The Rutles were a rock band that performed visual and aural pastiches and parodies of the Beatles. This originally fictional band, created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes for a sketch in Idle's mid-1970s BBC television comedy series Rutland Weekend Television, later toured and recorded, releasing two studio albums and garnering two UK chart hits. The band toured again from 2002 until Innes' death in 2019.
Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for acting as Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells.
Neil James Innes was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland. He co-created the Rutles, a Beatles parody/pastiche project, with Python Eric Idle, and wrote the band's songs. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s ITV children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls.
GRIMMS were an English pop rock, comedy, and poetry group, originally formed as a merger of The Scaffold with two members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the Liverpool Scene for two concerts in 1971 at the suggestion of John Gorman.
Rodney Desborough Slater is a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, playing saxophones and other musical instruments.
Roger Ruskin Spear is an English sculptor, multimedia artist and multi-instrumentalist who was a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Spear is the son of the satirical artist and lecturer Ruskin Spear.
Philip "Pip" Williams, sometimes spelt Phillip, is an English record producer, arranger, and guitarist. He is best known for producing albums for Status Quo and The Moody Blues, but has also worked with a large number of well-known musicians. He has also supervised the orchestra parts and orchestra arrangements for the Finnish metal band Nightwish.
Gorilla is the debut album by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, originally released by Liberty Records, LBL 83056, in 1967. In 2007, EMI reissued the album on CD with seven bonus tracks.
Keynsham is the fourth album by the Bonzo Dog Band. It was released in 1969 on Liberty Records.
Puncture were an early English punk rock group. Founded in the summer of 1976, this Islington, London based, four-piece combo consisted of Paul McCallum (guitar/vocals), Steve Counsel (bass/vocals), Jak Stafford (guitar/vocals) and "The Fabulous" Marty Truss (drums). Their influences ranged from early The Who, The Kinks, Small Faces, to Roxy Music, David Bowie, blues, rhythm and blues, and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Robert Kerr is a comic musician who plays trumpet and cornet. He was originally a member of Spencer's Washboard Kings in 1965 and during 1966 he was a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. In September 1966, he was persuaded by Geoff Stephens to join The New Vaudeville Band, before forming his own combo, Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. Kerr was a part of a reunited Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band line-up of surviving members, which toured in 2006 and 2008.
Larry Smith, often known as "Legs" Larry Smith is an English drummer of the satirical comedy jazz group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Bill Posters Will Be Band was a comic musical group formed by musicians who were members of The Bonzo Dog Band and Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. The band was formed late 1983 by Biff Harrison, Jim "Golden Boots" Chambers, Evil John Gieves Watson, Sam Spoons, Hugh Crozier and Dave Clennel.
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, released in 1978, is a largely spoken-word, solo comedy recording by British musician Vivian Stanshall, formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It originated in his Rawlinson End sessions for the John Peel Show on BBC Radio 1 beginning in 1975, and a similarly-named track on the Bonzo Dog Band's 1972 album Let's Make Up and Be Friendly.
Pour l'Amour Des Chiens is the first all new studio album by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in 35 years, and their sixth album overall. It was released on 12 December 2007, produced by Mickey Simmonds and Neil Innes, by Storming Music Company.
"I'm the Urban Spaceman" was the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's most successful single, released in 1968. It reached #5 in the UK charts. The song was written by Neil Innes—who won an Ivor Novello Award in 1968 for the song—and produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth". The B-side was written by Vivian Stanshall. A well-known staging of the song involves Innes performing solo while a female tap dancer performs an enthusiastic but apparently under-rehearsed routine around him. This skit originally appeared in a 1975 edition of Rutland Weekend Television, with Lyn Ashley as the dancer, and was more famously revived in the 1982 film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl with Carol Cleveland taking over the role.
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelia with surreal humour and avant-garde art, the Bonzos came to public attention through appearances in the Beatles' 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour and the 1968 ITV comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set.
Mark-Haydn Griffiths is a British bassist who toured with Neil Innes in his touring ensemble of the fictional Beatles parody the Rutles where he performs Rutles songs and other songs from his career such as his songs from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He also has played with Cliff Richard's backing band and with the Shadows.
Fat Mattress were an English rock band that formed in Folkestone in 1968. Founded by guitarist and vocalist Noel Redding, during his time as bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and vocalist Neil Landon, the band was completed by multi-instrumentalist Jim Leverton and drummer Eric Dillon. The band released two albums – Fat Mattress and Fat Mattress II – before splitting up in 1970.
"The Intro and The Outro" is a recording by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It appears on their debut album, Gorilla (1967). It is not so much a song as a comic monologue in which the speaker introduces the musicians who ostensibly appear on the recording. The recording fades out before the emcee completes the introductions and without the "orchestra" being able to play anything more than a vamp. The piece was written by Bonzo member Vivian Stanshall, who also provides the vocal. Stanshall first introduces the seven members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who are credited with their actual instruments, over a vamp that resembles Duke Ellington’s "C Jam Blues".
