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
Rocket
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To Abigail Rocket Blast
And then they lined you up
For a HolIywood movie cast.
With ail them big cigars and motor cars
You thought you was a movie star
But Abigail Blast you sure are changing fast.
When you-a you-a you were knocking
Because
because
because the silver screen
Is what a movie queen lives for.
They gave you minks.and dreams
In pinks and greens
You threw away your old blue jeans
But Abigail Blast they're using you.
Come on
come on
come on
now Rocket
I'm gonna launch you soon
Come on now Rocket
You're gonna reach the moon
You're gonna take off soon
You know your time will come
I'll give you three
two
one.
Now Rocket
I'm gonna make you soon.
I saw you sitting in the soda store
Where all the cast off stardust falls
Where they write their names on the floor
And hang their photographs on the walls.
Oh
but to me you still got sweet sixteen
Written on your old blue jeans
I'm getting rid of Abigail Blast.
I'll call you Rocket forget the past.
Come on
come on
come on
come on
now Rocket
I'm gonna launch you soon.
Come on
now Rocket
The Wedding Present’s “Rocket” is a song that captures the ups and downs of fame and the desire for success in the entertainment industry. The track vividly describes the character of Abigail Rocket Blast, who goes from aspiring actor to a potential movie star. Abigail is initially hopeful when she changes her name and goes to auditions, but as she rises to fame, she begins to lose touch with herself and her past. The lyrics suggest that she has become another victim of Hollywood superficiality, where she is reduced to a commodity that is used and discarded.
The song's lyrics touch upon themes of identity, ambition, and disillusionment. Abigail's transformation from an unknown aspiring artist to a Hollywood product reflects the journey of many celebrities. She is seduced by the glamour of the movie industry, given material possessions, and promised stardom, but in the process, she loses her sense of self. The singer of the song suggests that Abigail can escape this fate by returning to her original name, which symbolizes her roots and true identity, and choosing her own destiny instead of being a tool for the movie industry.
Overall, the song critiques the culture of stardom and success in the entertainment industry, suggesting that it is a superficial and dangerous game that can rob people of their true selves in exchange for the fleeting pleasures of fame and fortune.
Line by Line Meaning
Well-a well-a you changed your name
You altered your original identity
To Abigail Rocket Blast
You rebranded yourself as Abigail Rocket Blast
And then they lined you up
They selected you
For a HolIywood movie cast.
For casting in a big-budget film
With ail them big cigars and motor cars
Amidst the grandeur of big cars and cigars
You thought you was a movie star
You considered yourself a celebrity
But Abigail Blast you sure are changing fast.
You are quickly transforming into another person as Abigail Blast
When you-a you-a you were knocking
When you consistently visited
At the agent's door
At the door of an agent
Because
Due to a reason
because the silver screen
Because of the movies
Is what a movie queen lives for.
It's the ultimate goal of a movie queen
They gave you minks.and dreams
They presented you with luxurious furs and giant, ebullient aspirations
In pinks and greens
In various cheerful colors, ranging from pink to green
You threw away your old blue jeans
You discarded your previous lifestyle for something more glamorous
But Abigail Blast they're using you.
But as Abigail Blast, others are taking advantage of you
Come on come on come on now Rocket
Encouraging her to launch herself as a new identity, Rocket
I'm gonna launch you soon
I'll help you launch your new identity soon
You're gonna reach the moon
You'll be famous and successful
You're gonna take off soon
You'll soon achieve great things
You know your time will come
You know you will reach great heights one day
I'll give you three two one.
I'll give you the countdown to your success
I saw you sitting in the soda store
I remember seeing you sitting in a small restaurant
Where all the cast off stardust falls
Where previous actors who failed to achieve stardom often visit
Where they write their names on the floor
Where they indicate their presence by leaving their written names on the floor
And hang their photographs on the walls.
And display their pictures on the walls
Oh but to me you still got sweet sixteen
But you still appear young and naive to me
Written on your old blue jeans
Reflecting on her previous image of wearing blue jeans
I'm getting rid of Abigail Blast.
I'm erasing your Abigail Blast identity
I'll call you Rocket forget the past.
I'll refer to you as Rocket and encourage you to ignore your previous life
Come on come on come on come on now Rocket
Encouraging her again to launch herself as Rocket
I'm gonna launch you soon.
I'll help you launch your new identity very soon
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: MICHAEL DONALD CHAPMAN, NICHOLAS BARRY CHINN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind