― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 1 April 2004 09:49 (twenty years ago) link
Classic : 6Dud : 3Spoiled ballots : 3
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 10:03 (twenty years ago) link
Bizarro, Seamonsters and Cinerama's Torino still making regular rounds in the CD player.No sex no spontaneity? You must be mad.No rock 'n' roll? Wel yes, but that's a good thing.
Gedge is a demi-God. CLASSIC.
― Vasquesz, Thursday, 1 April 2004 10:14 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr Mime (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 1 April 2004 10:42 (twenty years ago) link
Can I even up the score by adding 3 duds? Believe me, this band were even more boring in real life than they were on record - and that is saying something!
― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 1 April 2004 10:53 (twenty years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 10:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:06 (twenty years ago) link
But then they got it...
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:10 (twenty years ago) link
But even on George Best there's songs like "All this and more" which owe more to Hüsker Dü than The Smiths or Talulah Gosh.(and the very Talulah "Everyone thinks he looks daft" is easily the best song of that whole schmindie/coy/shambolic/underachievers subgenre).
― Vasquesz, Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:54 (twenty years ago) link
rah rock rah rock good good fucking band rah
― andi, Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:28 (sixteen years ago) link
classic, even before watusi.
― andi, Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:29 (sixteen years ago) link
i like Watusi. have only heard a few other songs. i think i'll hit slsk and get 'my favorite dress' right now..
― one time, Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:38 (sixteen years ago) link
so then, more classic than dud.
― one time, Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:39 (sixteen years ago) link
haha. wish i could recommend somewhere to go for ya, with this band, before watusi. . . in retrospect, they're actually kind of a difficult band. most of their songs and albums, you gotta hear a good few times before you can get anywhere with them. it's not that they're growers or whatever. it's just that, in retrospect, they made plain pop/rock music that had to be made during the late 80s/early 90s. i mean, it takes an appreciation of that idea to get into some of it, or. . . being v. deep into shambling junk.
― andi, Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:44 (sixteen years ago) link
i just mean, they did what had to be done. if you call it rockism, then you're a rockist (it's not so black and white!).
i can't explain this band. you just gotta hear "everyone thinks he looks daft" and "carolyn" and yeah. piss ya.
― andi, Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:47 (sixteen years ago) link
gedge is god.
the wedding present RULE.
that is all.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 08:36 (sixteen years ago) link
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 13 September 2007 09:50 (sixteen years ago) link
having lived in leeds during their glory days, i naturally rebelled against the grain, and hated them while my mates saw them live every other week. je ne regrette rien
― mark e, Thursday, 13 September 2007 13:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I can understand that, especially since you would have had the March Violets and Chumbawamba as an alternative ;)
― everything, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:46 (sixteen years ago) link
ha. luckily there was The Three Johns, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and of course Age of Chance to help me through those dark dark days.
― mark e, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:51 (sixteen years ago) link
them while my mates saw them live every other week
surely "while my mates took turn on bass and drums every other week"?
(actually, the early days were probably the most stable the line-up's ever been. hey ho.)
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Is the first ever use of Classic or Dud on ILX?
― Matt DC, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:05 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought it was the Beatles one.
― everything, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WEDDING PRESENT.
GEDGE IS GOD.
etc.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Anyone else going to see one of the George Best anniversary gigs?
― DavidM, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Watusi is a really good album.
"Classics or Duds"
bit like seeing a picture of The Goons w/ Michael Bentine.
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link
i didn't think i'd be able to make the glasgow one, but now it looks like i might. need to actually make a decision.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
anyway: when did you drop the "s"?
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I never had a 's', it's always been Grout.
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Not Orange Juice? Blue Boy, Felicity etc are the clear templates for the Weddoes first couple of years. "Tommy" sounds like some kind of grim version of OJ to me.
― everything, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Josef K another obvious precursor.
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Not to mention the Lost Pandas
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link
i wasn't being entirely serious.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:48 (sixteen years ago) link
(although gedge is god.)
_Seamonsters_ still remains the best through and through thing they ever did, but I'm obsessed enough to get things like the American-only compilation of singles and tracks and things from 1989 to 1991
-- Ned Raggett, Monday, September 4, 2000 12:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Link
yes! the Singles 1989-1991 compilation, especially the first disc, is my favorite Weddoes to play these days, bar none, though i like everything up to (and including) Watusi pretty well.
― stephen, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link
And lest us not forget : The only band to have 12 brand new hits in one year! Take that, Elvis Presley!
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:08 (sixteen years ago) link
For every Seamonsters there's a Mini; for every 'Fleshworld' there's a dodgy cover-version.
-- alex thomson, Monday, September 4, 2000 12:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Link
you can't be serious! a few of those Hit Parade singles were actually improvements on the originals, and the rest not bad at all -- and Mini is fucking great, too!
― stephen, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:08 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't understand the human race sometimes
― Tom D., Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost
"mini" is about the only thing of theirs i don't have. you're right about the covers, certainly: their version of "falling" is absolutely staggering. proto-isis post-metal wonder.
heheheh, though: alext and i listened to a lot of weddoes in the mid to late 1990s.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I think all of Mini is on the second singles comp (1995-1997 or something)
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link
but I'm obsessed enough to get things like the American-only compilation of singles and tracks and things from 1989 to 1991
Oh that was from 7 years ago. Fuck it anyway.
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:15 (sixteen years ago) link
If God is a grim northerner mumbling a monologue through clenched teeth about not getting shagged then please direct me to the Bathory section.
― everything, Thursday, 13 September 2007 16:22 (sixteen years ago) link
is there any album with a similar lyrical concept as Seamonsters?
could someone point me there? thanks.
― Steve Shasta, Monday, 1 October 2007 23:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Is there going to be a fancy 2-CD anniversary issue of _George Best_?
― Mr. Odd, Monday, 1 October 2007 23:31 (sixteen years ago) link
elucidate slightly?
― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 11:31 (sixteen years ago) link
i had a 40-something tech teacher who loved them. which was weird 'cause most of those guys just listened to genesis or whatever.
― max r, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 11:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Seamonsters has become my favourite Wedding Present album. back in the day i would've said Bizarro no question. i don't think i like Bizarro any less, but i have definitely come to appreciate Seamonsters more. there's a sinister edge to it that doesn't feature on their other records and doesn't really seem appropriate for the band, except that it works so well in practice.
― Roberto Spiralli, Saturday, 9 August 2008 06:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Not sure what this means exactly, but, probably because it was released around the same time and all that, I've always thought of Rid of Me being Seamonsters' sister album. Especially as ROM's title track and "Dalliance" pull the same slow-burn/explode trick. Both recorded by Steve Albini, of course, but even so, they seem to have been on the same page, sharing the same intensity.
― DavidM, Saturday, 9 August 2008 07:44 (fifteen years ago) link
ooooh i like that comparison, i definitely see the resemblance. hadn't thought of that before!
― stephen, Saturday, 9 August 2008 16:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Sure there is, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 31 July 2017 14:50 (six years ago) link
Love this album and I'm sort of ok with this and curious to hear it. I'd rather they had done it at Toe Rag studios with Liam Watson but you can't have everything.
― everything, Monday, 31 July 2017 19:45 (six years ago) link
Not even when you are everything.
At Ardent with Richard Dashut would have been my pick.
― dorsalstop, Monday, 31 July 2017 20:02 (six years ago) link
Maybe Moby could've done it.
― everything, Monday, 31 July 2017 20:12 (six years ago) link
they/he are the (george) best
and alex in nyc should listen to torino
― mookieproof, Sunday, 24 December 2017 04:09 (six years ago) link
Torino might be the best album of them all
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 24 December 2017 11:30 (six years ago) link
Torino thirded.
― dorsalstop, Sunday, 24 December 2017 12:11 (six years ago) link
Yup, only Cinerama with staying power.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 24 December 2017 14:18 (six years ago) link
I know very little about this band, but their song “Dalliance” just came up on YouTube... OMG, such a good song!
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 4 July 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
They need a definitive compilation really bad
― Simon H., Wednesday, 4 July 2018 14:56 (five years ago) link
if you like dalliance you will probably like seamonsters in total. an album more or less on par with loveless and bandwagonesque.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 4 July 2018 15:05 (five years ago) link
True. In the meantime, there's "Ye Ye: The Best Of The RCA Years" which is a good albeit brief sampler.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 5 July 2018 00:09 (five years ago) link
There was a bunch of rerelease sets a few years ago of each album, with two extra discs of bsides and live stuff, plus a dvd of vids, TV appearancesand a interview.
I have most of them, Watusi is underrated and excellent.
Can I find Bizarro? Can I trousers.
― Mark G, Friday, 6 July 2018 06:58 (five years ago) link
I was listening to Seamonsters in high school and my mom came in and listened for a bit and said: "They should let the singer stand closer to the microphone."
― Lie Bot (orifex), Friday, 6 July 2018 22:45 (five years ago) link
umm dang I had not heard this band until yesterday but wow Seamonsters is incredible, like, this is music I have heard in my head for years but now it's outside of my head. I don't love the guy's singing but the guitars and the production CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH BANG-BANG-BANG like my friends have sometimes tried to push Sarah Records stuff on my & I'm like ok I don't need to hear more stories about your Raggedy Andy lunchpail with polite strumming but this album, sure it is indebted to the Smiths but it is so much direct. I buy Albini's dynamics always & it's perfect here, I can vaguely tell that these are songs of resentments lyrically but the music speaks much more loudly about this. anyway I am in love, I want to join this band (as it was in 1991, I don't think I need to listen any further than that, I can live inside this album alone (Bizarro is good too))
― droit au butt (Euler), Saturday, 6 October 2018 19:35 (five years ago) link
Absolutely, Seamonsters is a monster of guitar distortion. I think it is the little brother of Loveless, not quite as innovative but still really out there.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Saturday, 6 October 2018 21:27 (five years ago) link
Huh, I've never thought of it anything like that. I mean, it's loud, but it's just a louder version of the band's usual manic strumming.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 6 October 2018 21:42 (five years ago) link
Yeah, for me, Bizarro is a better and more singular experience. But I get why Gedge tried to turn more pop after those 2 albums. Did anyone listen to the Going... Going LP? I'm not sure what I think of it.
― paulhw, Sunday, 7 October 2018 02:14 (five years ago) link
God, Seamonsters is just the best. The primacy of the lyrics is so earnest and poignant! Never fails to crush me. And idk what it is, but was this album really quiet when it was pressed or something? Whatever medium I've listened on, despite the loudness of the guitar sounds mentioned above, I've always had to max out my headphones/speakers and it feels like straining to hear something deeply personal, compounded by Gedge's mumbled vocals. In many ways it is so understated and washes along, but the cumulative effect is emotional like nothing else. I think I relate to this album in a similar way to how I hear people discussing The Meadowlands.
― tangenttangent, Thursday, 28 May 2020 10:20 (four years ago) link
I have recently played GEORGE BEST for the first time.
re: opening track 'everyone thinks he looks daft' - can anyone explain the lyrics?
Most of the lines make sense individually but I am not sure how to string them together.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 13:06 (three years ago) link
No idea, maybe the documentary can shed some light on the lyrics?https://scopitones.co.uk/archives/7135
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:15 (three years ago) link
Oh why do you catch my eye, then turn away?I thought we said all the things we had to sayShaun said he saw you holding hands with your new friendHow does it feel to know you've just won again?Don't give me that! Because you were seen!Everyone thinks he looks daft but you can have your dreamCan I keep that book of yours and maybe this one too?Oh sure, I'll bring them round tomorrow if that will doWas it really full? They must have queued there since half past threeOh I didn't go, was it a good film? Well that's just me!Don't give me that! Because you were seen!Everyone thinks he looks daft but you can have your dreamGuess who I saw by your old house just the other dayThat kid we used to think was mad, but now he looks okayI think someone's here, look out the window, I can't make out whoOh I'd love to stay but I've really got so many things to doDon't give me that! Because you were seen!Everyone thinks he looks daft but you can have your dream
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:28 (three years ago) link
What are you looking for? It sounds like it's based on a real event. Wasn't Shaun the drummer at the time?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:29 (three years ago) link
iirc every single song gedge has ever written is about failing/failed relationships, quite often due to his own jealousy
(apart from a few where things are good and the sex is hot but there are inevitably clouds on the horizon)
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:38 (three years ago) link
All About Eve being a rare exception
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 17:28 (three years ago) link
I don't really understand what the song is saying.
Maybe there is another voice, a woman's, that we don't hear, and it would be clearer if we did.
This, for instance, doesn't add up to me:
Can I keep that book of yours and maybe this one too?Oh sure, I'll bring them round tomorrow if that will doWas it really full? They must have queued there since half past threeOh I didn't go, was it a good film? Well that's just me!Don't give me that! Because you were seen!
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 15:44 (three years ago) link
How on earth did I never weigh in on this?
― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 15:56 (three years ago) link
imo the narrator is a stalker who is obsessed with his female friend (or maybe they actually had a romantic relationship, but i think not). shaun saw her holding hands, with a guy the narrator insists everyone scorns, outside the movie theater. narrator is pissed and being passive aggressive about the books he'd borrowed from her; he wants them, and her, out of his life -- well, except for one or two, and also he won't actually give up his obsession with her either
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 15:59 (three years ago) link
The verses are awkward/bland conversations with his ex. The choruses are jealous outbursts about her new relationship.
― everything, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 15:59 (three years ago) link
I always thought it was quite amusing to hear him get shot down over keeping the books
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 19:38 (three years ago) link
Thanks for these comments.
The comment by poster everything is useful to me - so the verses and choruses are distinct, not really part of the same conversation, as they don't follow from the verses.
I still don't think I understand the books verse. Does it contain the words of one speaker and not the other? And what does 'Well that's just me' mean in 'Oh I didn't go, was it a good film? Well that's just me!' ?
I don't, on the whole, find this lyric clear at all, but I've appreciated people's responses here.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 10 September 2020 10:26 (three years ago) link
It's one side of a conversation, either in person or (as I sometimes imagine) on the phone. You get to hear what he's saying, but not her so you have to fill that in. Ultimately you get enough to make a judgement, is he a twat or is his whinging justified?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 10 September 2020 13:39 (three years ago) link
i always thought the implication of "everyone thinks he looks daft" was that this isn't true, but the object of jealousy is in some way trendier or less real than honest salt of the earth narrator.
it's essentially "Gordon is a Moron" played without laughs
― how do i shot moon? (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 10 September 2020 13:45 (three years ago) link
I tend to read Wedding Present lyrics with a lot of self-mockery/irony which may or may not be intended, I'm not really sure sometimes, but it works for me
― CP Radio Gorgeous (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 10 September 2020 13:54 (three years ago) link
Gerald's post is quite helpful clarification to me.
Guess who I saw by your old house just the other dayThat kid we used to think was mad, but now he looks okay
-- is this 'kid' meant to be the one who 'looks daft', or another person?
I think someone's here, look out the window, I can't make out who
-- does this go with the telephone theory?
Oh I'd love to stay but I've really got so many things to do
-- This seems not to go with the telephone idea - suggests that the speaker is at the place of the interlocutor, which we are saying is the ex-gf.
The choruses don't seem to follow directly from the verses, unless each time, the ex-gf says something, after each verse, which logically prompts 'don't give me that' by implying that she is not dating the other person.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 10 September 2020 14:44 (three years ago) link
too much apple pie
― mookieproof, Saturday, 25 February 2023 04:05 (one year ago) link
oh that was just embarrassing, at times I say the most stupid things
lol
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 7 October 2023 04:28 (eight months ago) link
relatable
― mookieproof, Saturday, 7 October 2023 04:52 (eight months ago) link