All The Songs Sound The Same

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 either by The Wedding Present or David's other band, Cinerama. The book includes many previously unpublished images from David Gedge's personal archive.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); and 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?!"'