Current and former members of the British indie-rock band The Wedding Present have released, Not From Where I’m Standing, a cover album of James Bond title tracks.
According to the band’s singer, David Gedge, Not From Where I’m Standing was conceived “during a soundcheck in New Zealand, in 2013, when the band were playing around with the main melody of the classic Bond theme ‘You Only Live Twice’. We decided then that, one day, we should probably attempt to cover this amazing song. We ended up doing just that during the recording sessions for our ‘Going, Going’ album in Studios La Fabrique.”
Gedge continues, “During a later tour, drummer Charles Layton was driving the van and I was sitting in the front passenger seat. On journeys like these Charlie would often plant little seeds of ideas into my mind, knowing that I would go away, think about it, and then return with some kind of master plan. ‘You should release a compilation of Bond songs,’ he declared. And that was all that he needed to say, really. Most of the themes from the Bond films would effortlessly feature in a list of my favourite ever pieces of music, so I was never not going to be excited by the idea of re-imaginings of twenty of them!”
Fans of The Wedding Presents classic indie-rock sound, maybe surprised to hear the variety of genre’s featured on the album. Gedge, who invented past and present members of The Wedding Present and his side project, Cinerama, gave each artist involved complete artistic freedom on their individual tracks.
The resulting album features an electro-pop instrumental cover of ‘All Time High’, a barbershop quartet style acapella of ‘Nobody Does It Better’, and a traditional Ukrainian folk rendition of ‘Die Another Day’, sung in Ukrainian.
Not From Where I’m Standing is available now, with all proceeds going toward the mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).
Track Listing:
| James Bond Theme The Sleazoid | 2:39 |
| You Only Live Twice The Wedding Present | 3:13 |
| Goldfinger Simone White | 2:51 |
| Goldeneye Follow The Moths | 3:35 |
| The Man With The Golden Gun Jetstream Pony | 1:57 |
| Live And Let Die The Donalds | 3:15 |
| The World Is Not Enough Maria Scaroni | 4:17 |
| Diamonds Are Forever Cinerama | 2:53 |
| Tomorrow Never Dies Danielle Wadey & Charles Layton | 3:08 |
| All Time High Minitel | 4:38 |
| Nobody Does It Better Samuel Beer-Pearce | 1:52 |
| For Your Eyes Only Klee | 4:48 |
| Thunderball The Legendary Len Liggins | 3:37 |
| Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Sleeper & David Gedge | 3:07 |
| From Russia With Love Graeme Ramsay | 2:19 |
| A View To A Kill Terry de Castro | 4:10 |
| Die Another Day The Ukrainians | 4:09 |
| Skyfall Such Small Hands | 3:12 |
| On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Shaun Charman | 2:29 |
| We Have All The Time In The World David Gedge | 3:40 |
