The Genius Of… David Gedge #3

(In case you missed the first two installments in this series - and going by the viewing stats it appears most of you probably have - you can revisit them here and here...)

#3: Kerry Kerry

The first David Gedge release to bear a name other than The Wedding Present, Kerry Kerry was a big departure from the trademark indie sound us fans were used to. Gone were those guitars, whether jangly or crunching. Gone too was the pounding backbeat. In their place, lush-sounding orchestral swoops, reminiscent of classic movie soundtracks from the 1960s. Strings and woodwind dominated, while Gedge and girlfriend Sally Murrell provided delicate, sometimes melancholic vocals that were far removed from the darker, grittier moods of Dalliance and Corduroy.

Yet lyrically, it remained David Gedge all over. He’s discovered his lover is seeing someone else and is now confronting her about it:

  You bought him presents with my money
  That makes me feel just great, although
  I’ve got to say that it is kind of funny
  That you could think I’d never know

Hardly Shakespeare I know, but quintessentially Gedge, which in view of the radical change of musical direction was some kind of comfort. Oh, speaking of Shakespeare:

  But now the longer that I hang around
  The more anxious that you get
  Oh it looks like Romeo has found
  A nervous Juliet

Kerry Kerry scraped the UK charts at #71. It was the highest charting single they put out. Not that that matters a jot to be honest. There were much better Cinerama tracks to come, but Kerry Kerry is significant as it introduced us to a new David Gedge that in many ways was also the same.