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
Lovenest
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But just the other day I thought you said you slept alone
And yes, I knew that laughter, okay now I see
You wouldn't even know him if it hadn't been for me
Sometimes in the fading light
I can't help thinking back to, well, the way we were
And then I start feeling guilty lying next to her
I know and it can't be right
Pretending that its you
You still won't go away
Pretending that its you
You still won't go away
If you write again perhaps you shouldn't send it here
It's just that I don't really want your letters to appear
Oh no, I just think she might
Forget I ever said that I'm just being scared
I told her all about you and I don't think she even cared
I know but its not all right
Pretending that its you
You still won't go away
Pretending that its you
You still won't go away
And does the thought of leaving him bring you to tears?
I bet you never felt the same about me all those years
Well you know just what it's like
Pretending that its you
You still won't go away
Pretending that its you
You still won't go away
The Wedding Present's song, Lovenest, is a complex one that takes on themes of infidelity and the complicated emotions that come with it. The song's narrator confronts a former lover, who he suspects of cheating on him with another man. The singer's suspicions are confirmed when he hears "another voice" on the phone, despite the fact that the former lover had claimed to be sleeping alone. The singer knows the person on the other end of the line and notes that the former lover "wouldn't even know him if it hadn't been for me."
The singer then admits to feeling guilty about lying next to his current partner, but also consumed with thoughts of his former lover. He pretends that his current partner is his former lover, but even that doesn't make the feelings go away. The song ends with a question, which could be interpreted as the singer asking the former lover if she regrets cheating on him or if she ever truly loved him at all.
Line by Line Meaning
I heard another voice this morning on the phone
I am aware that you have been talking to another man
But just the other day I thought you said you slept alone
You told me that you were single when we last spoke
And yes, I knew that laughter, okay now I see
I recognise the sound of his laughter now that I think about it
You wouldn't even know him if it hadn't been for me
The only reason you know this man is because I introduced you to him
Sometimes in the fading light
Occasionally, as the evening comes to an end
I can't help thinking back to, well, the way we were
I often reminisce about the happy moments we shared in the past
And then I start feeling guilty lying next to her
I feel ashamed when I am in bed with my current partner, knowing that I am thinking about you
I know and it can't be right
I am aware that what I am doing is wrong
Pretending that its you
Imagining that my current partner is you
You still won't go away
I cannot seem to forget about you
If you write again perhaps you shouldn't send it here
If you try to contact me, please do not send your correspondence to my current address
It's just that I don't really want your letters to appear
I do not want my current partner to find your letters and become upset
Oh no, I just think she might
I am worried that my current partner might discover my past relationship with you
Forget I ever said that I'm just being scared
Please ignore what I told you earlier, I am just afraid of getting caught
I told her all about you and I don't think she even cared
I mentioned you to my current partner, but she did not seem to show much interest
I know but its not all right
I am aware that what I am doing is not morally acceptable
And does the thought of leaving him bring you to tears?
Are you sad at the idea of breaking up with this other man?
I bet you never felt the same about me all those years
I suspect that you did not have the same strong feelings for me as I did for you during our past relationship
Well you know just what it's like
You can understand what it feels like to miss someone you used to be involved with
Pretending that its you
Imagining that my current partner is you
You still won't go away
I cannot seem to forget about you
Contributed by Hailey L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.