The Bolshoi - 5 Albums [5CD Remastered Box Set] (2015)

THE BOLSHOI 5 CD Box-Set of the complete recordings of Beggars Banquet's The Bolshoi. The package include a plethora of additional unreleased demos, rare B-Sides, and live recordings interwoven across: the debut EP Giants, THREE full-length albums: Friends, Lindy's Party, and the no-longer-lost, Country Life, and the 5th disc of various musical wonders, entitled, Voyage Of Peculiarities.

The Bolshoi were different. Fronted by the charismatic Trevor Tanner, their songs were dark and subversive, sufficient evidence for many critics to corral them under the ‘Gothic’ banner at the time of their debut mini-album, Giants (1985). The suburban surrealism of the lyrics was rooted in the stories from characters on the fringes of society rather than brooding romantics, with an undercurrent of boredom, inadequacy and violence. Not the usual themes for pop success! Based in London, the band consisted of Trevor Tanner (lead vocals, guitar), Nick Chown (bass), Jan Kalicki (drums) and Paul Clark (keyboards). With powerful live shows The Bolshoi built a substantial following before disbanding in 1988 after releasing two further albums, Friends (1986) and Lindy's Party (1987). It’s not quite the end of the story though.

A further 23 tracks were recorded as demos for a new album, provisionally entitled Country Life. Many of these only survived on reference cassettes but these have been digitally restored and 15 of them sequenced into the album that might-have-been. The remaining recordings are available on disc 5 of this set. Additionally the set contains earlier unreleased demos, rare B-sides and live recordings from a 1986 show - a generous 34 previously un-issued recordings along with the official albums.