The Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band: C or D?

They truly did move beyond parody, and were already beginning to do so from the debut album onwards.

SO THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REVIVE-O!

Through the exceptionally good, generous graces of fellow ILM'er Abbics Abbie, I have finally aquired the above album (after merely expressing that I'd wanted to finally hear "Eleven Moustachioed Daughters" after reading so much about it here on ILM). Very nicely, she ripped the whole shebang for me, and by gosh is it ever great. All I'd heard previously were compilations, but this album really is fucking fantastic. Moreover, the lyrics to "11 Moustachioed Daughters" are truly creepy in a decidedly occult-bothering sort've way. Witness....

Eleven moustachioed daughters, running in a field of fat
The moon is high, the mandrake screams,
Please come to our Sabbat.
The changeling children shiver, round the fire their mothers dance,
With strangely painted faces,
That smile but never laugh.
The crow-pecked gibbet's victim swings broken in his cage
His hands cut down to make a crown.
To wear as our homage.
Round & round the magic ring soft figures fastly rush
And wolf-like things & toads with wings whisper wetly
"Come with us".

The fresh-plucked eye of a favourite cat,
Pulped and mixed with a white hens fat,
A lapwings' wing and lions' gall,
And Belladonna to make your eyes
Like a beasts.
To anoint the body and make it shine,
To drink & make thyself divine,
To choose another's form and make it thine.

And now they gibber blasphemy & fill the fetid air
With ancient lies & leprous cries,
This night he will be there.
A madness has them, mouths gape wide
As one they sway and moan, & every brutish face is turned,
To see our Goat-King's Throne.

Anyway, thanks again Abbie and let's hear it for the Bonzos.

"Lipstickgleam
Hexachloraphene
Cling cling a ring
Clang clang she sang
It's tragic magic
There are no coincidences
But sometimes the pattern is more obvious"

also "eleven moustachioed daughters" has uncredited backing vocals by germaine greer.

2006

Saturday 28th January

Neil Innes and Friends
(The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band Revisited)
FEATURING
Rodney Slater
Roger Ruskin Spear
Legs Larry Smith
Vernon Dudley Bohay Nowell
plus special guests
THE ASTORIA
LONDON
Doors Open 1800hrs

Tickets are still available from

STARGREEN BOX OFFICE
Credit Card Hotline 020 7734 8932
www.Stargreen.com

hooooold me back!

i saw neil innes at the melbourne comedy festival in 2003 - he was every bit as wondrous as i'd hoped. (i was the youngest person there by about 20 years)

anyone fancy coming along?

*checks stargreen*

oh bollocks, it's sold out.

The answer is total classic, of course... (off humming Hunting Tigers...)

My dream is that Mike Oldfield could do "The Intro and the Outro".

Stephen Fry? It could work, as long as he's not visible.

The NATIONAL TOUR is set to roll. 40th Anniversary tour with special guests.

November sees the start. Check out the www.bonzodog.co.uk website.

See you all there.

Reissues out this week! Finally I will be able to get my hands on The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse!

Britain's answer to We're Only In It For The Money featuring Actual Ex-Mother (allegedly) Joel Druckman on bass and "come on everybody clap your hands" etc.

"Big hello to big John Wayne, xylophone..."

I love THIS:

I heart "Tubas in the Moonlight"

So do I. I love that song.

RFI: A long time ago a friend lent me a Bonzo Dog Band dubbed cassette, and it had a track on it that used a tape loop - an early sample, really - of pool balls being hit, and also one of a chainsaw. Does anyone know what this is and where it can be found?

Oh yeah, and there was another track that used a man laughing to similar effect.

The laughing one is "Slush", it's on "Let's Make Up and Be Friendly". The other one sounds like it could be one of the between-track bits on "Keynsham".

Two words for you: "Big Shot"

(No, that's not the answer to the RFI)

Hurting, you asked that question on a thread before but I can't find it now for some reason. "Cool Britannia" ends with about 15 seconds of what sounds like pool balls being hit with a woman laughing over the top. "Quiet Talks and Summer Walks" closes with a few seconds blast of dentist's drill. I'd call them sound effects rather than samples though so I'm not sure if those are the ones.

Yeah, I did ask that a while back. My memory is that the track opens with pool balls being hit looped over and over again so that it becomes a rhythm, and then some sort of repeated organ and guitar comes in over it. Then a similar thing is done in the same song with the sound of a chainsaw being ripped. Maybe it's some bonus track from a comp. Maybe it's not even Bonzo Dog Band and it was just tacked onto the tape, but the style is very similar to the laughing track, which is identified above as "Slush". I've been wondering this for years.

Hmmmmmmmm, I don't know what that track is! I wish I did!

"They bite
They scratch
They make an awful fuss
It's no use stroking them and saying "puss puss puss"..."

Oh, you know what?

Thanks to this thread, I just bought all five remastered CDs (plus extras) for £30 off ebay.

"But now, here in Willesden Green, yes, *brrrrr*, it is a bit chilly, but, no matter, because here comes a gentleman, and we're going to talk to him about shirts..."

"Let's Make Up And Be Friendly" - strange album! "Turkeys" sounds like one of the weirder Canterbury bands and "Waiting For The Wardrobe" is a great Roger Ruskin Spear track. Has anyone heard either of his solo albums?

Also, I've been rocking this new comp of songs they covered or were influenced by. It's 75% good, a few absolute crackers and a two or three crappy ones. Worth getting though, especially for the originals of Ali Baba's Camel, Mickey's Son and Daughter and Skirts (aka Shirt).

http://shop.instant-shop.com/magpiedirect/picture?pic=417140810&table=pictures&width=301&height=300

Wow, I must get that!

There's a lot of old songs that they played live or whatever but aren't on the albums, like "Little Sir Echo" (which you can see them doing on Youtube). Some of those ones are really good, especially if you like their first two albums the best.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3647630

splendid!

Okay, I did not know that it actually WAS Eric Clapton on ukelele. Cool but not surprising.

Another song I really like by them is "Straight from My Heart"--can't remember the album it's from (maybe "Let's Make Up..."). I like the chorus sing-a-long and the lazy sax line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeN275kLtaE

this documentary about Sam Smith is great, seems like it might be of interest to fans of the Bonzos

more Roger Ruskin Spear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0l1hXdp5Zk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwZ_hMDzKmE

and Bruce Lacey, or course

Wilf Lunn was a mainstay of children’s TV in the 70s, similar absurdist hippy vibe as Ruskin Spear.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/wilf-lunn-protest-bike/zh9y6v4

Worth watching to the end to see his worm catcher.

Wilf Lunn is great, it's funny how there was this moment where you had stuff like Vision On where children's tv and experimental stuff could cross over, like Sylvester McCoy dividing his time between kids tv and the Ken Campbell Roadshow. Various Clive Doig shows as well

Look Out, There's a 17 CD, 3 DVD Monster Coming

https://www.amazon.com/Still-Barking-Bonzo-Doo-Dah-Band/dp/B0DHLLZ5NN

Seven years in the making and put together with band's full co-operation, 'Still Barking' includes: 17 CDs documenting a spectacularly entertaining career featuring:
- Stereo versions of all of the band's original albums, carefully remastered to capture their idiosyncratic charm.
- Additional remastered versions 'Gorilla' and 'The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse' in their original mono mixes.
- A newly compiled remastered CD of all the band's singles.
- Two discs of demos, rehearsals, and outtakes.
- A single disc of backing tracks.
- Three discs of BBC Sessions that capture the band's eccentric live energy.
- Two live discs: Studio Bellevue, Amsterdam. Recorded: November 1968. Fillmore East, NYC, 17 October 1969.
- A CD featuring a live show from London's Marquee Club and additional material of band rehearsals from the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire.
- Plus: Three DVDs of TV performances, including the complete 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' shows, 'Colour Me Pop', 'Beat Club', and more. Highlights include rare appearances, short films, and vintage footage from the height of their career.
- 148 page hardback coffee table book featuring an essay by Bonzos authority Chris Welch and an in-depth Day By Day Chronology/Cornology by noted author Andy Neill (The Who; Ready, Steady, Go!).

*faints*

guess i'll have to start saving. wow.

there's a big article in the new Ugly Things magazine where they interview surviving members.

Amazon.de are knocking this set out for €140 or thereabouts

What does it normally cost?

~£250

I’m not a huge fan but feeling tempted.

I'm a fan and not feeling tempted.

I'm a fan and I'm not spending €140 on any music, but if I had a lot more money to spare then I'd be tempted.

Exactly.

For the curious, find the first boxset they did, Cornology. Has all the albums, singles & b-sides without any bells or whistles. Second hand copies go for about $20.

I slsked the new box to hear the live and TV stuff. It's great but often feels like you had to be there. Lots of versions of the famous numbers and fewer unheard songs. Lovely that TV recordings have slowly been made available.

Just a fascinating band though. My introduction was as the 80s era cassette compilation on MFP which was all their A1 fun and jazzy material. I couldnt get anything else by them for ages and eventually found the 1974 comp "History of the Bonzos" which presents them as a darker, more abstract and less relatable band, despite a significant overlap in tracks.

When the albums were re-released on cd together (with bonus tracks, etc) they turned up in our local recshop for a fiver each.

I played them in the car taking Amber and Alice to dance and swimming lessons, particularly "Gorilla" and "Tadpoles" - they loved them and would sing various tunes around the house. Alice was particularly taken with "Monster Mash" so I recorded them via a downloaded karaoke backing track. I did share it on here back in the day, but its now unavailable as they are both in their mid-twenties..