2012. This is where I’m very likely not only to lose track with everything that was going on in terms of what was being released by The Wedding Present, but I really run the risk of losing everyone’s interest!
An album, Valentina, was released in March 2012. A few months prior to this, in the period between Christmas and New Year, I’d gone to see the band play a show in Glasgow at a venue called The Garage. It proved to be rather a disappointing evening, the first time I’d come away feeling I’d seen the band deliver a substandard performance. Some new songs were aired, with David explaining they had already been recorded in the studio for the next album, but none of them jumped out as me as being anything special, far less having the possibility of becoming memorable and essential TWP tunes.
I didn’t rush out and buy Valentina. Indeed, I think I bought it maybe 18 months or so after it was released, and that was when it was on sale in a shop. For the first time ever, I was bored by the new material the band were recording and releasing. I was still listening and loving loads of the old stuff, and writing about it on the original incarnation of The Vinyl Villain (born 30 September 2006 and wiped off the planet on 24 July 2013).
It all means that a number of other releases from 2012, in addition to Valentina, passed me by. Indeed, looking at the TWP vinyl and CDs that I have here in Villain Towers, there was a gap through to 2016 before my buying habits were re-ignited. I have, as part of doing the legwork for this series, tried to track as many of them down as I can, and you’ll see in the coming weeks, just how well (or not) I got on.
Today, it’s just the one song.
Valentina was an album with ten songs – or eleven is you went for it as a digital download, as there was a bonus track available that way. None of its songs were ever released as a stand-alone physical single, and indeed just one was made available in advance, seemingly as a digital single on 30 January 2012:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – You Jane
This had been aired at the Glasgow gig I mentioned earlier on. Looking back, the band just felt inconsequential in comparison to a lot of the exciting new music that was coming out of Scotland. Maybe TWP in 2012 just didn’t stand a chance with me.
Thinking back to all the very long-running series in which I’ve looked at the singles by a singer or band, there’s always been a period when I’ve lost interest along the way, only to have it piqued again in later years. It happened with James, it happened with New Order, it happened with R.E.M., it happened with The Fall, and it happened with the Pet Shop Boys.
It’s really difficult to be a fan of a singer or band over many decades and remain totally committed to their output.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
It took me a while to appreciate Valnetina for what it was, but even now it isn’t a record I revisit very often. It definitely has its moments, but they don’t stand out in quite the same way as previously.
It will start getting messy now in terms of trying to decide what to feature – lots of EPs and standalone singles, many of which are very hard to track down, and they physical vinyl is rather pricey. (I think I have pretty much everything in some form or other, so let me know if you’re short of anything and I’ll see what I can do).
“It’s really difficult to be a fan of a singer or band over many decades and remain totally committed to their output.”
Just ask Elvis Costello. He’s not committed to his own output, and rightly so.
You’re not losing my interest! Wedding Present has been one of my favorite bands since I discovered them around 1990. Their progress has been great to witness. At this point I have almost all of TWP singles, albums, b-sides, but not quite all. This series is filling in the gaps. Especially around the Cinerama stuff. Thanks for taking the time to highlight Gedge and co!
I’m not sure I even knew TWP were still going back in 2012.