Personnel
Current line-up
David Gedge - vocals, guitars, keyboards (since 1985) Simon Cleave - guitars (since 1996) Terry de Castro - bass guitar, backing vocals (since 1999(as CINERAMA)) Simon Pearson - drums (sinceJuly 2005)

Past members
Shaun Charman - drums (1985-1988) Peter "Grapper" Solowka - guitars, accordion (1985-1991) Keith Gregory - bass guitar (1985-1993) Simon Smith - drums (1988-1997) Paul Dorrington - guitar (1991-1995) Darren Belk - bass guitar (1993-1995), guitar (1995) Jayne Lockey - bass guitar, backing vocals (1995-1997) Kari Paavola - drums (2000(as CINERAMA) - Jan. 2005) John Maiden - drums (Feb. 2005-June 2005)

History
Early stages and the Reception era (1985-1989)
A Wasted Pandas fell apart within 1985 whilst David Gedge's then girlfriend, the drummer for the band, ran away with its guitarist. Gedge & a Pandas' bass streaming video player, Keith Gregory, decided to continue a band, renaming it A Wedding Present.

Gedge experienced wanted to utilise a title "The Wedding Present" for ages however was afraid of a perceived similarity by having the title of one of his favorite elastic, The Birthday Party. Per period a Wasted Pandas broke higher, even so, that b& experienced never again too and Gedge felt loose to title his fresh band A Wedding Present.

"I’ve always thought that The Wedding Present was an inappropriate name for a pop group — more like a poem, or a book or something — and therefore quite attractive (to me!). I’ve also always been fascinated by weddings… Those surreal performances where the audience plays an integral part — the joy, the sadness, the passion — all unfolding firstly in a house where God is served and ultimately in a house where beer is served… The knife inserted ritually into the virginal white cake to reveal the dark fruity interior… That ugly pagan concept of the father handing over his daughter to her new master… The mothers crying because they’re losing a daughter, the page boys crying because they have to wear such stupid clothes… Those embarrassing speeches and drunken uncles on the dance floor… I could go on and on!

"We utilized to become the vast Birthday Person fan & although We’d thought of ‘The Wedding Present’ all about ten years ago [i.e., circa 1982 - ed.], We decided it was a bit too similar & hence known as a band I was in The Misplaced Pandas. Per period my number 1 lone come call at 1985, TBP were dead and never to return and then I personally felt easier reverting to the original idea."
(Quoted from the [http://www.westnet.com/weddoes/faq.html#Q7.1 Wedding Present FAQ].)

Gedge and Gregory recruited an old schoolmate of Gedge's, Peter Solowka, to play guitar and auditioned a string of drummers before settling on Shaun Charman. The country's clubs and bars were toured and the band prepared for the recording of their first, self-financed single, "Go Out & Become ’Em, Son!" Charman felt somewhat insecure about his drumming abilities and so the A-side features drumming by hired hand Julian Sowa (Charman does, however, play drums on its B-side). The single was licensed to the City Slang label, but dissatisfaction with its handling led to the band creating their own Reception label for the release of their own material and that of selected others (such as Cud).

Two more singles followed that did well on the independent charts and the band was spotted by veteran BBC radio DJ John Peel, who immediately started championing them and invited them to do a radio session (three songs from the session are included on the 1988 compilation Tommy 1985-1987; the entire session had already been released as an EP in 1986), starting a long collaboration.

By the time the band started work on their debut album, a number of independent and major record companies showed interest, but the band declined all offers and decided to keep releasing their material themselves. The album was released in 1987 and titled George Best after the well-known Northern Irish football player. Disagreement on production values with the record's producer, Chris Allison, led to the product being remixed by the band and their engineer, Steve Lyon. The larger part of these conflicts seemed to lie with the personal and musical incompatibility of Allison and Charman.

Upon its release, the album was critically acclaimed and the band were soon lumped in with some of their peers as the 'shambling' or C86 scene, a categorisation that they vehemently declined (although they were featured on the original C86 compilation). Musically, the album featured fast-paced rhythm guitar attacks; lyrically, apart from a few tentative excursions into social critique ("A lot This & Sir thomas more") and politics ("All About Eve"), Gedge's main concerns (which would become his trademark) were love, lust, heartbreak and revenge. Soon after the release of George Best, the early singles and radio sessions were compiled and released as Tommy (1985-1987).

When Solowka, who has Ukrainian roots, started fooling around with a Ukrainian folk tune during one of their many Peel sessions, the idea arose to devote some of their radio time to recording their versions of Ukrainian and Russian folk song, encouraged by Peel. To this end, two guest musicians were invited, singer/violin player Len Liggins and mandolin player Roman Remeynes, and two Peel sessions were recorded with Gedge temporarily limiting himself to playing rhythm guitar and arranging the songs.

Between the recording of the first and the second 'Ukrainian' session, Charman was fired from the band. It is said that musical and socio-political differences between Charman and the rest of the band were to blame. His replacement was Simon Smith, who remained the band's drummer until 1997 and for a long time was the only other stable factor in the shifting line-ups next to Gedge.

The band planned on releasing eight cuts from the Ukrainian sessions on a 10" LP and an initial batch was pressed once their distribution company, Red Rhino, went into receivership. Like than looking for the newly distribution company, the b& decided to stack their Reception label altogether and sign using a regular record company: RCA.

The RCA era (1989-1993)
Although a band were criticized by a few quarters for 'selling out', the terms of their contract were radical (for the major label recording contract). It were allowed their have selection of producer & singles & may possibly release singles independently while forgoing breach of contract, should RCA call for a songs uncommercial (this never happened).

A band's recently record company bought a initial Reception equity of a Ukrainian record from either a b&, pressed an additional load, and eventually freed the record within April 1989 under the unmanageable title of Українські Виступи в Івана Піла (the Latin transliteration Ukraïnski Vistupi v Johna Peela, meaning 'Ukrainian John Peel Sessions', appears on the sleeve's spine only).

A number one proper album that A Wedding Present recorded for their recently label was freed in the equivalent season 1989 and reunited them sustaining Allison. Bizarro’s lyrical themes were largely a equivalent when prior to (although it showed that Gedge experienced grown as a lyrist) & a songs featured the equivalent three-chord structures, but its production was buirdly (to be sure thanks to the better recording budget) & several of the songs featured Velvet Underground-like extended finale. A album's companion individual, "Kennedy", provided a band by owning their foremost British Top 40 hit.

Seeing that it were growing ever thomas more popular in the American college radio scene, the band turned towards United states of america for their next task. Instead of ingesting an additional lone off a album, a band decide to re-record Bizarro track "Brassneck" by using an engineer whose work it admired, a previous Big Black frontman Steve Albini. It was a begin of a both-biennial collaboration: the next individual, "Corduroy" (officially merely one of tierce tracks on the 3 Songs EP) and album, Seamonsters, were also recorded by Albini.

Seamonsters saw a b& choose each their music & lyrical themes to extremes and actually was about a year ahead of its period. Got it been freed around early 1992 instead of early 1991, its grunge-like intensity & Albini cred could have made it the vast smash. At it was, hearing to the record was compared by Melody Maker to sandpapering your ears. Fans thought otherwise & polls invariably showed a opening track & lead individual of the album, "Dalliance", at a top of the favourites names.

Near directly when recording a album, a band announced that it experienced sacked Solowka. His replacement was Paul Dorrington of local band, A.C. Temple. Solowka team once more by owning Liggins & Remeynes to form a Ukrainians.

A next month saw a b& researching a extent of their contractual liberties (and a record company's patience) whilst it announced their scheme to release xii (Dozen) Vii" singles in one year. The general music press once again praised the band's PR/marketing shrewdness and in the record sales press, serious articles appeared that outlined how the band's singles (which were limited to 10,000 copies that almost always sold out within the week of release) showed the decline and general worthlessness of the modern pop chart. Previously, record companies were deliberately vague about singles sales to cover up sales decline, but the band showed that they were able to score a Top 10 hit with just 10,000 sales ("Are Play by using Us", #10 in May — in fact less than 10,000 sales since the record managed a second week at #65).

All the other singles reached the Top 30 as well and The Wedding Present equalled Elvis Presley's age-old record for most Top 30 hits in one year. To economise on songwriting, the B-sides consisted of cover versions of songs proposed by all band members and saw Gedge wrapping his tonsils around such unlikely songs as Julee Cruise's "Falling" (the theme tune from Twin Peaks). The singles and their B-sides, which were produced by such luminaries as Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds) and Jimmy Miller (The Rolling Stones) were collected on two albums, appropriately called Hit Parade 1 and Hit Parade 2.

Shortly after the 1992 singles scheme had ended, the band announced that contract renewal negotiations with RCA were going nowhere and that they were leaving the label.

The Island intermezzo (1994-1995)
The band spent most of 1993 taking time off, occasionally playing gigs. A stopgap compilation of three more archive radio sessions, Peel Sessions 1987-1990, was released by Strange Fruit. When they re-emerged in early 1994 with the news that they had signed to Island Records, it was quickly followed by the announcement that Gregory had left the band due to lack of enthusiasm. He was replaced by long-standing fan Darren Belk.

For their next album, The Wedding Present again left for the States and another well-known underground producer was enlisted: Steve Fisk (Screaming Trees, Nirvana). The result was their most accessible record to date, the brilliantly poppy yet resolutely alternative Watusi. The album's songs ranged from warm lo-fi pop ("Summerhouse", "Heavy Rat") to semi-psychedelic, Velvets-like workouts ("Push button Double click", "Catwoman"). Lack of promotional muscle and perhaps the band's stubborn refusal to play the media game prevented this album, which could and perhaps should have been their breakthrough to the general public, from becoming a smash.

No further albums were recorded for Island, and the best part of 1995 was spent the same way as 1993: touring, writing new material, no recording. Paul Dorrington decided to quit the band; no replacement was made as Belk moved up from bass to guitar. In the autumn of 1995, The Wedding Present released "Sucker", a self-financed, no-label single that was sold at their gigs only (it has since been included on the international editions of their next album). Shortly after, the band signed with independent label Cooking Vinyl.

The Cooking Vinyl era (1995-1997/99)
The band, still a three-piece, wasted no time recording their newly written material and issued the car-themed six-track mini-album called, of course, Mini (US and European editions, called Mini Plus, added the "Sucker" single and B-sides). The songs showed diversity in sound (both the lighter, Watusi-like style and the heavier, Seamonsters noise aspects were present) and deftness in wrapping Gedge's usual loved-and-lost interests around the automobile-inspired theme.

Belk played both guitar and bass on the songs but struggled at the lead instrument. Shortly after releasing the album, Jayne Lockey, who had already sung backing vocals on Mini, was announced as the band's new bass player. Feeling trapped in his unhappy role as guitarist and unable to step back down to bass, Belk decided to quit the band. He was replaced by The Wedding Present's current guitar player, Simon Cleave.

The band had still a wealth of material lying around from their sabbatical year, songs that did not fit the Mini format, and so they immediately went into the studio again to record Saturnalia, which was released within the year from Mini. The album, like Mini diverse in style and showing a versatile, tight band at the height of its powers, was widely praised in the music press.

Unfortunately, it also proved to be the last new material by The Wedding Present for a long time. After playing a number of gigs to support the album, the last one in Liverpool on January 18, 1997, the band took a long sabbatical.

Suspended animation (1997-2004)
To fulfill contractual obligations, two more compilations were released by Cooking Vinyl: another Peel sessions volume, John Peel Sessions 1992-1995 (1998), and Singles 1995-1997 (1999), a 2CD package that for some reason included the entire Mini album but also offered some outtakes. Additionally, Strange Fruit offered another radio sessions compilation, Evening Sessions 1986-1994 (1997), and the band's American label released Singles 1989-1991 (1999), another 2CD package, which added an entire live album. But apart from these, things remained quiet in the Wedding Present camp. David Gedge recorded an album called Va Va Voom in 1998 under the Cinerama band name with his girlfriend, Sally Murrell, and some session musicians. The project blossomed into a full-time new band.

In recent years, Gedge expressed interest in reviving The Wedding Present, but Smith and Lockey apparently were not terribly interested. Cleave was, and joined Cinerama. The latter started to regularly play Wedding Present songs at their concerts.

Resurrection (2004-present time)
News came in early September 2004 that Cinerama would be rebranded as The Wedding Present. The line-up was to be the same as the last line-up of Cinerama. The first new single, "Interstate Five", was issued in November 2004, to lead off the new album, Take Fountain, which was released on February 15 2005. A second single, "I personally'm From either Farther Northerly Than Your family" was released in January 2005.

The Wedding Present have a European and North American tour lined up in early 2005. During preparations for the tour Kari Paavola could not commit to the tour so a new drummer John Maiden was recruited. John also plays with Chungking from Brighton.

Discography
Key to personnel: Because there have been a number of personnel changes over the years, a key has been appended to each entry to indicate which line-up was involved. Album compilations may, of course, feature multiple line-ups. UK singles