Bonzo Dog Band
Although this eccentric ensemble was initially viewed as a '20s' revival act, they quickly developed into one of the era's most virulent satirists. Formed as the Bonzo Dog Dada Band in 1965 by art students Vivian Stanshall (b. 21 March 1943, Shillingford, Oxfordshire, England; vocals/trumpet/devices) and Rodney Slater (b. 8 November 1941, Crowland, Lincolnshire, England; saxophone), the group also included Neil Innes (b. 9 December 1944, Danbury, Essex, England; vocals/piano/guitar), Roger Ruskin Spear (b. 29 June 1943, Hammersmith, London, England; props/devices/saxophone) and Legs Larry Smith (b. 18 January 1944, Oxford, England; drums). Various auxiliary members, including Sam Spoons (b. Martin Stafford Ash, 8 February 1942, Bridgewater, Somerset, England), Bob Kerr and Vernon Dudley Bohey-Nowell (b. 29 July 1932, Plymouth, Devon, England), augmented the line-up; the informality was such that no-one knew which members would turn up to perform on the group's early shows. In 1966, two early singles, My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies and Alley Oop, reflected their transition from trad jazz to pop. GORILLA, the Bonzo's inventive debut album, still showed traces of their music-hall past, but the irreverent humour displayed on Jollity Farm and the surrealistic The Intro And The Outro, ( ‘Hi there, happy you could stick around, like to introduce you to …’) confirmed a lasting quality which outstripped that of contemporary ‘rivals’, the New Vaudeville Band, to whom Kerr, and others, had defected. A residency on the British television children's show, DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET, secured the group's unconventional reputation and the songs they performed were later compiled on the TADPOLES album. The Bonzo Dog Band was also featured in the Beatles' film, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR performing the memorable Death Cab For Cutie and in 1968 secured a UK Top 5 hit with I'm The Urban Spaceman, which was produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth. Further albums, THE DOUGHNUT IN GRANNY'S GREENHOUSE and KEYNSHAM, displayed an endearing eclecticism which derided the blues boom (Can Blue Men Sing The Whites), suburbia (My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe) and many points in between, while displaying an increasingly rock-based bent. Newcomers Dennis Cowan (b. 6 May 1947, London, England), Dave Clague and Joel Druckman toughened the Bonzo's live sound, but the strain of compressing pre-war English middle class frivolousness (Stanshall), whimsical pop (Innes) and Ruskin Spear's madcap machinery into one unit ultimately proved too great. Although a re-convened line-up completed LET'S MAKE UP AND BE FRIENDLY in 1972, this project was only undertaken to fulfil contractual obligations. The group had folded two years earlier when its members embarked on their inevitably divergent paths.