The Wedding Present
This rapid-fire band of jangly punk/poppers formed in Leeds in
1984. Outside of the hermetic world of John Peel's Festive
50 (where they were forever kings), The Wedding Present rarely
received their critical due in their late 80's heyday.
Snobbery dictated that they were routinely derided as grey,
provincial and ordinaire, perennially churning out
dirges about adolescent infatuations cruelly terminated in wet
bus shelters.
They did do that, true, but a fragile, spectral beauty was
oft conjured up between the rabidly thrashed guitars and David
Gedge's halting, gruff bark of a vocal.
1990's 10" release Corduroy bore the legend
"All The Songs Sound The Same" in reference to
frequent criticism levelled at the band's output.
During 1992, after signing to RCA, the band released a single
for each month of the year. Most went Top 20 in England.
David Gedge put The Wedding Present on hold in 1997 to
concentrate on a solo project which ultimately led to him
forming another band called Cinerama. They released three albums
before he returned to The Wedding Present to release a new LP, Take
Fountain, in 2005.
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