THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Sixty)

I know that I’ve banged on a fair bit these past few weeks about the writing credits on the tracks released as part of the year-long 24 Songs project, but I make no apologies….especially as I’m going to do so again today!!!

A reminder that The Wedding Present, in terms of the touring and recording line-up in 2022 consisted of David Gedge (vocals, guitar), Jon Stewart (guitar), Melanie Howard (bass, keyboards and backing vocals) and Nicholas Wellauer (drums).   These were the four credited with writing We Interrupt Our Programme, the seventh of the singles in the series, released in July and which featured on TVV last Sunday.

It would have been natural to expect that the same line-up would be responsible for the eighth release, which landed on our doormats on or shortly after 18 August 2022.  But no……this turned out to be a song whose composition appears to go back to early 2018, to a time when Terry de Castro briefly rejoined on bass guitar prior to Melanie Howard’s arrival as the writing credits are Gedge, Wadey, de Castro and Layton…..and yet it appears to be a song that wasn’t ever played live until 2022!

mp3: The Wedding Present – Each Time You Open Your Eyes (7″ version)

A ballad with minimal playing up until around the 1:30 mark, at which point it gets very loud…..and then it goes all quiet and minimal again to the point that David Gedge’s delivery is almost down to a whisper before the volume is again turned up above the same lines as before:-

You’ll always know which side I’m on because, without you, well, I’m not anyone
We might have bad days but I will always thank my lucky stars the world revealed you

Shortly after, the song fades out quickly….and I’ve always felt it was something of a clumsy and ill-judged fade-out.    The full version of the song, eventually made available a few months later on the 24 Songs album is almost exactly two minutes longer, and is very representative of the harder edged rock sound that had been increasingly embraced by the band since coming back again in the era after Cinerama had run its course.  The late-20s and 30-something me would probably have hated Each Time You Open Your Eyes, but the 59-year-old me very much appreciated and enjoyed it. 

mp3: The Wedding Present – Each Time You Open Your Eyes (album version)

The band, in addition to the monthly singles in 2022, had found time to release an album Locked Down and Stripped Back Volume Two, of songs that had been recorded at home during the COVID lockdown in the summer of 2021 and which had formed the basis of the on-line version of the August 2021 Edge of The Sea Festival (temporarily renamed as The Edge of The Sofa festival).  A few very welcome guests had contributed, including Peter Solowka adding accordion to a fabulous version of Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm, to which Amelia Fletcher also dropped by to reprise and indeed add to her vocal part to the 1988 single:-

 Locked Back….Vol 2 contained a previously unreleased song, This Could Only Happen In A Movie, which had been written by the 2021 line-up of the band, namely David Gedge, Jon Stewart, Melanie Howard and Chris Hardwick (all of whom can be seen in the above clip for Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm). Just a few weeks after the album came out, it was given a release as the b-side to the eighth of the 24 Songs releases:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – This Would Only Happen In A Movie

It’s not too dissimilar to the version that can be found on Locked Back….Vol 2.   It’s a more than decent enough b-side. 

JC