Things That Make You Go Hum #10
The Wedding Present - Montreal (Cooking Vinyl, 1996)
There's a handful of bands that everyone goes on about as hugely influential or just plain awesome, but that I know very little about. and , for a start. 'Been Caught Stealing' by Janes is one of my favourite songs ever since I heard it in Liam Howlett's mix album and I also really like and , bands formed by Dinosaur Jr's Lou Barlow. Yet I could only name maybe two or three songs byÌýany of those bands.
Then there's . All I know about this lot is that the singer is David Gedge, he's from Leeds, and they're responsible for one of my favourite songs of all time. Strange that I never bothered with any albums, I know.
It would have been about 1996 or 1997. Steve Lamacq played the track while I was driving my dad's car. I didn't hear the introduction andÌýit segued into another track so there was no back reference. But the chorus stuck in my head for eight years. Every now and again, it'd come back and wave at me like a recurring dream and I'd hum the little bit I knew.
After this had happened for maybe the 100th time, I finally decided to find the song. So, about three years ago, I googled "so I said thanks but no / I've got somewhere else to go / and the plans I've made / don't include you I'm afraid" - the only lyrics I remembered.
And there it was: The Wedding Present - Montreal.
On the off chance, I dandered over to the W section of the ATL CD library. Bizarrely, before I started even flicking through the two or three hundred CD singles, this luminous green slip case caught my eye.
IT was the track. I couldn't believe it. I went to tell Paul or Donna, but it was too ridiculous a story and I doubted they'd believe me.
But I love this song. Maybe you will too.
Comment number 1.
At 22nd Jul 2009, ATL Bell wrote:I have a remarkably similar relationship with The Wedding Present. Don't own a single record of theirs, but absolutely love the track Come Play With Me, which I inadvertantly kept hearing because it was part of a John Peel Festive 50 (remember those?) that my brother had taped, which I then taped over with The Breeders' Last Splash. Come Play With Me was, luckily, in the five minutes or so spare at the end of the tape. Cracking tune, good choice Mr. Peel.
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Comment number 2.
At 22nd Jul 2009, witholeary wrote:Festive 50s? now there's something to look back on.
Anyone seen this:
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Comment number 3.
At 24th Jul 2009, ATL Bell wrote:Magic! And there it is, John Peel's Festive 50 - 1992. If only I'd bothered listening to that tape before I taped over it, I could have discovered a whole lot more Wedding Present. Oddly enough, I never fast forward that tape when it gets to Ministry's 'Jesus Built My Hotrod' that follows 'Come Play With Me', even thought I would not under any other circumstances give it a listen. That was the power of John Peel I guess.
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