THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

I mentioned last week that I was particularly struck by the fact that the four musicians in The Wedding Present – David Gedge, Jon Stewart, Melanie Howard and Chris Hardwick – were given writing credits on the fourth 7″ single to emerge as part of the year-long 24 Songs project during 2022.

The credits on the fifth single offered up a number of different names, including former members of the band, which was maybe an indication that a couple of old(ish) songs had been dusted down.

To begin with, it feels as if the A-side, for the second month in a row, was going to be one that was slower than normal. Unlike Monochrome, this has quite a lot going for it in terms of a tune, as well excellent melodies between Mr Gedge and Ms Howard. And then, in a way quite similar to Come Play With Me, the fifth single from the year-long series back in 1992, it speeds up at the end with some excellent guitar work. A coincidence or deliberate? I’m really not sure.

mp3: The Wedding Present – X Marks The Spot

The writers on this one are Gedge/Howard/Wellauer/Beer-Pearce.

It’s only now, a long time after the event, that I’ve been able to piece this one together, and even then, there’s a fair bit of conjecture on my part.

Samuel Beer-Pearce had been the guitarist with The Wedding Present a few years previously, between 2013 and 2016, and he featured on the Going Going…album as well as being part of the touring band during those years. Nicholas Wellauer was the new drummer with The Wedding Present – something I had discovered just a few weeks prior to the postman delivering this single when I’d gone along to see the band play a gig in Glasgow and found that Chris Hardwick, whose face had become so familiar with the YouTube videos during lockdown, was not on stage.

Here’s the conjecture. I’m assuming that X Marks The Spot is a song originally worked up between Gedge and Beer-Pierce, and then a few years later additional contributions came from Howard and Wellauer to deliver the finished article to take into the studio. But however the jigsaw was put together, the end product was a more than decent effort. A ‘live’ video was made to accompany the release.

This was the same line-up that had played Glasgow the previous month – a tour in which Seamonsters was played in its entirety, followed by a dozen more tunes, including a handful that hadn’t as yet been released, but were due out later in the year as part of 24 Songs. As you might imagine, given my love for Seamonsters, this particular gig is up there as one of my very favourites by the band.

The b-side is fast and furious, and at a little over two minutes in length, a bit of a throwback to the very early days.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Strike!

The writing credits on this one are Layton, Wadey, Gedge and Howard. You may well recall from previous entries in this series that Charles Layton and Danielle Wadey had taken their leave of The Wedding Present at the end of 2019 when their baby was due. Melanie Howard had joined the band in 2018, and given the four musicians credited on Strike! was the touring line-up for a couple of years, I think it’s a fair assumption it’s a song which was worked up during that period but never given any studio time