Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (more often the Bonzo Dog Band) was the brainchild of the British art-school set of the 1960s. Part jazz band, part psychedelic rockers, the Bonzos came to the attention of a broader British public through a children's television programme, Do Not Adjust Your Set. In the spirit of their origins, they were originally called The Bonzo Dog Dada Band. Bonzo and his dog was a British comic strip of the 1920s.

The band was founded by two dada enthusiasts, Rodney Slater and Roger Ruskin Spear (a descendant of Victorian literary giant John Ruskin). Also from art school came the two main songwriters in the group, Neil Innes piano/guitar and Vivian Stanshall, trumpet and vocals. Others from art school included "Legs" Larry Smith, drummer, dancer and chanteuse and others listed in "The Intro and the Outro" below.

Although they started out playing jazz, such as "Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold", they changed their style of music from jazz to rock in order to counter claims that they were beginning to sound like the Temperance Seven[?]. In fact, a former member, Bob Kerr[?] went on to create a band Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band which combined the lunacy of early Bonzo music with music which did in fact have a great deal in common with the Temperance Seven[?].

They appeared on Do Not Adjust your Set, a children's show notable for having several future members of Monty Python's Flying Circus and David Jason in the cast.

Their first album Gorilla included "The Intro and the Outro" in which every member of the band was introduced and played a solo. The song started with genuine band members:

Hi there, nice to be with you, happy you could stick around.

Like to introduce "Legs" Larry Smith, drums

And Sam Spoons, rhythm pole

And Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, bass guitar

And Neil Innes, piano.

Come in Rodney Slater on the saxophone

With Roger Ruskin Spear on tenor sax.

I, Vivian Stanshall, trumpet.

before including such improbable members as:

Say hello to big John Wayne, xylophone

Looking very relaxed Adolf Hitler on vibes

Eric Clapton on ukulele (and so it was),

Yeah! Digging General de Gaulle on accordion.

Rather wild, General! Thank you, sir.

Roy Rogers on Trigger (sound of flowing liquid).

They had a minor hit single in 1967 with "I'm the Urban Spaceman" which was produced by Paul McCartney under the name of Apollo C. Vermouth. They performed the song "Death Cab for Cutie" in The Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour. Their anarchic song "Trouser Press" with a solo on a genuine trouser press with a pickup gave its name to an American anglophiliac rock magazine. "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?" put the needle to the British blues boom and tap dancer/drummer "Legs" Larry Smith was an onstage hit with his lubricous dancing. Another notable number, "Humanoid Boogie" clearly presaged rap music. See roots of rap music.

The band appeared at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival[?].

The Bonzos toured the United States with The Who and also appeared at the Fillmore East[?] with The Kinks. Their stage show was true to the dada spirit, with Stanshall doing a mock striptease and Ruskin Spear with a platoon of robots, including one that sang "I'm forever blowing bubbles" while actually blowing bubbles. "The Canyons of Your Mind" features the worst guitar solo ever recorded.

Neil Innes went on to create the Beatles parody band The Rutles (the "prefab four") with Pythonite Eric Idle, and is an accomplished song-writer and occasional radio performer. Ruskin Spear continued as a performance artist with his robots in a show called Kinetic Wardrobe. Stanshall appeared on Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. "Legs" Larry Smith toured with Clapton and Elton John and can be heard tap dancing on John's "Teenage Suicide".

One of the Bonzos' song titles, "Cool Britannia", was revived as a label for a supposed trend in the UK media following the 1997 election of a Labour government. This alleged trend was seen by many to be a symptom of political spin, possibly intended to boost tourist trips to the UK.

Their line-up varied, sometimes on a weekly basis and a list (although incomplete) of members would include: Vivian Stanshall, "Happy" Wally Wilks, Tom Parkinson, Chris Jennings, Claude Abbo, Trevor Brown, Tom Hedge, Rodney Slater, Neil Innes, Roger Ruskin Spear[?], Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, Sam Spoons (Martin Ash), Leon Williams, John Parry, Raymond Lewitt, Big Sid (Sydney Nicholls), "Legs" Larry Smith, Jim Strobes (James Chambers), Bob Kerr[?], Dave Clague, Joel Druckman, "Borneo" Fred Munt, Chalky Chalkey, Dennis Cowan, Aynsley Dunbar[?], Jim Capaldi[?], Anthony `Bubs' White, Andy Roberts, Dave Richards, Dick Parry, Hughie Flint and Glen Colson.

Discography

• Gorilla
• The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse (a euphemism for a toilet built in a back garden)
• Tadpoles
• Keynsham
• The Beast Of The Bonzos
• Unpeeled
• The Peel Sessions
• Cornology
• Let's make up and be friendly

See also: The Alberts[?]