It’s a big year in the world of the great contrarians (who else would release a brand new single every month for a whole year? Twice?) of Indie, The Wedding Present. They are currently part way through a UK tour, promoting the new release of their first proper ‘best of’ (not just the singles) collection to celebrate their 40 years in existence.
It’s a very busy night at the Liverpool O2 Academy, as an older audience that has no doubt been with them through large parts of these four decades, having grown up with, and gone through life with them as a part of their lives and relationships (for example, I consider their 1989 album Bizarro the soundtrack of my own courting days) are out in force.
As underrated bands go, TWP have to be right there in the argument, especially in the live arena. There are currently 14 live albums of theirs on Spotify, and when talk comes round to great guitarists, frontman David Gedge somehow never gets a mention, a point that he will come to actually address later in the evening.
So, it’s fair to say there’s an increased excitement in the air at the thought of the ‘greatest hits‘ potential of the evening, something the band are not renowned for doing ordinarily over the years.
But first, there’s the not so small matter of tonight’s starter, an unusual choice of support one may think, it’s Mozart Estate, the latest project of lovable famously no-hit wonder, Lawrence, the artist formerly known as Denim and Felt amongst others.
However, on the back of a superbly interesting recent biography of a year of his life, this could be the year where, in the title of their opener, ‘Lawrence Takes Over’.
He’s in fine fettle this evening with a tight band behind him and the half an hour set is a joy to behold, made up with a handful of songs from his well-received new album released this week, Tower Block In A Jam Jar, best of which is the insanely catchy ‘Selfish & Lazy & Greedy.’ And this could be the record that releases him from his cult-only status.
‘Vanilla Gorilla‘ is glorious before the closing ‘Relative Poverty’, which could feature in a West End Musical, such is it’s epic-ness. It’s a tale of woe that involves our protagonist living on a tenner a week, hence the price tag he wears around his wrist for the whole set. Go buy the record and make him a star at last.
The Wedding Present
It’s 8:50, there’s haunting music and smoke emanating from the stage, so it’s main act time. And in such a Wedding Present move, they begin with a brand new, not-out-until-December song from their forthcoming EP, before a barnstorming full-throttle version of ‘I’m Not Going To Fall In Love With You’, after which Gedge exclaims that the band were meant to be “pacing themselves“, something they do at no point at tonight.
“We are the semi-legendary Wedding Present and it’s great to be back in Liverpool.”
It’s only after ‘Deer Caught In The Headlights’ that he explains how it’s going to work tonight, that the setlist is designed in an unusual way, as they are celebrating 40 years then they are going to do this in reverse chronological order, new to old. And those in the crowd, perhaps not as au fait with the newer stuff, let out an audible sigh of relief, with ‘Interstate 5’ (from 2005’s Take Fountain) seeming to act as the first island of familiarity to those who used to pore over every part of their oeuvre – the cover, the lyrics – instead of now listening to it in the car whilst driving the kids around.
With the set-time at around an hour and forty minutes, then there are always going to be musical casualties, and it’s a great shame that two of the mid-career unsung, high-point albums, Watusi and Saturnalia only get one song each here, but a stunning ‘Click Click ‘and the always joyous ‘Kansas‘ respectively represent them well.
David Gedge
Now up to 1992’s monthly chart-assault Hit Parade choices, Gedge admits that maybe playing ‘Blue Eyes’ is the wrong choice as he still hasn’t quite mastered the guitar intro, going on to explain that he’s “the worst guitarist in The Wedding Present, including the bassist and drummer”, which is a complete falsehood, he’s unique in the noise that he gets out of his instrument, and it’s a hypnotic watch, at times his hand seems to be just a blur.
And a word here for the rest of the band, this could well be the best WP line-up that he’s assembled in years. His fellow guitarist Rachael Wood is a revelation, her stage presence and ferociousness the perfect complement to Gedge’s guitar abrasiveness, with Stuart Hastings on bass and drummer Christopher Hardwick especially sensational on a mesmeric ‘Flying Saucer‘.
(And I hate to be that pedantic, but shouldn’t ‘Flying Saucer‘ be played before ‘Blue Eyes‘ as it came out later in the year; just saying.)
The second half of the set is made up from three songs from each of the first three albums, and is nothing short of a sensational trip down memory lane, from the emotional 1-2 of Seamonsters’ ‘Dalliance’ and ‘Dare’ (one of the best-received tracks of the evening, despite never being a single), to the duo of official indie dancefloor fillers, ‘Brassneck‘ and ‘Kennedy‘, with the loud-quiet-really loud madness of ‘Bewitched‘ captivating the already captivated audience still further.
For those there at the beginning, there’s three from debut record George Best, including arguably one of the greatest heartbreak songs of all-time in the form of ‘My Favourite Dress‘, before ending the evening (no encore, of course, they were one of the first bands I ever came across with this ever-sensible policy) with their very first single “Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy”.
Hopefully someone will record this tour for posterity and have it as live album number 15 on Spotify; it’s a set and performance for the ages.
When leaving such a gig, there’s always an enjoyment in listening to people saying “Why didn’t they play that one?”, but there was none of that on offer here (okay, my submission for that is ‘Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm’, but they can’t play everything), people just seemed to be basking in the fact that they got to shout-along with their whole life’s work, whilst it flashed before them over the last 90 minutes.
What better way to cement a legacy in people’s hearts. The Wedding Present are our real royalty, they are this nation’s favourite thrashing guitar band and may they spend the next 40 years enriching our lives.
Never just semi-legendary.
(Photos: Cheryl Doherty)
