Wedding Present's sell-out city show

COLIN WILSON

After almost an eight-year hiatus the Wedding Present return to the live scene with a UK tour to coincide with the release of the band's new album Take Fountain and play Norwich Arts Centre on Monday, March 7.

Frontman David Gedge started the Wedding Present almost 20 years ago and they became one of the UK's most influential and successful indie pop bands for a decade onwards from the mid-Eighties.

They went on to have 17 UK top 40 hit singles… not bad for a band who have stubbornly refused to play the record industry's game since their inception.

That pioneering spirit has been at the core of the band's philosophy ever since. From George Best the first full-length release on their own Reception Records onwards, the band have charted an appealing, if often eccentric, course of their very own.

With their independent releases, the Wedding Present acquired a reputation for bittersweet, breathtakingly real love songs immersed in whirlwind guitars. So it was quite extraordinary that the album Ukrainski V Johna Peela, with the band exploring traditional European folk music, should be their major label debut on RCA.

It was in 1997 that Gedge called a halt to the Wedding Present and started work on a solo project that would eventually see the light of day under the banner Cinerama.

Altogether the band released three albums, the final release being Torino in 2002. Gedge moved to Seattle and busied himself with writing a new Wedding Present album the result being Take Fountain. Released on St Valentines Day, the album was preceded by two singles, Interstate 5 and I'm From Further North Than You.

David Gedge is joined by Terry de Castro (bass), John Maiden (drums) and Simon Cleave (guitar), a member of the previous Wedding Present line-up.

Support comes from Scanners. Doors 8pm.

t Tickets (returns only). 01603 660352