Wedding Present - Picturedrome, Holmfirth, 31/3/2007

  by Helen Tipping

published: 23 / 3 / 2007

intro

In the unusual venue of the Holmfirth Picturedrome, Helen Tipping enjoys an impressive mixture of old and new songs from the reformed Wedding Present

Holmfirth Picturedrome is one of the strangest venues I've been to. Despite being in the middle of a country town and not being best served by public transport it's sold out again. Being an old cinema it still has most of the seats downstairs with a space at the front for dancing / moshing. Upstairs you can sit on the balcony, which is really just some scaffolding and planks with chairs on it. It doesn't sound too safe, but it offers a great view of the stage. Up until recently the venue has been under threat of being bought out and turned into a Wetherspoons, just what the town needs, but the council have refused permission for one of those, and so for the time being it will continue offering live bands. The Wedding Present open with 'My Favourite Dress' and the crowd were off and dancing. It is very moving to see so many men of a certain age reliving their teenage years as they shove one another about in a good natured way, the lights reflecting off of their shaved and balding heads. One has brought his teenaged daughter along and she bounces about just beyond the worst of it. Most of the female fans, and quite a few more men, sensibly decide to take the weight off their feet and make use of the cinema seating and keep out of the way of any pushing and shoving. The Wedding Present change the tempo and throw in new songs regularly to give the crowd a bit of a rest. David Gedge asks the audience what Holmfirth is famous for, "Mushy Peas" shouts someone - they're resisting Last of the Summer Wine stereotypes solidly. The band play 'Model Actress' 'Whatever' and another new one, before launching into 'Flying Saucer' which gets the crowd off and moving again. As usual an encore is not forthcoming, I’ve never seen them do one, and they appear not to see the point in wasting time on it preferring to pack in as many songs as possible. The photographs that accompany this article were taken by Neil Bailey

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