''Ukrainian John Peel Sessions'' () is a compilation album by

The Wedding Present The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, by members of The Lost Pandas. The band has been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band's only constant member. Closely linked to the C86 scene ...

, originally gathering their first three

Ukrainian language Ukrainian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first language, first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians. Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet, a variant of t ...

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

radio sessions. It was scheduled to be released in late 1988 by their own

record company "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

, Reception Records, but was ultimately released in February 1989 by their new

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

About the album

Origins

The Wedding Present guitarist Peter Solowka, whose father is Ukrainian, used to play a Ukrainian

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

tune called "

Hopak Hopak (, ) is a Ukrainian folk dance originating as a male dance among the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but later danced by couples, male soloists, and mixed groups of dancers. It is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and profess ...

" to entertain his friends. When he did so during a radio session the band was recording for the

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

John Peel show, they decided to record the song for the session. The song was received well and, fired by Solowka's enthusiasm, the band decided to dedicate another Peel session to Ukrainian folk songs. Because none of them could sing Ukrainian to any acceptable degree, they decided to invite fellow

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

musician "The Legendary" Len Liggins of The Sinister Cleaners, who had read

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

at University, to sing and play various instruments. The resulting Peel session's broadcast provoked a reaction of Hang the Dance! member Roman Remeynes, himself fluent in Ukrainian, who jokingly accused the band of bastardising the music. This led to him being invited to join as well for a second Ukrainian-themed Peel session. By this time, original Wedding Present drummer Shaun Charman had been replaced with Simon Smith, coincidentally an ex-Sinister Cleaner himself.

Aborted Reception Records release

The band intended to release a compilation of the first and second Peel sessions as ''Українські Виступи в Івана Піла'' on their independent record label Reception Records, whose distribution was handled by

Red Rhino Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

, a

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

-based division of the independent UK distribution network, The Cartel. Red Rhino issued a radio promo of "Davni Chasy" and pressed a batch of the LP for release in late 1988, but went into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

before it could actually release the album. Prompted by the demise of their backers, The Wedding Present decided to fold their own record label and sign with a regular

. Of the original pressing (catalogue number REC010), a small number of copies managed to leave the warehouse; these are nowadays sought after.

RCA release

The company The Wedding Present signed with was RCA, which immediately bought up the Red Rhino batch of the album and pressed a new batch themselves. ''Українські Виступи в Івана Піла'' was released in February 1989, backed with a new pressing of the "Davni Chasy" promo. RCA pleaded with the band to have a regular release of the song, better known as " Those Were the Days My Friend", which they were sure would provide them with a Top Ten hit. The band, however, refused. ''Українські Виступи в Івана Піла'' reached #22 in the UK albums charts. After the album's release, the band went on a short British tour that was well received. Bolstered by the success, they recorded a third Ukrainian Peel session. After that, the Ukrainian phase in The Wedding Present's career was over, but Liggins, Remeynes and Solowka decided to continue playing together as

The Ukrainians The Ukrainians are a British band, which plays traditional Ukrainian music, heavily influenced by western post-punk. Career The Ukrainians were formed in 1990 by Wedding Present guitarist Peter Solowka, with singer/violinist Len Liggins an ...

. Their 1991 eponymous debut album features contributions by all Wedding Present band members.

Re-release

In 2000, independent record label Fresh Ear Records re-released ''Українські Виступи в Івана Піла'', changing its Latin-alphabet subtitle to ''Ukrainian John Peel Sessions''. The re-release also includes the third Peel session and "Hopak", the song with which it all began, and so compiles all Ukrainian-themed songs recorded by The Wedding Present. The 6 CD box set ''The Complete Peel Sessions'' also contains all of the Ukrainian songs.

Peter Solowka Peter Solowka or Solovka (, , born late 1959 in Oldham) is a musician of Ukrainians, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian descent. He has been involved in music since 1985, most notably as guitarist with The Wedding Present from their inception until 1991, a ...

went on to play these and other songs in his new group,

Track listing

All tracks

traditional A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestratio ...

David Gedge David Lewis Gedge (born 23 April 1960, in Bramley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) is an English musician and songwriter. Gedge's lyrics explore themes such as romantic love and heartbreak. According to Michael Sutton of ''AllMusic'', his ly ...

, except as noted.

Original release

Re-release

Personnel

;The Wedding Present *

–

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

;

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

on "Hopak" *

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

, backing vocals * Keith Gregory –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Shaun Charman –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(3–4, 6–8, 12) * Simon Smith – drums (1–2, 5, 9–11, 13) ;Additional musicians * Len Liggins –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

balalaika The balalaika (, ) is a Russian string instrument, stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck, and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perf ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(1–11, 13) * Roman Remeynes – vocals, mandolin (1–2, 5, 9–11, 13) ;Technical staff *

Dale Griffin Terence Dale "Buffin" Griffin (24 October 1948 – 17 January 2016) was an English drummer and a founding member of 1970s rock band Mott the Hoople. Later, he worked as a producer, and produced many of the BBC Radio 1 John Peel sessions from ...

– producer * Mike Engels –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

(12) * Miti Adhikari – engineer (12) * Mike Robinson – engineer (1–11, 13) * Fred Kay – engineer (3–4, 6–8)

Sources

* Peter Solowka, liner notes to the original release and updated version for the Fresh Ear re-release * Mark Hodkinson, ''Thank Yer, Very Glad'', 1990 ()

External links

Scopitones, home of The Wedding Present

The Ukrainians
{{Authority control The Wedding Present albums Peel Sessions recordings 1989 live albums 1989 compilation albums RCA Records compilation albums RCA Records live albums