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
Go Man Go
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I called out but she wouldn't answer, oh, I don't know
She's changed ever since I met her
New friend but I won't forget her, can't let her go
I don't believe that's all she needs now
She used to have big dreams but somehow
They seem to mean less everyday
She wants to throw it all away
Could you still feel that way?
Should we start a new romance?
I watched them walking home together
Even on their own she never talks much at all
I don't know what she sees in you, boy
I think you're just another new toy, walk then you crawl
I love to watch you when you dance
Could you still feel that way?
Should we start a new romance?
Here comes my go-go dancer
I called out but she wouldn't answer, oh, I don't know
She's changed ever since I met her
New friend, but I won't forget her, can't let her go
I don't believe that's all she needs now
She used to have big dreams but somehow
They seem to mean less everyday
She wants to throw it all away
I love to watch you when you dance
The Wedding Present's song "Go-Go Dancer" tells the story of a man who is deeply in love with a go-go dancer. He acknowledges that their relationship has changed as the woman has become distant and unresponsive to his attempts to reach out to her. He describes her as having lost her sense of ambition and being willing to throw her life away. The man watches as she walks home with another man, whom he sees as a mere toy for her. Despite all of this, he still loves to watch her dance and wonders if he should try to start a new romance with her.
At its core, "Go-Go Dancer" is a song about unrequited love and the feeling of being at a loss when a relationship changes unexpectedly. The go-go dancer represents a sort of ideal for the man, and he is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she is not responding to him as she used to. He sees her loss of ambition as a sign that she has given up on herself, which could also be interpreted as a metaphor for their relationship. The song's chorus, which repeats the phrase "I love to watch you when you dance," highlights the man's fixation on the go-go dancer and his inability to let go.
Many fans of The Wedding Present have speculated that "Go-Go Dancer" is actually about the band's frontman David Gedge's own experiences with unrequited love. Gedge has never confirmed this, but it is clear that the song is deeply personal and emotionally charged. The lyrics are raw and honest, and they capture the sense of longing that comes with loving someone who does not love you back.
Line by Line Meaning
Here comes my go-go dancer
I am excited to see my go-go dancer and share my time with her.
I called out but she wouldn't answer, oh, I don't know
I tried to connect with her but I don't understand why she hesitated to respond to me.
She's changed ever since I met her
She is not the same person since I met her, and I am not sure how to handle this change.
New friend but I won't forget her, can't let her go
She is a new friend, but I cannot forget about her and do not want to lose her.
I don't believe that's all she needs now
I doubt that what she wants or has is all that she really needs.
She used to have big dreams but somehow
She once had bold aspirations, but something has caused her to lose some of that drive.
They seem to mean less everyday
Her dreams and goals mean less and less to her every day that passes.
She wants to throw it all away
She wants to give up on her dreams and goals completely.
I love to watch you when you dance
I enjoy seeing her dance and be happy.
Could you still feel that way?
Do you still feel the same way about me that you used to?
Should we start a new romance?
Should we consider starting a new romantic relationship together?
I watched them walking home together
I observed her and another person walking home together.
Even on their own she never talks much at all
She does not speak very much even when she is alone or with someone else.
I don't know what she sees in you, boy
I do not understand why she is attracted to the other person.
I think you're just another new toy, walk then you crawl
I believe that she may view the other person as just another temporary interest that will not last long.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: GEDGE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind