Single #35 was Ringway to Seatac, released on CD in October 2005.
The information on the official website for The Wedding Present and Cinerama doesn’t have any entries for singles between then and 2012……and yet, Discogs, the most popular ‘market’ for picking up second-hand copies of vinyl and CDs lists has three releases for 2008. Here’s the opening part of why…….
2006 and 2007 were very busy years for the band in terms of going out on tour, firstly to further promote Take Fountain, while the following year saw shows which primarily celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of debut album George Best.
2008 began with everyone heading over to Chicago to the studio of Steve Albini to begin work on what was going to be the seventh studio album. Settling on the title of El Rey, the album was released in May 2008, initially in the USA on the LA-located indie Manifesto Records and a week or so later in the UK on a newly-established label, Vibrant Records, based in the south of England.
This was the era when digital, rather than physical, releases seemed to be all the rage. As such, the song issued as a precursor to the new album was a digital release only, albeit promo CDs were pressed up and sent out to radio stations. This was the info contained with the CDs:-
The obvious confusion is that Track 1, which most radio station producers/DJs would assume is the one to be aired is a remix, while the album version is tucked away as Track 4. I’m not sure if it actually got much in the way of airplay – the label was incredibly small and certainly wouldn’t have had the resources in terms of finance and personnel to make strong and direct pushes – but if it did, I can only assume it was this version that was aired
mp3: The Wedding Present – The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend (Jet-Age Mix)
The unusual departure being that it’s of call and response number in places, while occasionally becoming a duet with Terry De Castro adding her fine vocal to that of David Gedge.
It’s a decent enough song without being truly outstanding. It’s actually a rather creepy lyric when you break it down, with David singing that he went to all sorts of boring things with his (male) friend in the hope that his mate’s girlfriend would be there too. For her part, Terry admits to having feelings in return, but states that her boyfriend would be devastated if she were to leave him for someone who is supposed to be a close friend.
I did buy a download, and was particularly keen, being a huge fan of the Seamonsters album, to hear the Albini version as I was excited that he was working with The Wedding Present again.
mp3: The Wedding Present – The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend (Santa Monica and La Brea version)
First thing to note…..it’s almost two minutes longer than the remix. It opens with a lengthy and initially downbeat instrumental section in which an automated voice repeats the word ‘WAIT’, before the Albini trademark of loud guitars break in after about a minute. These continue for the best part of another minute before the same automated voice goes into a countdown from 12 to 1, at which point the song lifts off. I immediately preferred this take to the remix, which got me quite excited about the forthcoming release of El Rey.
Here’s the two other versions made available via the download:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend (acoustic version)
mp3: The Wedding Present – The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend (GR’s Man-Made Island Edition)
The former gets a nice touch from the inclusion of a quietly-played organ in the background, but otherwise is probably what you’d expect from its description. The latter is more experimental in nature and the production duties were undertaken by the band’s drummer Graeme Ramsay, who had joined in 2007 (and would, in later years, move to guitar). It’s one that I like a lot…..but that could probably be down to the fact I have an inherent bias to Graeme Ramsay’s work as he’s a Raith Rovers fan!
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Two Raith Rovers fans? Unthinkable.
I’m enjoying this series. I do like the band but fell away from listening to them. This is yet another monumental commitment from JC and Strangeways – it’s very much appreciated.
Flimflamfan
I’m somewhat chuffed (always wanted to say that) about all the LA references that appear in Wedding Present songs. Santa Monica and La Brea in this case are boulevards; they intersect between West Hollywood and Hollywood. Because there’s so much traffic on Santa Monica and they boulevards north and south of it (Sunset and Melrose), knowledgeable folks avoid those and…Take Fountain avenue. My sister lived at Poinsettia and Fountain back in her 80’s LA days and I found that side street then. Since there are numerous LA references to LA on the album (Santa Ana Winds, Spiderman on Hollywood, Palisades) I thought the title might have referred to the El Rey Theatre, a classic old music venue on Wilshire Blvd. that’s still around. But that’s definitely not the famous neon sign of the LA venue on the album cover.
A pretty good song, but I like the Specials’ take on the subject better.
Although perhaps not a classic Weddoes A-side, I too enjoyed Graeme Ramsay’s remix. He brought a lot to the band in his time. Maybe he could take over at currently manager-free Raith?
Strangeways
Ouch!
Yesterday’s decision to sack our manager has left me as baffled and bewildered as the times when I tried to work out Richard Jobson was singing in the early days of The Skids.