We are very proud to announce that our first Retro Man Blog Night of the year at
The Half Moon Putney will feature
The Monochrome Set with special guests
The Fallen Leaves. This will be on Saturday May 24th from 8pm with advance tickets at only £12.50 and tickets on the door at £14.50. The Monochrome Set are one of the most enduring bands to have emerged from the early Punk days, here is a bit of background of how it all started. Primordial soup: Andy Warren and Bid went to school together, Lester
Square and Adam Ant both attended Hornsey School of Art. The latter two
formed a band called "The B-Sides", which Andy joined sometime in 1976.
Bid also joined a couple of months later, and Adam left shortly after.
Lester, Andy and Bid occasionally continued to write and rehearse
together (it was around this time that some of the
songs later to be used by The Monochrome Set were written, e.g.,
Goodbye Joe, He's Frank, Puerto-Rican Fence Climber, Lester Leaps In),
until Adam formed The Ants with Lester and Andy.
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| The Monochrome Set at Bush Hall 2013 - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
Whilst Andy continued
on with Adam to record the first Ants album, Lester left The Ants in
1977, to form, firstly The Zarbies & The Ectomorphs with Bid and
Jeremy Harrington, and then The Monochrome Set with Bid (Jeremy joined
later). To quote the Asahi Evening News, 1993: "When B-Sides singer
Adam Ant quit the band for an ill-fated solo career, The Monochrome Set
was born." The Monochrome Set are probably one of the most quintessentially "Independent" bands, totally unique, they have endured all kinds of fads and fashions along the way and, as proven with their latest album "Super Plastic City, are currently producing some of their best ever work. Along the way they have inspired countless Indie guitar bands and acts as diverse as Franz Ferdinand and Fatboy Slim and been covered by Iggy Pop. Expect to hear tracks from the new album along with a selection of classics from their hugely impressive back catalogue.
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| The Monochrome Set Dingwalls 2012 - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
The Fallen Leaves have a similar pedigree, guitarist Rob Symmons was in the Subway Sect along with Vic Godard and was responsible for those scathing guitar riffs on early Punk classics such as "Nobody's Scared" and "Ambition". One of the very first bands on the scene, they shared rehearsal space and a manager with The Clash. Fallen Leaves vocalist Rob Green also appeared in a latter incarnation of Subway Sect, bassist Matthew Karas can also be found is Glassglue and drummer William Lewington in The Band of Holy Joy. The band have a regular club night "Minimum R'n'B" at the 12 Bar Club in London on the first Wednesday of every month. You can listen to the Fallen Leaves' fascinating history, which takes in those very early Punk days with characters and bands such as Bernie Rhodes, Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Malcolm McLaren, Billy Childish and The Downliners Sect. The two episodes are generously sound-tracked with many Fallen Leaves songs and a pick of the band's favourite tracks. Here's episode 1 "Punk Rock for Gentlemen".
The Half Moon is at 93 Lower Richmond Road, London SW15 1EU and you can pre-order tickets here or call the venue directly on 0208 780 9383. Doors open at 8pm.
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