Well, veteran choppy Indie guitar abusers
The Wedding Present have well and truly re-established themselves on my Dance
Card with a vengeance; their revelatory and redemptive performance at “Shiiine
On” last year (gig 1,357, a set which nearly earned them Band of the Weekend
honours) being followed up by a slightly less focussed but equally impressive
set on a rainy March night in Stoke, erm I mean Stroud (gig 1,377). The
material (first 3 or 4 albums at least) was always good quality for me –
lovelorn lyricism delivered in frontman and founder David Gedge’s trademark
throaty growl, overlaid over their trademark punchy, powerful guitar assault –
all it needed was some extra added Rachael (their new guitarist) to give it the
proper “live” welly it had been sorely lacking for so long. So, I was again up
for another Weddoes gig, this one being part of a 40th (!) Anniversary jaunt
around these Isles, promising a career-spanning set.
Suffering a bit from the early stages of a cold (or is it the effects of 5 gigs in 9 days, this one making it 6 in 10??), I was happy that it was Stuart’s turn to drive! He collected me a 6 for a drizzly drive down the M4, parking up and hitting a very quiet venue just after doors, easily grabbing a barrier spot, house right. However, this meant we were in place to be subjected to the stylings of support Mozart Estate, on at 10 to 8. Led by Lawrence, apparently an 80’s indie icon due to his tenure with prototypical C86 band Felt (a band that never landed with me personally), they were terrible; the opening number’s combination of repetitive terrace chanted hook and loose baggy dance vibes gave me uncomfortable Happy Mondays flashbacks, and thereafter they veered into twee, throwaway and cheesy vaudevillian cabaret territory, coming across like a poor imitation of Vic Reeves in his 90’s “Mr. Songwriter” mock-club singer days. Lawrence, decked out in orange golf jumper and trucker cap, frankly came off like a poor man’s Mark E Smith at best, and a bit of an entitled pillock at worst, trading off his alleged legend. Nope, nope nope.
The front got a bit busier, but this was generally a quiet one, the balcony remaining closed this evening. However, that didn’t stop this new Wedding Present line-up from taking the stage casually at 5 to 9 and delivering the type of blistering “live” performance I’m happily increasingly seeing from them these days! Following groovy yet slightly understated newie “Two For The Road”, Gedge introduced the band with the tongue-in-cheek epithet, “we’re the semi-legendary Wedding Present, but you knew that already as we’ve started the set with a new song!” thereafter informing us he’d curated the 40th Anniversary set “in reverse chronological order”. Concerns that my relative unfamiliarity with the more recent material early in the set (and by that, I honestly mean anything past about 1994!) were quickly quashed, however, thanks to the thrilling duelling guitar interplay, particularly during song climaxes and outros, from the original axe thrasher Gedge and his ingenue, the sorcerer’s apprentice Rachael, who (I keep saying, but it’s true) is for me largely responsible for breathing effusive and enthusiastic new life into this veteran outfit.
So, an early “Rachel” (“[Rachael]
likes this one as it makes her sound like Van Halen!” quipped Gedge) sneaked in
plaintively before descending into a thrilling thrash noise outro, prompting Gedge
to comment, “now we’re rocking!”; “Kansas” had a darker, more mysterious and
menacing feel than the usual moody, melancholic material; and a groovy “Click Click”’s
layered acapella outro was actually rather lovely. “I’m the worst guitarist in
this group!” Gedge remarked, then attempting unsuccessfully to tell the famous
Ringo Starr joke, before a brilliant mid-set salvo of “Blue Eyes” and set
highlight thus far “Flying Saucer”, its lengthy duelling riff prompting a
massive smile from Rachael.
But the latter-set deluge of older, more familiar material won out for me; the stop start change-of-pace “Corduroy” rounded off with a cacophonous, drum led outro; a debate on how “Brassneck” should be pronounced preceded a breathless, mosh-inducing rendition, segueing directly into a bolshy and combative “Kennedy”; then “Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft” saw us pitching up in 1987 and that original ringing descending guitar riffery. An excellent set, this backwards trip through time, ended with thanks, band intros and the proto-DIY indie punk debut “Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy”. Bassist Stuart then handed me his list, which I got signed by the merch stand bound Gedge afterwards, the man also selling me a 40th Anniversary tee shirt (my first Weddoes shirt!). Also picked up a gift from my photog mate Martin, before we hit a sodden M4 for a splash back home. Another great night out from this rejuvenated Wedding Present!
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