The Wedding Present were in a good place when 2019 rolled around. The line-up was really settled with Charles Layton now a ten-year veteran on the drums, Danielle Wadey proving to be a great foil on guitar having initially joined the band as bassist in 2016, while the new bassist, Melanie Howard, was bringing youth and a fresh energy to the live shows, of which there had been plenty across the UK between March and June as part of a 30th anniversary tour of Bizarro, which then moved on to Japan, China and Thailand in July.
A new single, issued on the Leeds-based label Come Play With Me Records, and released on 2 August, broke some new ground for the band in that one version of it was their first ever picture disc.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Jump In, The Water’s Fine
mp3: The Wedding Present – Panama
Two new songs, available on standard 7″ or 10″ picture disc.
It’s one of the more unusual and hard to categorise singles in the band’s history. It starts off as if it’s going to be a rock number with loud guitars, before easing off to a more gentle-pace with the chorus relying heavily on the backing vocals offered up by Melanie Howard, something that had been a feature of the live shows throughout the year.
The b-side begins with handclaps and a prominent bass line, courtesy of Terry de Castro, with had come back, as a one-off, to play on the single. Again, it’s just a tad different from the norm, and yet it sounded exactly as you’d expect. It’s one that I’ve long felt was wasted as a b-side – it’s certainly a better and more instant song than Jump In…
The band would then perform at the 2019 edition of The Edge of The Sea Festival, and spend much of the rest of the year on the road in the UK and Europe, with 41 shows all told. I caught the show in Glasgow in late October, and it was proved to be incredibly enjoyable, with the musicians clearly having a fantastic chemistry, aided by the fact that so much of the set was made up of songs from Bizarro. Oh, and the fact that the unexpected cover on the evening was A Song From Under The Floorboards, originally recorded by Magazine.
But the last 14 dates, involving shows in Germany, Holland, Belgium and England, by necessity featured a changed line-up. Danielle had toured while pregnant, but there had to come a time when common sense prevailed, and her last show was on 16 November. Her partner, and father of her child, is none other than Charles Layton and so, after more than a decade of being the band’s drummer, he also took his leave. In their place came Jon Stewart, formerly of Sleeper on guitar, and Chris Hardwick, formerly of My Life Story on drums. This would be the new line-up, anticipated to head into a studio sometime in 2020, as well as going out and playing live.
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Second day in a row with zero comments. I can’t stand that. That’s why I would like to announce that I really like “Panama”. The same goes for Broken Chanter’s song yesterday. And this applies even more to Adamson’s “The last Words of Sam Cooke” recently, which marched straight into my favourites of 2024. [sk]
P.S.: When COVID broke out, I watched the news on TV all day. People were constantly shown lying barefoot on beds in hospital corridors. I remember spending a lot of money on foot care products back then.
These last few posts have had me searching out the less-listened-to songs in my TWP collection, and it’s been a great catch up. Just the dunt I needed. Very much enjoying these entries – thank you, JC.
Strangeways