Shines both in memories of past victories
Shines in my good memories
Fine scenes shining while, shining white
Beautiful scenes shining, bright white
Take me to the bridge now
Bring me to the bridge (of the song) now
Happiness
Being happy
Oh oh happiness
Expressing happiness
This is the sound of happiness
This song is happy
Contributed by Alex P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Martin Black
Not a bad cover, but really, OJ's version is truly sublime.
Ghostlight X
I find both are absolutely excellent.
Slammerworm1
1:58-2:08. Ten seconds of blissful, joyous thrash which always makes me smile ("..the sound of happiness" indeed). Didn't even know it was an Orange Juice song.
bedsitter1982
Thanks for uploading this. One of the very few really great cover versions.
bedsitter1982
one of the best covers ever
Mark Collins
takes me back, This is my first memory of them. The sound of happiness
Balmaha Rifles
Cool! I recorded peel back then and got this and others. Then got the GB album when it came out.
Mark Collins
awsome. Brings back so many memories lol
Derek Wilson
The Friday after 4pm version. Lovely songs are always lovely.
Michael Fredriksson
still sounds ace