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

you know it.

It's such a sliding scale between joke band and 'real' band. I think that, at times at least, The Bonzos were as much a comment on the music of the time and as much a cheeky, but relevant and spot-on, take on 60s pop as, say, Arthur Lee and Love were. There's still something very sincere about The Bonzo Dog Band.

My dad willed me his 'Beast of the Bonzos' LP when I was four because I loved the illustrations so much. So I guess I'd have to say that they're one of my all-time favorite bands.

"Piggy Bank Love" for the win.

I mean... "Look Out There's A Monster Coming"? What kinda class A white-boy reggae music hall robotic vocals mish-mash thang is this?

^^ srsly

"Gorilla" is great. But then so are all the other albums.

What's best is to have the albums "as they are", with their mix of contemporary rock and trad jazz and all directions off.

The "best of"'s, while serving them well, can only scratch this.

The last "Make up and be friendly" was somewhat disappointing, but the other four are blummin wonderful!

It's a contractual obligation album cobbled together 2 years after they broke up, so no surprises that it's a bit thin.

"...through the HOLES in your STRING VEEEEEEEEEST!"

I got the "chien" reunion album.

Um, they miss Viv. Badly.

Oh, it's not absolutely terrible. But.

Friend of mine had me convinced that BDDDB did Winchester Cathedral, largely on the evidence of one MP3 ID3 tag and one cartoon credit (Clive the frog). Seems that he was mistaken.

You know what's "look at me I'm" wonderful right now?

Scouring Youtube for classic BDDDB filmclips, and finding a festival gig in three parts in perfectly good sound/pic!

I say "sound" but I've not heard it yet. But judging from the picture quality...

Here's part two, the rest you can find...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLX5dlum3yk

Am really digging their song "Don't Get Me Wrong"...sounds kind of like Lennon-led Beatles (sort of like "Dig a Pony").

where's that from?

Let's Make Up and Be Friendly

Heard the strains of "I'm the urban spaceman" on the One show last night, thought "Oh, another useful background for some bloke who likes science fiction", but no:

A whole 10 minutes about the Bonzo's! W/ Neil Innes today, a bunch of film bits that you can see on Youtube (even now), but better quality, and Viv Stanshall of course.

A nice b/day surprise...

My pink half of the the drainpipe separates me from the incredibly boring story of your life in all its minute and tedious attention to detail, and "Was it a Thursday or a Wednesday .... ?" - Well I don't know if you are normal, but if you're normal then I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life and I will baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses and quotations from "Now we are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head.

SO THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

― Bumfluff, Friday, 6 August 2004 20:03 (5 years ago) Bookmark

^this

"Equestrian Statue" remains one of Alice's favourite songs to sing.

And mine.

"It's a sight to bring you joy
You feel so gay..."

Mark G you are bringing yr kids up right.

A couple years ago, they did a version of "Monster Mash", based strongly on the Bonzo's version.

(It's on a thread around these parts, the link is still valid)

i need to get this stuff.

Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head.

Gah, and all the years I've heard that as "Lord Snoopy's...." I've now properly Googled and understood the source.

http://childrensbookshop.com/images/bookimages/66/66589.jpg

are there any other bands names after the Bonzos apart from Death Cab For Cutie and Poisioned Electrick Head?

er....Busted?

Real answer is Sofahead.

there was a magazine named after the bonzos. does that count?

this is great for anyone who hasn't seen it. i came across it whilst looking at bonzo vids one night. comes in three parts. watch it when you have the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACm2wGbpu4A

Which magazine? Trouser Press?

Thanks for that link by the way. I will watch that tonight for sure.

I bought the Poisoned Electrick Head album just because their name was a Bonzos reference.

I think my step dad bought me Gorilla when I was about 11, it was one of the first records I remember owning.

BDDDB are an ideal band to introduce children to. At that age they sound like the Beano's house band and then later you realise there is loads of stuff going on and most of the funny songs are spot on pastiches.

I had tickets to see Viv but sadly he went and died.

There's a GREAT bootleg DVD collection of all their promotional films which is a must see, maybe even more important than hearing the records. Really weird avant garde performance art stuff with bizarre masks and miming. British comedy strangeness 100x stranger than Monty Python.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6rc448Gs14

Craig Ferguson opens with "Look Out There's A Monster Coming". Great fun. Killer song, new to me.

One of my favourite Bonzo songs, and some of Viv's best lyrics..

Also inspired the screen name i've been using for the past few months..

Sky Arts had (has?) a half-hour "Bonzo's Live" show on last night.

Damn. Does anyone have access to a 'play-it-again' version?

anyone?

Our apologies for the late change to the schedules which was due to unforeseen circumstances with the delivery of the programme. The Bonzos are now scheduled for 14 Feburary at 6:30pm, and repeating on 15 and 18 Feb.

http://www.skyarts.co.uk/music/article/the-bonzo-dog-doo-dah-band/

Mark, if it's the live stuff from the Bilzen Festival as per the picture on the Sky webpage, then all that stuff's on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6VCtIXwVV4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLX5dlum3yk

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

^^^ was so psyched when I found these on youtube, finally being able to put visuals to the audio I've been listening to for years. (Interesting that they launch several times into the "Fuzzy dice..." line from Zappa's "Dog Breath.")

ok Sky Arts, you win..... I wish we have Sky now......

Yeah, that was my thought..

NickB, yeah thanks, I did manage to d/l those off Youtube back when you could do that.

I was more "wow, not rubbish quality broadcast! Yeah!"

So, I have a month to find someone to 'save' it for me?

.. anyone?

Is this still going to happen?

Did anybody catch this?

neil innes is playing at the port washington public library on long island, may 5.

I picked a random episode of "Do not adjust your set" and played it for the kids (and me, obv).

Bear in mind, this was my favourite prog back when it was originally transmitted, but was thinking that it may well have dated badly and/or of little interest to the kids (like the Banana Splits DVD boxset, which we could only watch approx 2 episodes before seeing that they were all pretty much exactly the same, and the inserted bits of "Danger Island" were poor stuff by todays standards, the cartoons being ... um, OK.)

Anyway, as we discussed, this was my generations' "Sorry I've got no head", but whereas that has Sue Perkins and Marcus Brigstoke making up for slightly inferior writing by mugging furiously, this has Denise Coffey and David Jason. Along with some Pre-pythons and the Bonzos obviously.

But, you know what, it's as strange and funny as it was at the time. "Captain Amazing" is a truly surreal 'silent'/b&w film episode thing...

"Captain Amazing" is a truly surreal 'silent'/b&w film episode thing...

... but not funny though. Sue Perkins isn't in "Sorry I've got no head", thank fuck

Oh it's the other one, innit?

(In my defence, there is an episode of "QI" where Stephen Fry calls Sue Perkins "Mel"...)

innes was charming the other night at the library. he had everybody singing and stomping along, from curiosity seekers to the folks who'd brought stacks of bonzos albums for him to sign.

Film with "Canyons Of Your Mind" in it. What was it???