2020. The year of the COVID lockdown restrictions. David Gedge turned his hands to providing fans with an online presence that turned out to include live streams and home recordings. The Edge of The Sea Festival was planned and delivered as an online event. The Wedding Present then actually managed to deliver an online gig in October, thanks to cameras being set up in each of the individual houses of the band members.
The purchase of vinyl and CDs also had to be done differently. Record shops being closed meant that owners had to enable customers to order online, with arrange for everything being to be delivered in due course. Record Store Day in 2020 was adapted to deal with the unusual circumstances. Instead of stock coming into shops on one day and potentially causing so much chaos that systems would collapse, it involved what were described as ‘drops’ over three Saturdays in August, September and October.
The Wedding Present’s contribution was issued on 26 September. It was a 7″ EP, on blue vinyl, released on Hatch Records, a Leeds-based label. It consisted of the three songs the band had recorded on 5 August 2019 for the Shaun Keaveny Show, broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music. It’s a fine reminder of how tight the band were at that point in time, with Danielle Wadey on guitars and backing vocals, Melanie Howard on bass and backing vocals and Charles Layton on drums.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Don’t Ask Me (Shaun Keaveny Session)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Panama (Shaun Keaveny Session)
mp3: The Wedding Present – No (Shaun Keaveny Session)
The first song was a new one. Its title would change in due course, and it would be released in 2022…..and that’s something I’ll get to in the not too distant future. The middle song was relatively new, having been the b-side of the 2019 Record Store Day release, and which featured in this series just seven days ago. The third track is a fresh and slightly less frantic take on one of the songs to be found on the 1989 album, Bizzarro.
All in all, a decent enough release to help the band and fans get through what was proving to be a difficult and challenging time.
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 