Westminster Affair
While they released very little on the label, The Monochrome Set were central to él Records’ world. Having worked with them on Cherry Red and Blanco Y Negro, Mike Alway was infatuated with the group, and their wry 60s-influenced pop set the template for much of what Alway would put on his next label. Monochrome Set members contributed to and wrote material for él recordings such as The Would-Be-Good’s The Camera Loves Me, and drummer Nick Wesolowski took many of the photographs that defined the label’s visual aesthetic. However, chief songwriter Bid was too strong willed to bend to someone else’s artistic vision as was often required with Alway and él (see also Lawrence from Felt, who would release one LP on él, 1989’s Me and a Monkey on the Moon). Presented as the soundtrack to a film that didn’t actually exist, Westminster Affair was in fact a compilation of songs largely already available elsewhere. Regardless, the selection is superb, with tracks like “The Jet Set Junta” feeling like they should have been recorded for él, even if they actually weren’t.