Friday 14 December 2012

Version City #3 - Toquiwa

I'm forever banging on about how a good cover version should take the song somewhere new and different, and that there's no point in a carbon copy of the original. Well forget all that for the next three minutes, because this is about as straight forward as cover versions get - and it's bloody marvelous!

Japanese band Toquiwa take on The Wedding Present's 1989 stone-cold classic 'Kennedy' as if it's theirs by right and, if you're not grinning like a Cheshire cat by the end of it, take a look on You Tube at some of the audience shot footage of the band playing the song live on stage - talk about infectious!

Toquiwa were spotted by David Gedge in Tokyo and invited to support The Wedding Present on their European and North American tours, he's also signed the band to his own Scopitones label. There's a man who knows a good cover when he hears it!


3 comments:

Old Pa's Corner said...

Another new one to me...good cover but not quite up to the WP take.

Anonymous said...

Not being previously acquainted with either version, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. For some reason, I missed out on The Wedding Present completely. I must have been distracted when they were at their peak (was that the mid 80's?). It was good to hear some thrashing guitars. Nice Japanese take. What is it about the Japanese and their rather surprising tastes?

The Swede said...

The first three Wedding Present albums were great and they made a fine racket in concert at the time too. The band have been off my radar for many years, but I've thoroughly enjoyed re-visiting them after hearing Toquiwa.

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