Neil Innes
Neil James Innes (/ˈɪnɪs/; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group 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 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.
Neil Innes
29 December 2019 (aged 75)
- Comedian
- musician
- writer
1960s–2019
3
- Parody
- satire
- comedy rock
- Vocals
- piano
- guitar
- banjo
- The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
- The Rutles
- Fatso
- Grimms
- The Secret Policeman's Balls for Amnesty International
Early life[edit]
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 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 a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 1966.[1][2]
Career[edit]
The Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band[edit]
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 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 the Central School of Art,[3][4] 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 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",[5] (produced by Apollo C. Vermouth, a collective alias for Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon),[6] and "Death Cab for Cutie" (with lyrics by Stanshall), which featured in the Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour (1967).[7] 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.[8] Although initially intended to appeal solely to children, 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 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.
GRIMMS and Monty Python[edit]
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 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 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 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.[9]
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 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 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 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 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 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 the whistling on the latter's hit song, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".[10] 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.[11][12]
Singles
Solo albums
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The World
GRIMMS
The Rutles
with GRIMMS:
The Raggy Dolls series with Melvyn Jacobsen:
with John Dowie:
