hey look, a six-disc wedding present peel sessions box set this way comes

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out on march 19, according to scopitones.

[blockquote]
Sanctuary Records will be releasing all of The Wedding Present's sessions for the late John Peel on Monday 19 March 2007.

This box set effectively traces the history of The Wedding Present as much as it does their close relationship with the legendary radio presenter, who continually championed the band on his long running BBC Radio 1 show. Commencing with their first session from 1986, it introduces their trademark fast guitars and David Gedge's idiosyncratic song writing. That first session also begins a trend for the group of recording unlikely and compelling cover versions - in this case, Orange Juice's "Felicity". Elsewhere you'll hear renditions of Altered Images' "Happy Birthday" and the "White Horses" TV theme, amongst others. The Wedding Present went on to record twelve studio sessions for Peel, the last of which [in 2004] previewed songs from the then, forthcoming Take Fountain album.

The six disc set falls neatly into three CDs of studio sessions and three representing live performances. The former includes their third session from May 1987, which previewed songs from the George Best album six months before it's release, and the band's bizarre excursion into the world of Ukrainian folk music, inspired by guitarist Peter Solowka. The live sessions section comprises their performance for John Peel's 50th Birthday Party in August 1989 plus sets from the Leeds Sounds City, Phoenix and Reading Festivals.

The compilation, remastering and artwork has all been carried out under the close supervision of David Gedge and the release comes with extensive sleeve notes by Ken Garner, writer of: "In Session Tonight", the definitive guide to live pop and rock on BBC Radio.
[/blockquote]

dunno about the rest of you, but this rocks my world.

― grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 19:21 (eighteen years ago)

oh mutha fuck this fucking poxy formatting. you get the idea :)

― grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 19:22 (eighteen years ago)

you miserable bastards. i really wonder about this place :/

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 8 March 2007 00:22 (eighteen years ago)

Not quite as revelatory as the Fall Peel box simply because a large portion of this has already been released. But I pre-ordered it just the same for the bits I don't have.

― Mr. Odd, Thursday, 8 March 2007 00:27 (eighteen years ago)

mr odd, i'm glad someone cares. yes, i probably have a large part of it ... but i don't care. i have more cash than sense, and more gedge-love than cash.

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 8 March 2007 00:33 (eighteen years ago)

(two of those quantities are very small, i should add. you do the maths.)

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 8 March 2007 00:34 (eighteen years ago)

is this just the peel sessions or the sessions for other people as well? i have the BBC Evening Session cd, which i think was done for Janice Long.

― koogs, Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:19 (eighteen years ago)

(Not to worry, the "Oh the Fall Peel Sessions" box set thread I started, progressed slowly at first)

― Mark G, Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:20 (eighteen years ago)

(I'm lying, obv)

― Mark G, Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:25 (eighteen years ago)

one day the world will wake up and hail gedge for the genius that he undoubtedly is.

(mind you, i did once say the same thing about momus, back in 1991.)

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 8 March 2007 10:20 (eighteen years ago)

David Gedge to thread in 5...4...

― Mark G, Thursday, 8 March 2007 10:21 (eighteen years ago)

I've got most of this as well but if the price is right...

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 8 March 2007 11:35 (eighteen years ago)

in only a week and a half? that sound excellent.

― Matos W.K., Thursday, 8 March 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, I have to admit M., you're the last person I would have expected to be a Wedding Present fan. Or have we talked about this before and I forgot it?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 8 March 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

CAN'T...AFFORD... I've got a bunch of Wedding Present stuff, but for some reason have avoided previous Peel collections, so this looks mighty tempting. Anyone know if there are any places to get a good deal on this? Gedge & Co. seem like the obvious choice for this kind of treatment after the Fall. Is there any other band that did enough Peel Sessions to warrant one of these big ol' boxes?

― tylerw, Thursday, 8 March 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

Ned, you shd talk to jaymc about upgrading to Excel.

― David R., Thursday, 8 March 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

I've got pretty much everything the Wedding Present released (prior to reunion) but for some reason I'm not really that bothered about this. Should I be? Are there lots of otherwise unreleased songs/superior versions of released songs?

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 8 March 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

i don't know, to be honest ... for me it's just a great way of being a bit of a sad completist. i mean, the fall box is the closest there's ever going to be to a proper "best of"; i think, as tylerw says, the weds are, like the fall, such an obvious "peel band" that this seems the ideal way to bring all the great songs together (albeit in slightly different forms).

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 8 March 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

New material not including on the other Peel comps:
Disc 1:
5. All About Eve
6. Don't Laugh
7. Never Said
8. Don't Be So Hard
9. Hopak

Disc 3:
13. Blue Eyes
14. Ringway To Seatal
15. Shivers
16. Queen Anne
17. White Horses

All of disc 4-6, those are live on the Beeb or live at Peel acres thingies.

― Mr. Odd, Thursday, 8 March 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

heh. well, look, better a six-disc box set than a load of knackered tapes i wouldn't be able to play even if i could find them.

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 8 March 2007 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

"Is there any other band that did enough Peel Sessions to warrant one of these big ol' boxes? "

Half Man Half Biscuit (13 sessions), Ivor Cutler (22 sessions) and Nightingales/Robert Lloyd (12 sessions) spring to mind.

― everything, Thursday, 8 March 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago)

two months pass...

i'm happily immersing myself in all 95 tracks of this, but even i'm having to take the occasional break ... listen to a synthesiser or something ...

i'm surprised by how little "bizarro"-era material there is; i'm delighted by the sheer godlike wonder of the "seamonsters"-era session, and how all the ideas i always assumed were albini saying: "rock more, jangle less" were actually the band's own. hellfire, "dalliance" is actually harder-edged in this version than it is on the album.

i'd also forgotten how much i love the early stuff. there's a 20th-anniversary "george best" coming out this year, isn't there? let joy be unbounded.

(oh yeh, there's a particuarly good pitchfork review an' all ;))

― grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 20:50 (eighteen years ago)

I'm kind of nonplussed by this. It's great to have the sessions that hadn't been released before (both of them!) but I don't see myself returning to the Ukranian material or most of the live stuff recorded by the mid-90s Wedding Present, which is when my interest began to wane. Ah well.

― Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 21:13 (eighteen years ago)

I don't really like the tracklist much. They didn't do any sessions during their peak period (Bizarro-Seamonsters), and of the other stuff, they don't play any of my favorites (they seemed to like playing b-sides, covers, and less obvious stuff during their sessions). All the live stuff is from 96, so you get to hear songs from Mini/Saturnalia again. I enjoyed the Black Session they did a lot more. For me, this is almost like a "Worst of the Wedding Present."

― Poffdl0, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 21:17 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not sure how many Black Sessions they did, but the one I have (mp3/Slsk) *is* awfully good...

I was actually planning on starting a thread on what's the best version of "Kennedy," since the Black Sessions one, though not perfect, seems superior in many ways to the album track. Curious how the Peel version (if there is one) stacks up.

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 21:26 (eighteen years ago)

Do you have any details on their Black Sessions? I found these two but would love to know the recording dates.

― Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 22:18 (eighteen years ago)

i didn't know about the black sessions. i shall have a poke about tomorrow. pls hold off on the "kennedy" thread till then :)

They didn't do any sessions during their peak period (Bizarro-Seamonsters)

umm ... apart from, eh, sessions six and eight, that is? :)

okay, the former has only one "bizarro" song on it, but S8 ("dalliance", "heather", "blonde", "niagara") is class.

― grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

Session 8, in my mind, outstrips _Seamonsters_. I've always felt that Albini buried Gedge's vocals way too much.

― Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:33 (eighteen years ago)

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