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The Rutles: Rock Café 2000, Stourbridge

Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 June 2005

A COMEDY sketch that grew into an cult, the Rutles may be a joke that delivered its punchline almost three decades ago, but 200 or so doggedly faithful fans still turned up when their "farewell" tour passed through Stourbridge on Friday. An affectionate Beatles parody band created for a 1978 TV special by Monty Python's Eric Idle and songwriter Neil Innes, a long-time Python collaborator, the group have been sporadically active ever since. Meanwhile Innes, now 60, has enjoyed a long but increasingly low-key solo career on screen, stage and record.

Total word count of piece: 445

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