The Wedding Present

The Wedding Present will be playing a series of concert dates in Great Britain in 2026 in order to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the release of their pivotal long-player, Seamonsters. Following the release of Seamonsters - which was recorded by the legendary Steve Albini in twelve days during 1991 - The Guardian noted that: "Albini has given The Wedding Present considerable weight, with Gedge's voice trickling between banks of scowling guitars" and went on to feature it in its list of '1,000 albums to hear before you die'. Despite its uncompromising sound, the album reached No. 13 in the British album charts and has been hailed as a classic. On all concert dates the band will play Seamonsters in its entirety along with other songs carefully selected from their extensive repertoire. RCA Records are also commemorating the anniversary with limited edition re-release of the album on 'Deep Sea Blue' colour BioVinyl. October 202613 Exeter - Phoenix14 Plymouth - Quad Theatre15 Southampton - 186516 Gloucester - Guildhall17 Wrexham / Wrecsam - Rockin' Chair21 Dundee - CANVAS22 Glasgow - Queen Margaret Union23 Newcastle - Boiler Shop24 Leeds - O2 Academy29 Cambridge - Junction30 London - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire31 Leicester - O2 AcademySeamonsters reviewed by AllMusic:After recording with Steve Albini on their remake of 1990's 'Brassneck' single, The Wedding Present decamped to Minnesota to record a full album with the notoriously abrasive producer. It proved to be a perfect match of band and engineer, and Seamonsters turned out to be the most emotionally powerful album the band could have hoped to make. Albini's dramatically stripped-down sound and David Gedge's utterly wrecked lyrics work to wring every last drop of desolate anger and angst from the songs. Simon Smith sounds like he's battering his drums with concrete blocks instead of sticks, Keith Gregory's wire-taut bass sounds like it's stalking the guitars, and Gedge and Peter Solowka's guitars explode into flaming balls of noise and sound when they aren't lurking in the mix like barely restrained demons. The simplicity of the recording, the intense range of dynamics in each song, and the almost painful amount of passion the band injects into every note is breath-taking. Add in Gedge's ripped-from-his-heart vocals and his intensely felt, quite bleak, lyrics and it gets close to emotional overload territory. The Wedding Present had always had a reputation for being dour and straitlaced, but there was usually still some humour in Gedge's turns of phrase, a jaunty feel to their high-speed guitar strumathons, and an almost fun energy in their poppiest songs. There's absolutely nothing about Seamonsters that isn't the darkest, unhappiest thing one could imagine. Luckily, the gloom is tempered by how catchy the songs are - hooky tracks like 'Dare' and 'Dalliance' are hard to shake. It's also made easier to swallow by the quieter songs like 'Carolyn' and the overall dynamic approach, which allow Gedge some space to croon. Indeed, this is the album where Gedge moves beyond being a solid vocalist to being a great one. Seamonsters is The Wedding Present's masterpiece, a long look into the abyss that feels like a knife twisting deep into the heart, and sounds like a glimpse into the bare souls of the band. It's not easy listening, but it is essential. [Tim Sendra]Track-listing: Dalliance / Dare / Suck / Blonde / Rotterdam / Lovenest / Corduroy / Carolyn / Heather / Octopussywww.theweddingpresent.co.uk