This appeared in Doo/Dah, The Bonzo Dog Band Fan Club
magazine #3.
The interview was conducted by Ira Robbins, who spearheaded "Trouser Press"
magazine in the 70's.
This interview was conducted shortly before
Neil's performance at the Bottom Line on February 20, 1986.
Neil: It's the first
"solo" performance in America. Every time I've been over was always with
the Bonzos or Monty Python.
Ira: The Bonzos tour was something like eight dates, wasn't it?
Ten dates, over six weeks.
We played once with The Kinks and Spirit at the Fillmore East. We did Boston,
Detroit, Cincinnati, San Francisco. Because it went so well at the
Fillmore, Bill Graham put us on a really star-studded bill. There wasn't
really any money but he paid all our expenses, looked afer us and just gave
us a good time.
And the next time you were over was with the Pythons?
Yeah, Python did a tour of
Canada in 1973 I think. We sort of sneaked into Los Angeles and did a Johnny
Carson which was very bizarre.
I can imagine.
It was a big music show with
people like Van Morrison and things like that. I remember being totally out
of place with a duck on my head singing "How Sweet To Be An Idiot" with all
these other "get down" groups. Al Green's's band were particularly nice to
me actually. They had a go on my big fiberglass boots. Everyone fell off!
One of Al Green's guitarist even lent me his pick!
Such things - like the legends of rock ‘n'
roll. You've got a pretty busy career aside from the occasional gig
in New York.
Absolutely! From then, the
Pythons came back here in ‘76, the bicentennial year.
Just to thumb your nose at us!
No no no, it was really to
collect all those souvenir packs! Back in 1981 we did the Hollywood Bowl.
I've been coming every four years or so.
The history of the Pythons from the American view
is totally mixed up. The group had more or less disbanded by the time America
was even aware of its existence.
Yes, and it stopped making
television when it hit with PBS.
The fame grew since then to a point that Americans
still think there's a Monty Python troupe in England that gets together and
makes TV shows, if not movies.
No, just barbecues! No, it's
more or less disbanded. Everyone's gone their own way. I think that is the
way of most groups. Ten years is a good length of time for a group of talented
individuals to work together.
Were you a proper member of Monty Python? You always
seemed to be a fringe member.
Yes, that's right. A sort of
affiliate. Mike Palin was once on record as saying I'm the closest anyone's
ever been to being the seventh Python. The Bonzos and Eric Idle, Mike Palin,
Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam were all involved in a TV show before they
formed Python, so the connection was there. They're all sort of contemporaries.
What show was that?
It was called ‘Do Not
Adjust Your Set'. About 26 shows or so.
It's always been obvious that the humor that invests
the Pythons and makes them popular in America was also exactly the same thing
that invested the Bonzos, which didn't make the Bonzos hugely successful
in America.
Nothing would have made the
Bonzos hugely successful. I mean they were totally anarchistic and we were
all basically out for a good time. Eric acknowledges working with the Bonzos
in the early sort of gave him the idea about his anarchistic approach which
Python sort of controlled in television and were very successful. A lot of
people think you go on television and just muck about but you don't. To do
that stuff it has to be carefully worked out.
The rock aspect of the Pythons I assume is due in large part to the early
affiliation to the Bonzos. You know humor and rock ‘n' roll are not
as obviously intertwined as they've become - that whole National Lampoon/Blues
Brothers thing.
Yeah, sometimes the music business
takes itself too seriously. People who are comedians certainly have
their heros in the music business. I know Eric does - he'd do anything to
do anything with Mick Jagger! It's a crossover, children of the 60's I suppose.
Eric had this theory why it all probably happened the way it did, certainly
in England, was because they abolished national service, the call-up into
the army. Everyone was allowed to finish university and go and do whatever
they wanted. Also the economic climate was favorable, too. Lots of college
people got jobs. It wasn't a question of "Can I get a job when I leave college?",
it was "What job am I gonna do?" I really feel sorry for people now
getting out of college because it is really bad. I don't know how bad it
is here, your economy is sort of booming.
In a weird way. It's good in some industries. People
who have chosen the correct paths financially are doing quite well.
Lawyers! In England it's very,
very bad. A monstrous government.
What was the reaction to the Rutles? I personally
think the Rutles was one of the most fabulous pieces of work. It sort of
excoriates the Beatles, exactly where they need excoriating. I assume it
offended a lot of people.
I'm not aware of it offending
anybody really. It was a labour of love as far as I was concerned. George
(Harrison) was totally involved in it, finding us bits of film - you know
clearing real stuff from Shea Stadium with the other three. There was sort
of compilation that was put together by Apple Corps. There's still and Apple
Corps somewhere. That sounds funny, doesn't it, "there's still an Apple Corps
somewhere." George lent it to Eric and I to look at once NBC had said go
ahead, make the whole story. We thought, what is the whole story, let's have
a look. And it was GREAT! All the early days and everything like that until
it all started to break up. Brian Epstein dies, it was such a downer, the
real story.
It also points up all the
weaknesses, things that were happening at the time when people were acting
foolishly. It's an annotated history of the Beatles.
Absolutely. It also aims a
knee at the groin of these kind of musicologists who stand there and pontificate
about the music business. You know, ‘I'm standing here where it all
started' and lots of silly gags like that.
I thought Belushi's portrayal of Allen Klein was
unbelievable!
There's a slight story to that.
I don't know how true it is but Eric said that word came back that Allen
Klein had seen it, you know Belushi talking to himself in the mirror and
Allen said that's uncanny because sometimes I do talk to myself in the mirror!
It was great to work with the Saturday Night Live bunch.
What was the songwriting like for that? It
seems as if what you did was take a tape and chop it up into little pieces,
throw it up in the air and glue it back together.
No, it was not like that at
all. Actually I tried to remember the various stages that the music went
through. "She Loves You," a very simple four piece line-up with simple recording
in and out and that's it. Then they got more multi-tracked, psychedelic stuff
like that. And I didn't listen to any Beatle songs. I just tried to remember
the moods of the phrases as I remember them. And writing them, the early
ones, were the hardest because I had to remember what it was like - the thrill
of actually holding someone's hand on a first date Really, that was the level
of it. "Hold My Hand" was all about that sort of thing ‘I'm not the
kind of guy who likes to play big brother, but I've just seen your date and
he's outside with another." That's not too far off the mark of the actual
content. The easiest ones to write by far were about swastika nightingales
and fricassee chorus girls. The songs were a pastiche. They took the spirit
of it but just said it in another way. ‘Love Life' was that simple kind
of thing. "Piggy In The Middle" was "I Am The Walrus" but then the similarity
ends. I suppose "Cheese And Onions" is a favorite. It says something about
madame machine/keep yourself clean, all the kinds of things we still fight
for today. The Beatles were special. People say "Are you going to do a Rutland
Stones Now?', but no, there's no point at all. The Beatles were that special
phenomena.
I think "I Must Be In Love" should have been released
as a new hit single. It was as charming as the original.
I think it was released in
England. I was pleased they nominated the album for a Grammy, and I got a
little plug at home.
What category was it nominated under?
Humor. We were beaten quite
handsomely by the very excellent Steve Martin. The comedy record is very
peculiar area because often the lines need an expression to go with them.
My own career sort of suffered in a way, I often need to make faces. It's
a shame no one here has seen the 'Innes Book of Records.'
What do the shows consist of?
I do five songs on each show.
Straight performances?
No. Far from straight. Sometimes
I'm dressed as Batman. I did one as Tarzan with animated little flamingos
doing the ‘yeah, yeah.'
There's an album that came out about two years ago
on the Canadian Attic label and I think its called 'Book of Records.'
Yes, there was one made for
Polydor. It had a few good songs on that.
I thought the track about Los Angeles was astonishing.
It was really intense.
‘City of the Angels'?
Yeah, it all comes from my first experience of Los Angeles, actually, and
the whole business of getting shot because of a speech impediment. It was
absolutely true! It was on the news.
That song seemed a little out of character for you.
A lot of people do only know
one side of me, especially since the Rutles. People in England call me the
"Clown Prince of Pop." It's difficult to say, hey, I do write some straight
songs as well. They may be quirky but their thoughtful observations are other
than plain silly. I like playing silly as well. I mean Shakespeare's allowed
to do dramas as well as comedy, so why can't a silly songwriter be able to
do some straight songs?
You were in Michael Palin's 'Missionary'?
Yes. Everything I've
been in with the Pythons usually ends with something being slung at me. I
don't know whether they're trying to tell me something! In the Holy Grail
I had a cow dropped on me and a huge wooden rabbit! In the Missionary I had
a barstool thrown at me. There's something unpleasant happening to me in
Jabberwocky I can't remember. In Life Of Brian I was hurled into an arena.
I still have a scar on my chin from falling onto my spear.
What records have you made in the last couple of years?
The first solo one was 'How
Sweet To Be An Idiot.' The second one was 'Taking Off.' That was on Arista.
The third was the 'Innes Book of Records.' Then the ‘Rutland Weekend
Songbook', then a double album which is available on a small label
and it's mail order and whoever is interested can always pick it up somewhere.
It's the remains of everything that hasn't been recorded and available from
The Innes Book Of Records. There's about twenty tracks, that came out in
1982.
Is there anything in the works now?
I've been very busy now. I've
been writing a lot, I do have lots of new material. It's tied up in television
specials.
Do you stay in touch with any of the Bonzos?
Yeah, from time to time Larry
comes to see me. I've seen Viv a few times, Rodney I correspond with. Roger
I haven't seen in a long time. He did something on channel 4 (The new TV
network in England.)
What did he do?
Awful things as usual! Terrible
rikki tikki things with bad jokes, but they were sweet. Deliberately bad!
You're either on that wavelength or not.
His records are marvelous but he hasn't done one
in a long time.
Yes, he's like me. He's
disenchanted by the whole scene. Why have a record company and have to write
a record contract? I'd just assume things came out packaged when they were
ready. I was rather hurt by what happened with the Rutles thing. The copyright
owners (not the Beatles) turned around and wanted all the copyrights and
things like that.
The copyrights on the songs you had written? On
what justification?
That they were copies.
They were totally original.
I know they were. I have a
musicologist's report which cost me five and a half thousand dollars which
proves they are original.
Was there a court case?
No. My publishers turned around
to me and said "You owe us another album." I said "What?" They said "Give
us an album of unoriginal material." I said that's it, good-bye. So now I
don't have a publisher. I don't have any record company and everything I
put out with whomever seems to be the right people for the right job at the
right time.
What's your family life these days?
Very happy. Still got the same
family. I live in the country now. I've got a farm. It's not a farm that
I farm, you see. What's happening in England is a lot of big farmers have
bought up the land and that has left a lot of very nice farm houses going
for ex-city people like me who don't have to live in the city. I've got about
four acres with a big barn with an office upstairs which I spend a lot of
time writing and then I do this one man show which keeps me in touch with
the public, which is ideal.
What does Larry do these days?
Larry does a lot of graphic
work, back to painting. He was always very good at that. He's a very charming
man.
What do you reckon has ever become of all the props
that the Bonzos had?
An awful thing happened to
Viv on his birthday last year. He lived in a converted torpedo boat on the
Thames. A very large log came down in a very high tide and holed his boat
and sank it in about five minutes flat. All his possessions and treasured
instruments, books and things just went to the bottom. It upset him quite
a bit.
I hope things go well for Viv. He's enormously talented.
He knows so much about esoteric forms of music. He has a finger in a lot
of instrumental pots. His collection of rare instruments was enormous.
He's lost them all.
Hopefully the fish are enjoying them.
Well if there are any fish
in the Thames, with all the pollution. I think they cleaned up the Thames
actually.
What ever became of GRIMMS?
It was never intended as a
long term thing. It was nice while it lasted. We set aside a month, six months
in advance, not taking anything on for that month to get enough stuff together
in that month and just tour it. We made a couple of albums but I don't think
they were very good albums.
There's some really good stuff on them.
I'm probably being harsh on
it. The live shows were really what we were good at.
Who were the people in it?
They were Liverpool poets.
It grew and shrunk, then it went different ways. Vivian did one tour.
What was the World?
That was my band. It was Dennis,
myself, Ian Wallace and a guitarist called Roger McKew. It was a backlash
of the Bonzos really. I wanted to do a proper band - straight songs, etc.,
realizing in the process it WAS a band actually and I said I don't think
this sort of thing is gonna work out really, my head's not into it. We made
the album very quickly. Actually we never really finished the album but UA
put it out anyway. Robert Fripp came to see Ian Wallace and they went off
partying. They were the best of friends. It was nice while it lasted. I thought
there was something else I needed to do. It just didn't feel right.
That was in between the Bonzos and the GRIMMS?
Straight after the Bonzos.
How did the Bonzos end? Was there one climactic
moment?
We decided it oddly enough
in New York in 1969. We said, ‘What are we doing?' We've done what we
wanted to do really. If we carry on like this... the input wasn't there anymore.
We were becoming better friends, arguing less about what we should do and
we thought - hey, we don't HAVE to do this if we don't want to, and we just
looked at what we needed to do in terms of sewing up everything business-wise
and just went on as doing farewell gigs until we'd sown it all up and parted
the best of friends. That kind of thing only lasts a certain time while the
chemistry's there. It had moments of inspiration and it's better to leave
it while it was still cooking.
I still find the Bonzos an enormous source of
inspiration. They had an attitude that is largely rare in pop music. There's
very little dada in rock music. Most of it is fairly obvious.
That's the way of the world, isn't it? The meek shall inherit the
world as long as it's alright with everybody else!
Thanks to Jim Galbraith for sending us this!
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