Let me start off by saying that I never went to university but I liked the music, in fact I was a bit of a scally in my youth, but was drawn to music that many of my peers would look upon as soppy student shite.
I was obviously well into The Smiths, Joy Division and the like but usually spent my hard earned dole money of following Manchester City rather than attending many gigs.
Now that I think about it, maybe my choice in music reflected my choice of football team.
And so I generally wallowed in misery for most of the 80's thanks to my record collection and Man City.
Fast forward to 1987 and one Friday after a night out in Middleton, I put the telly on while devouring a Chinese take-away and tuned into Anthony H. Wilson's late night TV show "The other side of midnight". One of the featured musical guests was a band I had never heard of before, The Wedding Present. "From Leeds" said Tony..... err I mean Anthony and they performed "Nobody's twisting your arm"
I was taken by the gruff voiced lead singer wearing a dodgy shirt and my interest was peaked when Wilson mentioned their new album "George Best".
Now as a Manchester City fan I am supposed to hate anything to do with the other lot from Stretford, but to be honest George was my one of my favourite footballers of all time, he was a joy to watch and I would have sold my soul to the devil if he could have played for City.
I went out and bought the album the very next day, the cover was a thing of beauty and the music was instantly loveable. I researched this "Leeds" band and discovered that David and Pete Solowka were from my hometown of Middleton, we already had The Chameleons, so they'd do for me. Plus I do believe that TWP were the first band to be dubbed The "new" Smiths after they split, I was fated to love them really.
In March of 1988 I moved to Los Angeles leaving behind my friends, family, football team and most of my record collection.
After what seems like ages in the wilderness I found an American friend (Brett) who liked the same kind of music as I did and we'd attend gigs together and spend hours scouring the racks in L.A. record stores.
The release of Bizarro came and went, I originally owned in on cassette. Then finally The Wedding Present were to make their L.A. debut promoting the "newish" album and on Wednesday June 27th 1990 they were playing at the world famous Whisky A Go Go.
Brett and I bought our tickets, they were $15.50 each and we found out that the band were also scheduled to appear at Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks on the day of the gig for a meet and greet.
"Ooooo, we've got to go to that"
We were hoping for a performance at the record store, but no such luck, it was just a signing.
Unfortunately I had turned up empty handed with nothing to sign, but a quick trip to the "W" section soon remedied that and I picked up a used CD copy of The Peel Sessions for $1.49. All the band except for Simon (He didn't play on it) signed the cover, I also helped myself to a promo photo and had that signed.
The band thought it would be a bit of a laugh to sign their names under the wrong face. I introduced myself and informed David and Pete that I was from Middleton as well, they seemed mildly underwhelmed and were more interested in the American teenager wearing a Chameleons shirt.
After the signing Brett and I headed off to Hollywood for the gig. We decided to grab something to eat and found a cheap Italian restaurant across the street from The Roxy, we walked in and were mortified to see the band already in there for their pre-gig meal.
"We can't eat in here" I said to Brett, "They might recognise us and think we have followed them"
So we grabbed a couple of hotdogs from the AM PM gas station further down on Sunset Blvd.
The gig was excellent and afterwards I bought Bizarro on CD and had another brief chat with David.
And so this scenario was repeated with TWP and later Cinerama whenever they played L.A., I'd go to the gig and try and chat to David after the show.
To me it really wasn't really so much a case of hero worship, I was the only Mancunian I knew in Thousand Oaks and David was from my hometown, so I felt obliged to talk to him after gigs.
Nearly two decades later after many run ins with David Lewis Gedge I found out he was relocating to Los Angeles for a few months so I sent Jessica an e-mail containing points of interest for an exiled Brit. Which pubs showed the English footy, where to buy your Heinz baked beans etc, etc.....
This act of randomness from me resulted in an unexpected bonus, David got in touch and asked if I wanted to meet up and hang out.
Kin'ell, my years of semi-stalking had actually paid off.
A couple of years on I find myself as one of David and Jessica's L.A. regular contacts and usually see them when they visit. To be honest it's no big deal now, I basically just view him as "David from Middleton" although the other week I did stop and think "Bloody hell, I just made breakfast for David Gedge from The Wedding Present"
For the record, he wolfed down the veggie omelette but didn't touch the hash browns.
That concert rates as one of my favorite of all times. The band seemd a little nervous to be playing LA for the first time, so the chat was kept to a minimum and every song seemed ready to go off the rails at any minute. I gave up counting the number of times Gedge broke a string.
ReplyDeleteBizarro still stands as one of my favorite WP albums. I don't think there is a bad track on it.