More about: The Wedding Present

The world’s most well-known spy might usually be remembered for his martinis, girls and guns – but a James Bond film would certainly not be the same without an iconic song to go with it. After 25 films (if No Time To Die stops being postponed...) and songs since the franchise began in 1962, a double-album of Bond covers sounds like such a good idea, and now you can have one for a great cause thanks to The Wedding Present and Friend’s Not From Where I’m Standing.

After an ex-Wedding Present guitarist played the riff from ‘You Only Live Twice’ at a New Zealand soundcheck in 2013, frontman David Gedge had a lightbulb moment and got it recorded. 

After a length of time recruiting old band members who were involved in The Wedding Present and David’s additional band Cinerama, this album was born. Nobody wanted money for it, so it became a benefit album for the charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a leading suicide prevention charity.

If you’re expecting to find a full LP of covers with The Wedding Present’s classic indie-rock sound, that’s not what you’ll get: Gedge gave everyone involved complete artistic freedom for their individual tracks, making the record a little bit all over the place - but in a good way. 

For example, you’ll find an electro-pop instrumental cover of ‘All Time High’ from Minitel, a barbershop quartet style acapella of ‘Nobody Does it Better’ by Samuel Beer-Pearce and a traditional Ukrainian folk version of ‘Die Another Day’, fittingly sung by The Ukrainians (in Ukrainian).

The muddle of genres on this record shouldn’t scare anyone off. David Gedge himself said some of the tracks took him by surprise in his recent Gigwise interview. If anything, you can tell how much fun everyone had making it, the creativity of every individual involved truly shines through. 

Not From Where I’m Standing is a fascinating insight into the strength and diversity of the musicians that have been members of Gedge’s groups for 35 years - as well as discovering their favourite Bond tunes. The inclusion of more niche Bond songs that weren’t the film’s title tracks such as ‘Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ and ‘We Have All The Time In The World’ is also great to see.

This record serves as a great Christmas gift to 007 fans and The Wedding Present fans alike, as well as serving a great cause with all profits being donated to CALM. This is an album that is great fun from start to finish. 

Not From Where I'm Standing arrives 4 December via Come Play With Me Records. Buy it here.

More about: The Wedding Present