Four-CD box including all five of their albums and various non-LP singles, rarities, and solo efforts. Of most interest to anyone who's enough of a Bonzo nut to invest in this, naturally, are the rare items, which comprise about half of the third disc (which also includes the Let's Make Up and Be Friendly album). There are the two 1966 singles for Parlophone, predating their first album, which find them at their most 1920s vaudevillian-influenced (even on the cover of "Alley Oop"). "Mr. Apollo" appears in its German version (which actually isn't German, except for a spoken passage by Vivian Stanshall), and its non-LP B-side, "Ready Mades," is a gentle folky tune that sounds like a Keynsham outtake. There's also one early solo item apiece from Vivian Stanshall (his 1970 single "Labio-Dental Fricative," on which Eric Clapton plays), Neil Innes (his 1974 single "Re-Cycled Vinyl Blues"), and Roger Ruskin Spear's "Trouser Freak" (from his 1971 EP). As an extra incentive, there are also lengthy historical liner notes. For all its length, however, it doesn't have everything by the Bonzos: BBC sessions are on Unpeeled, outtakes and rehearsals on Anthropology, and the 1966 outtake "On Her Doorstep Last Night" is on the By Jingo It's... British Rubbish compilation. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
