55-540: Neil James Innes ( / ˈ ɪ n ɪ s / ; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland . He co-created
110-409: A heart attack on 29 December 2019 at Montcuq , Lot, France, where he had lived for several years. Fellow entertainers, including John Cleese and Stephen Fry , paid tribute to him. The League of Gentlemen star Mark Gatiss also paid tribute to Innes. Comedian Diane Morgan called him "one of the nicest people I've ever met and a towering talent," and director Edgar Wright said he was "forever
165-547: A Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 1966. While still at Goldsmiths, Innes joined a semi-professional college band originally called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band (after Bonzo the dog , an illustrated cartoon character from the 1920s, and the art movement Dada ), which was later renamed the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band after the group tired of constantly explaining the concept of Dada to confused onlookers (and later still
220-621: A Church Policeman in the "Salvation Fuzz" sketch. Innes wrote original songs for the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), such as "Knights of the Round Table" and "Brave Sir Robin". He appeared in the film as a head-bashing monk, the serf crushed by the giant wooden rabbit, and the leader of Sir Robin's minstrels. He also had small roles in Terry Gilliam 's Jabberwocky (1977) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), and performed
275-591: A character based on John Lennon , while Idle portrayed Dirk McQuickly (a character based on Paul McCartney ), and the fictional group briefly performed 'I Must Be In Love', a suitably Beatlesque pastiche written by Innes. Eric Idle later played a videotape of the Rutles sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1976 during an appearance as guest host, and the favourable response led to a 1978 American-made spin-off TV movie, All You Need Is Cash , with Innes and Idle again playing Nasty and McQuickly. While Idle and Innes co-created
330-428: A co-writing credit for Innes from Beatles-influenced band Oasis , for their 1994 song " Whatever ", as it directly lifted parts of its melody from Innes' 1973 song " How Sweet to Be an Idiot ". This event was subsequently referenced in the Rutles' song "Shangri-La" on their 1996 reunion album The Rutles Archaeology , which was itself a parody of The Beatles Anthology . After Rutland Weekend Television , Innes made
385-487: A composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. At the band's creative peak in 1968 and 1969, Innes, alone and together with Stanshall, composed most of the band's original material, including his solo composition (and sole Bonzos hit) " I'm the Urban Spaceman ", (produced by Apollo C. Vermouth, a collective alias for Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon ), and " Death Cab for Cutie " (with lyrics by Stanshall), which featured in
440-739: A fan" of Innes. On 28 November 2024, a one-off concert "A Celebration of the life of Neil Innes: 'How Sweet To Be An Idiot'" was held at the Indigo at The O2 in London, featuring Innes's music played by colleagues and admirers, as well as poetry and comedy. Artists included John Altman , Charlie Dore , Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam , Maddy Prior , Adrian Edmondson , Tom McGuinness , Roger McGough , Yo La Tengo , Terrafolk , Andy Roberts , "Legs" Larry Smith , Luke Innes, Kevin Eldon , Isabella Coulstock, Joe Stilgoe , The Rutles and Emo Philips among others, and
495-679: A few Bonzos and Python items. In late 2010, Innes announced the formation of the Idiot Bastard Band, a comedy musical collective featuring himself, Adrian Edmondson , Phill Jupitus , Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron . The band debuted, with an 8-week residency, at the Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell , London in December, playing a range of comedy songs old and new, with deliberately little rehearsal. New concerts were scheduled in 2011. Jupitus
550-488: A following with several Opie and Anthony appearances which led to two specials on Comedy Central. He performed on Broadway with the production of Grease . With over 12 million albums sold, song parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic remains the highest-selling comedy act in history, with his 2014 album Mandatory Fun having debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 , the first comedy album to do so since Allan Sherman ' s My Son,
605-420: A move to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1998, Wallace worked as a producer and player. Among his later studio recordings there were sessions with Kim Richey , Tim Krekel , Rick Vito , Dean Dillon, Rosie Flores , Jessi Alexander, producer Gary Nicholson , Steve Ripley , Jan Pulsford, Tim Hinkley , Charlie Taylor, Rodney Crowell and the legendary songwriter Dan Penn . He also performed live with T. Graham Brown ,
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#1733084849920660-507: A number of later archival releases. In May 1972, at the end of a U.S. tour, he and fellow Crimson members Mel Collins and Boz Burrell left the band and went to work for Alexis Korner 's Snape. By 1974, he was the drummer with blues rock band Oily Rags, featuring alongside pianist Chas Hodges and bassist Dave Peacock ; when that duo launched themselves as Chas & Dave a year later, Wallace contributed to their first album. Wallace subsequently worked with Steve Marriott's All-Stars and
715-615: A short-lived touring band named Freaks with Keith Moon on drums. This in turn led Innes and Stanshall to a union with The Scaffold and other musicians, poets and performers later that year as GRIMMS . While Stanshall effectively bowed out of this group soon after its formation, Innes remained as one of the permanent core members for the next five years, working with Andy Roberts , Roger McGough , John Gorman , Mike McGear , Dave Richards, Brian Patten , Adrian Henri , John Megginson, future Rutles bandmates Ollie Halsall and John Halsey , and Gerry Conway (among many others). Although GRIMMS
770-427: A solo series in 1979 on BBC television, The Innes Book of Records , which ran for three series until 1981. The series offered an early example of music-video presentation, albeit on a shoestring BBC budget, centred around new recordings and alternate versions of many of Innes' older compositions along with new material written specially for the show. In keeping with Innes' usual whimsically surreal style, each episode
825-697: Is one of only two non-Pythons ever to be credited writers for the TV series, the other being Douglas Adams (who co-wrote the " Patient Abuse " sketch, also featured in "Party Political Broadcast"). He appeared on stage with the Pythons in the UK and Canada in 1973, in London in 1974 and in New York City in 1976, performing the Bob Dylanesque "Protest Song" (complete with harmonica) on the album Monty Python Live at City Center . He
880-573: The Billboard 100 singles chart in March 1982, higher than any of Rush's songs ever charted on the U.S. top 40. Despite selling 40 million albums worldwide, Rush's biggest hit on that chart, " New World Man ", reached only number 21, and thus "Take Off" was Lee's biggest hit. Many bands within the alternative rock and college rock spectrum are known for their incorporation of humorous and satirical songs, with bands such as Barenaked Ladies , Electric Six , Mindless Self Indulgence , They Might Be Giants ,
935-461: The Central School of Art , but Innes' official entry into the band was actually facilitated by his then-landlord and college tutor, Vernon Dudley Bohay Nowell, who happened to be the band's bass guitarist at the time. Innes' induction into the band proved to be fundamental to their eventual success when he brought a more focused and disciplined musical direction to their efforts, with his talents as
990-789: The ITV network. He went on to play the role of the Magician in the live-action children's television series Puddle Lane , also made by Yorkshire Television . He also wrote and voiced the 1980s children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls , a motley collection of "rejects" from a toy factory. The 65 episodes for Yorkshire Television included the characters Sad Sack, Hi-Fi, Lucy, Dotty, Back-to-Front, Princess and Claude. He also composed and performed original music and songs for children's television, including Puddle Lane , The Raggy Dolls , The Riddlers and Tumbledown Farm . He brought Monty Python's Terry Jones's book Fairy Tales to television as East of
1045-456: The dubstep and heavy metal genres. They have enjoyed success from their online popularity. Another band, Primus , is known for their wacky lyrics and comedic music videos. Gorillaz is a British virtual band whose fictional, animated members parody contemporary trends in popular music. Geddy Lee of Rush did a guest appearance on the novelty Take Off , supporting his grade school classmate Rick Moranis . The song peaked at number 16 on
1100-667: The "godfather" of comedy rock. The pop rock and folk rock band the Turtles released a comedy rock album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands , in 1968, though the band had previously incorporated humor into their songs. Two of its members, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman , later performed more explicitly comedic songs as Flo & Eddie with their own band and with Frank Zappa. Several modern comedy rock bands have experienced mainstream commercial success. Duos Tenacious D and Flight of
1155-467: The 1960s television show Do Not Adjust Your Set . He contributed music to the Monty Python albums Monty Python's Previous Record (1972) and The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973), and played a major role in performing and writing songs and sketches for their final TV series in 1974, after John Cleese temporarily left the troupe. He wrote a squib of a song called "George III" for
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#17330848499201210-661: The 1980s and 1990s. Wallace's studio and live credits also include El Rayo-X with David Lindley , Bonnie Raitt , Joe Walsh , Bob Dylan , Johnny Hallyday , Keith Emerson , Roy Orbison , Jackson Browne , the Traveling Wilburys , Eric Clapton , Jon Anderson , Alvin Lee , Crosby, Stills and Nash , the Quireboys , Larry Coryell , Stevie Nicks , Lindsey Buckingham , Steve Marriott , Al Kooper , Tim Buckley , Lonnie Mack , Procol Harum (1993 tour), and Warren Zevon . Following
1265-599: The 2002 Concert for George , in memory of George Harrison . Innes was occasionally heard (often as the butt of jokes) standing in as the pianist for the BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue . Innes toured the UK in 2006 and produced a new Bonzo CD as part of the Bonzo Dog Band's 40th Anniversary tour. In 2008 he undertook the Neil Innes and Fatso 30th Anniversary tour, playing predominantly Rutles numbers with
1320-613: The Beatles ' film Magical Mystery Tour (1967). Innes won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Novel(ty) Song in 1968 for "I'm the Urban Spaceman". During the same creatively-fertile 1968/69 period, Innes and the Bonzo Dog Band also appeared each week in both seasons of the British children's television series Do Not Adjust Your Set which also featured future Monty Python members Eric Idle , Terry Jones , Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam . Although initially intended to appeal solely to children,
1375-722: The Conchords both released platinum-selling albums and starred in their own respective comedic television series. Dan Finnerty with his the Dan Band has made comedy rock appearances in the Todd Phillips films Old School and The Hangover spoofing " Total Eclipse of the Heart " and " Candy Shop ", as well as his live show, which parodies female cover songs and was filmed as a one-hour TV special directed by McG and executive produced by Steven Spielberg . Stephen Lynch from New York developed
1430-744: The Dead Milkmen , Macc Lads , the Meatmen , the Radioactive Chicken Heads and the Vandals . Heavy metal has also produced many humor-oriented and satirical bands, including Green Jellÿ , Lawnmower Deth , Massacration , M.O.D. , Big Dumb Face , Electric Callboy , Primus, Nanowar of Steel , J.B.O. , Psychostick , Crotchduster, Ludichrist , Bad News , Spinal Tap , Okilly Dokilly and Scatterbrain , whose comedic shtick mostly revolves around parodying heavy metal clichés and ironically spoofing
1485-507: The Jimi Homeless Experience . Other spoof bands such as Dread Zeppelin , Beatallica and Those Darn Accordions rely on unusual or intentionally contrasting genre-mixing for comic effect. The Residents are well-known for their unusual, heavily distorted covers of pop and rock songs. Comedy rock duo Ninja Sex Party , who have collaborated with Steel Panther on occasion, blend rock and synthpop and have produced songs that parody
1540-533: The Moon . He contributed all the stories and music on this production. He was also involved with the popular children's show Tiswas . Also, during the 1980s, Innes wrote and performed incidental music and songs for the BBC TV series, Jane . Jane was a short-form drama series which was shown nightly in 10-minute segments. The weekly episodes were edited together and broadcast in a 50-minute version on Saturday evening. At
1595-749: The Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Rick Vito , Jessi Alexander , and Billy Burnette , the latter in a quartet that included bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash) and Kenny Vaughan (Lucinda Williams). In 2003, he joined the 21st Century Schizoid Band , and released his only solo album, Happiness With Minimal Side Effects . In 2005 he formed the Crimson Jazz Trio with Tim Landers on bass and Jody Nardone on piano, which released King Crimson Songbook Volume One in November 2005 and King Crimson Songbook Volume Two in early 2009. On 10 August 2006, Wallace
1650-572: The Nut in 1963. Rock has been the target of many spoofs and several spoof bands have gone on to have hit records, for example Spinal Tap in the U.S., and the Hee Bee Gee Bees and Bad News in the UK. The band Steel Panther has become a fixture on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip with their parody of 80s glam metal , and their success has opened the doors for other spoof bands such as
1705-500: The Platters , and Sheb Wooley . The latter's " Purple People Eater " reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1958 and stayed there for six weeks. In Britain during the 1950s and early 1960s, comedians such as Charlie Drake and the Goons frequently appeared in the top ten with humorous rock 'n' roll records—the latter, along with Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear , were to influence
Neil Innes - Misplaced Pages Continue
1760-634: The Presidents of the United States of America , Bloodhound Gang , System of a Down , Ween , Weezer , Wheatus and Camper Van Beethoven finding both mainstream and independent success in the United States, as well as successful foreign bands such as Parokya ni Edgar and Knorkator . Punk rock and pop punk has made its contribution to the comedy rock ranks, with such bands as the Aquabats , Blink-182 , Bowling for Soup , Patent Pending , Dead Kennedys ,
1815-561: The Rhine . He took piano lessons from age 7 to 14 and taught himself to play guitar. His parents were supportive of their children's artistic leanings, and his father also drew and painted. After returning to the United Kingdom, Innes received his formal education at Thorpe Grammar School , the Norwich School of Art and Goldsmiths College , London, where he studied fine art. He graduated with
1870-613: The Rutles , a Beatles parody/pastiche project, with Python Eric Idle , and wrote the band's songs. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s ITV children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls . Innes was born in Danbury in Essex. His Scottish father was a warrant officer in the British Army , and Innes spent his childhood in West Germany where his father was deployed with the British Army of
1925-463: The UK university and theatre circuit throughout its existence, releasing a book of humorous poetry, lyrics and photographs in 1974 entitled Clowns On The Road detailing some of their experiences. The final GRIMMS studio LP Sleepers was released in 1976, after which their activities as a group ceased. In the mid-1970s, Innes became closely associated with the Monty Python team, having first worked with Michael Palin , Terry Jones and Eric Idle on
1980-590: The band name was officially shortened to the Bonzo Dog Band). At this point the band, which then had a revolving membership of anything up to a dozen players at a time, largely performed a dada-influenced, deliberately shambolic, comedic repertoire of trad-jazz cover versions at local public houses and college events, to the delight and occasional bemusement of audiences. Innes had met the band's co-founders Vivian Stanshall and Rodney Slater some time earlier when they and bandmate "Legs" Larry Smith were studying at
2035-587: The band). From The Warriors, Wallace went on to join Big Sound. In the 1960s, Big Sound worked in Denmark , Norway and Sweden as a backing band of Danish rock musician Nalle. The Big Sound and The Warriors had been mates, and had gigged together in the Storyville Club, Frankfurt , Cologne and Copenhagen . The Big Sound's drummer and bass player left, after which Ian and The Warriors bass player, Dave Foster, joined
2090-444: The band. When the Big Sound split at the end of 1967 during a tour of Norway, some members, including Wallace, moved to London to back other artists such as Sandie Shaw , David Garrick , Marv Johnson and Lou Christie . Wallace later joined Vivian Stanshall 's BiG GrunT , and then The World with Neil Innes before King Crimson . He appeared on the album Islands in 1971, and on the live album Earthbound in 1972, as well as
2145-596: The episode "The Golden Age of Ballooning", which was sung by the Flirtations but billed onscreen as the Ronettes . He also wrote the song "When Does a Dream Begin?", used in "Anything Goes: The Light Entertainment War". He co-wrote the "Most Awful Family in Britain" sketch and played a humorous stilted guitar version of the theme song, " The Liberty Bell " march, during the credits of the last episode, "Party Political Broadcast". He
2200-556: The event was hosted by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Martin Lewis . Pre-recorded tributes from Stephen Fry , Aimee Mann and Rick Wakeman were also shown. with GRIMMS: The Raggy Dolls series with Melvyn Jacobsen: with John Dowie: Citations Sources Comedy rock Comedy rock is rock music that is comedic in nature. It is often mixed with satire or irony. Early American examples include Stan Freberg , who lampooned artists such as Elvis Presley , Harry Belafonte and
2255-531: The humour. However, by the time their first and only album, Lucky Planet , was released in late 1970 the members had already disbanded and were moving on to other projects. The 1970s proved to be a highly prolific decade for Innes as a solo artist, band member and live stage and television performer. In 1971, Innes briefly reunited with most of his former Bonzo Dog Band colleagues to record their reunion/contractual obligation album Let's Make Up and Be Friendly , and he, Vivian Stanshall and Dennis Cowan also formed
Neil Innes - Misplaced Pages Continue
2310-479: The original Rutles sketch concept, Idle wrote the screenplay for the film on his own, and Innes composed all of the songs for the project without any input from Idle (Dirk McQuickly's musical contributions on the soundtrack were performed by guitarist/vocalist Ollie Halsall while Idle lip-synched them in the film). Innes' songs consequently appeared on the soundtrack album The Rutles , released by Warner Bros in 1978. The songs written by Innes so closely pastiched
2365-540: The original source material that he was taken to court by the owners of the Beatles' catalogue . Innes had to testify under oath that he had not listened to the songs at all while composing the Rutles' songs, but had created them completely originally based on what he remembered various songs by the Beatles sounding like at different times. However the court ruled in favour of ATV music and imposed co-writing credits and royalties. Many years later, Innes' own music publisher demanded
2420-658: The seriousness of many traditional metal bands, while other bands such as Gwar , Lordi and Rosemary's Billygoat utilize outrageous costumes and over-the-top stage shows. The virtual band Dethklok is a death metal spoof featured in the Adult Swim animated TV show Metalocalypse , and their album The Dethalbum debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard Top 200 list. "Pizza" by Attila has 3.2 million views on YouTube as of June 2023. Ian Wallace (drummer) Ian Russell Wallace (29 September 1946 – 22 February 2007)
2475-407: The show's surreal and absurdist nature soon also attracted a large adult following. After the break-up of the Bonzo Dog Band in early 1970, Innes joined with former Dog Band bassist Dennis Cowan, drummer Ian Wallace and guitarist Roger McKew to form The World, a band hoping for "more commercial" success with music ranging from rock to pure pop, yet still retaining some Doo-Dah style and even some of
2530-434: The time of The Beatles Anthology CDs, there was a revival of interest in the Rutles and a new album was released in 1996 entitled Archaeology . In 1998, Innes hosted a 13-episode television series for Anglia Television , called Away with Words , in which he travelled to different areas of Britain to explore the origins of well-known words and phrases. Innes took part, along with the remaining Monty Python members, in
2585-523: The whistling on the latter's hit song, " Always Look on the Bright Side of Life ". His collaborations with Monty Python and other artists were documented in the musical film The Seventh Python (2008), which premiered at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival on 26 June 2008. After Monty Python finished its original run on UK television, Innes joined Eric Idle on the series Rutland Weekend Television . This
2640-578: The word-play of John Lennon 's lyrics. Later British groups specialised in comedy: these included the Scaffold , the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias . Later in Britain, in the 2000s, Mitch Benn released several studio albums that satirised current affairs using various musical genres, but mainly rock. His 2012 Breaking Strings album was critically acclaimed for its rock sensibility. AllMusic described Frank Zappa as
2695-408: Was a Pythonesque sketch show based in a fictional low-budget regional television station, which ran for two seasons in 1975–76. Songs and sketches from the series appeared on a 1976 BBC LP, The Rutland Weekend Songbook . One short sketch on the show spawned the Rutles (the "prefab four"), which was an affectionate pastiche of the Beatles . In the sketch Innes portrayed the character of Ron Nasty,
2750-571: Was an English rock and jazz drummer, most visibly as a member of progressive rock band King Crimson , as a member of David Lindley 's El Rayo-X and as Don Henley 's drummer. Wallace was born in Bury and educated at Bury Grammar School . He formed his first band, The Jaguars, at school, before going on to join The Warriors with Jon Anderson in his pre- Yes days. (Wallace later played with Yes once in November 1968 during Bill Bruford 's hiatus from
2805-592: Was initially conceived purely as a touring revue -type ensemble, early 1973 saw the release of their self-titled live album, followed by a second studio-recorded album Rockin' Duck at the end of the same year. GRIMMS remained an informal enough setup throughout this period to allow the various members to come and go as they pleased and continue with their own outside musical, performing and literary careers, and in 1973 Innes also recorded his debut solo album How Sweet To Be An Idiot , aided and abetted by various GRIMMS. The group also undertook regular and extensive tours of
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#17330848499202860-647: Was introduced as Raymond Scum. After his introduction he told the audience, "I've suffered for my music. Now it's your turn." In 1980, he travelled to the States with the Pythons again, subsequently appearing in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl . He performed the songs " How Sweet to Be an Idiot " and " I'm the Urban Spaceman ". He also appeared as one of the singing "Bruces" in the Philosopher Sketch and as
2915-486: Was invited to join Bob Dylan 's band in 1978 and accompanied Dylan during his tour of Japan. Wallace's heavy drum style was the driving force behind the pop-heavy album Street-Legal . He toured again with Dylan in the early 1990s. In 1977 he also worked briefly with Foreigner subbing some dates after their regular drummer, Dennis Elliott, injured his hand. Other notable work includes Ry Cooder in 1979 and Don Henley in
2970-551: Was linked by a loose and often absurdist theme and also featured an eccentric guest performer (such as Stanley Unwin or Percy Edwards ) or musician (such as Ivor Cutler or Jake Thackray ). Innes' former bandmate Vivian Stanshall also appeared in one episode, reciting his own surrealist monologue about the English seaside. During the 1980s, Innes delved into children's entertainment. This new career path began when he took over from Tom Baker as host of Yorkshire TV's The Book Tower for
3025-529: Was unable to attend due to prior commitments and was replaced by several special guests, including Paul Whitehouse , Barry Cryer and Nigel Planer . Following the death of Brint, the band performed a further tour in 2012. The band's name is a play on Frank Zappa 's song The Idiot Bastard Son . While a student at Goldsmiths College, London, in the mid-1960s Innes met Yvonne Catherine Hilton; they married on 3 March 1966. The couple had three sons, Miles (b. 1967), Luke (b. 1971), and Barney (b. 1978). Innes died of
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