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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thanks
The Wedding Present Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And he told me something
About last weekend, he knows your new boyfriend
(He said he saw it coming)
And those letters I wrote, so now I know
What you do with them
Well of course he looked, you sliced me up
And then showed it to him
He's changed around the posters on your wall
And finished all but one glass of your wine
His head's been on the pillows that I bought
And now he's seen me say, "I love you" all those times
And the old photos in the silly clothes
There must be much more
God, the poems I sent and that massive dent
I left in your door
I don't want them back, you can burn the lot
I just feel betrayed
Well it's been this long and all the flesh has gone
But the bones remain
He's changed around the posters on your wall
And finished all but one glass of your wine
His head's been on the pillows that I bought
And now he's seen me say, "I love you" all those times
I still can't get mad at you, no matter how I try
I still can't get mad at you, no matter how I try
The Wedding Present's "Thanks" is a heart-breaking song about a painful breakup. The singer bumps into Joe, who tells him about seeing his ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend. The singer then reveals that his ex-girlfriend showed the new boyfriend the letters he wrote to her, and sliced him up. He goes on to describe the things he left behind at her place, like old photos and poems, and how hurt he feels about her betraying his trust. Despite everything, he cannot get mad at her, no matter how much he tries.
At its core, "Thanks" is about the pain of betrayal and the inability to let go of someone you still love. The lyrics are visceral and raw, with the singer laying bare his emotions for all to see. The use of specific details, like the posters on the wall and the wine glasses, give the song a sense of realism and make the emotions feel all the more real.
Line by Line Meaning
I bumped into Joe on Victoria Road
I met someone named Joe while walking down Victoria Road.
And he told me something
Joe revealed a piece of information to me.
About last weekend, he knows your new boyfriend
Joe knows about your new partner who was with you last weekend.
(He said he saw it coming)
(Joe had an inkling that this would happen.)
And those letters I wrote, so now I know
You read the letters I wrote to you, and now I am aware.
What you do with them
I am now aware of what you have done with my letters.
Well of course he looked, you sliced me up
It is only natural that he looked at the letters, even though it hurts me.
And then showed it to him
You even showed him the letters, adding to my pain.
He's changed around the posters on your wall
Your new partner has rearranged the posters on your wall.
And finished all but one glass of your wine
Your partner has drunk all but one glass of wine at your place.
His head's been on the pillows that I bought
He has used the pillows that I had bought for you.
And now he's seen me say, "I love you" all those times
Your partner has seen the messages of love I sent you.
And the old photos in the silly clothes
Your old photos, when we were happy, while wearing silly clothes.
There must be much more
There were definitely more happy memories that we shared.
God, the poems I sent and that massive dent
I wrote you poems and even left a dent in your door during our happy times.
I left in your door
I still remember the dent I made on your door.
I don't want them back, you can burn the lot
You can get rid of all the things I left for you, I do not want them back.
I just feel betrayed
Despite everything, I feel betrayed by your actions.
Well it's been this long and all the flesh has gone
Despite the passage of time, I still can't let go of the memories we shared.
But the bones remain
The memories of our relationship still linger in my mind.
I still can't get mad at you, no matter how I try
Despite everything that has happened, I still cannot bring myself to be angry with you.
I still can't get mad at you, no matter how I try
No matter how much I try, I am still unable to feel anger towards you.
Contributed by Jason T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.