Matt Aston tells us about writing the new The Wedding Present musical ‘Reception’

Writer and director Matt Aston has told NME about his new stage musical inspired by the indie greats The Wedding Present.

Reception: The Wedding Present Musical is a new show based around the songs and music of David Gedge, the leader of both The Wedding Present and Cinerama, and it will run at The Warehouse in Holbeck, Leeds from August 22 to September 6.

The show’s premiere will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the indie legends’ debut single ‘Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy’, and it will tell the story of a group of Leeds University friends who keep in touch during a turbulent time of graduations, funerals, weddings and their accompanying receptions.

Aston, who is the founder and Artistic Director of the Engine House Theatre and is known for productions including The Storm Whale, is the writer and director of the show.

“When Matt approached me with the idea of a Wedding Present musical, to say that I was surprised would be something of an understatement,” said Gedge. “I’d never previously imagined my songs being in a musical, but I was intrigued.

“That being said, I’m a big fan of ABBA and loved how their songs were used in Mamma Mia, and I’m always keen to try out new ideas. I know that the team have worked hard and am really excited to see the finished product.”

Find tickets and further information about Reception: The Wedding Present Musical here.

Writing for NME, Aston said: “It seems pertinent to be writing this piece today about Reception: The Wedding Present Musical and how the band have been such an important part of my life. It’s the day before the other thing I hold dearest to my heart* – Walsall Football Club – are due to play in the League Two Play-Off Final at Wembley. Yes. The League Two Play-Off Final.

“(* Apart from my children.   Obviously).

“And whilst I’ve directed a play about lower league football – Diary of a Football Nobody by William Ivory in 2012 – I think it’ll be some time before I embark on Saddlers: The Walsall FC Musical.

“The Wedding Present was my first ever gig and I can remember as if it was yesterday. It was at Confettis Nightclub in Derby on October 20, 1988. I was 15. I found out some years later that my first live football match was six years earlier on exactly the same date.  Walsall beat Swindon Town 5-0 and I was hooked. For better, for worse. For life.

“That night in Confettis had a similar impact.

“My older brother, Chris, had been a Wedding Present fan first.  He was 17, nearly 18, and had already enjoyed a couple of years of being a teenage indie kid in a pretty nondescript town in the West Midlands. The Guardian once famously described a night out in Walsall as being like going out in ‘Ceaușescu’s Romania but with burger vans’.

“It was always going to be a memorable night because my brother actually invited me to go with him. Me. His annoying younger brother. He never did that.

“Chris and his mates had already seen the band the previous week at the Hummingbird (now, inevitably, the O2 Academy) in Birmingham. They immediately made plans to catch them again in Derby. ‘They were fucking ace…’ said Chris. Like I needed convincing to go on a night out with my older brother and his mates.

“We set off on our road trip up the A28 on a foggy Wednesday night in October. A school night. And everything.

“Now, I’d obviously heard of, and heard, The Wedding Present. My cooler and older brother religiously bought the NME every week from one of the few newsagents in Walsall that stocked it.  One of his early copies came with the now legendary C86 tape that included the likes of Primal Scream (pre their shift into the world of psychedelia and re-mixes), The Soup Dragons (pre their following Primal Scream into the world of psychedelia and re-mixes), Close Lobsters, Shop Assistants, Half Man Half Biscuit and, of course, The Wedding Present.

“While I was busy wearing cardigans and moping around to The Smiths, Chris and his mates had graduated to fully blown indie kids. Listening to albums by Pixies, The Fall, The Wonder Stuff, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and ‘George Best’ by The Wedding Present.

“So by the time they smuggled me through the nightclub’s complex security system – a bloke on the door – I knew them by osmosis through hearing ‘Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft’, ‘My Favourite Dress’ and ‘Shatner’ as they drifted from my brother’s bedroom.

“It was my first ever gig, so I didn’t know what to expect. We stood near the back during the support act. Feeling very calm and sedate, nursing my pint of snakebite and black.  ‘Nothing to it,’ I thought. ‘This gig going malarkey.’

“The excited expectation swelled through the lull after the support act. The crowd acted as one, nudging closer and closer to the stage. My brother and his mates bravely headed to the front whilst his girlfriend and I, less bravely, stayed back at what I assumed to be a safe distance.

“And suddenly it went black. The music over the tannoy stopped. Balloons were released over the adoring audience. And there they were. Four normal blokes from Yorkshire who could quite easily have been my brother and his mates.

“‘Hello. We’re The Wedding Present. And this is in French,” said David Gedge in his trademark Yorkshire deadpan brogue.

“They then launched into ‘Pourquoi Es Tu Devenu Si Raisonable?’ – a typically Wedding Present version of their then current single ‘Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?’. Within seven seconds, and after a mighty crowd surge towards the stage, I was being helped out of the mass of arms and legs – or the ‘mosh pit’ as I was told later – to the bathroom with a massive nosebleed.

“Once I’d stemmed the flow of blood and regained some sense of dignity, I enjoyed the rest of the concert from the back of the room. Although I’m not sure ‘enjoyed’ is the right word. It was – to plagiarise my brother – ‘fucking ace’. But it was more than that.  And whilst I’m not one for hyperbole, however, you pronounce it, with every passing song… new ones sounding magnificent next to what were clearly already old favourites… I started to understand that this was where I belonged.

“That night was the start of a golden five years or so of gig-going across the Midlands. Mine and my brother’s friends became an amorphous mass of indie kids traversing pubs and clubs of all shapes and sizes to see not only the magnificent bands I mentioned above but also the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Inspiral Carpets, Lush, Blur, Happy Mondays, Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub and The Stone Roses. And festivals too. Glastonbury, Reading, Phoenix…that time between 1988 and 1995 was simply wonderful.

“But I always returned to The Wedding Present.   And I still do now.

“I reckon I’ve seen The Wedding Present, and David’s other band Cinerama, upwards of 70 times at gigs across the UK, festival appearances and trips to the band’s annual mini festival ‘At the Edge of The Sea’ in Brighton. The amount of gigs I get to has dwindled over the years due to kids and work and life. But when I see The Wedding Present, I still get that same sense of excitement and togetherness I felt back then in Derby. Although these days I look old enough to not need to sneak in and can generally finish the night without a nosebleed.

“And it’s been a slow process over those many concerts, and albums, to get to the point of writing a musical inspired by their songs.

“I’ve been a theatre director for over twenty years and then, more recently, also a writer.  A 15-year-old me would never have guessed I was going to be successful in the arts and younger me would have been astonished, and perhaps a little bit impressed, about my bringing to life a Wedding Present musical.

“But here we are.

“I’m hoping that other Wedding Present fans, like me, love it when they do something different and will take a punt on the show when we open later this year.  I can genuinely and honestly say that I wouldn’t be doing this… with these songs… if I didn’t know it will work. But I do. David’s conversational, down-to-earth lyrics are perfect for a musical. And I’ll be making the most of the many different types of arrangements and styles of music David’s written over the years. All the songs don’t sound the same.

“Confettis Nightclub probably doesn’t mean much to many people. And I doubt many would remember many nights out at the subsequent Chinese restaurant or the indoor adult crazy golf centre that the former Grand Theatre became after it’s short-lived time as one of Derby’s top nightspots.

“But Confetti’s means the world to me. And it always will. I didn’t know it at the time but that foggy night in the Autumn of 1988 was the beginning of the rest of my life.

“And whatever happens next… I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“(Walsall lost the League Two Play-Off Final. Of course they fucking did. My relationship with them is a bit more problematic. Next season’s fixtures out soon though…)”

Reception: The Wedding Present Musical opens at The Warehouse in Holbeck (Slung Low), Leeds on Friday August 22 and runs until Saturday September 6. Vist here for details and tickets.

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