THE WEDDING PRESENT + PEANESS – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 11.8.23
As far as I’m aware, the very first Brighton concert by highly regarded indie rockers, The Wedding Present, took place at The Escape Club (now Patterns) on 10th December 1985. Since then 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. Local Brighton & Hove residents may recall that The Wedding Present had their special ‘24 Songs ‘launch events back in January 2022 at The Old Market, obviously the Brighton & Hove News Music Team were in attendance – Read our review HERE.
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.
Now 38 years later, they are this evening performing what I reckon could be their 48th Brighton concert, on Day One for their ever-popular ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ mini-festival annual bash at the Concorde 2 which was first held back in 2009. It 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. 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.
Day Two is raring to go tomorrow, which will see the current quartet of David Gedge (lead vocals, guitars), Jon Stewart (guitars), Melanie Howard (Fender Mustang bass, laptop) and Nicholas Wellauer from Australia (drums, tom toms), play a different set of songs to their ever-faithful punters. Suffice to say that again ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ has sold out with fans rockin’ on up from all over the UK and further afield. In fact the folk standing behind me tonight had especially travelled across from Germany to be here.
I wonder whether Gedge and co have realised that next year’s ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ will more than likely be their 50th Brighton performance? During tonight’s set, Gedge indicated that next year’s event will celebrate the 30th anniversary of 1994’s ‘Watusi’ album. So that would no doubt be the set (with extras) on one of the two days and so let’s hope that the other will consist of tunes that they have played throughout the previous Brighton concerts. Then maybe for ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ 2025, where they will be celebrating their 40th anniversary, they can perform a career spanning set.
Anyway, back to tonight’s 93 minute set, which was specially selected by The Wedding Present’s bassist Melanie Howard, commenced at 8:31pm with an intro tape of ‘Teper My Hovorymo’ which is found on the new ‘24 Songs’ album as one of the five bonus tracks. This new release consists of full versions of all the 24 tracks from 2022’s 7”-single-a-month double a sided series, thus ultimately creating a much-sought-after box set. ‘24 Songs’ was a doff of the cap to the band’s ‘hit parade’ project of 30 years previous, which proved to be a real milestone for the band with them becoming only the second-ever artist to achieve twelve Official UK Top 40 hits in a calendar year – at the time something that only Elvis Presley had achieved!
Thankfully tonight I was positioned at the very front in order to get a birds eye view of proceedings, although there were 4 live stream cameras set up down the front, with one being operated by a young lad, the others were stationary. There could have been other cameras behind me to the rear as well. Gedge informed us that these were for fans that could pay £5 to watch tomorrow’s set online and I suspect many will be doing just that.
It’s fair to note that the ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ events have the vibe of an exclusive club of those that are in the know. These fans make the annual pilgrimage to opposite Brighton Beach and each year are rewarded with a whole host of fab tunes from The Wedding Present as well as other interesting sets from specially selected close associations and other decent artists. The mood this evening is relaxed and there certainly wasn’t really any need for the security staff to hold back any moshpits and the like. That’s not to say that there weren’t any moshpits as indeed there were, but nicely controlled ones.
Throughout tonight’s set, both Gedge and Jon Stewart continually switched between their guitars in order to recreate the desired sound. Gedge opened up with his Fender Stratocaster for ‘Broken Bow’ (found on 2016’s ‘Going, Going…’ album) and ‘Go, Go, Go!’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album), which strangely reminded me of The Smiths and featured shared contrasting vocals by Gedge and Howard, before switching to an Epiphone for 1987’s ‘A Million Miles’ (from ‘George Best’ album), which nicely segued straight into ‘You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends’ (from 1988 ‘Tommy’ album). These two last tunes were both very boppy and compositions of the highest order.
I had last encountered Jon Stewart, (who kicked off tonight on his Fender Telecaster), at The Mesmerist as part of the Unofficial Escape ‘Smithereen Takeover’ in Brighton on 12th May, where he was playing live with Louise Wener on the Sleeper acoustic tour. The pub was absolutely rammed for their half hour stint from 5:30pm to 6pm. Banter with the band is usually kept to a minimum, but this still didn’t stop Gedge joyfully mocking Stewart regarding the Sleeper connection, which of course was delivered as one friend to another with no malice.
The Concorde 2 set carried on with ‘X Marks The Spot’ (on ‘24 Songs’), which is a slower chugging number. After which we were served ‘California’ (from 1992 ‘Hit Parade 1’ album), which opens “Let’s go to California now; We’ve got to cross this great big world somehow”. Many fans around me were merrily singing along to this number, so it’s clearly a crowd favourite. The jangly ‘Click Click’ (on 1994’s ‘Watusi’ album) came next after Gedge informed us about its impending 30th anniversary. Gedge then swapped back guitars and another from ‘24 Songs’ came next in the form of ‘Memento Mori’ which boasts the unmistakable Wedding Present sound, it really couldn’t be anyone else. It’s a terrific tune and one of the set highlights for me.
Interestingly, Melanie Howard leaned down in front of her and set up a laptop backing for the next tune ‘We All Came From The Sea’ (another on ‘24 Songs’). As she was on the other side of the stage to me, she was stage left (our right), I hadn’t actually noticed the laptop until this point. This was the only time it was used and I suspect that her bass parts were contained on it as she switched to a cowbell during this number. Aussie drummer Nicholas Wellauer ditched his drumset and stood up and played a couple of tom toms instead, plus not to be left out, Jon Stewart even briefly switched his guitar in order to add a second cowbell to this funky number.
The laptop was put into redundancy and Gedge explained that for last year’s ‘Green Man Festival’, (which takes place in the Brecon Beacons in Wales), they were last minute fill-ins for Low who couldn’t make it. Gedge then announced that they covered Low’s tune ‘Canada’ and tonight it would be getting another outing. I certainly must flag up Howard’s bass on this tune as it was top dollar. ‘We Interrupt Our Programme’ (another from ‘24 Songs’) was up next and for the only time tonight Gedge’s vocals reminded me of other John Peel favourites Half Man Half Biscuit. The sound and lighting was great all night and for this track (and one other later) there was the additional bonus of green lasers firing out at us from the rear of the stage.
Gedge then swapped guitars again and informed us that Melanie Howard chose tonight’s set, which he conceded is a rocky one and I would like to add all the better for it. ‘Palisades’ (on 2008’s ‘El Rey’ album) was next with its decent Joy Division-esque drumming. ‘Skin Diving’ (on 1996’s ‘Saturnalia’ album) came and went and was followed by fan favourite ‘Corduroy’ (found on 1991’s ‘Seamonsters’ album), which witnessed Jon Stewart really giving it some welly and the other members of the band followed suit and the moshpit bounced accordingly. A couple of tunes from ‘24 Songs’ were up next in the form of ‘Science Fiction’ and the popular ‘I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You’ which certainly benefited from a decent crescendo or two with some warp factor ten strumming from Gedge.
There were now only four tunes left for us to enjoy and a Wedding Present gig wouldn’t be complete without the famous ‘My Favourite Dress’ (from 1987 ‘George Best’ album). Blimey, I reckon the sound engineer tuned up the bass for this number. Before we knew it, the quartet had segued right into a really decent punky style speeded up version of the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel classic ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)’, which eventually saw the light of day on the 2001 reissue of 1991’s ‘Seamonsters’ album. A millisecond after this they splendidly launched into the speedy classic ‘Kennedy’ (on 1989’s ‘Bizarro’ album) and the green lasers were given their second outing of the night. They left us with the serious hip-swinging, foot-tapping, body-bouncing ‘Granadaland’ which is to be found on the same album. Before playing this Gedge informed the punters that they never do encores and so we all knew that was our lot. The time being 10:04pm. Once again it had been a most enjoyable experience. Same again tomorrow then……
The Wedding Present:
David Gedge – vocals, guitars
Melanie Howard – bass, vocals, cowbell, laptop
Nicholas Wellauer – drums
Jon Stewart – guitars, cowbell
The Wedding Present setlist:
(Intro tape) ‘Teper My Hovorymo’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘Broken Bow’ (from 2016 ‘Going, Going…’ album)
‘Go, Go, Go!’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘A Million Miles’ (from 1987 ‘George Best’ album)
‘You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends’ (from 1988 ‘Tommy’ album)
‘X Marks The Spot’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘California’ (from 1992 ‘Hit Parade 1’ album)
‘Click Click’ (from 1994 ‘Watusi’ album)
‘Memento Mori’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘We All Came From The Sea’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘Canada’ (Low cover)
‘We Interrupt Our Programme’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘Palisades’ (from 2008 ‘El Rey’ album)
‘Skin Diving’ (from 1996 ‘Saturnalia’ album)
‘Corduroy’ (from 1991 ‘Seamonsters’ album)
‘Science Fiction’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You’ (from 2023 ‘24 Songs’ album)
‘My Favourite Dress’ (from 1987 ‘George Best’ album)
‘Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)’ (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel cover) (from 2001 reissue of 1991 ‘Seamonsters’ album)
‘Kennedy’ (from 1989 ‘Bizarro’ album)
‘Granadaland’ (from 1989 ‘Bizarro’ album)
More on The Wedding Present can be located HERE.
Support this evening came from Chester-based indie-punk outfit Peaness which is obviously pronounced “pea-ness”. They formed back in 2013 and yet still have the feel of an exciting new up-and-coming outfit. The band consists of Jess Branney (Squier Jaguar bass and lead vocals), Carleia “Balla” Balbenta (Fender Telecaster guitar and vocals), and Rachel Williams who is sporting a “No Music On A Dead Planet” T-shirt (drums and backing vocals) and this evening are joined by Nikki Milla on Nord Electro 3 keys and other unit.
Their sound has been described as “melodic indie pop”, “DIY punk” and “shiny shiny pop with an infectious energy and tunes as sharp as their fringes” and are renowned for their sensitive lyrics on everything from friendship to environmentalism, all delivered with charm and a healthy dose of bright guitar fuzz. They dropped their long overdue debut long-player ‘World Full Of Worry’ back in May 2022 and it reached No.16 in the UK independent album charts and No.21 in the UK vinyl album charts.
Tonight they kicked off their seven tune set with a simple “Hi!” from Jess at 7:29pm and they entertained the increasing size crowd up until 8:01pm. They had a mere 32 minutes in order to get us all onside. Such is their dedication that they had especially travelled down from Manchester at 8am this morning in order to play for us Jess stated. Adding that this was their first concert since April. Thankfully the sound and lights were just as spot on as they were to be for The Wedding Present afterwards.
Their sound is bubbly and gently laced with candy-sour spirit and to be honest they won me over after just a few chords. Jess was centre stage and has such an endearing stage presence, you simply can’t help but like her. To her right (our left) was Balla, and on the opposite side was Nikki Milla a new addition (or touring band member) who was on keyboards. In my previous encounters with Peaness, they have always been a trio, but now this addition, is possibly signalling a new expanded depth of sound. As ever, yesterday’s birthday girl Rachel was to the rear on drums.
The first two numbers ‘Worry’ and ‘How I’m Feeling’ witnessed Jess on lead vocals and then for tune three, the lead was handed over to Balla for ‘IRL’, which we are informed is about “hating yourself”. There were some decent harmonies in this track. We were then informed that the following number ‘Girl Just Relax’ is about “trying to relax” and lead vocals were regained by Jess. Tune five ‘What’s The Use?’ was their most swinging track to date and was their best. It was led by a combination of drums and guitar riffs that the likes of John Peel would have certainly loved.
The between tune banter is sweet and understated and in no way self promotional like some others (cough..Toyah!). Their penultimate tune ‘Oh George’ benefitted from a funky guitar riff throughout as it merrily went along its way. It was another likeable bouncy tune. Only one other number followed ‘Kaizen’ and that was it. They sadly hadn’t played for as long as last year’s support (The Primitives) did, but I guess this leaves us wanting more.
This was a short and sweet set that was filled with joy and “happeaness” throughout and I for one are looking forward to their return in Brighton this coming November, when they will be playing as part of the ‘Mutations’ festival.
Peaness:
Jess Branney – Squier Jaguar bass and lead vocals
Carleia “Balla” Balbenta – Fender Telecaster guitar and vocals
Rach Williams – drums and backing vocals
Nikki Milla – Nord Electro 3 keys
Peaness setlist:
‘Worry’
‘How I’m Feeling’
‘irl’
‘Girl Just Relax’
‘What’s The Use?’
‘Oh George’
‘Kaizen’
Read our report on Day Two of ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ mini festival HERE.
