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).
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Snapshots
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My life here isn't so bad, I'm almost embarrassed to say
When I think of all the pain you had to go through
I was going insane thinking well what can I do
I have no right to feel self-pity like this
It all still seems unreal, baby I miss
The things you say, the friend you became
And that's
Beautiful forever
How strange to think you'll never
Have to worry about growing old, about
Counting wrinkles and the winter cold, again
In the middle of the night there's hardly a sound
As if everything's all right and you're still around
You were young and strong and completely carefree
And it seems so wrong that you'll always be
Beautiful forever
How strange to think you'll never
Have to worry about growing old, about
Counting wrinkles and the winter cold, again
The Wedding Present's song "Snapshots" is a beautiful tribute to a lost friend. The song presents a poignant portrayal of a loved one who passed away at a young age. The singer acknowledges their own blessings while honoring the beautiful memory of their friend. The chorus, "Beautiful forever," encapsulates the idea of a life tragically cut short but also immortalized. The lyrics paint a picture of the peacefulness that can come with acceptance of loss, while retaining the love and fondness for the person who is missed.
The singer reflects on their own life and realizes that they have nothing to complain about, knowing the pain and struggles their friend went through. The lines "It all still seems unreal, baby I miss / The things you say, the friend you became," express the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia and grief. The song ends with a careful meditation on the idea that the friend will never grow old and weary: "How strange to think you'll never / Have to worry about growing old, about / Counting wrinkles and the winter cold, again." This line powerfully captures the theme of the song, that our departed loved ones are forever young in our memories.
Line by Line Meaning
I really don't have any right to complain in this way
I'm acknowledging that I should not feel sorry for myself or complain.
My life here isn't so bad, I'm almost embarrassed to say
My life is not terrible, and I feel almost ashamed to say that.
When I think of all the pain you had to go through
I think about the pain you had to endure.
I was going insane thinking well what can I do
I feel like I was losing my mind, wondering how I can help.
I have no right to feel self-pity like this
I acknowledge that I should not feel sorry for myself.
It all still seems unreal, baby I miss
Everything still feels like a dream, and I miss you so much.
The things you say, the friend you became
I remember the things you said and how close of a friend you were to me.
To me you'll always stay exactly the same
In my mind, you will always be the same person.
And that's
Beautiful forever
You will always be beautiful in my mind.
How strange to think you'll never
It's hard to believe that you will never
experience the things that come with aging.
Have to worry about growing old, about
You don't have to worry about getting older.
Counting wrinkles and the winter cold, again
You don't have to worry about getting wrinkles or feeling the cold of winter ever again.
In the middle of the night there's hardly a sound
During the night, there's barely any noise.
As if everything's all right and you're still around
It feels like everything is okay, and that you're still here with me.
You were young and strong and completely carefree
You were young, strong, and without a care in the world.
And it seems so wrong that you'll always be
It feels unfair that you'll always remain the same, while the rest of us age.
Contributed by Avery H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.