Bands that will never ever, get back together

[lazarou]

Are The Cranberries or Therapy? britpop? Please consider before answering that the Good Friday agreement is already looking fragile.

Aside from the multitude of other reasons, The Cranberries would be instantly disqualified due to them Pulling A Bush and being one of those groups that struggled at home to very little attention before exploding in the US and being imported back as big stars.

I remember reading some review of Zombie at the time that featured Andy Cairns of Therapy? and a couple of others (one of which might've been Neil Hannon) wondering who the fuck they thought they were writing songs about the Troubles.

[jobotic]

You mean like this?: https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/gene-the-albums-8lp-or-9cd-box-sets/

Good Lord.

I saw the Wedding Present at the Concorde 2 in Brighton a few years ago. We left early because it was ram packed with bald beer bellied middle aged indie kids to a degree that meant you couldn't even lift your pint of bitter to your lips, plus they were doing an album that I'm not nostalgic for.

In the bar bit Martin Rossiter was playing all the hits on a piano to the interest of absolutely no one.

He's more successful than me though.

[Jockice]

Good Lord.

I saw the Wedding Present at the Concorde 2 in Brighton a few years ago. We left early because it was ram packed with bald beer bellied middle aged indie kids to a degree that meant you couldn't even lift your pint of bitter to your lips, plus they were doing an album that I'm not nostalgic for.

I saw them doing one of their albums (either Bizarro or Seamonsters) a few years ago and felt much the same, especially with the jangly guitars at the end of songs just going on and on and on, for much longer than they did on the record itself. I used to love them but I found the whole thing very boring.

Martin Rossiter was nowhere to be seen.

[Brundle-Fly]

In the bar bit Martin Rossiter was playing all the hits on a piano to the interest of absolutely no one.

Must've been a short set.

I've never played Reading Festival or supported Pulp.

[Jockice]

PS, I have a mate who's still a massive Wedding Present fan and  I wind him up by telling him that they haven't really reformed.  It's just David Gedge and some young women. Might as well be a tribute band. He gets quite upset at this.

I do it in jest but for me The Wedding Present stopped existing when the Ukranian bloke left. Apart from the single Three I've more or less ignored them since then.

[turnstyle]

Why no Gene boxset?

Of all the mid-90's guitar bands that start with Gene, Geneva were the better band.

(Although don't qualify for this thread, as Wikipedia tells me they reformed in 2018)

[holyzombiejesus]

I used to really like The Wedding Present and recently re-bought Tommy and George Best as I'd not heard them for years and years.

Absolute dirge. Sounds like potatoes.

[Icehaven]

A band I'm occasionally in did a mini festival type thing with the Wedding Present in London a few years ago, and a few days before we got an email from the organisers with some attachments with all the venue details and tech specs etc., but for some presumably accidental reason also had the Wedding Present's 6 page rider attached too.

Now it might be a standard rider for a semi-successful mid-level ageing indie band but to us nobodies it looked remarkable. The hospitality ("to be provided free of charge") demands included definitions of vegetarian, 'Gedgetarian'* and omnivore meals and how many of each they required, an extremely long and very specific list of foods and drinks that were also to be provided, brand names they would or wouldn't accept, minimum costs of the wine, what size the bottle of water had to be and that they mustn't be carbonated. Then a hot meal for seven people meeting their vege/gedgetarian requirements also had to be provided, again free of charge, immediately after soundcheck, although if there were restaurants nearby they'd accept £120 for a meal out instead. The exact specifications of hotel and style of hotel room including the positioning of the beds, what denomination of notes they had to be paid in, that at gigs outside the UK promoters must provide 6 postcards with stamps on, it just went on and on. We got a laugh out of 'Gedgetarian' but it just seemed more like the rider of some huge band or some major diva or something.
Maybe they were just trying it on but unless I'm mistaken I don't think they're exactly in a position to refuse to go on because they've been given 8 bottles of Purdey's Gold vitamin drinks instead of normal Purdey's (that's actually on there, it's in bold and everything.)


*

A 'gedgetarian' does not eat red meat [including beef, lamb, rabbit, pork or any other
mammal] but will eat chicken, turkey, duck, fish and vegetarian food.

[non capisco]

Catchier than pesco-pollotarian I suppose. I like imagining that David Gedge thinks he's the first person to think of that diet.

What would a ledge-atarian only eat? Actually, no.

[The Culture Bunker]

The Wedding Present are a bit like the Fall, in that I can't get my head round them at all. A band like Oasis, as much as I loath them, I can see why they were popular. But Gedge's mob? I remember I picked up the 'George Best' album to see about this band I'd heard so much about it and it might as well have been babies banging pots and pans. Just one of those acts my brain can't tune into on any level, I suppose, though the whole '12 singles in a year' thing was a good wheeze.

[jobotic]

I like the Wedding Present, but not beyond Bizarro. I hardly ever listen to them but Go Out and Get 'Em Boy sounded great when it was posted in the Alternative Pop thread.

Take Me I'm Yours always reduces me to tears.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

It's like Gedge has read all the Chuck Berry stories and fancied a slice of the "demanding arsehole" artist pie.


I had a read of their Wikipedia page and there have been 27 members of The Wedding Present in total. Always in the shadow of The Fall in more ways than one.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

It's like Gedge has read all the Chuck Berry stories and fancied a slice of ...

In all fairness this sentence ended more favourably for Gedge that it might have, Nice Relaxing Poo. Otherwise it might have got "gedgetarian" into the urban dictionary.

I'd take "My Favourite Dress" over 99% of songs by indie bands. It's no "Noel's Chemical Effluence" though.

[Oz Oz Alice]

Gedge has lost his love of life
Too much "demanding arsehole" artist pie

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I like how this thread has suddenly turned into a Wedding Present thread. I've long been a fan of the Weddoes, got all 12 of them Hit Parade singles, all that malarkey. I must admit I'm surprised to see them still going, but they 've still got it , I reckon. That  " Friday I'm In Love " by The CureSleeper cover version, co- sung with Louise Wener herself, they did under lockdown recently was a grand old pop song, and the boy Gedge has shown some commendable maturity by stopping dying his hair just before turning 60. I would also like to indulge my habit of lookalike spotting by pointing out that his current band appears to include a slimmer Mark Benton and Karen Grant from " Brookside" ( ask your parents).

I'm also showing some commendable maturity myself by not saying what my own tenuous link to the Wedding Present is.

[PaulTMA]

Good for them I say

[Brundle-Fly]

the boy Gedge has shown some commendable maturity by stopping dying his hair just before turning 60. I would also like to indulge my habit of lookalike spotting by pointing out that his current band appears to include a slimmer Mark Benton and Karen Grant from " Brookside" ( ask your parents).

I don't think I've seen any pictures of Gedge since the nineties. Just had a look at sixty-year-old Gedge. He looks fine but now I feel old. Same goes for googling Lloyd Cole just now. There are some people who should never age from 25 onwards..

[purlieu]

I quite like the 'we're definitely not Cinerama we're just The Wedding Present with the same lineup as Cinerama' album from 2005. The first track (+ 2 minute ambient intro) is a bloody great brooding indie epic with Morricone-style outro.

On the whole I never got them, though.

[PaulTMA]

Torino and Take Fountain > the old stuff

[Jockice]

I'm also showing some commendable maturity myself by not saying what my own tenuous link to the Wedding Present is.

i don't have any of that stuff and (as you may have noticed) I love my tenuous links, so here we go. I am good friends nowadays with one of the former members of The Wedding Present. However I didn't know him (or indeed her) except possibly by sight when they were in the band, they have never mentioned their time with Gedge to me and we have a common non-musical interest that takes up about 90% of our conversation. We haven't met each other since before the virus struck but no doubt will do when it's safe to do so. But we are in regular contact.

But who is it? Have a bleedin' guess. as the leader of another band with many ex-members once said.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Oh, alright then....

EDIT: Actually, better not.
( Nice little juxtaposing contrast to Jockice's link , I like to think, and one to appease all the fans of Old Skool Lisa out there).

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Also, I'm going to imagine Keith Gregory and Jockice going fishing together , indulging their shared interest and having nice, cosy chats together , just like that programme with yer man from the insurance ads and the feller who's the only reason to watch " Would I Lie To You?" when he guest stars on it.

I suggest that all the boys and girls of CaB should put this image in their 'eads, it's a lovely image , and will put a spring in your step, a smile on your face, and a song in your heart.It might even put a song by The Wedding Present in your heart. Just imagine that, old Fozzie Bear/ John Major vocals warbling away in your heart, with some youthful feller/ lady next to him, employed to play the faster riffs 'cos it tires his fingers out to play them himself nowadays, all there in your heart, just imagine, go on, have a right old imagine of it, go on, you know you want to.

[Epic Bisto]

What would a ledge-atarian only eat? Actually, no.

Track down an Oasis rider and you'll find out.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The chicken tendies are what bring out the band
I can't still be drunk at five
I guess I surely can
Slowly my desire to perform is eaten away
By the sight of regular Purdey's
in the box where the Gold ones should be

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

A ledge-tarian would only eat McCoys crisps, Yorkies and saveloys. Drinks would be strictly Stella and Bacardi Breezers.

[Kankurette]

McCoys crisps are amazing tbf. You can never get chargrilled chicken ones these days though.

I'm not arsed about the Wedding Present but I went to one of their gigs just to see Melys, the support act, cos I've wanted to see them for years and they rarely play outside Wales.

[Jockice]

I saw them doing one of their albums (either Bizarro or Seamonsters) a few years ago and felt much the same, especially with the jangly guitars at the end of songs just going on and on and on, for much longer than they did on the records.

Why on earth do they do this nowadays anyway? Isn't it a heavy metal/prog rock thing? Admittedly most of the crowd seemed to enjoy it but Iit irritated me no end. I don't think extended riffing has any place in indie. Ban it now!

[TheMonk]

R.E.M. - Not impossible as they're all still alive. I'd like to think they're not the sorts. I'd have so much less respect for them if they did.  A Stipe solo album wouldn't go amiss, though.

I think the last few albums unfortunately didn't do them any favours, so for me a reunion won't do their legend any damage. Also, a lot of their music would actually lend itself to a bunch of old blokes performing in a way, say, Kiss doesn't. I'd go and see an Unplugged style show where they sit around plucking out old tunes.

On Pink Floyd- no bloody thanks. Despite the lack of Richard Wright, I saw the last Roger Waters tour. Nice lights but he was miming. Chin flapping like Britney bloody Spears. What a waste of time. Presumably can't sing.

Also... Dire Straits. Knopfler is done. And he couldn't even be arsed turning up to their R&R Hall Of Fame induction.

[SteveDave]

I would've liked Doug Yule to have been included in the Velvet Underground reunion of the early 90s if only so they could've had him do some singing.

I see his name isn't included in the upcoming Todd Haynes' documentary on the IMDB. Another 2 hours about them at the Factory then with maybe a 10 minute and then they made 2 other albums...or 3 if you count "Squeeze" which you should.

[holyzombiejesus]

There's an interview with him in the latest Uncut.