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The Alberts were a British music/comedy troupe of the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, featuring brothers Anthony "Tony" and Douglas "Dougie" Gray, along with Bruce Lacey. They were notable for their surreal performances. [1]
Educated at the Oratory School (Kensington), they were evacuated during World War II to Penzance. They left school after the war and performed their National Service in Egypt. They appeared on several of Spike Milligan's television series. [2] They intended to inaugurate the fledgling BBC2 on 20 April 1964, but a power failure delayed the launch until the following day. For almost the entire year of 1963, beginning January 1963, in the West End, The Alberts, along with Joyce Grant, Ivor Cutler, Michael Codron and William Donaldson, presented An Evening of British Rubbish, which Princess Margaret attended twice, and which was released on an LP record by George Martin, head of Parlophone at the time. [3] Several members of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band have publicly said they were hugely influenced by The Alberts.
The Gray brothers appeared in several films directed by Ken Russell, including Dante's Inferno and The Music Lovers . They toured the world with the Royal Opera house with non-singing roles in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes and released a single in May 1962, produced by George Martin at Abbey Road, called "Morse Code Melody", with "Sleepy Valley" on the flip side. [3] Another single, "Goodbye Dolly (Gray)" / "Blaze Away" and credited to The Massed Alberts, an expanded version of the group again featuring Bruce Lacey, was also released on Parlophone in July 1964 but similarly failed to chart.
The Alberts (including Lacey) adapted Alexandre Dumas père's novel, The Three Musketeers Ride Again!, at the Royal Court Theatre, with Rachel Roberts, Valentine Dyall, Colin Phillips, Alexei Jawdokimov and Jill Bruce in the cast, directed by Eleanor Fazan. [4] [5]
Anthony "Tony" Gray (22 December 1927 – 14 April 2014) died at age 86 in the UK. He was twice married and had six children. [6]
Douglas Gray (28 September 1930 - 18 June 2020) died aged 89 in Norfolk. He had two children, Pandora and Gideon, a musician. In later, life Gray turned up for the service at his local church every Sunday dressed as a Cossack. [7]
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.
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 reformed for performances and projects.
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.
Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias were an English comedy rock band, formed in Manchester, England in 1973. Their story is told in CP Lee's book When We Were Thin. The name of the band is a corruption of the Latin American band Alberto y Los Trios Paraguayos.
"Lovely Money" is a single by English rock band the Damned, released on 18 June 1982.
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.
Gerald Lincoln "Gerry" Bron was an English record producer and band manager.Gerry Married Penny Bron in 1982
The Alberts, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Temperance Seven is a singles compilation album released in 1971, notable for the first time both sides of the first two Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band singles were released in stereo.
Beast of the Bonzos is the US version of the UK album The Best of the Bonzos. This American best of album differs from the British in having different cover art, an extra flap with an article about the Bonzos by John Mendelsohn, and about half different songs.
The Temperance Seven is a British band originally active in the 1960s, specialising in 1920s-style jazz music. They were known for their surreal performances.
David Catlin-Birch is a British musician. He was a bass guitarist for pop/alternative rock band World Party, and was the original "Paul" for the March 1980 launch of The Beatles tribute band, The Bootleg Beatles.
Larry Smith, often known as "Legs" Larry Smith is an English drummer of the comedy satirical jazz group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
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.
Colour Me Pop was a British music TV programme broadcast on BBC2 from 1968–1969. It was a spin-off from the BBC 2 arts magazine show Late Night Line-Up. Designed to celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television, it was directed by Steve Turner, and showcased half-hour sets by pop and rock groups of the period. The programme was a pioneering precursor to the better-remembered BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971–87). Unlike its successor, most of the editions of Colour Me Pop are missing, due to the BBC's archival policy of the time.
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 a 1968 ITV comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set.
"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".
Andrew Lauder is a record company executive and former A&R manager. Initially noted for his adventurous signings of bands as diverse as Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Can, Hawkwind and Brinsley Schwarz to Liberty Records and United Artists Records in the 1960s and 70s, he went on to form numerous independent labels including Radar Records, F-Beat Records and Demon Music Group.
Martin Ash was a British performer, percussionist, artist and art lecturer better known to many by his stage name Sam Spoons, the percussionist of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.
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