They came, they saw, they corrupted. A ramshackle ensemble of art-schoolers, poets and graduates brought together through a mutual love of music hall, trad jazz, raspberries, piggy banks, turkeys, scurfs, camels, drainpipes, trouser presses, parrots and psychedelic rock, the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band toppled out of our sixties TV sets like a troupe of Salvidor Dali clowns in the same breath as Monty Python and the Do Not Adjust Your Set Television Show. These were the ones who were not the Scaffold, the ones The Beatles featured singing ‘Death Cab For Cutie’ in the band’s ridiculously well received Magical Mystery Tour Boxing Day TV Show, the chaps that had their only credible ‘hit’ produced by Fab Macca McCartney in the days when he was indeed still Fab. They didn’t have much in the way of mainstream success, but by way of consolation they were able to come up with titles as magic and unlikely as, ‘The Equestrian Statue’, ‘Music For The Head Ballet’, ‘The Craig Torso Show’, ‘I’m Going To Bring A Watermelon To My Girl Tonight’, ‘Alley Oop’ and ‘I Love To Bumpity Bump’. Vivian Stanshall played trumpet and di vocals, Neil Innes did piano, guitar and vocals, Rodney "Rhino" Desborough Slater did saxophone, Roger Ruskin Spear did tenor sax and various other things and "Legs" Larry Smith did drums - a gratuitous but compelling experiment in psychedelic vaudeville with a delicious Dada underside that eventually gave life to Oasis’s ‘Whatever’ single, the Beeb’s ‘Innes Book Of Records’ and The Rutles. They toured with The Kinks and the Who in the sixties. Now who’d have thought that. With and without the ‘Doo Dah’ they really were that important. EMI Reissues (with bonus tracks, BBC Recordings and extended general malarkey) - all worthy of your attention of course Gorilla (Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) – 1967
The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse (Bonzo Dog Band) – 1968
Tadpoles (Bonzo Dog Band) - 1969
Keynsham (Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) - 1969
Let's Make Up And Be Friendly (Bonzo Dog Band) – 1972 Relevant sites:
www.bonzodog.co.uk
Alan Sargeant for Crud Magazine 2006© |
