The Wedding Present will be playing a series of concert dates in 2018 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of their first singles collection, Tommy.

Tommy was a compilation album that collected the band’s first four singles and accompanying b-sides plus selected tracks from two early BBC Radio 1 sessions. It was released, in July 1988, on The Wedding Present’s own record label, Reception Records, and provides an overview of The Wedding Present’s frenetic output before the debut album, George Best.

Track-listing : Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy! / (The Moment Before) Everything's Spoiled Again / Once More / At The Edge Of The Sea / Living And Learning / This Boy Can Wait / You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends / Felicity / What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted? / Never Said / Every Mother's Son / My Favourite Dress

Tommy reviewed by AllMusic:

“Although it was a few years into their career, before they came upon the defining idea of releasing one single a month for an entire year (brilliantly summed up on 1992’s two-part Hit Parade), The Wedding Present were, from the very beginning, a singles band, first and foremost. Shortly after the release of the excellent George Best, the band gathered all of their pre-LP singles and EPs onto one handy 12-track disc. Tommy is not only the definitive look at early Wedding Present, it's one of the great albums of the mid-'80s indie scene. The speedy rush of the rhythm section and David Gedge's everyday-life lyrics and inimitable guitar style (in a scene where seemingly everyone else was mimicking Johnny Marr, Gedge's manic up-and-down strum was instantly recognisable) were so important to the development of this style of music that, without these singles, things likely would have sounded very, very different. All 12 tracks are essential indie pop but particular highlights include the definitive reading of Orange Juice's ‘Felicity’, the emotional depths of ‘My Favourite Dress’ and the breakneck, hurtling pace of ‘Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy!’ This record is part of the British indie canon, every bit as historically and musically important as the Postcard label singles and The Smiths' Hatful Of Hollow”.

Tommy (remaining) live dates in 2018:

Part Six – December

05/12 Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms

06/12 Exeter - Cavern

07/12 Bristol - Thekla

08/12 Stoke – Gladstone Pottery Museum

09/12 Bradford - Underground

11/12 Galashiels - Mac Arts

12/12 Carlisle – Old Fire Station

13/12 Leicester – Dryden Street Social

14/12 London - O2 Academy Islington

In other news...

The Wedding Present played festivals throughout the summer as well as helping to celebrate the release of the George Best album feature film documentary Something Left Behind. They will also be recording a new session for the BBC Radio 6 Music DJ, Marc Riley. The band’s first six Marc Riley sessions have already been released on two compilation LPs by Hatch Records.

Following the popularity of last year’s George Best 30 album, where a Steve Albini re-recorded version of George Best was released by Scopitones, the band are now planning to re-visit Tommy.

Finally, David Gedge is hoping to find time to continue writing and publishing issues of Tales From The Wedding Present - his auto-biography in comic book form – as well as continuing to DJ around the country.

www.theweddingpresent.co.uk

"The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the 'Rock 'n' Roll' era. You may dispute this but I'm right and you're wrong!" - John Peel