A month after Kennedy had grabbed the indie-world by its lapels and given it the most almighty of shakes, the debut album via RCA was released.
Bizarro didn’t disappoint, other than perhaps it peaked at #22 in the charts, the exact same position as the Ukrainski Vistuip v Johna Peela mini-album. The end of the year came, and The Wedding Present and Bizarro were both high up in all the readers polls in the UK music papers.
David Gedge has since said that Brassneck, one of what he thought would be the key tracks on the album, hadn’t quite turned out as he’d hoped, certainly when compared to its power and intensity in the live setting. He had, for some time, wanted to work with American engineer Steve Albini, and so he floated the idea of recording an EP, with its lead track being a re-recording of Brassneck.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Brassneck
The new version was different in many ways. It was still recognisably TWP, but Albini had trimmed about 35 seconds from the song, and given it more of a harder-edge rock sound. And somehow, he seems to find a way in which the lyric’s full mixture of resentment, anger and regret come through. It did help that one word from the original was changed near the end of the song.
No, I sent you that letter to ask you if the end was worth the means
Was there really no in-between?
And I still don’t feel better
I just wondered if it could be like before and I think you just made me sure
But then that’s typically you
And I might have been a bit rude but I wrote it in a bad mood
I’m not being funny with you
But it’s hard to be engaging when the things you love keep changing
Brassneck
Brassneck.
I just decided I don’t trust you anymore
I just decided I don’t trust you anymore
The first time you came over, do you remember saying then you’d stay for good?
No I didn’t think you would
Well we couldn’t have been closer
But it was different then, and that’s all in the past,
There…I’ve said it now at last!
You grew up quicker than me
I kept so many old things; I never quite stopped hoping
I think I know what this means
It means I’ve got to grow up
It means you want to throw up
Brassneck
Brassneck.
I just decided I don’t trust you anymore
I just decided I don’t love you anymore
Oh, I know you weren’t listening, were you?
Oh, just go, whenever you’d prefer to
I said it means a lot, when you use an old phrase
But then so what?
We can’t have it both ways
I know you’re not bothered are you?
Even so, I’m not going to argue
He won’t object; keep writing to me
Just don’t forget you ever knew me
Released in early February 1990, this reached #24 in the charts and led to an appearance on Top Of The Pops….in which the group played along enthusiastically with the miming that was required, while the singer looked totally bored and uninterested. I don’t think it went down well with the folk at RCA, but once again it was the group’s way of showing that they were calling the shots.
As with Kennedy, this was issued on 7″, 12″, cassette and CD, with three other songs to pick up and enjoy.
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Gone
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Don’t Talk, Just Kiss
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Box Elder
Three absolute belters. Sounded great then and sound just as good now, almost 34 years later. In keeping up with what was now becoming a tradition, one of the songs on the 12″ was a cover. Box Elder was by an American band called Pavement who next to no-one had heard of. Indeed, the label for Brassneck had to give hints, with it saying
‘Box Elder’ : Written by Pavement from Stockton, CA.
It’s now known that Pavement had not long played their first live show (December 1989) and Box Elder had been one of the songs on their debut EP Slay Tracks. But with just 1,000 copies of the EP having been pressed, they were almost totally unknown. It seems that the song had initially been picked up by Keith Gregory, TWP’s bassist, with everyone else agreeing it would make for a great cover.
Before long, John Peel got interested, and having aired the TWP version, he actively sought a copy of the original and began giving it regular spins on his show. It was from there that Pavement took off in the UK and then further afield.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Gedge comes across as a total arsehole on that TOTP performance. If I was the producer I’d have told them to pack up their gear, f*** off back to Leeds and never come back. I’m sure there were other acts in the top 40 who would have really appreciated that exposure.
What a corker of a 12”. The band had captured a new singles audience with Kennedy and retained them with Brassneck. A time when TWP t-shirts became de rigueur and larger gigs began to sell out, fast.
While I agree it can be a little annoying, on occasion, when a band or artists agrees to go on a promo show like TOTP then attempt to ridicule the process – I’m more pleased than not that it occurs. TOTP – although even then mercilessly shite – sold records. What band doesn’t want people to buy their records?
But… you can still have a little fun, surely?
@JTFL: today is dreich. Clouds every shade of grey, foreboding and not afraid to share their contents. A wind so strong – the rain is horizontal. I’m travelling east to west – every second it changes.
Flimflamfan
Gedge was merely replicating his performance in the Brassneck video on that TotP appearance. To be fair, I do agree it was ill-advised – seeing him bent over his Gretsch, thrashing away enthusiastically would have made a far better performance. But who am I to question the great man? And yes, the whole EP was brilliant. Don’t Talk Just Kiss remains one of my all-time fave Weddies b-sides.
For me, this EP is part of a really super era for the Weddoes, with a new sound emerging just a few months after the release of Bizarro. Of the two Brassnecks, the Albinified version gets my vote, and this 12″ may be their best.
It is indeed dreich today – and it’s brilliant.
Strangeways
Great song and probably the first I’d heard of Pavement (I was still in NYC at the time).
Thanks for the weather report, boys–next challenge is to get ‘hoaching’ into a sentence!
One of the best and most important blog posts on the internet today. In a way, it’s like protecting endangered species.
[silly kisser]
In the midst of all the dance beats and Madchester sounds, acid house et al, which I was totally into, this song hit hard. Lovely.