Musical inspired by The Wedding Present will be set at the University of Leeds

The new musical Reception is set at the University of Leeds, and is inspired by the music from David Gedge and his bands The Wedding Present and Cinerama.

The backdrop for the musical is the summer of 1985, which is the same time The Wedding Present originally formed. A story of love and breakups, it questions whether friends should make the effort to keep in touch with each other throughout the years.

Audiences follow the lives of a group of students as they experience different milestones such as a funeral, hen do, wedding and a reception, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.

The jukebox musical coincides with the bands 40th anniversary, where David Gedge (vocals and guitar), Peter Solowka (guitar), Keith Gregory (bass) and Shaun Charman (drums) met while studying at the University of Leeds.

The musical was written and directed by Matt Aston, a seasoned theatre director with over 15 years of experience.

He’s also a lifelong fan of The Wedding Present and has seen David Gedge perform over 70 times, which was where he found inspiration to write the musical.

After seeing David perform with the BBC big band in 2009, he saw the theatrical possibilities of the music.

He told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “The arrangements of the songs were so different, from an indie guitar band to easy listening, slightly jazz style, slightly Frank Sinatra.

“There were lots of horns, trumpets and strings and that was my first inkling when I thought, maybe there’s something in there.”

Matt decided to focus on university friendships because of the “pivotal” role he says they play in your life, both while studying and decades after graduating.

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He said:”[With university friends] you live in each other’s pockets for three or four years and then you might go and live in separate towns but they’re still your friends.

“There are university friends of mine that I’ve not seen for years and years but I could phone them up if I was in trouble and they’d come and get me.”

A young Keir Starmer, who also studied at the university, is featured in the show. He’s played by Jack Hardy as an ambitious law student, whose name no one can quite remember.

The prime minister, who is still friends with The Wedding Present frontman, has been invited to see the show. He told the i Paper about his friendship with David: “My friend John Murray had to lend his guitar to the band in the early days because they didn’t have a spare guitar, so we grew up around all that.”

The show will be performed from the 22nd of August until the 6th of September at The Warehouse in Holbeck.

Featured image via @theweddingpresent on Instagram

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