The Wedding Present to revisit classic album live on 35th anniversary

David Gedge of The Wedding Present. Picture: Jamie MacMillanDavid Gedge of The Wedding Present. Picture: Jamie MacMillan
David Gedge of The Wedding Present. Picture: Jamie MacMillan
THE WEDDING PRESENT will be playing a series of concert dates at the end of 2024 to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the release of their classic major-label debut long-player Bizarro.

The shows will see the David Gedge-led indie legends performing a 90-minute set that will include the 1989 album in full – together with other classics from their extensive repertoire. These headline dates include a hometown show at Leeds’ O2 Academy.

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Of the upcoming tour David Gedge says: “Bizarro was our second album and you can hear on it how much we had learned from the experience of recording our debut, George Best. You only have to listen to something like ‘Bewitched’ to notice that there’s much more in the way of texture and depth on Bizarro. We’d just improved as songwriters and arrangers, basically. It’s no less-frenetic a record, though!”

Released on RCA Records back in 1989, ‘Bizarro’ was The Wedding Present’s second proper studio album and first on a major label. An album that replaced the frenetic jangle of their earlier years with a newfound darkness and power, the record found vocalist David Gedge taking his idiosyncratic songs laced with heartbreak, despair and sarcasm to a whole new level. Arguably the fullest realisation of The Wedding Present sound to that point, the album features the unstoppable lead single Kennedy (which would become the band’s first UK Top 40 hit in 1989), plus their anthemic calling card Brassneck, which would chart at No.24 in the UK Singles Chart when released the following year.

Toying with extremes of tempo and mood, Bizarro is hailed as a vibrant hybrid of astringency and quintessential pop euphoria, and it remains a seminal chapter in The Wedding Present story. Marking 35 years since its release in 2024, The Wedding Present will perform Bizarro in its entirety at Leeds O2 Academy on October 5. https://www.scopitones.co.uk/

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