Before we get to the 28th single, please have a listen to this:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas
That’s the album version that you’ll find on Watusi. And given what I said last week about how Steve Fisk had been asked by the band to come up with a new, 60s influenced sound, it’s fair to say he got there with this one.
The thing is, there had been a critical and commercial backlash to Watusi and fans weren’t happy either. The album had entered the charts the week after its release at #47 and then sunk without a trace. For the very first time, since bursting onto the scene back in 1985, it seemed as if The Wedding Present had misfired.
In an attempt to rectify things, they went into a studio and asked Ian Broudie if he could work his magic on a track from the album, for potential release as a follow-up single.
mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas (single version)
It probably placated a few folk, but the damage was done. Released on 12″ purple coloured vinyl, 7″ black vinyl, cassette and CD, It’s A Gas limped in at #71, and worse than that, failed completely to give the parent album any sort of boost. The Island Records era was, in effect, over before it had really begun.
The 7″ had one other previously unreleased TWP song on it:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – Bubbles
Recorded in Seattle but left off the album. It’s a gentle number, totally stripped back in a near unplugged way. There have been worse songs shoved on b-sides, but plenty that have been better. There’s a backing vocal credited to Claire Elise Fisk, who I presume is the daughter of the producer.
The 12″ and CD single had two more tracks, both recorded in Seattle.
mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas (acoustic version)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Jumper Clown
The former does exactly as it says on the tin. It’s evidence that It’s A Gas is actually a damn fine pop tune….the difficulty that everyone had was finding the best way to record it.
The latter is a cover of a song that had been released by The Creepers in 1983. It was one that had begun life as an unreleased instrumental by The Fall in the late 70s, and then resurrected by Marc Riley when he quit the band, with the lyrics very much geared towards taking the piss out of Mark E Smith‘s often dishevelled appearance (it was all in the days before Brix Smith appeared on the scene and smartened him up). I think it was recorded with the intention of being a future b-side, with the sound being a hybrid of traditional TWP and the surf sound that was beginning to take hold in the Seattle studio. It’s good fun, and the group certainly sound as if they enjoyed making it.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
swimming against the tide but Watusi is one of my fav WP lps
And to come full circle, the current (or recent) incarnation of the Wedding Present recorded Jumper Clown for Marc Rileys R6 show, which was released on one of the session albums.