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.
Stanshall, Vivian (Bonzo Dog Band) – vocals, percussion, brass instruments.
History
During the late 1960s, The Scaffold and The Bonzo Dog Band had each already achieved a respectable measure of success independently of each other in the UK, through their regular appearances on television and radio and their respective chart successes in 1968 with 'Lily The Pink' and 'The Urban Spaceman'.
By 1970, while The Scaffold still remained active, The Bonzo Dog Band were technically no longer a going concern. Some members of the Bonzos would however briefly reform in 1971 to record Let's Make Up and Be Friendly to fulfill their recording contract, and as a result Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall assembled a band to tour the UK during 1971 and 72. This group, billed variously as 'Freaks' or 'Bonzo Dog Freaks' occasionally featured Andy Roberts, who was also a close long-time associate of The Scaffold. During this period, Innes and Stanshall also guested on The Scaffold's 'Do The Albert' single and some of their more obscure musical ventures such as the theme song to the 1972 movie 'Burke And Hare'. A more formal grouping of the talents involved seemingly became inevitable.
Neil Innes said about the eventual formation of GRIMMS: "I don't know what attracted the Scaffold to the Bonzos; we were incredibly anarchic, which was probably something shared by the Scaffold as well. Hence GRIMMS, this leap in the dark."[1]
For GRIMMS' initial performances, the six founder members were augmented by various friends and guest musicians - at the second appearance, for example, Keith Moon played drums (Moon had also played with 'Freaks', most notably on their BBC Radio One session in March 1971). However, once GRIMMS was more formally organised by 1972, regular personnel were quickly added, including:
Adrian Henri (Liverpool Scene) – spoken vocals/poetry
These eleven musicians, poets and performers formed the "real" initial version of GRIMMS, despite the acronym which only included the names of six of them. Others who appeared live and on record with the band throughout its existence included (amongst many others):
All the band members were paid the same wage on the road, and members who weren't performing in a show would sit with the audience.[2]
Roberts, Richards and Stanshall do not appear on the band's first Island Records LP, Grimms, which was a live recording compiled from a run of UK shows in 1972. Roberts and Richards were committed to touring with the band Plainsong in 1972 and so missed the performances during which the first album was recorded.[3] The notoriously mercurial Stanshall, meanwhile, had essentially already left the group before the LP was recorded, but although he consequently never appeared on any of the band's albums, the line-up remained flexible enough to allow him to occasionally return for guest spots at concerts afterwards. Henri, Giles and Money all left after the live album was released in early 1973, to be replaced by Halsall and Conway.
During this busy period McGough, McGear, Gorman and Roberts also remained a going concern on their own terms as The Scaffold, releasing the album Fresh Liver, also on Island Records. Ostensibly a Scaffold album, the lines between the two bands became increasingly blurred as Innes, Halsall, Megginson, Money and Conway all made significant musical contributions to the LP. Innes himself recorded and released his own solo debut How Sweet To Be An Idiot in the same year backed by Roberts, Halsall, Richards and Conway. McGough and Patten, meanwhile, also continued their ongoing parallel careers as published poets. As for GRIMMS itself, although the band's line-up was in a constant state of flux, it nevertheless retained a core membership of about 10 players right through to the end of 1973.
GRIMMS' own second LP of 1973, the studio album Rockin' Duck, received generally favourable press,[citation needed] but shortly after its release tensions among the band's leaders reached breaking point, preventing the group from capitalising on the good reviews. During the tour behind the album in late 1973, a violent outburst from Patten towards McGear on the band's tour bus in Manchester led to McGear leaving the group.[1] During this tour Neil Innes was absent for certain dates and John Hiseman also sat in on drums to cover for the outgoing Conway, and the absence of Innes and presence of Hiseman can be heard on a BBC Radio 1In Concert broadcast from this period. By the end of the year Halsall had also left GRIMMS (and would soon go on to join Hiseman's new group Tempest).
During 1974, GRIMMS suspended operations entirely when The Scaffold, at McGear's instigation, reunited for a major tour in support of surprise hit single "Liverpool Lou", and most of the remaining GRIMMS – with the notable exception of Patten – accompanied them. The Scaffold then elected to record another, final album, Sold Out, and those commitments stymied any GRIMMS activity until the following year.
GRIMMS eventually reconvened early in 1975 to tour and to film a television special entitled GRIMMS on Women shown as part of the BBC series The Camera and the Song. Gorman, Innes, McGough, Roberts, Richards and Megginson were rejoined in this endeavour by Patten and a returning Zoot Money, and new arrival 'Admiral' John Halsey (formerly of Patto and currently of Innes' backing band Fatso, and later to reunite with Innes and Ollie Halsall in The Rutles) entered the scene. Halsey had a highly developed sense of comedic timing honed during his days in Patto which brought much to GRIMMS' live performances of the period. It was also around this time that GRIMMS released a book of poetry, lyrics, prose and art based loosely around their exploits on tour entitled 'Clowns on the Road'.
By the time it came to record their third and what turned out to be final album Sleepers in 1976, Halsey was unavailable and Patten and Money had both left again (although Money later contributed vocals to one track). Drummer Timmy Donald (whose name was misspelled as Donnell in the original LP credits) had joined them for the album sessions, which left the final version of GRIMMS with 'only' seven members (Gorman, Roberts, Innes, McGough, Megginson, Richards and Donald). The band set out to make the album a more overtly musical affair than before and felt they had succeeded by the end of recording, but once the album was released, GRIMMS finally fizzled out as the members went their separate ways and somehow never regrouped again. Although Sleepers proved to be the band's swansong, in the liner notes of the expanded CD reissue of the album the key members are reported as considering it their best and most cohesive recorded statement.
Discography
Singles
UK releases
"Backbreaker" / "The Masked Poet" (DJM DJS 393) July 1975
"The Womble Bashers of Walthamstow" / "The Worst Is Yet To Come" / "Wiggle Waggle" (DJM DJS 679) June 1976
"The Womble Bashers" / "Womble Bashers Wock" (Virgin VS 154) June 1976 by The Bashers
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.
The Scaffold are a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of musical performer Mike McGear, poet Roger McGough and comic entertainer John Gorman. They are perhaps best remembered for their successful singles "Thank U Very Much" (1967) and the UK number 1 "Lily the Pink" (1968). Since initially disbanding in 1977, the group have occasionally re-formed for performances and projects.
Peter Michael McCartney, previously known professionally as Mike McGear, is an English performing artist and photographer who was a member of the groups the Scaffold and Grimms. He is the younger brother of former Beatle Paul McCartney.
Roger Joseph McGough is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please, as well as performing his own poetry. McGough was one of the leading members of the Liverpool poets, a group of young poets influenced by Beat poetry and the popular music and culture of 1960s Liverpool. He is an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and President of the Poetry Society.
John Gorman is an English comedian, vocalist and comedy musician.
The Liverpool poets are a number of influential 1960s poets from Liverpool, England, influenced by 1950s Beat poetry. They were involved in the 1960s Liverpool scene that gave rise to The Beatles.
All You Need Is Cash is a 1978 television film that traces the career of a fictitious English rock group called the Rutles. As TV Guide described it, the group's resemblance to the Beatles is "purely – and satirically – intentional".
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.
Peter John "Ollie" Halsall was an English guitarist best known for his role in the Rutles, the bands Timebox, Patto and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers. He is also notable as one of the few players of the vibraphone in rock music. He was known by his childhood nickname 'Olly' or 'Ollie' which was simply a corruption of his surname. The Ollie Halsall Archive was established in 1998, with the aim of documenting and promoting his work.
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.
Tadpoles is the third album by the Bonzo Dog Band. It is largely a compilation of their work from the television show Do Not Adjust Your Set, on which they were the house band. The US version of the album had a track list slightly different from that of the UK version: the US version removed "I'm the Urban Spaceman" and added "Readymades" the B-side of their follow-up single "Mr. Apollo".
Let's Make Up And Be Friendly is the fifth original album by the Bonzo Dog Band, their last until 2007. The group had already disbanded when United Artists Records informed band members that the group owed the label one more album. This 1972 farewell album was the result. In 2007 the album was re-issued on CD by EMI with six bonus tracks, some of which were solo recordings by the members of the group.
Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1972 to 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.
Andrew Jonathan Roberts is an English musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter, perhaps best known for his 37-year partnership with singer Iain Matthews in the English folk rock band, Plainsong.
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.
The Camera & the Song is a compilation album composed of songs by various folk bands and artists like Fivepenny Piece or Tír na nÓg from the BBC Two television series The Camera & the Song. The songs were broadcast in the early 1970s and this LP released in 1975.
John Halsey is a rock drummer, best known for his appearance in the television film All You Need is Cash (1978) as Barrington Womble of The Rutles. Previous to this he had played with fellow future Rutle Neil Innes's band Fatso and appeared with them in the BBC Television comedy series, Rutland Weekend Television, fronted by a third Rutle, Eric Idle.
Teddy Boys Don't Knit is the third solo album by Vivian Stanshall. As with his 1974 debut solo album Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead, it consists entirely of songs, rather than the comedy-narrative-with-integral-songs of its immediate predecessor Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.
References
1 2 Bowen, Phil. A Gallery to Play to: The Story of the Mersey Poets. Liverpool University Press, 2008. pp.104–106.
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