The Wedding Present have announced an album of James Bond theme covers. It will be called Not From Where I’m Standing and it comes out on December 4 via Come Play With Me. The album is ultimately all in support of the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), a movement against suicide. You can check out all the album details and pre-order it here.
Quite rightly, David Gedge anticipated that we might want to know how this came about – I’m sure we all have memories of that one evening where we had the best idea ever, for a board game, a novel, an entire fantasy world. For most of us, it becomes the one that got away. Well, The Wedding Present have been diligently sitting with this move since 2013. Gedge said,
“Where do ideas like this come from? Well, I can tell you that this one was born during a soundcheck in New Zealand, in 2013, when the band were playing around with the main melody of the classic Bond theme ‘You Only Live Twice’.
“And then came another idea. Each of the artists on this proposed compilation would be required to have a physical connection to Cinerama or The Wedding Present. I liked the unifying feel of that. I suppose it appealed to the collector in me. None of the artists I approached asked for payment for their track and so the obvious thing to do was to make this a benefit album.”
For the CEO of CALM, Simon Gunning, this project is like a teenage dream come true. He says: “I’ve loved The Wedding Present since I was a teenager. I once saw David Gedge doing some photocopying in an office, but couldn’t pluck up the courage to speak to him. I have jumped up and down to ‘My Favourite Dress’ in fields across the country and the tension of ‘Brassneck’ and ‘Dalliance’ gets me all sweaty.
“I, and CALM can’t thank the band enough for this album. Suicide is on the increase – it’s the single biggest killer of young men and the cause of death for 18 people each and every day in the UK. CALM is leading a movement against suicide through campaigning and through our free to call helpline and it’s support like this that means our message can reach more people than ever.” A covers album with a cause.
For those who are here for Bond and not the band, The Wedding Present are a 1980s indie group, heavily influenced by The Fall and Buzzcocks. In their lifetime they have had at least twenty different members, with David Gedge as the band’s only constant. Not From Where I’m Standing calls on the talent of multiple previous band members, and other artists associated with Gedge and his various projects. It has twenty different contributors.
The thing we all want is to know how fast-paced post-punk guitar music translates into the multiple and varied James Bond themes. The Wedding Present themselves will lend their talents Nancy Sinatra’s notorious ‘You Only Live Twice’, which begins with that glorious slow crescendo. Unfortunately, there’s not even a hint from the band as to what any of these covers will do, so we’ll have to wait eagerly. In the meantime, they have released the tracklist (you can see it below) for everyone to start anticipating one of the most ambitious cover albums in a long time.
Not From Where I’m Standing will be released on December 4. Coincidentally, earlier this week we learnt that this will actually become the latest offering for James Bond fans, as the twenty fifth Bond film, No Time To Die, has been postponed until April 2021. Until all of this is available, you’ll just have to pass the time by listening to Billie Eilish’s Bond theme on repeat.
Tracklist:
SIDE A
1. James Bond Theme – The Sleazoids
2. You Only Live Twice – The Wedding Present
3. Goldfinger – Simone White
4. Goldeneye – Follow The Moths
5. The Man With The Golden Gun – Jetstream Pony
SIDE B
1. Live And Let Die – The Donalds
2. The World Is Not Enough – Maria Scaroni
3. Diamonds Are Forever – Cinerama
4. Tomorrow Never Dies – Danielle Wadey & Charles Layton
5. All Time High – Minitel
SIDE C
1. Nobody Does It Better – Samuel Beer-Pearce
2. For Your Eyes Only – Klee
3. Thunderball – The Legendary Len Liggins
4. Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Sleeper featuring David Lewis Gedge
5. From Russia With Love – Graeme Ramsay
SIDE D
1. View To A Kill – Terry de Castro
2. Die Another Day – The Ukrainians
3. Skyfall – Such Small Hands
4. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – Shaun Charman
5. We Have All The Time In The World – David Lewis Gedge
