7 March 2026, Mono Cafe
The Cathode Ray
There have only been a couple of times during our two-and-a-bit years of the #AtoZMusicalTour when support act has been the primary reason for getting tickets to see them play live. In the recent past, F.O.Machete filled that role. However, on this Saturday night all thoughts turned to The Cathode Ray.
Why? A couple of great albums that had been added to the vinyl collection over the past year allied to a fantastic set when they themselves were headliners last year at Nice’N’Sleazy’s.
As they took to the stage there was a look of urgency about the set to come. Support acts don’t have the luxury of taking their time to perform their songs and it was again to the band’s credit that they managed to play 10 songs that covered their twenty-year career.
There is nothing overly flamboyant about any of the band member’s contribution to the sound they make. David Mack on drums works with bass player Sean Allison to create a tight rhythm section that allows both Phil Biggs on lead guitar to shine with rhythm guitarist and vocalist Jeremy Toms delivering a fine vocal performance. The front man is once again on top form, keeping the between song banter to a minimum while still finding some time to recognise the appreciation of the crowd watching.
From the opening bars of No Uncertain Times through to Another World via Don’t Waste Your Words, the set highlighted everything that is meaningful about the work of the band.
Mono may not be the biggest venue the band have played. There has, hopefully, been times when the numbers watching were significantly greater than on this particular night.
Irrespective, the band, and Jeremy more so given the lead role he has, delivered everything that could have been expected. A professional performance with great songs to boot.
The Monochrome Set
And so, to the headliners. It’s 1985 and they release The Lost Weekend. Give or take a few weeks, the band are on tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album playing in chronological order each track as it appeared on the original pressing.
For a band with 549 gigs under their belt before stepping on stage, they are experienced enough to release that a few warmup songs that encapsulate their whole career would go down well with the audience.
And Gig Night Act 1 kicked off with The Lighter Side of Dating taken from their debut album Strange Boutique in 1980 followed by seven other tracks that ended with Love Goes Down The Drain from the same debut release.
Before Act 2, some recuperation, or a fag break, was called for before returning to play the anniversary album in its entirety.
Act 3 saw the band return for a three-track encore that again kept to the earlier period of their career and while the crowd requested one more song it was left to Bid (Ganesh Seshadri) to remain centre stage for Act 4, with the band having seemingly deserted him to give a passionate rendition of Goodbye Joe.
And on that note, we left to consider what we had witnessed. The Monochrome Set With Bid on vocals, Andy Warren on bass and James ‘Foz’ Foster on lead guitar, allied to Dave Morgan on drums were a formidable partnership on the night.
There were seemingly mistakes as Bid was seen to shake his head after several songs, Andy Warren had the air of a man who had seen it, done it, wore the T-shirt etc at lest 549 time previously and Foz Foster was astute with his lead guitar work. Not to forget relative newcomer Dave who kept the rhythm going with the odd reminder of who was to start each song. Was it an act? Was it nerves, hardly after all this time? Was it purely showmanship?
We may never know. What we do know is that there was a genuine warmth from the crowd to the band throughout the set and they repaid it in kind. The entire set seemed to fly by in no time at all, and although playing an entire album can be a musical challenge, The Lost Weekend gave everyone a chance to shine on stage and enjoy from the floor.
We went to see The Cathode Ray and they more than met our expectations, but we also came away with a newfound respect for The Monochrome Set and for that we thank them all.
