Wedding Present frontman David Gedge has admitted he's loving taking a trip down memory lane - despite expecting to hate it.

The evergreen Leeds indie outfit have revisited some of their classic albums in recent years and will headline Glasgow's O2 ABC on Friday night to play their Hit Parade collection of singles from the early 90s.

Yet looking to the past initially filled the singer with horror.

"It's surprised me how much I've enjoyed it," he says.

"When the idea was first suggested in 2007, it was our old record label's idea, as they wanted to do a 20th anniversary re-release of George Best [the band's 1987 debut]. They asked me if I'd be interested in playing it in full, live and I said 'definitely not'.

"I was thinking about the next album, rather than nostalgia. Then everyone I spoke to said 'aww, you've got to do it live'.

"Reluctantly I did it, and found it really interesting - it was like looking at an old diary - 20 years later you've changed as a person and obviously the songs are quite personal, so it's a bit surreal.

"At the risk of sounding pretentious, maybe the past is as important as the future for the Wedding Present, and there's no reason why they can't co-exist."

Since then the band, of whom David's the only remaining original member, have rolled through albums Bizarro and Seamonsters, records that secured the group a place as indie royalty of the time, favourites of John Peel and hailed by some devotees as even better than the Smiths.

Now they're re-visiting the Hit Parade period, a creative hot streak that saw the band release 12 singles in as many months. Each track charted in the Top 30, resulting in the band being tied with Elvis Presley for having most Top 30 hits in a single year.

It's a period David recalls fondly.

"I really loved that whole series, doing the b-sides, the videos and it was a hectic period," he adds.

"There was a lot to fit in, but that was part of the charm, to have this deadline. It was like doing a magazine, having a certain deadline to reach. It's a weird feeling, having that pressure. It's nice to work on something until you're happy with it, but then you're never happy with it, and that's why bands disappear for five years before an album comes out.

"We'd do Peel sessions and in one day we'd record four songs, and some people say those songs sound better than the proper versions."

While the band will be revisiting older songs, the singer isn't happy to strictly recreate them, and is always interested in altering them for, he hopes, the better.

You learn to do things better, and on all the tours the songs have sounded better than the originals," he says.

"That's probably because I've got better musicians now, better equipment and just more experience. The bottom line is I'm trying to improve them without losing what made them good in the first place.

"I've seen some people, like Lou Reed, who'll do an old Velvet Underground song and plaster it with a guitar solo or some really terrible session musician type stuff and I really don't want to do that to my work. I want to keep the spirit of the originals."

He hasn't purely become hooked on nostalgia, though. This tour will see the band releasing a new single, Two Bridges, that was recorded in one day, while he hopes to write enough new material to release a new album next year.

He's also a big fan of trips to Glasgow, where the band have played many times.

"You get places where people just want to stand and watch, somewhere like Glasgow people are more into it," he adds.

"Bands thrive on that, it can be a bit soul-destroying when you put 100% in and are faced with people just watching you. In Glasgow you get something back and that fires you on."

It's not just music David's involved with. For the past few years he's occasionally released a Wedding Present comic book, telling stories from the band's history.

A long-time comic book fan, who's frequently dropped in comic references in his songs and takes time during the interview to enthuse about a James Bond compilation he's reading, it was a natural format for him to choose.

"I've always been interested in graphic novel," he says.

"Secondly, I'm not sure I'm either famous enough or qualified as a writer to do an autobiography, I'm not sure anyone would be interested. Whereas a comic means I can do little bits of Wedding Present history as I go along and shape it into a little story.

"I think avoiding that self-importance is important for the band. I'm just flattered people like us, really. It's always something I'm grateful for."

n The Wedding Present, O2 ABC, Friday, £16, 7pm