Monochrome Set: Monochrome Set 1979 1985 Complete Recordings

6LP boxset edition. Includes CD versions of each album; Edition of 700. Emerging at the end of punk era, The Monochrome Set's estrangement from society came from a more arty angle. This boxset is the full account of their frantically productive early period, the perfect document of an under-appreciated chapter of British pop history. Though widely unknown, they are one of the most influential British bands of the last 40 years, with the early Morrissey and Marr, Blur's Graham Coxon, and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos among their admirers. Though Ganesh Seshadri, aka Bid, never went to college, The Monochrome Set are often seen as an archetypal art school band. In 1979 they released a string of snappy, now highly collectible singles on Rough Trade, followed by early masterpieces Strange Boutique (1980) and Love Zombies (1980). In 1982 they released their third LP Eligible Bachelors on Cherry Red Records. Their major label effort The Lost Weekend (1985) contained their biggest hit "Jacob's Ladder"."... The early Monochrome Set sound betrayed a fondness of Lou Reed and American psychedelia, and though they shared their generation's sense of estrangement, they certainly weren't part of the punk revolution.... [the Hornsey School of Art] was where lead guitarist Tom Hardy, later to be known as Lester Square, studied with a certain Stuart Goddard aka Adam Ant... The Monochrome Set's lack of breakthrough success is usually attributed to their inability to churn out the hits, but in hindsight their now highly collectible first four seven inches for the Rough Trade label, united here on one disc with all the singles from the early eighties period, prove that they started out as bona fide masters of pop's ultimate format. Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique, featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song and the Johnny Marr-anticipating 'Love Goes Down The Drain', caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies. 1982 saw them move to Cherry Red Records on their third LP Eligible Bachelors, with the catchy lead single "The Jet Set Junta" promptly banned because of it's non-existent connection to the Falklands War.... After a financially disastrous American tour, the band were resigned to taking the major label shilling with The Lost Weekend (1985), scoring their biggest airplay hit with 'Jacob's Ladder'..." -Robert Rotifer, Canterbury 2017

1. Strange Boutique (1980):The Monochrome Set (I Presume)
2. The Lighter Side of Dating
3. Expresso
4. The Puerto Rican Fence Climber
5. Tomorrow Will Be Too Long
6. Martians Go Home
7. Love Goes Down the Drain
8. Ici Les Enfants
9. The Etcetera Stroll
10. Goodbye Joe
11. The Strange Boutique
12. Love Zombies (1980): Love Zombies
13. Adeste Fideles
14. 405 Lines
15. B-I-D Spells Bid
16. R.S.V.P
17. Apocalypso
18. Karma Suture
19. The Man with the Black Moustache
20. The Weird Wild and Wonderful World of Tony Potts
21. In Love Cancer?
22. Eligible Bachelors (1982): The Jet Set Junta
23. I'll Scry Instead
24. On the 13th Day
25. Cloud 10
26. The Mating Game
27. March of the Eligible Bachelors
28. The Devil Rides Out
29. Fun for All the Family
30. The Midas Touch
31. The Ruling Class
32. Great Barrier Riff
33. The Lost Weekend (1985): Jacob's Ladder
34. Sugarplum
35. Cargo
36. Take Foz
37. Letter from Viola
38. Don't Touch
39. The Twitch
40. Wallflower
41. Starry Nowhere
42. Boom Boom
43. Cowboy Country
44. Singles I: He's Frank
45. Alphaville
46. Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
47. Lester Leaps in
48. The Monochrome Set
49. Mr. Bizarro
50. He's Frank (Slight Return)
51. Silicon Carne
52. Fallout
53. Surfing S.W.12
54. 405 Lines
55. Fiasco Bongo
56. Singles II:Ten Don'ts for Honeymooners
57. Straits of Malacca
58. J.D.H.A.N.E.Y
59. Cast a Long Shadow
60. The Bridge
61. The Jet Set Junta
62. Love Goes Down the Drain
63. Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)
64. Andiamo
65. Le Boom Boom
66. Yo Ho Ho (And Three Bottles of Rum)
67. Big Ben Bongo
68. Wallflower (Saloon Bar Mix)

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