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
Swimming Pools Movie Stars
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You walk past me again I'll try and say "hello"
It doesn't look like you are here with anyone
Maybe they've already gone, oh I don't know
I've thought of nothing else today
The things I'd love to say if I got the chance
And oh, how grateful I would be
And that's because tonight
I've seen you in a different light
Bunny girls and motor cars
Swimming pools and movie stars
Just don't amuse me anymore
And I'm not even sure I liked them then
I feel like I'm awakening
And I'll do anything, please just say when!
Oh it's all because tonight
I've seen you in a different light
Bunny girls and motor cars
Swimming pools and movie stars
They can keep it
They can keep it all
If only you would call
Tonight I've seen you in a different light
Bunny girls and motor cars
Swimming pools and movie stars
They can keep it
They can keep it all
If only you would call
Yes they can keep it
They can keep it all
If only you would call
The Wedding Present's song "Swimming Pools Movie Stars" is a love song exploring the idea of finding a new perspective on life and love after meeting someone special. The song's protagonist has been pondering about the ways to approach the person that they have been admiring from afar, but they haven't had the courage to say "hello" yet. However, after seeing the object of their affection at a distance, among bunny girls, motor cars, swimming pools, and movie stars, the singer realizes that these superficial things don't interest them anymore. They only want to connect with this person.
The song's lyrics are full of longing and hopeful anticipation. The singer has been dreaming about meeting this person for a long time, and now they see that their passions and interests have shifted. The verse "And I'll do anything, please just say when!" highlights the singer's willingness to make the first move and put themselves out there. They are ready to abandon their old ways and be vulnerable for the chance to start a relationship with this person.
In a broader sense, "Swimming Pools Movie Stars" speaks to the idea of personal growth and reinvention. The singer has had an epiphany that there might be something more important and meaningful than the materialistic things they used to value. Falling in love is the catalyst for this kind of transformation, but it is also a universal experience. The slow tempo and the dreamy quality of the music emphasize the introspective nature of the lyrics, making this song a poignant reflection on love and change.
Line by Line Meaning
I'll stand over here and when
I'll be waiting here until you pass by
You walk past me again I'll try and say "hello"
When I see you, I plan to say hello
It doesn't look like you are here with anyone
I can't see anybody with you right now
Maybe they've already gone, oh I don't know
Maybe the people you were with are not around anymore, I don't really know
I've thought of nothing else today
All day, I've been thinking about you
The things I'd love to say if I got the chance
I've imagined all the things I would say if I had the opportunity to talk to you
And oh, how grateful I would be
I would be so grateful
If you could just give me a second glance
If you looked at me for just a second
And that's because tonight
The reason for this is that tonight
I've seen you in a different light
I've seen a different aspect of you
Bunny girls and motor cars
Women dressed up in bunny costumes and fancy cars
Swimming pools and movie stars
Famous people and luxurious swimming pools
Just don't amuse me anymore
I'm not amused anymore
And I'm not even sure I liked them then
I'm not even sure I enjoyed them in the first place
I feel like I'm awakening
I feel like I'm awakening to something new
And I'll do anything, please just say when!
I'll do anything you want, just tell me what to do!
They can keep it
They can have it
They can keep it all
They can keep everything
If only you would call
If only you would give me a call
Yes they can keep it
Yes, they can have it
If only you would call
If only you would give me a call
Contributed by Micah K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Extreme Weather
25 years and way before. Thanks David and all crews
vanillaorchid
I love this song.
John Renick
Thanks for putting this up I was 22 when I saw this tour come to nyc
Ethan Kolasinski
Thanks for posting!!!
sizone
i can tell this is music. please post it at 40kbps.