THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Thirty-Four)

I apologise for beginning the latest instalment of this series with a spoiler.

The 34th single released by The Wedding Present here in the UK has proved, thus far, to be the last time the band was credited with a chart hit in that particular format.

The ‘return’ of the band in late 2004, via the Interstate 5 single (see last week), led to a great deal of positive press, with many of the interviews and features taking the opportunity not just to have a backwards glance at the recording output of Cinerama, but to remind everyone that going back to the mid-80s, TWP had been responsible for the creation of some of the finest indie-pop/rock music of its generation.  There was, for the time being, much more awareness of the band than perhaps the period when the 12 singles in a year project had been undertaken, and so quite a lot was riding on the next single and the new album, both of which were due for release in February 2005.

The fact that the single had such a great title, one that a certain Manchester-born songwriter with whom David Gedge had often been compared would have been proud to have come up with, just added to the intrigue

mp3: The Wedding Present – I’m From Further North Than You

The song had originally been aired during some live Cinerama shows back in 2003.  Back then, the song was called Edinburgh.   Indeed, it was first recorded under the title of Edinburgh for a John Peel Session which aired in June 2003

mp3: Cinerama – Edinburgh (Peel Session)

David Gedge, in a on-line interview given a few years later, is very much the best person to explain:-

The original title was suggested by the story in the lyric… i.e. that the narrator had met someone with a Scottish accent but had initially mistaken them as being from the south of England. Edinburgh has always been one of my favourite cities and so I decided to use that as being where the other person was from. I think it sounded quite romantic to me.

But, later, I decided that, firstly, I wanted the title to be more literal but also, I wanted to reference that pride of being northern that would cause a northerner to feel appalled if someone mistook them for a southerner! Hence the outrage implied in “No, I’m not from the south, I am from further north than you!”

It’s a fabulous pop song, with one of his finest lyrics. There’s a world of difference in the way the two versions were recorded and produced, and in particular the guitar solos that come after the line(s) that end ‘and you needed a friend’, which certainly hark back in some ways to the Seamonsters-era.

The single came in at #34.  The last time TWP had achieved that high a chart placing without the gimmick of the limited edition singles had been fourteen years previously, when Dalliance came in at #29. 

Before I get to the b-sides etc, here’s your chance to enjoy the promo video:-

Yup.   Filmed in Edinburgh…..and I’ve walked in many of the locations used!  Oh, and the captions suggesting the conversation(s) are packed with snippets from Cinerama songs.  It’s all rather clever and brilliant.

The single was release on 7″ vinyl and CD.   The 7″ actually had a remix of the single on one side and a track that wasn’t included on the CD.

mp3: The Wedding Present – I’m From Further North Than You (Klee Remix)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Nickels and Dimes

It’s not so much a remix as a totally different version.  Klee are a band from Koln, Germany, and back in 2005 consisted of Suzie Kerstgens (vocals), Sten Servaes (keyboards) and Tom Deininger (guitars).   My understanding is that Simon Cleave of TWP lived in the German city in the early 2000s, and so he may well have been the conduit for getting Klee involved – it’s worth remembering that Simon co-wrote all of the songs that would appear on the new album.   Whether all of Klee played on this version or not, I’m not sure….but it certainly sounds as if Suzie is there on co-vocals.

Nickels and Dimes is another that Cinerama had previously recorded for a John Peel session, and yet in this version you would be hard pushed to identify it as being from the era of that band.  It’s not one that I find myself revisiting very often. 

Here’s the two songs to be found on the CD single:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Rekindling
mp3: The Wedding Present – The Girl With The Curious Smile

The former is a short mid-tempo number, at just over two minutes in length.  It’s decent enough, with a nice guitar solo and arrangement at its back-end, without being one that many fans would likely place in the top half of any rundown of TWP songs. 

The latter, and perhaps the title is a bit of a giveaway, is very much a Cinerama number rather than a TWP effort….from the whistling early on right through to the orchestral flushes via the keyboards.  It’s a bit of a hidden gem.

With the single appearing just a couple of weeks in advance of the new album, Take Fountain, the collection of songs on the b-sides, as well as the three songs that had made up Interstate 5, certainly created a fair bit of intrigue as to how it would actually sound.  I’ll try and cover that off next week………

JC