All The Songs Sound The Same – The Wedding Present

All The Songs Sound The Same is a new book about The Wedding Present.

Co-edited by David Lewis Gedge, lead singer and main songwriter with The Wedding Present, and music writer Richard Houghton, All The Songs Sound The Same brings together over 300 stories from fans, friends and current and former members of The Wedding Present, who each write about their favourite song by The Wedding Present or David’s other band, Cinerama.

The book is a 336 page hardback full of more than 450 colour and B&W photos, including many previously unpublished images from David Gedge’s personal archive.

Altogether more than 100 different Wedding Present and Cinerama songs are dissected and then championed as the best of David’s songwriting, with contributors including: Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP, Stella Creasy MP, folk singer Amelia Coburn, the Legendary Len Liggins (The Ukrainians), music writer Mark Beaumont, writer & broadcaster Andrew Collins and current or former Wedding Present members:

• Peter Solowka
• Shaun Charman
• Terry de Castro
• Melanie Howard
• Patrick Alexander
• Marcus Kain
• Charles Layton
• Graeme Ramsay
• Jon Stewart (from Sleeper)
• Danielle Wadey.

If you’re not a die-hard music fan, you may not have heard of The Wedding Present, because they’ve only graced the Top Ten UK singles chart once in over 35 years. But hundreds of fans have contributed stories to the book, setting out why particular songs by the ‘semi-legendary’ Indie band from Leeds mean so much to them.

David Gedge said:

‘When I’m asked to choose my favourite of the songs I’ve written, I never know what to say. It’s like asking who your favourite child is! How could I pick just one? However, I did think it would be interesting to see which songs fans would select, and why. There’s quite a few from which to choose; The Wedding Present – together with my other band, Cinerama – have recorded over 300 tracks. When an audience member requests one of the 280-plus songs that we haven’t rehearsed for that particular evening’s set I usually sympathise with them by saying, “I know, I know… there are just too many classics, aren’t there?!”’

Shaun Keaveny, BBC 6 Music: ‘It’s a beautiful book. It’s full of moving and brilliant writing and brings home just how special the band are.’

ISBN 978 1 9168896 8 2

Extent: 336 pages

Fully illustrated (colour & B&W)

Page size: 246 x 189mm

Binding: Hardback

Recommended Retail Price: £35.00 ($42.00)

David Lewis Gedge lives in Brighton and is the founding member, lead singer and guitarist for the semi-legendary indie band The Wedding Present, who were founded in 1985, and his ‘other’ band, Cinerama. He is also the author of several books, including two volumes (so far) of his illustrated autobiography, Tales from the Wedding Present.

Richard Houghton lives in Manchester and is the author of 20 music books, including authorised titles on The Wedding Present, The Stranglers, Simple Minds, OMD, Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention. His People’s History series of music books is published by Spenwood Books.

In 2017, David and Richard co-wrote the Wedding Present ‘fanthology’ Sometimes These Words Just Don’t Have To Be Said.