Rising from the ashes of a band called The Lost Pandas, The Wedding Present was assembled by David Gedge [singing & guitar] and Keith Gregory [bass], when they enlisted the services of Peter Solowka [guitar] and Shaun Charman [drums]. All four members had been students at the University of Leeds and so it seems only fitting that the band return to that very place in order to celebrate its fortieth anniversary with a unique, career-spanning show.
The band’s first single – ‘Go Out And Get ‘Em, Boy!’ – was released in May 1985 and now shares its title with the first volume of David’s auto-biography in which he describes the early days of playing in and around Leeds at venues like the Royal Park, the Adelphi, Haddon Hall, the Central Station and, of course, Leeds University.
The band are planning several events [including a Wedding Present musical!] to celebrate their forty years in existence but will be playing this one-off show at Stylus – in one of their old haunts, the Leeds University Union building – to kick things off with a bang.
Since 1985, The Wedding Present have had eighteen UK Top 40 hit singles; not bad for a group that has, from its inception, stubbornly refused to play the record industry’s game. That pioneering spirit has been at the core of the band’s philosophy throughout. From George Best, “an unmitigated delight” [NME] – the first full-length release on their own Reception Records, onwards – the band has charted an appealing, if often eccentric, course of its very own.
