By my reckoning, the very first Brighton concert by indie rock group The Wedding Present took place at The Escape Club (now Patterns) on 10th December 1985. Now 38 years later you can get to see them performing live again as they will be headlining their ever-popular ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ annual bash!
Once again, the band and some highly rated friends will be rockin’ on up opposite Brighton’s sunny beach, when they will be thrilling concert goers at the Concorde 2 on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th August 2023.
The Wedding Present truly love Brighton as these two forthcoming performances will be at least their 46th and 47th concerts in our City. Prolific or what! In Brighton, they have graced the stages of the aforementioned Escape Club and Concorde 2, as well as the Pavilion Theatre, Top Rank Suite, The Zap Club, The Event, the Brighton Centre, The Corn Exchange, and the like, with even David Gedge and Terry DeCastro turning up at Dave’s Comics in Sydney Street to perform ‘Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft’, ‘Brassneck’ and ‘My Favourite Dress’ on 9th July 2016.
In 2009 their annual residency at the Concorde 2 began with the launch of ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’, which is named after the two minute thirty-nine second track found on their early compilation album, titled ‘Tommy’. The original release of the tune being on their 1986 ‘Once More’ single.
‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ is an all-day indoor mini-festival curated by Wedding Present frontman David Gedge and his team. I guessed they missed the trick of retitling it ‘Gedge At The Sea’.
After the enforced Covid live gig hiatus, 2022 saw The Wedding Present back with a bang! ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ was expanded into a two-day event with fans travelling from all over the UK to Brighton in order to enjoy the delights of sunny Brighton and two differing live sets from The Wedding Present as well as choice other acts.
This year will see The Wedding Present playing tracks from their ’24 Songs’ single series, together with other classics, in a 90 minute set on Friday (11th August), as well as support from the rather wonderful three-piece indie-pop band Peaness who hail from Chester and are also previous visitors to Brighton. This event runs from 7pm to 10pm.
Then on Saturday 12th August, ‘At The Edge Of The Sea XIII’ will run from 3pm to 10pm and feature The Wedding Present playing a mix of hits, classics and rarities in a 70 minute set. They will be joined by a host of artists that will include Blood Red Shoes, Cinerama who are David Gedge’s other band, who will be performing ‘Va Va Voom’ in its entirety to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its release, and former Wedding Present bassist Terry de Castro plus much more.
‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ tickets are selling fast, but at this moment in time can be purchased from Lout Promotions HERE.
More on The Wedding Present and Cinerama can be located HERE.
scopitones.co.uk/terrydecastro
Further reading on The Wedding Present:
John Peel fans would also most certainly have been aware of The Wedding Present back in the day, as they recorded no less than 13 of them from between 1986 to 2004. The band had formed in 1985 in Leeds from the ashes of the Lost Pandas. The band’s music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four to more varied forms. Throughout their career, they have been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band’s only constant member.
People might be aware of the band as in 1992 they infamously had a historic run of a dozen 7” singles released at monthly intervals. Each single had a limited pressing of 10,000 copies which all reached the Top 30 in the UK Singles Chart, equalling Elvis Presley’s record for the most UK Top 30 hits in one year. In October 2021, the band announced that in 2022 they would release a 7″ single per month, featuring two new songs, for the duration of 2022, repeating their one single per month approach of 1992. These ‘24 Songs’ project records each come in a designed sleeve featuring brutalist photography by Jessica McMillan. There’ll be a collector’s box to put them all in, too This material can currently be purchased HERE.
Local Brighton & Hove residents may recall that The Wedding Present had their special ‘24 Songs’ launch events back in January at The Old Market, obviously the Brighton & Hove News Music Team were in attendance – Read our review HERE.
