INDIE rock icon David Gedge is a bit worried – 25 years after he formed the band, The Wedding Present are finally playing Bournemouth for the first time, on Friday (November 19) at the O2 Academy.

“We’ve never played there and I’m a bit concerned – it looks a bit of a big place and our fans from there are used to going to Southampton or Portsmouth,” says the perennially chipper native of Leeds who now lives in Eastbourne.

Don’t worry, I tell him, it’s not all old folks with blues rinses.

“No, they’re probably our fans now anyway,” he laughs.

The Wedding Present are an indie institution from the days when the word actually referred to an artist’s independence not their musical style. Formed in the grim North in the bleak mid-80s, they honed a brand of fast-paced, melodic new wave guitar pop song that defined the era. Their 1987 debut album, George Best, was self-released, in a spirit of such independence it was almost a political act.

After sidestepping into Bulgarian folk music, the follow-up album Bizarro arrived in 1989 and now Gedge is gathering his merry band to go on tour to play the whole thing live.

“It seems to be what bands are doing these days, but to be honest I wasn’t all that into it at first. It started three years ago when our then label asked us if they could do a 20th anniversary reissue of George Best and if we’d go out and play it live. And I said no, I wasn’t interested.

“Then everyone I spoke to – the band, musicians, mates, fans – to a man, or woman, said that would be great, they’d really like to see us do it, so I went along with it not expecting too much and I could see how much people enjoyed it. I have to say it changed my mind.

“I mean, it’s a slightly surreal thing, revisiting yourself 21 years ago and trying to forget what you’ve learned in the meantime. We are still a current band and I’ve always been about looking forward and thinking about the next thing, but it has also made me realise that we have a history and that it’s good sometimes to go back and address that.”

At least the band’s albums can stand being played live from start to finish. They’re hardly rock classicists, but The Wedding Present have always harboured good old-fashioned qualities like strong melodies, a decent hook and plenty of light and shade.

“I always thought Bizarro was a better album than George Best, so we had to do this one. It ebbs and flows, there are peaks and troughs and it has a defined beginning, middle and end, it’s a proper album. It’s strange how old-fashioned that sounds.

“We had a meeting about our next album the other day and we were asking if the album as we know it will even be around when it comes out.

“We’re lucky in that our fans are old enough to want to buy CDs and not just have a collection of tracks on their iPods, even vinyl. But then some companies in the States aren’t even making CDs any more because there are no shops left to buy them in, so I suppose it’s downloads and online sales only in future.

“I’m just off to Eastbourne in a minute to pick up a box of 50 copies of George Best that an Italian company has just pressed up in new, virgin, heavy-gauge vinyl. They’ll be lovely.”

That’s funny, I was going to ask how a band like The Wedding Present responds to the sea change in the way we get our music. Now I know.

“Yeh, it’s just like the old days, we do it ourselves – except these pressings will be about 20 quid a go, rather than a couple of quid for a cassette or home-pressed 7-inch!”