The next two in the series are Ian Broudie productions and are well removed, sonically, from the Seamonsters era. It turned out that #5, released on Monday 4 May, was one that I did get my hands on as I wasn’t at work that day and found myself up bright and early and into one of the HMV stores in Glasgow to get my hands on one of the 10,000 copies in shops across the UK.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Come Play With Me
It’s something of a song of two halves. The first part, of about two-and-a-half minutes duration, is fairly acoustic in nature, with a few loud electric guitar flourishes, with a mid-paced tempo. The final two minutes are much faster and slightly louder as David Gedge pleads that his old relationship is over, and he’s now ready, nay make that desperate, for a roll in the hay. It’s all rather brilliant, if slightly unorthodox. When played live nowadays, there’s always a huge sense of anticipation as the song nears the tempo change.
This one reached #10 – an indication that not too many new singles were released in the first week of May 1992, but at long last The Weddoes could boast of having a big hit, if such things are defined by chart placings. It proved to be their only Top 10.
No Top of The Pops appearance this month. But here’s the promo. Directed by Jeremy Hibbard, it’s one of the best of the 12 from across the year:-
The cover?
mp3: The Wedding Present – Pleasant Valley Sunday
Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, this had been a Top 3 hit for The Monkees back in 1967, and was well known by everyone of a certain age in the UK thanks to endless, but welcome repeats, on BBC, of The Monkees TV series throughout the 70s and into the 80s. It’s another fairly faithful take on the original, right down to the extended outro with reverb and echo. I love it.
8 June 1992 was the date of the release of the sixth single. Of equal importance, it was the same date when Hit Parade 1 was issued. Looking back on it, the idea of just 10,000 vinyl singles per month, with all the expense involved, was never going to wash with RCA, so there must have been a plan from the outset to issue compilation CDs. Hit Parade 1 brought together all 12 tracks that had been issued between January and June 1982, including the newest of them:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – California
The fact that more than 30 years later, this is still often used to open live shows, demonstrates just how much David Gedge thinks of it and, of course, it is one much beloved by fans of all ages and from all eras of discovering the group. It is one of the most sing-along of all their tunes, and its acoustic(ish) nature again exposes the myth that all the songs sound the same.
It went in at #16. It led to another Top of The Pops appearance, one in which David poked some fun at a certain t-shirt that was all the rage among the indie crowd that summer.
This month’s promo was directed by Tim Riley.
For the sixth of the covers, The Weddoes turned to one of their peers from the C86 era.
Close Lobsters were quite often referred to as the Scottish equivalent of The Wedding Present. They had formed in 1985, been part of the NME C86 compilation, had signed to an indie label and enjoyed a degree of cult status. But where Gedge & co had made the shift to a major label, Close Lobsters called it a day in 1989 after two albums and seven singles of very decent quality. They have since reformed – it was in 2012 to perform at a couple of overseas pop festivals as well as a gig in Glasgow – since when there has been some new material in the shape of EPs and an album. They are on the bill to perform at the Edge of The Sea Festival this coming August.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Let’s Make Some Plans
The cover has helped make this the most popular and well-loved of all Close Lobsters songs. It was originally released as a single in 1987, and got to #17 in the Indie Charts. The TWP version is a bit harder-edged and louder than the original which, by any sort of measurement, is an indie-pop classic.
Worth mentioning that Hit Parade 1, which was also issued on vinyl, reached #22 in the album charts in June 1992.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Come Play With Me remains, to this day, one of my all-time Wededing Present tracks. I also still love the b-side.
That’s what I think about ‘California’, Herr Robster.
Yep, both of these singles are very much Weddoes classics.