The Wedding Present are an indie rock group formed in Leeds, England in 198… Read Full Bio ↴The Wedding Present are an indie rock group formed in Leeds, England in 1984. They evolved from the ashes of The Lost Pandas. Their music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and The Go-Betweens, to more varied forms. Throughout their career, they have been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band's only constant member.

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

SHAKE IT
The Wedding Present Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I've been through this already
And I don't care what you've seen
I've changed so much since then
You want to take it steady, sure
But how long does that mean?!
Don't go home again

Why don't you keep your eyes closed

And just take a giant bite
What makes you so scared?
Well, I guessed he just supposed that
You'd be sleeping here tonight
I don't think he really cared

Now won't you please give in
And say you'll stay
You can't win if you won't play

Shake it, you've got to shake it
We've got to make it, make it tonight
Undress me, darling, caress me
I'll die unless we make it tonight

There's so much I need to tell you
But I just can't find the words
I've never felt like this before
And if I say "I love you"
You pretend that you've not heard
What are you waiting for?

Oh won't you please give in
And say you'll stay
You can't win if you won't play

Shake it, you've got to shake it
We've got to make it, make it tonight
Undress me, darling, caress me
I'll die unless we make it tonight

Shake it, you've got to shake it
We've got to make it, make it tonight

Undress me, darling, caress me
I'll die unless we make it tonight

Overall Meaning

The Wedding Present's song "Shake It" is a plea for a sexual encounter that is wrapped up in fear and anxiety. The singer is trying to convince their partner to let their guard down and take the plunge with them. The opening lines suggest that the singer has had some experience with this situation before, and is aware that their partner may have reservations. They've changed since their last encounter, but they're still the same person who wants to take things to the next level. The line "don't go home again" is a plea to their partner to stay and see things through.

The verse "why don't you keep your eyes closed and just take a giant bite, what makes you so scared?" suggests that their partner is faltering not because they don't want to continue, but because of their own fears and uncertainties. They may be afraid of the unknown or the potential consequences of giving in to their desires. The singer assures their partner that they shouldn't be scared, and that the other person in the scenario, who is briefly mentioned as "he," doesn't really matter.

The chorus is a repeated call to action, urging their partner to "shake it" and make the move towards physical connection. The line "undress me, darling, caress me" is a direct and sensual request that could be interpreted as both passionate and desperate. The verse "there's so much I need to tell you but I just can't find the words" suggests that the singer is caught up in a moment that is overwhelming and emotional, preventing them from expressing themselves fully. The song ends with yet another call to "make it tonight," a plea that underlines the sense of urgency that runs throughout the track.

Line by Line Meaning

I've been through this already
I've experienced something similar before

And I don't care what you've seen
I'm not interested in hearing about your past experiences

I've changed so much since then
I'm a different person now

You want to take it steady, sure
You want to proceed with caution

But how long does that mean?!
But how long will that take?

Don't go home again
Don't leave yet

Why don't you keep your eyes closed
Why don't you let go and take a chance?

And just take a giant bite
And take a leap of faith

What makes you so scared?
What's holding you back?

Well, I guessed he just supposed that
Well, I assume he thought

You'd be sleeping here tonight
You'd stay over tonight