Richard Rutter

The most fabulous and surreal thing happened to me on the day before Christmas Eve of 2004. A week previously I went to the Scopitones site and ordered the new single (the first for seven years) from my favourite band, The Wedding Present. On the evening in question there was a knock at the door. ‘Here’s your Wedding Present CDs,’ a smiling woman said, handing me a package. Wow, I thought, that’s service for you. And then in the dark behind her, I noticed a familiar face. ‘Oh hello,’ I spluttered. ‘I don’t supposed you fancy signing these while you’re here?’ It was none other than David Gedge himself, lead singer of the band.

And so in they came while I scrabbled around for a pen. ‘We were just passing, so we thought we’d drop this around.’ Fantastic, in the true sense of the word. There I was in my own home, chatting about Brighton and curry and gigging with one of my all time musical heroes. And I have to say, to his credit, Gedge was utterly charming and genuine, and there simply to put smile on a fan’s face. And in the spirit of the season, he had more deliveries to make after mine.

We work together at Clearleft.