The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
The Bonzo Dog Dada Band started off as an art school band playing anarchistic versions of comedy and novelty songs from the first part of the 20th century. As the line up grew, shrunk, shifted, and metamorphosed, the band began to move into the other musical realms, incorporating everything from Elvis to Kong to Lounge Lizard to Raymond Chandler to contemporary Pop influences.
Their live performances included bizarre props, fabulous costumes, speech balloons, and onstage explosions. All of which was fronted by Vivian Stanshall.
The history of the Bonzos is better covered elsewhere on the net and to do it justice would really require a book, but for a brilliant, comprehensive, and long lost history of Vivian's involvement in the Bonzos and beyond (up until the making of the first Sir Henry album), please have a look at John Platt's work in the
Comstock Lode.
And then there's
this...
And
this.
Vivian always wondered who was listening.
He'd have loved reading the
Italians...
The Bonzo Dogs in 1966
The Bonzo Dog Band on Colour Me Pop December 21st 1968 - go here!
... on page 104 in the hugely fat Mojo Collection of the Greatest Albums of All Time" (ed. by Jim Irvin, Mojo Books, 2000), one will find GORILLA, the "debut album from Britain's best comic-rock troupe".
Vivian in his famous gold lamé suit
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