I can clearly remember heading South down the MI in the early hours of the morning after Bonzo Dog Band's last gig.
   It had been a riotous evening with all sorts of "famous guests" joining in, most memorably, chief roadie Fred Munt's throat-ripping 'Long Tall Sally'. It was bloody good!
   It was the end of an era - or possibly ear ache - and I was full of conflicting thoughts, mostly sad, and emotionally drained.
   No one said much in the car, a bulbous, gas-guzzling American Ford Galaxy. This was how far we'd come in material terms.
   We had all slipped into a silence of exquisite fatigue with no wit to woo us. It was a special silence. No lambs, just owls.
   Five FUN years of unashamed silliness, endless travel, buying out confused managers, and NO HOLIDAYS, had left us mentally and physically exhausted and we had all agreed it had to end - while it was still arguably good.
    But as the dawn came up over Watford and the North Circular beckoned, I began to think it was not so much the end of something - but the start of something else..
   Little did I know.
   Keen to 'express myself' - without the endless arguing and practical jokes of the others, I threw myself into THE WORLD - with DENNIS COWAN (bass), ROGER McKEW (guitar) and IAN WALLACE (drums) and together - we made an album of what can only be described as honest 'demos'.
   It was called LUCKY PLANET. All about waste and failure.
   It was pathetically serious and, like an adolescent love affair on the rebound, much too soon after the Bonzos. I didn't really know what I was doing and maybe I should have owned up and become a politician - but anyway, at the time it seemed perfectly reasonable to split up before the album was due to come out.
    For the first time in my life I genuinely felt sorry for the record company, then known - somewhat ironically for me - as United Artists.
    Being on of the top session musicians, Roger returned to his bread and butter, Dennis was eagerly snapped up by Vivian Stanshall's BIG GRUNT, and Ian joined KING CRIMSON.
    However, we did make a 'single' - ANGELINA - and together with the B side - COME OUT INTO THE OPEN - it appears on this collection, along with all the other vintages - heroically reassembled by the admirable and charmingly persistent DANNY BARBOUR - scourge of Strategic Marketing departments throughout the developed world!
    I first met Danny in Edinburgh in 1984, almost exactly 10 years ago, and we have been friends ever since we swapped hats and he wouldn't let me buy him a drink.
    Suffice to say that Danny has been utterly tireless in putting this collection together; just as he badgered TIM CHACKSFIELD at EMI about the Bonzo Dog Band CORNOLOGY set of CDs.
    I am now eternally grateful to him for creating the opportunity of restoring this bunch of whimsical and idiosyncratic ditties and for being such a robust custodian of some exceptional musical performances from my chums.
    Having made my own personal mess of THE WORLD, United Artists were very kind to me and MARTIN DAVIS signed me up to writ, produce and record all sorts of things in the early 70's.
    In my own way, I wanted to repay them - by making bunch of silly singles, not least the title piece for this collection, RE-CYCLED VINYL BLUES - at a time when the music industry still seemed to have a sense of humour. Wrong again!
    The bulk of this CD is taken from that period and subsequent album, HOW SWEET TO BE AN IDIOT. It is a complicated story, but I shall try and keep it simple.    
I have never had a career plan and I hope I never will, but lots of things happened around the same time. The idea of going on tour with GRIMMS (please look elsewhere for details!) was just as irresistible as becoming involved with MONTY PYTHON, for me, the perfect group substitute for the Bonzos.
    I got on famously with MONTY PYTHON (they became famous and I got on with them!) but it was with GRIMMS that I really shared a life with such friends as ROGER McGOUGH, BRIAN PATTEN, ADRIAN HENRI, ANDY ROBERTS, ZOOT MONEY, MIKE KELLY, DAVE RICHARD, JOHN HALSEY, GERRY CONWAY and the late but ever wonderful OLLIE HALSALL.
    I know they will all understand why I want to dedicate this collection of songs in memory of him.
    Ollie could play any stringed instrument left-handed, right-handed or upside down - even a keyboard was no stranger to him. He was one of the few - he left us all gasping he could bang two bricks together and make it sound good.
    It was Ollie who introduced me to the brilliant JOHN ALTMAN, who did the arrangements on RE-CYCLED VINYL BLUES and who later collaborated with me so enjoyably on the INNES BOOK OF RECORDS and THE RUTLES.
    But more than anything, Ollie actually played the guitar exactly like I wished I could - bubbling, howling, groaning, screaming - back then, that was what I wanted - and HE could play it.
    You can judge, but now I believe that Ollie, and everyone else, probably understood what I was trying to do with my songs more than I did.
    I have always adored Rock and Roll and all it stood for, but in those days I was also married with two young children and the experience of fatherhood, especially the wonder of seeing the births, had made a profound impression on me.
    In a nut-shell, I was musically floundering between being a 'rebel-rouser', a 'lyrical' poet, a satirist and worst of all - a moraliser.
    I must confess I now wince a little at the odd moment or two of emotional incontinence lurking in between the solid gold reelin' and a-rockin' and the more melodic and thoughtful bits, but I can live with them and we can all be modestly proud that many of these twenty year old tracks sound so groovy and "live'.
    I am forever indebted to ANDY ROBERTS (guitar), DAVE RICHARDS (bass), MIKE KELLY and GERRY CONWAY (drums) and their invention, friendship and support while making the IDIOT album and to DAVE GRINSTEAD who engineered it.
    My warmest thanks also go to JOHN HALSEY who played drums on the singles and to JOHN ALTMAN and his league of gentlemen MUSICIANS and lady SINGERS.
    I'm not so sure that MICHAEL PALIN will thank me for reminding everyone that he was the very nice 'shopkeeper' on RE-CYCLED VINYL BLUES, but I gave him the chance as I was convinced that one day he would go places. I was right - he's been nearly everywhere!
    Big, big thanks again to DANNY BARBOUR, not least for working out the running order, to PHIL SMEE for the inspired art-work, and to TIM CHACKSFIELD at EMI for for his sanguine and wholly amicable support.
    A CD is a wonderful thing, but music only really lasts as long as it's played.
   Ho hum, life goes on ...

                                                        - NEIL INNES