Inside the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band


Guide to British Music of the 1960s			January 2006
DVD Review		*Inside the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band*
About Making Time Advertising Add url	The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, later known as simply the Bonzo Dog Band was one of the groups that made the 1960s so different. Although there was nothing else like them, or little else like them, they did not sound out of place at all. This DVD tells the story of the Bonzos from their beginnings where they were more like a comedy review recording covers of old 78s. The story is told mostly through members of the band, Neil Innes, Roger Ruskin-Spear, Rodney Slater and an archive BBC interview with Viv Stanshall. Sadly no "Legs" Larry Smith or Sam Spoons though. Non band members commenting include journalists Chris Welch and Bob Carruthers as well as producer Gerry Bron. Sadly there appears to be little footage of the band available and this is a great pity as they were visual as much as they were musical. The original New Faces appearance is shown starting with, appropriately, The End of the Show. The second disc shows the whole of this performance and also includes Innes singing The Equestrian Statue, while perched on a rocking horse naturally. Little Sir Echo features Stanshall with Sam Spoons perched on his knee playing the part of the ventriloquist's dummy. Many of the Bonzo's songs were taken from old 78s and they describe how they used to hang around record shops looking for old records. My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies, Ali Baba's Camel and many others came via this route. The disc tells the whole story of the band with interviews explaining the albums and the single. As previously noted there is little footage of the band although the classic Music from the Head Ballet is shown as is Death Cab for Cutie, the latter taken from the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film. As the band progressed they moved away from the visual experience towards developing the music more in studio. In addition, there were moving away from covers of old songs to writing their own material, primarily through Innes and Stanshall. Alongside the more "traditional" instruments were instruments or "sources of sounds" that were unique to the Bonzo Dog Band. These included the famed trouser press. Ruskin-Spear demonstrates this on the DVD. Many of the band's songs were written for Do Not Adjust Your Set, a forerunner of Monty Python. From this show the footage of Monster Mash is included. The description of how Keynsham came about is particularly interesting, at least to someone who grew up in Keynsham. After Keynsham the band made the contractual Let's Make Up and Bee Friendly, finally bowing out in 1992 (!) with No Matter Who You Vote for the Government Always Gets in. By then, the band had run its course, the members were going in different directions, Stanshall rapidly downhill. The second disc includes a number of rarities. Alongside the aforementioned Equestrian Statue and The End of the Show are Little Sir Echo and the promotional film for I'm the Urban Spaceman. There are overviews of the post-Bonzos careers of Stanshall and Innes. The interview with Neil Innes tells how the Rutles came about and shows some archive footage of the prefab four. Apparently, Eric Idle had promised Saturday Night Live that he could get the Beatles back together. However, he later said that it was a bad line but he could get the Rutles back together again! With George Harrison's help Innes admits that the film could be seen as a semi-official biography of the Beatles. This is an excellent overview of the career of the Bonzo Dog Band with fascinating stories and some great, although sparse, footage.

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