ShareThe Wedding Present performing their 40th Anniversary Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Saturday 11th October 2025.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
The Wedding Present’s 40th anniversary tour reached Rock City on Saturday night, and though the venue wasn’t quite sold out, that hardly mattered to the crowd who had gathered, life-long fans and newer followers alike ready to celebrate David Gedge’s enduring creation.
With the line up now comprising Chris Hardwick on drums and bassist Stuart Hastings, the band are greatly changed for the better thanks to the superb guitar skills of Rachael Wood, who really came into her own with her visceral instinct for Gedge’s music. The two of them are a fantastic combination, and there’s a renewed and exciting energy to the band.
Two For The Road opened proceedings which was sharp and restless before they followed up with I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You. Gedge’s between song banter was really well received and the crowd played up to him when he announced that their very own Rachael actually hailed from Derby before the songs Rachel and Deer Caught In The Headlights followed, the former more intimate and the latter rarely heard live.
Across four decades The Wedding Present have built a catalogue that is vast, varied and consistently restless. So it was no surprise that the likes of Kansas, and Click Click were given an airing and Blue Eyes and Flying Saucer lifted the mood, the crowd swaying along before being entertained with the lovely tones of Corduroy.
Then there was Kennedy, the band’s first top forty hit and their perennial indie club anthem which triggered a response that saw the crowd with arms aloft, singing back the refrain as loud as possible. A Million Miles was performed with fantastic vocal delivery and was greeted like a long lost friend.
Arguably the band’s most well known song, My Favorite Dress came towards the end of the set and featured a gritty and emotionally hard hitting performance from Gedge before they reached right back to their beginnings with set closer Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy.
On Saturday night in Nottingham The Wedding Present had celebrated their anniversary in true style. They had been unpretentious, frenetic and a whole lot of fun.
