NEIL INNES keyb'ds, bs, gtr, vcls A B C
BOB KERR hrmnca, vcls A
VERNON NOWELL bs, banjo A
RODNEY SLATER sax A B C
LARRY SMITH drms A B C
ROGER RUSKIN SPEAR sax A B C
SAM SPOONS perc A
VIV STANSHALL vcls, trumpet A B C
DAVE CLAGUE bs B
DENNIS COWAN bs, vcls C
ALBUMS:
1. (A) GORILLA (Liberty LBS 83056) 1967 SC -
2. (B) THE DOUGHNUT IN GRANNY'S GREENHOUSE (Liberty LBS 83158) 1968 SC #40
3. (C) TADPOLES (Liberty LBS 83257) 1969 SC #36
4. (D) KEYNSHAM (Liberty LBS 83290) 1969 SC -
5. (-) THE BEST OF THE BONZOS (Liberty LBS 83332) 1970 -
6. (-) LET'S MAKE UP AND BE FRIENDLY (United Artists UAS 29288) 1972 -
7. (C) URBAN SPACEMAN (Sunset SLS 50418) 1973f
8. (-) THE HISTORY OF THE BONZOS (dbl) (United Artists UAS 60071/2) 1974 #41
9. (-) VERY BEST OF THE BONZOS (Music For Pleasure 4156801) 1984 -
NB: (1) later reissued in Britain on Sunset (1970), United Artists (1980), Beat Goes On (BGOLP 82) 1990, also on CD (BGOCD 82) 1990. (2) later reissued in Britain on Sunset (1971) and Edsel (XED 209) 1987. (4) later reissued in Britain on Sunset (1975), United Artists (1980) and Edsel (1987). (6) reissued on Awareness (AWL 1004) 1986. (3) reissued on Edsel (XED 186) in 1986. (3) and (4) reissued as The Outro (Music For Pleasure CDMFP 6311) 199?. There's also some later compilations The Bestiality Of The Bonzo Dog Band (EMI EMS 1335) 1990 and The Best Of The Bonzo Dog Band (Rhino R2 71006) 1991. Cornology (EMI CD DOG 1) 1992 is a three-CD boxed set compilation including all of (1),(2), (3), (4) and (6) plus some early singles and other rarities like a German language version of Mr. Apollo.
45s:
1. My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies/I'm Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Gal Tonight (Parlophone R 5430) 1966 -
2. Alley Oop/Button Up Your Overcoat (Parlophone R 5499) 1966 -
3. Equestrian Statue/The Intro And The Outro (Liberty LBF 15040) 1967 -
4. I'm The Urban Spaceman/Canyons Of Your Mind (Liberty LBF 15144) 1968 #5
5. Mister Apollo/Ready Mades (Liberty LBF 15201) 1969 -
6. I Want To Be With You/We Were Wrong (Liberty LBF 15273) 1969 -
7. You Done My Brain In/Mr. Slater's Parrot (Liberty LBF 15314) 1970 -
The Bonzos formed in Goldsmith's College, South London, in late 1965. They'd originally been known as The Bonzo Dog Dada Band, but the name was soon changed to save them the trouble of continually having to explain who or what Dada was. They recorded a couple of singles for Parlophone in 1966 but neither made any impact.
In 1967 they were signed by Liberty (after appearing in The Beatles' 'Magical Mystery Tour' film) and recorded the Gorilla album, which was a mixture of jazz and eccentricity. Equestrian Statue was culled from the album and issued as a 45, but made little impact. This album included several of what would become their cult favourites:- Cool Britannia, The Intro And The Outro, Jollity Farm, The Sound Of Music, and Mickey's Son And Daughter.
Their most successful recording was I'm The Urban Spaceman, a typically eccentric song ladened with drug references, that somehow managed not to get banned. The producer, one Apollo C. Vermouth according to the record, was in fact Paul McCartney. The flip side was pretty memorable too, a sort of love song in which parts of the body were likened to geographical features.
Their next album, The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse, begs some comparison to Frank Zappa with tracks like We Are Normal, My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe and Rhinocratic Oaths. It peaked at No 40 in the UK Album Charts.
Their finest 45, Mr. Apollo, with some fine spacey guitar work and a strong chorus, surprisingly flopped but their strongest album, Tadpoles, did prove their most successful commercially. Aside from containing both sides of the Urban Spaceman 45 and Mr. Apollo it was their most consistent effort and definitely worth tracking down.
Their fourth album, Keynsham, also had its moments, particularly on You Done My Brain In, which was released as a 45, and Mr. Slater's Parrot.
Early in 1970 they split and all worked on solo projects, although they reformed in 1972 for a reunion album, Let's Make Up And Be Friendly, which wasn't bad as reunion albums go. However, it wasn't long-lasting and within a year Neil Innes had joined Grimms. He later recorded solo albums and singles, created The Rutles (a take-off of The Beatles) with Monty Python's Eric Idle and got his own TV show 'The Innes Book of Records' in 1979. Roger Ruskin Spear became a popular live performer with his Giant Kinetic Wardrobe of home made robots, and Viv Stanshall made a couple of solo albums. He tragically died after a fire at his Muswell Hill flat in March 1995.
Most of their albums have been reissued more than once since and the double LP compilation, The History Of The Bonzos, is a fine epitaph. The 1990 compilation The Bestiality Of Bonzo Dog Band also demonstrates that some of their humour and music has aged better than one might have expected. It contains many of their better known songs like Canyons Of Your Mind, Shirt, the bluesy Can Blue Men Sing The Whites, the slightly psychedelic We Are Normal and the rather soulful Trouser Press. The 1991 CD compilation duplicates some of these but contains 20 tracks in all.
Bob Kerr went on to form his Whoopee Band which has over the years recorded several albums and which still performs today mainly in and around the London area. Ex-members of the Bonzos occasionally perform in his band which is a less zany version of the early Bonzos but which is nonetheless still a good act to watch live.
Their appearances on Various Artists' compilations includes Can Blue Men Sing The Whites on Gutbucket and I'm The Urban Spaceman on See For Miles' 20 One Hit Wonders.
For more information on all things Neil Innes related check the Words Of Neil website: www.neilinnes.org Alternatively, check out the following Bonzo's site: http://bridge.anglia.ac.uk/~systimk/music/bonzos/Index.Html#Contents
