THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Thirty)

As mentioned last week, 1995 had closed with a Peel Session, during which four new songs were played.  It didn’t take all that long for the studio versions of the new songs to be available, thanks to the release of Mini, on Cooking Vinyl Records, on 22 January 1996.

The thing is, back in 1996, Mini was regarded as a mini-LP (so to speak), released on 10″ vinyl and CD.  In terms of the UK charts, it was listed in the album rundown, for one week only, at #92.   But it’s a release which appears on the official website as an EP, and as such I’m including it in this series.

All six songs have lyrics that are, for the most part, car-themed.  Not only that, but every single copy of the EP, whether on the limited edition pressing of 2000 on vinyl or the more widely available CD, came with a promotional card which offered the opportunity to win an actual Mini.  It wasn’t a brand-new car, but one that had been built in 1968 and had quite a few miles on the clock.  The draw for the car took place in Leeds on 12 April, some three months after the release of the EP….and I’ll get back to that after offering up the songs:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Drive
mp3: The Wedding Present – Love Machine
mp3: The Wedding Present – Go, Man, Go
mp3: The Wedding Present – Mercury
mp3: The Wedding Present – Convertible
mp3: The Wedding Present – Sports Car (mini)

Here’s the thing.

This is the period in time when I body swerved The Wedding Present.  I hadn’t been enamoured by Sucker and I thought the idea of flogging off a Mini to purchasers of the new EP was a sign of desperation.  As such, I avoided buying this, and indeed the next few releases that came out on Cooking Vinyl, only discovering them a few years later.  Turns out that I missed out on something of a lost classic, as there’s a great deal to enjoy on Mini, with the six tunes seeming to cover just about every aspect of the music the band had been making since first bursting into view. 

The six songs are credited to David Gedge/Darren Belk/Simon Smith, all of whom played on the release while along with new bass player, Jayne Lockey, who also added some backing vocals.   It wasn’t the final time Darren Belk would be credited on a TWP release, but it proved to be the last recordings, as he left prior to the band going into the studio in the summer to start work on what their next singles and what would become their fifth studio album.

The actual Mini?   As mentioned above, the draw took place on Friday 12 April, which was the final night of a five-evenings festival held under the BBC Radio 1 Sound City banner.   Each night had seen various bands take to the stage of either the Town and Country Club or Leeds Metropolitan University, and The Wedding Present headlined the latter on that final night.  Various Radio 1 DJs had been the compères at all the gigs, as well as broadcasting their own regular radio shows from the BBC studio in Leeds.  John Peel was joined by David Gedge after the live gig, and he was asked to make the prize draw:-

mp3: David Gedge/John Peel – Mini Prize Draw (Sound City 1996)

David Gedge, a short time after returning from the gigs in France, drove the car to the home of the winner and handed over the keys.

JC