Music IS What Matters: The Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT are a British Indie rock group based in Leeds, England which was formed back in 1985 and led by Vocalist and Guitarist DAVID GEDGE who's the band's only constant member. Other original members back then were KEITH GREGORY on Bass, PETER SOLOWKA on Guitar and SHAUN CHARMAN on Drums. The band emerged from the ashes of THE LOST PANDAS which fell apart in 1984 when singer David Gedge's then girlfriend Janet Rigby, the drummer for the band, left him for guitarist Michael Duane. After that heartbreaking incident, Gedge and the Pandas' bass player, Keith Gregory, decided to continue the band, renaming it "The Wedding Present." Gedge had wanted to use this name for some time, but had been afraid of the perceived similarity with the name of one of his favorite bands which was "The Birthday Party". By the time the Lost Pandas broke up, however, The Birthday Party had also split up, and Gedge felt free to name his new band "The Wedding Present".The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock to more varied forms. Throughout their career, there have been a lot of changes in the band's line-up. Personally, I just got to know "The Wedding Present" by the Legendary C-86 compilation which I have also featured here in my little blog before. Well, I must admit that their music cannot be easily appreciated at first but when you got to play their songs all over again you then get the upbeat feeling of liking it already. They have this very unique sound that will classify them in the Indie Route. It's "FAIRY TALE WEDDING FEVER" around the globe because of the Wedding of PRINCE WILLIAM and KATE MIDDLETON that's why I'm featuring "THE WEDDING PRESENT" here in my little blog "The Doctor Is In". YUP!! Since this band came from ENGLAND then It's really timely for the Royal Couple's Wedding. If you love INDIE MUSIC then this band should be one of your list.

THE WEDDING PRESENT's Discography consists of 34 singles, 2 extended plays, 8 studio albums, 5 live albums and 13 compilation albums.At the height of their popularity the band had a run of twelve top-30 singles in twelve months, equaling a record set by Elvis Presley. Wheew!! That's quite a number of songs indeed for an Indie Band which didn't got that necessary exposure here in MANILA back in the 80s.

THE WEDDING PRESENT's debut album "GEORGE BEST" is my one and only music material from this great Indie Band which was released back in October 1987 by their own record company, RECEPTION RECORDS. Although as what I have presented you earlier wherein the band had a lot of music materials I still opted to only buy their debut album in CD format. What I have here is the 23 Track CD Re-release which has 9 Bonus Tracks. The band sought and received permission to name the album after Northern Irish football legend GEORGE BEST. That's George Best on the cover too!! This football legend agreed to appear on promotional shots with the band that's why if you have the album the photo of George Best is all around it. Definitely one great CD for PINOY NEW WAVERS to consider having in their music collection. After self-releasing five singles on Reception Records label, the band turned to recording their first album, continuing their collaboration with producer Chris Allison, who had produced their previous single, "My Favourite Dress" which incidentally is my favorite song from the band. The album's somewhat tinny sound reflects the low recording budget was in making this music score. David Gedge's songwriting chronicles relationships breaking up or never taking off which I think makes this album more interesting. A digression is CD bonus track "All About Eve", which is about apartheid, a subject that Gedge came into contact with during his childhood years back in South Africa. Disagreement on production values with Allison led to the album being remixed by the band and engineer, Steve Lyon. The larger part of these conflicts seemed to lie with the personal and musical incompatibility of Allison and drummer Charman. Well, this always happens if you talk about bands.

The original Reception Records compact disc release added two bonus tracks from the B-side of single "Anyone Can Make a Mistake". All later CD re-releases of George Best, starting with the 1997 re-release by Canadian reissue label Pearls from the Past, added all tracks of 1988 singles "Nobody's Twisting Your Arm" and "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?", including a cover of The Beatles' "Getting Better" which I think was a very unique rendition since I'm also a BEATLEMANIA. By the time of the latter single's release, drummer Shaun Charman had been fired and replaced by Simon Smith. In 2007, the band played a 20th anniversary tour of George Best, performing the album in its entirety. I made my CD available for download just in case you're interested to have a copy. I still encourage you guys to buy the original one since this is just for your listening pleasure and I'm also promoting the CD as well. ENJOY THE MUZIC!!

THE WEDDING PRESENT "GEORGE BEST"
TRACKLIST

1) Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
2) What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
3) Don't Be So Hard
4) A Million Miles
5) All This and More
6) Getting Nowhere Fast
7) My Favourite Dress (album version)
8) Shatner
9) Something and Nothing
10)It's What You Want That Matters
11)Give My Love to Kevin
12)Anyone Can Make a Mistake
13)You Can't Moan, Can You?
14)All About Eve
15)Nobody's Twisting Your Arm
16)Nothing Comes Easy
17)Don't Laugh
18)I'm Not Always So Stupid
19)Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?
20)Not from Where I'm Standing
21)Give My Love to Kevin (acoustic version)
22)Getting Better
23)Pourquoi Es-Tu Devenue Si Raisonnable?

DOWNLOAD MY CD HERE:

PASSWORD: http://docmuzic.blogspot.com/

HERE'S A LIVE VIDEO CLIP OF "My Favourite Dress":

LISTEN TO THEIR BEATLES RENDITION
entitled "GETTING BETTER":

Well, another timely reason for this special blogpost of mine about "THE WEDDING PRESENT" is regarding FOOTBALL. YUP!! The band's album cover was GEORGE BEST who is a Football Legend and here in the Philippines today there is an increase awareness and love for the sport. Never in the entire sport's existence here in my country has this increase popularity of football happened before and thanks to the entire PHILIPPINE FOOTBALL TEAM who are better known as "THE PHILIPPINE AZKALS". The Team is now in a winning form trying their best to represent the entire FILIPINO NATION for the AFC Challenge Cup. Incidentally, there's this Football Tournament called "WORLD CUP PILIPINAS" which starts today APRIL 30, 2011 at the historical LUNETA. It's on their 2nd year and the Philippines won last year 2010. I guess Basketball's popularity here in my country is really going down the drain. Well, It has been for the past decade.

LISTEN TO "NOBODY'S TWISTING YOUR ARM" HERE:

LISTEN TO "ALL ABOUT EVE" HERE:

Well since Prince William and Princess Kate just married yesterday APRIL 29, 2011 and It's their wedding that inspired me to do this blogpost, I included a simple video clip of The Royal Couple's Marriage Vows. That was indeed a MODERN DAY FAIRYTALE!! A Royal Blood and a Commoner tied the knot and getting ready to live happily ever after in a Palace. Wheeew!! I watched it on T.V. and It's definitely one that we read on story books. The Royal Couple looks good together.

WATCH THE ROYAL COUPLE'S MARRIAGE VOWS HERE:

I hope you enjoyed your stay again here in my blog. As usual this is "The Dr. Stirring Rhod Way" of creating a blogpost about "THE WEDDING PRESENT".I'll leave you with the album version of "MY FAVOURITE DRESS" and it's lyrics so that you can sing along with me. I may say that the words of this song is really deep. Hmmmp? I guess The Royal Couple just used their Favourite Dress on their Wedding. THANKS for dropping by!!