In 2009, Matt Aston was watching the Wedding Present frontman David Gedge perform a “bizarre and brilliant” gig with the BBC Big Band when he was struck by a notion: that the combination of the singer’s conversational lyrics and brassy, orchestrated new arrangements felt a bit like, well, watching a musical.
“I parked the idea,” says Aston, a theatre director and writer. “Then some time later, I saw David’s other band Cinerama with a 16-piece orchestra and thought, ‘This could be musical theatre!’” Aston had had a few drinks and remembers sitting afterwards, trying to convince his mate – screenwriter and playwright William Ivory, who hadn’t been drinking – that this wasn’t the daftest idea ever. “Billy said, ‘You can’t make a musical out of Wedding Present lyrics. It’s not that kind of music.’” Aston laughs, aware that pop musicals tend to be vehicles for colourful, uber-mainstream acts such as Queen or Abba, not veteran indie rock bands. “But I said, ‘Oh yes you can.’”
