The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, by members of The Lost Pandas.

David Gedge and The Lost Pandas' bass player, Keith Gregory, continued the band, renaming it The Wedding Present.

[1] The name was jointly conceived by Gedge and his girlfriend at the time, as they were both avid fans of The Birthday Party and it was an homage to their favourite band.

Upon its release, the album was critically acclaimed and the band were soon classified, with some of their peers, as members of the 'shambling' or C86 scene, a categorisation that they vehemently declined (although they were featured on the original C86 compilation).

Musically, the album featured fast-paced rhythm guitar; lyrically, apart from a few excursions into social critique ("All This and More") and politics ("All About Eve"), Gedge's main concerns (which would become his trademark) were love, lust, heartbreak and revenge.

His replacement was Simon Smith,[1] who remained the band's drummer until 1997 and for a long time was, next to Gedge, the only other stable factor in the shifting line-ups.

The band planned on releasing eight cuts from the Ukrainian sessions on a 10" LP and an initial batch was pressed when Red Rhino went into receivership.

The first proper album that The Wedding Present recorded for their new label was released in the same year 1989 and reunited them with producer Chris Allison.

Bizarro’s lyrical themes were largely the same as before and the songs featured the same three-chord structures, but its production values had increased due to a larger recording budget.

End-of-year readers polls, however, showed the opening track and lead single of the album, "Dalliance", amongst the top of the favourites list.

To economise on songwriting, the B-sides consisted of cover versions of songs including Julee Cruise's "Falling" (the theme tune from Twin Peaks).

The demand in the United Kingdom for The Wedding Present's singles was so high that distributors began poaching from a separate 5,000-copy stash meant for sale in all other markets to sell in the UK.

The Wedding Present had the distinction of having all 12 hit singles be solely original material, whereas Elvis reached his record through archival re-issues.

When they re-emerged in early 1994 with the news that they had signed to Island Records, it was quickly followed by the announcement that Gregory had left the band, due to lack of enthusiasm, and was replaced by Darren Belk.

[1] For their next album, The Wedding Present again left for the United States and enlisted Steve Fisk (Screaming Trees, Nirvana).

In the autumn of 1995, The Wedding Present released "Sucker", a self-financed single that was sold at their gigs only (it has since been included on compilation albums).

Shortly after releasing the album, Jayne Lockey, who had already sung backing vocals on Mini, was announced as the band's new bass player.

The release came with a bonus DVD compiling the videos for "Don't Touch That Dial" (a Cinerama single re-recorded for Take Fountain), "Interstate 5", "I'm From Further North Than You", "Ringway to SeaTac" and others.

Titles include "I've Lost the Monkey", "Soup", "Drink You Eat You", "Model, Actress, Whatever...", "The Thing I Like Most About Him Is His Girlfriend", "Twenty Jackies", "Swingers", "Peek-a-boo", "Hulk Loves Betty", "Boo Boo", "Palisades", "Santa Ana Winds", "Pinch Pull Twist Release", "The Trouble With Men", "Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk" and "Spider-Man in Hollywood".

The album El Rey was released on 20 May 2008 in North America and 26 May 2008 in Europe, accompanied by the digital download-only single "The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend".

In 2009 two The Wedding Present songs, "I'm From Further North Than You" and "Ringway to SeaTac", appeared in the award-winning Monty Miranda–directed independent film Skills Like This.

In April of the year, The Wedding Present toured Australia for the first time, playing concerts in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne.

[14] In December 2020 the band, and various ex-members and collaborators released an album of James Bond–theme cover versions called Not From Where I’m Standing, for the mental health charity Campaign Against Living Miserably.

[15] In April 2021, the band re-released a 30th anniversary version of Seamonsters including the B-sides to the singles released to promote the original 1991 album and tracks from a John Peel Session.