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The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (more often the Bonzo Dog Band or to fans simply the Bonzos) were the brainchild of a 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.

The band's foundation

Unusually for a band, the actual date of conception for the Bonzos is known to us: September 25th, 1962. It was on that day that Vivian Stanshall (tuba, but later lead vocals along with other wind instruments) and fellow art student Rodney Slater (saxophone) bonded over a transatlantic broadcast of a boxing match between Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston.

Rodney Slater had previously been playing in a trad jazz band at college with Chris Jennings (trombone) and Tom Parkinson (sousaphone). Eventually they recruited Roger Wilkes (trumpet) and Trevor Brown (banjo) from the Royal College of Art as they slowly turned their style from more orthodox music towards the sound of the Alberts and the Temperance Seven. Vivian was their next recruit and on that fateful day in 1962, he and Rodney christened the band, The Bonzo Dog Dada Band -- Bonzo the dog after a popular British character created by artist George Studdy in the 1920s and Dada after the early 20th Century art movement.

Not long after Vivian, Rodney and Tom were evicted from their shared flat, the band added two more faces to the line-up, Goldsmiths College lecturer Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell and his lodger, songwriter/pianist, Neil Innes. According to www.neilinnes.org, "Bohay-Nowell" was added to Vernon Dudley's name by Vivian Stanshall.

The band had been working with drummer Tom Hedges before Rodney found Martin Ash, who later took the stage name of Sam Spoons and shortly afterwards got them their first pub gig, where they were noticed by Roger Ruskin Spear.

Ruskin Spear, who was the son of the British artist Ruskin Spear claimed, "I couldn't believe anyone was that bad." He eventually changed his mind and, with his interest in the manufacture of early electronic gadgets/objets d'art and sound-making systems soon became an integral part of the band.

The line-up changed once again with the departure of Roger Wilkes, whose girlfriend demanded his resignation, and John Parry, the trombonist. The two were replaced by, respectively, Bob Kerr and "Big" Sid Nichols. The final 'classic' band member, "Legs" Larry Smith (their number one fan) joined in 1963, as a tuba player and tap-dancer (but later as a drummer), on Vivian's invitation.

The band's fortunes began to increase when their manager, Reg Tracey secured them a deal with Parlophone Records in April 1966. Their first single, a cover of the 1920s 'classic', My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies was backed with I'm Going To Bring A Watermelon To My Girl Tonight which was rather too risque for radio.

A second single, Alley Oop, backed with Button Up Your Overcoat followed in October of that year.

A move from jazz to rock

Although the Bonzos had started out playing jazz, they decided to embrace rock in order to counter claims that they were beginning to sound like the Temperance Seven and The New Vaudeville Band. (In fact a former member, Bob Kerr, joined The New Vaudeville Band and went on to create his own band Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band which combined the lunacy of the early Bonzo sound with music having a great deal in common with the Temperance Seven).

As the band's fame increased, they appeared as the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's show notable for having several future members of Monty Python's Flying Circus (Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin) and David Jason in the cast.

Their first album Gorilla included Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold which savagely parodied their early 'trad' jazz roots and featured some of the most deliberately inept jazz playing ever recorded. The Intro and the Outro in which every member of the band introduced and played a solo, 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.
Hi, Vivian Stanshall, trumpet.

before including such improbable members as:

Big hello to big John Wayne, xylophone
Looking very relaxed Adolf Hitler on vibes
Eric Clapton on ukulele was actually Clapton playing,
Yeah! Digging General de Gaulle on accordion.
Really wild, General! Thank you, sir.
Roy Rogers on Trigger of flowing liquid.
We welcome Val Doonican as himself. voice repeats "Hello there".

Much later, Stanshall was to provide an introduction on Mike Oldfield's first instrumental album, Tubular Bells, which echoed the style of The Intro, but without the blatant absurdities.

Urban Spaceman et al.

They had a hit single in 1968 with I'm the Urban Spaceman which was produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth". The Beatles were great fans of the group and they featured them performing the song Death Cab for Cutie in their film Magical Mystery Tour. Their anarchic song Trouser Press — featuring a solo by Roger Ruskin Spear on a genuine trouser press he had fitted with a pickup — gave its name to an American anglophiliac rock magazine Trouser Press. Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? lampooned the British blues boom, and tap dancer/drummer "Legs" Larry Smith was an onstage hit with his lubricous dancing. Many of their songs parodied parochial suburban British attitudes, notably My Pink Half of the Drainpipe on the album The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (a euphemism for a toilet built in a back garden).

In 1969 they released the album Keynsham (1969) and also appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival.

The Bonzos toured the United States with The Who and also appeared at the Fillmore East with The Kinks. Intro'd as a "warm-up act" for the real show, the Bonzos rushed out and did a series of frenetic calisthenics. True to the dada spirit, Stanshall performed a mock striptease and Roger Ruskin Spear, with a platoon of robots (including one that sang I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles while actually blowing bubbles), did whatever he did without regard for what the rest of the band was doing. As for The Canyons of Your Mind, it featured such an incredibly bad guitar solo it drove audiences to open-mouthed delight. Before long, many larger bands would not play with Bonzo support because no one wanted to see the Bonzos leave the stage, which meant no one wanted to see the top-of-the-bill arrive on the stage.

One of the Bonzos' song titles, Cool Britannia, was revived as a media label for late 1990s Britain under Tony Blair (oblivious to the patently satirical intent of the original song).

The band's line-up

The line-up varied, sometimes on a weekly basis and a list (although incomplete) of members would include: Vivian Stanshall on trumpet, "Happy" Wally Wilks, Tom Parkinson, Chris Jennings, Claude Abbo, Trevor Brown, Tom Hedge, Rodney "Rhino" Desborough Slater on saxophone, Eric Idle, Neil Innes on piano and guitar, Roger Ruskin Spear on tenor sax, Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell on electric guitar, Eric Clapton on ukulele, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Martin "Sam Spoons" Ash on the rhythm pole, Leon Williams, John Parry, Raymond Lewitt, Sydney "Big Sid" Nicholls, "Legs" Larry Smith on drums, James "Jim Strobes" Chambers, Bob Kerr, Dave Clague, Joel Druckman, "Borneo" Fred Munt, Chalky Chalkey, Dennis Cowan, Aynsley Dunbar on drums, Jim Capaldi on drums, Anthony 'Bubs' White on guitar, Andy Roberts, Dave Richards, Dick Parry, Hughie Flint and Glen Colson. Michael Palin provided the nonsensical narration on Follow Mr Apollo.

"Legs" Larry Smith toured with Clapton and Elton John and can be heard tap dancing on John's I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself.

January 2006 reunion: Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band Revisited

On Saturday, January 28 2006 many surviving members of the band reformed and played a concert at the Astoria, London. Neil Innes, "Legs" Larry Smith, Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater, Bob Kerr, Sam Spoons and Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell appeared. There was also a number of special guests, including; Stephen Fry, Ade Edmondson, Phill Jupitus and Paul Merton. Their trademark stage antics were very much in evidence including performances on the Theremin Leg and Trouser Press. Tickets for the event sold out swiftly. The show was filmed and was broadcast on BBC4 and also released on DVD in May 2006.

Tour dates have now been released, they are visiting most of the country, starting in Ipswich and ending at Shepherds Bush Empire. Full details are listed at www.bonzodog.co.uk *

Discography

Studio albums

  • Note: The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse was released as Urban Spaceman in the US.

Singles

Compilations and miscellaneous

See also

External links

English musical groups | Comedy musicians | The Beatles films | Peel Sessions artists

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band".

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