The Wedding Present @ KoKo.

I'm now on the North Greenwich bound train, having spent a fantastic evening revisiting the depths of my record collection.

Tonight I was at Koko, formerly the Camden Palace, for an evening of anti X Factor.


I was there for a sold out show by the Wedding Present.
 At one stage they looked to be heading for a massive career, until people like me climbed onto the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays baggy trip and then onto the sound of Seattle 'grunge', making them seem like yesterdays men.

They never changed though.
Their unique brand of heart felt love songs with jangly guitars was always going to be good enough to have a devoted following, if not too much mainstream success.
My own favourite album of theirs, 'George Best', still sounds as fresh today as it did in 1987.

The current tour is remembering the album 'Bizarro', (pictured above), 21 years old in 2010.
Tonight, they played all of the tracks, in order.

If you were a student in the late 80's, it's highly likely you would have heard 'Brassneck' or 'Kennedy', both of which were fairly big hits.

They were often played at ear splitting volume at the JSU bar, Cardiff, around that period and I assume other student places around the country were the same.
As the best known tracks, they got the biggest cheer but my own personal highlight was Take Me.
Take Me, in my opinion is what the Wedding Present are all about.

In other words, never mind what anybody else thinks, we are going to record a nine minute (plus) tune, that goes off for a five minute wig out of fast paced strumming, drumming and humming.

I'm not ashamed to say I lost myself in my own little nirvana, (not them), while Take Me was played.

An added bonus, and it really was a bonus as I already had my ticket when they were added to the bill, was The Primitives playing a supporting set.

I saw them around the time of their 'Lovely' album, 1988, and instantly fell in love with their blonde bombshell singer Tracy Tracy.
Even if you don't know The Primitives, you'll probably know their big hit 'Crash' as it's been covered by countless other, (weaker) acts.

The Primitives were fairly tight but it was the Weddoes we were there for.

Their leader, David Gedge, remains a hero to a certain kind of man, (me), and I'm already looking forward to the next time.

I'm sure DG would find it amusing to know I once had a hamster called 'Gedge'.