ShareThe Wedding Present performing their George Best Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Friday 9th June 2017.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
In 1987 an up and coming indie band from Leeds released their debut album, George Best, and last night at Rock City there was quite a crowd present to help celebrate its 30th anniversary. With a line up that has included twenty people, the founder member David Gedge of The Wedding Present has been the group’s only constant.
Opening with the instrumental, Scotland, from their recent four track Home Internationals EP, the celebrations had begun. Warming up with a mini set of old and more recent songs, it was Model Actress Whatever from their 2008 album, El Ray which was surprisingly good as was new song Fifty Six from their latest offering, Going Going.
Ending the warm up with another instrumental England, they got under way with the album’s opening track, Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft. With the crowd well and truly on board, the album was played in its original order with Don’t Be So Hard following What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
Favourite Dress took us to the halfway stage as Gedge told this crowd that it was time to slow things down a little, but as many of them were familiar with the album, they knew that it was time for the high velocity Shatner with its excellent guitar playing from both Gedge and Marcus Kain.
The rest of the album just flew by and before long they brought the evening to a brilliant end with a storming performance of Kennedy which received the most frenzied reception of the night. With an album that has surely stood the test of time, the songs on it will doubtless be played over and over again; just not in this precise order.
The late John Peel once said of this band that its front man, Gedge has “written some of the best love songs of the rock and roll era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong.” On last night’s performance Peel continues to be right.
