It took around nine months after the debut before the second 45 from The Wedding Present was available to buy. The remainder of 1985 has been spent playing live as well as writing new material. 1986 got off to a bit of a dream start, as 11 February saw them record their debut session for John Peel, with it being broadcast on 26 February. It consisted of three original TWP songs plus a blistering and frantic cover of Felicity, the single released by Orange Juice back in 1982.
Shortly afterwards their own second single was released, again on 7″ via Reception Records
mp3: The Wedding Present – Once More
mp3: The Wedding Present – At The Edge Of The Sea
There’s occasionally a bit of confusion as to when the single came out, as the 3500 copies which were pressed give a copyright date of 1985 on the labels, but this relates to the date of its recording and not its release.
The single actually featured recently as part of the Lucky Dip series. My copy is not from 1986, but instead is the Optic Nerve Records pressing, on white vinyl, from 2020.
Two excellent songs, with the latter, as I said last time out, not being immediately obvious as a Wedding Present number, but within fifteen seconds a more familiar sound comes to the fore, followed shortly after a lovelorn lyric about being happy with someone while visiting a coastal town. It’s one of my favourites of theirs and of course has given its name to the annual music festival which David Gedge organises in Brighton every August.
Later in 1986, with both of the first two singles being nigh-on impossible to find, Reception Records issued a 12″ single entitled Don’t Try and Stop Me Mother, consisting of all four songs.
There’s a wonderful review of the 12″ in one of the UK weekly music papers (I’m not sure which one), which, among other things says:-
Oh, so glorious. A beacon of brilliance in a swamp of a thousand disposable singles. Charming, vivacious guitars blitzing through all those old glories of Buzzcocks.
Indeed.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
First exposure to the WP . Still one of my favs by them , such fantastic lyrics
Friend of Rachel Worth
There’s a really good version of At The Edge Of The Sea on the recent Locked Down And Stripped Back albums in which Melanie Howard takes lead vocal duties.
I cam to the Wedding Present with George Best and Tommy so these early singles are all part of a fantastic ramshackle album for me. Interesting to have them broken down single by single like this.
‘Don’t Try + Stop Me’ was the first release of TWP I ever bought. I played it to death at immense volume, I mean: literally – if you looked closely from above, you would almost have been able to see the slipmat through the vinyl! This 12″ didn’t leave the turntable for months …
Wish to have had the 7″ singles back then, but although I instantly fell in love with the band when first hearing them on Peel, there wasn’t a chance to get me hands on those singles … not pressed in all too great numbers, I suppose.
Optic Nerve would be my shop of choice too, not only for TWP, but I got fucked up twice by them with IOSS/customs. But, to be fair, first this was quite some time ago, shortly after Brexit, and second, they reimbursed me instantly – so perhaps I should give them a third chance soon …
But I won’t kill your joy when I say that indeed one Wedding Present – single is in my 111 singles – box …. 🙂
Dirk
I seemed to miss out on The Wedding Present for the most part. During their early years I was a mature student and a mixture of a lack of funds affecting my buying habits and either studying late or working in a bar making me miss a lot of John Peel shows means I missed out on the sessions too.
I have bought the Peel box recently, loving the music and realising what I’d missed at the time. This series has arrived at the perfect time for me, and I will be appreciating each single in order. My intention is to enlarge on this experience by buying the albums as they crop up in your narrative in order to place each in context, and try to supplement this with any singles I can trace.
Many thanks for the inspiration.