IN AN OCEAN OF ADVANCED PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES AND MARKETING HYPE, THE WEDDING PRESENT ARE AN ISLAND OF HONESTY AND SIMPLE GUITAR CHORDS. NOW THEY'VE NETTED A MAJOR RECORD DEAL ON THEIR OWN TERMS.

ON THE SLEEVE of their second LP, 'Tommy', the Wedding Present call themselves "the world's least complex group". And among all the hype that surrounds the music business, they are genuinely unassuming. Having recently signed to RCA - a decision made public shortly after the collapse of their previous distributors, Red Rhino - the band have been quite the centre of attention. So much so that every Sunday finds them in the Hyde Park pub in the heart of Leeds' student community, facing a different tape recorder. This week sees the turn of PHAZE 1 and a small black number from Tandy.

Dave Gedge, vocalist and the only songwriter in the band, and guitarist Pete Salowka are already waiting for me when I arrive, and we begin with a look at the football results before getting down to what is, at times, an hilarious two hours' chatting.

Of all the bands that were featured on the NME's 'State of Independents' C86 record nearly three years ago, only the Wedding Present and the Wolftones survive, and only the former have had any real success. What's made the Wedding Present different, and kept them together while the other bands have fallen apart?

"A lot of them signed to majors and that was the biggest mistake they made really", says Dave.

"You've got to wait long enough to develop your own style so the majors accept what you are and don't try to change you, so they don't think they've come across some novelty and can understand you as you are", adds Pete.

The band were also approached by major labels in '86, and recall a Phonogram executive flying out to Germany to try and entice them to sign on the dotted fine. But they stuck with their own Reception label through the distribution of York-based Red Rhino, a move which has led to their new contract with RCA being negotiated from a position of strength.

Pete recalls that the whole process actually began last Spring: "We spent ages arguing a contract where there's no doubt as to artistic control - we can make any record we like. We've actually got as much freedom to make a record which we know is not going to sell 100,000 copies around the world for RCA. All we have to do is record, and if RCA don't like it then the cost is taken away from our advance and we can release it through an independent if we wish."

The band's demands for this clause were prompted by the stories told bv some bands who had made uncommercial records (and been given the "freedom" to make them), only to find their careers held up as the records were given a low-key release with little or no push behind it.

Today, the Wedding Present see no problem in making the transition from an independent label to a major, and don't feel they are "selling out" by signing with a company like RCA. In their view, the indie charts are a breeding ground where new talent can mature without the hindrance of having to sell huge numbers of records.

"I think there's too much importance attached to the indie charts", savs Dave. "What they are really used for is as a forum for major companies to have a look at. There's generally no commercial pressure on bands on independent labels, and most of the bands don't want to make a fortune, except obviously the ones who want to be signed up. We weren't ready before to commit ourselves to a big company which wouldn't listen to our views on our music, which is important, but now we are ready to do that so we've signed."

The Wedding Present formed in 1985, with Dave and Pete being joined by Keith Gregory and original drummer Shaun Charman. Both Dave and Pete had played in bands before, with somewhat mixed results. As school friends in Middleton near Manchester, they had both been part of a nascent Chameleons...

"The band that kicked the Wedding Present out of their group", Dave reflects. "They were called Years then: it was the Chameleons without Birdy - Mark Burgess - the singer, Dave and Reg and another drummer. They practised at Pete's house while his Dad was at work. We were both in them at one point, but alter two practices they turfed us out!"

Later, while at university in Leeds, a young Dave Gedge played in bands that he views as prototypes for the Wedding Present.

"I've always written songs for all the bands I've been in", he says. "I think the bands before this one were just the same but dreadful. Dreadful lyrics and really slow. Pete was in a few good bands, weren't you?"

"Some real crackers. A band called The Chorus who you might be able to get a single by if you scrape around a few secondhand record bins. There was another band I liked, UV & the Free Radicals. They were quite good. It was like a cabaret band with about three musicians and four people dancing."

Pete cites attitude and his poor songwriting as reasons for those previous groups having failed to take off. It was only after leaving university that the Wedding Present really started. Released from rounds of lectures and exams, the musicians had time to concentrate on playing music. But hold on! With all this education behind them, doesn't that make the Wedding Present... "the brainiest group in music apart from Queen who have got four degrees - we've only got three and a half!" Dave laughingly boasts. The half, by the way, belongs to the band's bassist, who left his English course midway.

After obtaining his mathematics degree, Dave decided to devote all his time to music - a move which did not please his parents one little bit.

"I think they've been really disappointed in me", he admits, "and it's only recently that they've started to take an interest in the group because I'm making a bit of money as far as they can see, and it's like a proper job.

When I left university I went on the dole and had a job in a catalogue factory and we almost fell out over it. They weren't able to accept it and thought I was just wasting my life. I was on the dole for three or four years and they were getting more and more annoyed with me. I stopped going home that much because we kept arguing about it all the time."

Pete, on the other hand, found that if anything he got too much encouragement from his parents.

"It tends to be a European thing that music is a dead good idea", he says. "Even when I was seven they were encouraging me to go to accordion lessons and things like that, but I couldn't stand it and didn't want to go."

But Pete's early music lessons have now paid dividends, for the Wedding Present have just recorded a mini-LP of Ukrainian folk songs on which Pete plays the accordion with another Leeds musician of Ukrainian descent, Len Liggins, taking over from Dave as the vocalist of this "alternative" Wedding Present.

Pete explains the origins of the sessions: "All ethnic groups tend to have some sort of clubs or schools where they can keep up the culture of their homeland for the children, and Ukrainians are no different. They still have Saturday schools where you go and learn the language, dances and things like that. I did a bit of that when I was a kid but not much. You get a general feel and taste for the music, and when I started to play the guitar I used to play a few tunes that I remembered. At times you get a bit nostalgic and start looking back into your past, and I started to look for records and tapes of things to do with the Ukraine and so we did a few songs."

In the face of utter ridicule from the other members of the band, Pete taught them some of the songs. But their general airing came quite by chance.

"We were offered a Peel session", Pete recalls, "and we thought instead of doing something that we always do, we'd do something different and do some of the Ukrainian ones we'd messed around with for a bit. All those songs are just covers of relatively famous folk songs."

The songs have proved so popular that as well as the proposed record release, the band is going to tour with them under the guise of [Russian language] (pronounced Vesilnee Podaroonok, Russian for Wedding Present) although they are unsure just who will turn up, and don't want people expecting the usual band.

More conventionally, the Wedding Present are riding high on the success of their last single 'Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?' which brought them within spitting distance of the Top 40.

Meanwhile, Dave has been busy writing songs for their second LP proper, which they'll record shortly for Autumn release. They are also due to play a two-week tour of America to coincide with an appearance at the annual 'New Music Seminar' in New York.

The new LP will be the Wedding Present's first collection of new songs since 'George Best' came out in 1987, last year's 'Tommy' having been made up of deleted early singles and radio sessions. But the band aren't feeling any pressure on them musically, and appear relaxed and confident.

With song titles like 'What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?' and 'You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends', there have been inevitable comparisons to the Smiths. Have the Wedding Present inherited the crown of Morrissey and Marr? After all, the "Pressies" were recently voted top of the NME's readers' poll, a position that the Smiths had previously held.

"I think we've always accepted that we are the Smiths' fans second favourite group", says Dave, "and it certainly rings true when you look at that poll, especially as the NME is like the Smiths' fans' paper and they all voted for us. But apart from that I can't really see the comparison because Morrissey is a really flamboyant writer; he's more literary and extravagant but me, I'm just simple honest folk!"

So how does Dave approach songwriting? Is there an art here or a method? Is it tune first, then the words?

"Well, what I tend to do is get my favourite records, put them on the turntable, listen to them and try to copy them."

Pete adds the punchline: "We're so bad at being musicians that the copies come out in an original way."

"You can sit around for hours trying to be original, but why? For one song it's not worth it. If you can rip somebody off for an LP, do it", advises Dave, and so the patter continues.

"All you've got to do is change the odd chord now and again."

"Change the words round, obviously."

And that's it?

"All of western rock music is three chords, isn't it? It's the rock 'n' roll chords. There may be one or two variations in it but..."

Pete changes tack: "That's how everybody approaches songs. They'll sell you a load of bullshit to fill up big magazines but essentially that's it. One of your first questions was what influences have you got because you know deep inside influences affect songs, and that's all we're saying. You listen to your favourite records and you learn from them."

Dave: "There's nothing mysterious about us, really. The only skill we've got is we're able to play faster than anyone else. It's such simple stuff, just guitars, bass, drums, easy everyday-type conversationalist lyrics, basic chords."

As we've been saying at PHAZE 1 all along, and as the Wedding Present said with the title of their first single - 'Go Out and Get 'em Boy'. There's nothing holding you back.