AND A NEW ENTRY THIS WEEK..........
In 1992, The Wedding Present released a 7" single every month.
The a-side was always an original, while the b-side was always a cover.
Each single had a limited run of 10,000 copies. They were released on a Monday and more or less deleted within 24 hours. Every one of the singles charted:-
January : Blue Eyes : #26
February : Go-Go Dancer : #20
March : Three : #14
April : Silver Shorts : #14
May : Come Play With Me : #10
June : California : #16
July : Flying Saucer : #22
August : Boing! : #19
September : Love Slave : #17
October : Sticky : #17
November : The Queen of Outer Space : #23
December : No Christmas : #25
The singles weren't recorded at 12 different sessions. The first three months worth were produced by Chris Nagle, the next three by Ian Broudie, the July single by Jimmy Miller while the remainder were the work of Brian Paulson.
Given it is March, I thought this was the appropriate tune to offer up:-
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Three
The b-side that month was this:-
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Think That It Might
This was a cover of a track by Altered Images that had originally appeared on their 1982 LP Pinky Blue
The January - June singles, and b-sides, were later compiled on the CD Hit Parade 1, while the July - December singles appeared on Hit Parade 2 along with a bonus disc of the BBC session versions of all 12 singles recorded for BBC Radio Leeds (January, February and March), BBC World Service (April & August), the John Peel Show ((May, June and July) and the Mark Goodier Show (September, October, November and December).
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Three (Radio Leeds, 31 January 1992)
TWP also had 12 videos made to support the singles, but at a time when the costs of such promos were orbiting out of control, they offered up and coming film makers a budget of £1000 to get the job done. The results were varied but were brought together on a VHS tape called Dick York's Wardrobe, complete with a countdown given by the legendary Allan 'Fluff' Freeman.
Here endeth the history lesson.......
JC, Sunday 6 March 2010
5 comments:
Gedge=genius. End of!
Loved this saucy little track, and the vid always raises a smile.
I used to rush down to Fopp tha day of release and I managed to get all 12 - poptastic they are too.
I like the fact that the covers all have a similar style and feel too
I got all 12 and a special box to keep them all in. Covers were all great especially "Theme from Shaft" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday". "Falling" (Twin Peaks Theme) one of the more unusual.
The record label pictures on each 7" were linked, the image zoomed out to get further away each step. I have a great T shirt with the 12 pictures on.
Good Times! Dick Yorke's wardrobe is now available on DVD
This was a great year. Fantastic singles and a new one every month!
I always wondered, though, if they didn't sacrifice the success of a truly great album for the sake of this gambit. Don't get me wrong tWP are one of my fave bands but I felt like they lost a step after this.
Still, why gripe. Great freaking songs and yes I do have all the singles in a secure undisclosed location :D
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