A cover of an unreleased Wedding Present song at Champagnes night club in Horsham 1989.
The Gits – Lay Off
Cover Version
Songs by someone played by someone else
Lay Off
At a Greenpeace Benefit gig in early 1989 we played an unrecorded Wedding Present number as an encore; which has a certain irony as they’re known for sticking to a set and not coming back on to play more tunes.
As a change from my usual fair I thought I’d knock out a video for something people might actually be interested in so ‘ere ’tis accompanying the rehearsal cassette from which we worked out how to play the song. Followed by some historical context of questionable authenticity.
After their years of poptastic success it is now generally forgotten that The Wedding Present started out as an overtly political artists collective and that David Gedge was at one time the latest in a long line of song writers to be hailed as the next Bob Geldof.
For those of us who lived through the Thatcher years there is little novelty in the suggestion that the sound of young Leeds was ideologically driven but it is only the spearhead of the movement who are remembered today for their left wing affiliations; The Gang Of Four.
But even as late as ‘Lay Off’ it’s possible to hear the residual Marxist influence and a burgeoning existentialism, coital, in conflict and accord, as the ostensible railing against the inevitable human costs of capitalism comoglifies to the internal battles of the exo-conciousness.
‘Man must eat or be eaten’ Ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora ad quem ad quod’ indeed!
But are the later popgasms that far removed from the earlier three minute manifestos? Are affairs of the heart any simpler than affairs of state? Buggered if I know, I haven’t thought about it.
A Chris Morris Organisation Recording.
All the film footage is from the Public Domain Prelinger Collection at the Internet Archive, particularly ‘Valley Town of 1940’ and the Soundie series. www.archive.org
Arthur
Every unnecessary cover version deserves an unnecessary video.
A version of a little heard mid 1980s instrumental from the Jackalsons guitarist faithfully performed except for the bits I changed.
Man Of Arun – Dramatic (Cover Version)
Mass of the Fermenting Dregs are first up in series of cover versions that may not extend any further, ‘Man Of Arun Plays The Hip Hits’.
I wound up the Fender Stratocaster I bought in the early 1980s for this one which I’ve recently added some Porter Pickups in a pre-wired scratch plate from Six String Supplies. Of course I immediately modded it by making the tone pots treble and bass cuts operating on all pickups.
The Fender Cyclone II with its unusual choice of three Jaguar pickups handles slide which as mentioned in the video runs through the Origin Effects Slide Rig II pedal – the compressor for those who don’t like compression.
Caveat emptor: the Cyclone reissue with Stratocaster pickups doesn’t sound the same. And who would want one without the go faster stripes anyway.
Scuffham Amps S-Gear is the virtual amplifier choice – including on the bass, a Sire Marcus Miller V7, which can only be described as solid in terms of build, weight and sound.
What have I learnt on this journey? That YouTube video compression doesn’t like red – whether alone or mixed in purple.