It is very difficult to explain the Bonzo Dog Band in a few words, the Bonzos were zany, surreal, outrageous, enchanting and bizarre. Though not a typical progressive band, they had no problems bending rules, taking chances and creating Dada-esque music that trancended genres: from Roaring 20's music to parodies of Elvis, Metal and of course British satire.
Originally formed as the Bonzo Dog Dada Band, art college students Roger Spear and Rodney Slater shared a passion for 1920's/1930's jazz and ginhouse rag, but with a twist. With their 30 member ensemble (made up mostly with fellow art students) the group had incorporated sight gags into their shows where they played mostly in and around the campuses. After changing their name to Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, they began playing the pub circuit in '65 as the group was reduced to fewer members. By this time, with their stage set up primarily with gadgets, machines, mannequins and robots, their shows consisted of music paradies as well as comic skits.
In late 1966 Geoff Stephens offered them the job of being the New Vaudeville Band following the success of Winchester Cathedral, recorded by session musicians. Only Bob Kerr wanted to do it and he left the Bonzos. Subsequent comments such as "you're just like the New Vaudeville Band" pushed the Bonzos towards rock music. By 1967 they had moved on from the pub circuit to night clubs such as The Flamingo and Paul Raymonde's Revue Bar and had evolved a style based largely on Neil and Vivian's own compositions. Their anarchic, highly visual shows appealed to the underground music audience then evolving from places like the UFO Club in Tottenham Court Road.
After the group recorded two singles for Parlophone Records they appeared on The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour TV special, before signing with Liberty Records in '67. They released their first album, Gorilla (which was promoted with comic advertisments between parodies of 1920's jazz, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Elvis Presley) with most of the material written by vocalist Vivian Stanshall and guitarist Neil Innes. It was Innes' interest in rock and psychedelia that led to the sound of their follow albums as well as the single I'm The Urban Spaceman (produced by Apollo C. Vermouth - a.k.a. - Paul McCartney) which made the Top Five in '68. By '68 the group recorded simply as the Bonzo Dog Band. Despite their growing popularity, the group broke up in 1970 with drummer Larry Smith, guitarist Vernon Bohay-Nowell and percussionist Sam Spoons joining Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band.
After recording the 1968 Christmas TV special Do Not Adjust Your Stocking they were exhausted but things improved when Tony Stratton-Smith of Charisma Records took over as personal manager, Gerry Bron and Liberty Records retaining other rights. Two U.S. tours followed, with cult success (including a concert at Fillmore West with Joe Cocker and the Byrds) but the record company failed to distribute records properly to back them up and financial problems forced the Bonzos to go home early from the second tour.
Their popularity was reflected by "The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse", which gave the Bonzos their first U.K. album chart entry (peaking at No. 40 in January, 1969) as well as a strong contender for the best album title ever. "Doughnut" opened with the Zappa- esque "We Are Normal" (with the immortal chorus, "We are normal and we want our freedom/We are normal and we like Bert Weedon"). Elsewhere, the band succeeded in rhyming "whites" with "hypocrites", delivered a succession of totally meaningless anecdotes in "Rhinocratic Oaths", and reached new peaks of banality with Viv Stanshall's "My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe", and the quite dire threat made to Norman... "if you're normal".
Stanshall announced the breakup of the Bonzos at a gig at the Lyceum Ballroom in January 1970 - this had been decided collectively in New York at the end of their disastrous second U.S. tour. The Bonzos played their final gig at Loughborough University in March 1970, though their contract required one more album: Let's Make Up And Be Friendly. There was a reunion single No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In for the 1987 General Election but it wasn't released until 1992.
Slater would drop out of music to become a government social worker. Innes and bassist Dennis Cowan formed The World and released an album before they would split (Innes would briefly join McGuinness Flint). Stanshall would form the short lived Sean Head Showband which had included Eric Clapton before forming biG GRunt with Spear. Spear would put together The Kinetic Wardrobe in which he was backed by a band of robots (he toured the U.K. and Europe opening for The Who). Bonzo Dog Band would reunite in '71 and release Let's Make Up And Be Friendly the following year but would split up as their fans didn't quite take to the new line up despite contributions from Smith, and Spear.
Innes formed The World with Dennis Cowan, Roger McKew and Ian Wallace. They made one album, Lucky Planet, but they split up before it was due to come out. Dennis went on to the biG GRunt and Ian to King Crimson. Neil and Vivian guested on The Scaffold's Do The Albert.
Neil recorded solo for United Artists, producing the album How Sweet To Be An Idiot and also worked with groups such as McGuinness Flint and Grimms and with the Monty Python team, appearing in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He teamed up with Eric Idle for Rutland Weekend Television and the spin-off The Rutles and then got his own TV series The Innes Book of Records.released a solo album in '73, he began working primarily as a composer for British TV, most notably Monty Python's Flying Circus and Rutland Weekend Television with Python alumni Eric Idle. With Idle, he wrote, directed and performed in The Rutles, a television special spoofing The Beatles with Innes playing the John Lennonesque character Ron Nasty.
Stanshall (who's narration was recorded for Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and David Bowie's Peter And The Wolf) would release several solo albums and his Rawlinson End spoken works. He appeared on his own Viv Stanshall's Radio Flashes for the BBC. The Bonzo's reunited in '92 and recorded a one-off single. Sadly, Stanshall lost his life in a fire at his flat in 1995.
Neil Innes continues to tour and write. And in 2006 the Bonzo's reunited with a little help from Neil Innes' `house band,' and British comedians such as: Stephen Fry, Ade Edmondson, Paul Merton and Phill Jupitus. The band released a DVD of a hastily rehearsed show, then did an extensive tour, where they became funnier and with much more polish, though the abstance of departed genius Viv Stanshall is sadly too noticable.
On January 28, 2006, most of the surviving members of the band played a concert at the London Astoria, to celebrate the band's official 40th anniversary. Neil Innes, "Legs" Larry Smith, Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater, Bob Kerr, Sam Spoons and Vernon Dudley Bowhay Nowell appeared. There were also a number of special guests attempting with various degrees of success to be Vivian Stanshall, one of two members of the band not still living (the other being bass player Dennis Cowan). The various Stanshall impersonators included Stephen Fry, Ade Edmondson, Phill Jupitus and Paul Merton (who needed to read the words to "Monster Mash" from cue cards at the show). The classic Bonzo stage antics were in evidence, including performances on the Theremin Leg and Trouser Press. The show was filmed and was broadcast on BBC Four and also released on DVD in May 2006.
A countrywide tour, with Ade Edmondson and Phill Jupitus, followed during November 2006, starting in Ipswich and ending with two nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire, where Paul Merton and Bill Bailey joined in for a handful of songs. David Catlin-Birch (lead guitar and vocals) joined the band for the tour; Catlin-Birch has also been a member of World Party and The Bootleg Beatles.
Officially calling themselves The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band again, the group released a live double CD of the Astoria concert titled Wrestle Poodles... And Win! on 13 November 2006.
On 10 December 2007, the band released their first new studio album in 35 years, a 28-track album titled Pour l'Amour des Chiens.
An ultimatum with Innes around this time forced his hand and he stepped down as band leader, leaving the rest of the Bonzos 'in charge'.
Whilst Vernon allied with Bob Kerr to play as 'Bonzomania', Roger, Rodney and Sam remained together and joined up with pianist David Glasson (ex Whoopee Band) and performed as Three Bonzos and a Piano. Since October 2008, they have undertaken regular gigs. They have included appearances from "Legs" Larry Smith and Vernon Dudley Bowhay Nowell. Three Bonzos and a Piano launched a new CD Hair of the Dog at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on 6 February 2010, featuring new numbers from all band members and some re-workings of older favourites. Larry and Vernon were at the Bloomsbury gig. In 2012 they released another CD, Bum Notes.
Innes toured the United States in 2009 and 2010, having performed a number of shows in 2009 in the UK. He currently plays with the Idiot Bastard Band, along with Phill Jupitus, Adrian Edmondson, and Raw Sex drummer Rowland Rivron. They play a mixture of original comedy songs and covers, including some Bonzos numbers.
In 2009, Angry Penguin Ltd published the first history of the band, Jollity Farm, written by Bob Carruthers and edited by David Christie, with comprehensive interviews with all the core members of the group. The first release also included a limited edition DVD featuring the band's 2007 reunion performance at the Shepherds Bush Empire, which included several performances from that show which had not been previously released.
A configuration under the name 'Almost the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band' performed from 2012, more regularly featuring Legs and the now 82-year-old Vernon. This grouping played their final gig together as a five piece, alongside Andy Roberts, Dave Glasson and the eleven-piece Keynsham Town Band in Milton Keynes. The following week, Sam Spoons' "Bill Posters Will Be Band" played their last, and the week after, "Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band" (with Vernon guesting).
