Over the course of a quarter of a century, Wedding Present and Cinerama auteur David Gedge has consistently documented the intricacies of interpersonal communication, mostly of the romantic kind. While currently writing new tunes in his tradition of celebrating romantic bliss and bemoaning lost love, Gedge is also revisiting some old flames. His label, Scopitones, last week released Live 1988, a double album of concert recordings from—you guessed it—1988, the second in a series of LPs collecting live cassettes that were sold at gigs and through their fanzine in the late ’80s. The band is also playing Bizarro, arguably the best Wedding Present effort, in its entirety during a tour that kicked off April 1 in San Diego. Gedge will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him and our 2005 career overview of the Wedding Present.
Gedge: The Avengers is a somewhat surreal British TV spy drama from the 1960s with a brilliant and memorable theme tune. Sadly (at first, anyway), that music usually coincided with my bedtime, but, later on, I became old enough to enjoy the eccentric antics of the hero, agent John Steed, and his series of attractive female accomplices. Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King were the first women in mainstream media (at least that I saw, anyway) who could look after themselves and didn’t have to be saved by the “big brave man.” They took the initiative, solved crimes, beat up villains and even saved Steed sometimes! That obviously impressed me as a young person, as did the outfits. Some of the things Peel wore were rather, err, distracting to a young boy.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtb4QO25Ipw
