THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Forty-Eight)

The Home Internationals EP, as featured last time around, had been released in May 2017.   It was a full 18 months later that the next EP was put into shops.  For those of us who perhaps had found our patience tested with Home Internationals, the new 10″, issued on Hatch Records, did feature four songs on which David Gedge did sing….and in English!!

The thing was, it wasn’t exactly something new that was on offer as the EP was a recording of songs that had been recorded for a BBC radio show back in 2006.

At the age of 17, Huw Stephens had become the youngest ever DJ to broadcast on BBC Radio 1, back in 1999, as part of what was a regional opt-out in Wales.   In 2005, he gained a UK-wide slot when he became one of three replacements for the late John Peel as part of Radio 1’s One Music strand, which was intended to keep the spirit of Peel’s show.

His show on 19 July 2006 featured a session by The Wedding Present, recorded at the famous Maida Vale studios, the location of many of the Peel sessions previously recorded by the band.  It featured four cover versions.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Step Inside Love
mp3: The Wedding Present – Lovin’ You
mp3: The Wedding Present – Our Lips Are Sealed
mp3: The Wedding Present – Back For Good

The DJ contributed notes to the release, and here’s what he had to say about each of the songs:-

“Listening to it now, it still sounds great. Maida Vale has a sound of its own. 

Step Inside Love was written by Paul McCartney for the late Cilla Black‘s TV show of the same name. Just a throwaway TV theme tune that happens, of course, to be a classic.

Lovin’ You is one of my all time favourites. Minnie Ripperton‘s voice is exquisite on the original recording. David Gedge doesn’t quite the high notes on this version but the guitars do a good job in taking it somewhere else. And excellent use of the Maida Vale glockenspiel!

The Go-Gos Our Lips Are Sealed sounds brilliantly frantic. And Gary Barlow‘s Back For Good? It’s heartbreaking stuff.”

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The session was recorded by musicians who had long taken their leave of TWP, with Terry de Castro on bass and backing vocals, Graeme Ramsay on drums and percussion and Chris McConville on guitar.  They were joined by Catherine Kontz on keyboards and glockenspiel.

You’ll perhaps recall that a studio version of the Take That tune was released in 2008 as part of the Holly Jolly Hollywood EP.  This radio session version predates it.

 

JC