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Bonzo Dog Band

Bonzo Dog Band

38 articles

Audio interviews

Vivian Stanshall (1979)

Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, January 1979

The world-class eccentric talks about the old days with the Bonzo Dog Band; demonstrates some of his favourite instruments; explains his love of Dada; recounts some adventures with Keith Moon; expresses his ambivalence towards Monty Python's Flying Circus and chats about Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.

File format: mp3; file size: 53.8mb, interview length: 58' 46" sound quality: ***

Roger Ruskin Spear (1985)

Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, 1 March 1985

The ex-Bonzo Dog man talks about his current activities, and brings us up-to-date with the activities of his fellow Bonzos.

File format: mp3; file size: 18mb, interview length: 19' 42" sound quality: ** (phoner)

List of articles in the library

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Musical Mayhem: Chris Welch on the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 April 1966

"WE'RE NOT doing a Temperance Seven — we're murdering the Temperance Seven!" insisted a defiant member of Britain's most incredible new rhythm ensemble — the ...

Cream, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Nick Jones, Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 4 November 1967

IT WAS A night of great music and brilliant comedy, approaching genius in both departments, when the Cream and Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band starred ...

Taking the Saville By Storm: Cream

Review by Nick Logan, New Musical Express, 4 November 1967

THE soaring, singing guitar, the elegant artistry of Eric Clapton... a tortured Jack Bruce jerking out the blues like a puppet stitched by machine ...

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: The Bonzo's Humanoid Machines

Profile and Interview by Bill Harry, Record Mirror, 11 November 1967

THE HUGE starship from Alpha Centuri entered the Solar System and Computer XII directed it to the third planet from the sun. The expedition scanned ...

The Bee Gees, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Flowerpot Men: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 25 November 1967

THE MOST remarkable show ever held at London's Saville Theatre on Sunday — the Bee Gees with awe inspiring 30-piece orchestra, combining advanced pop with ...

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: Dedicated Idiocy

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 9 December 1967

THE BONZOS' POLICY PAYS OFF ...

The Byrds, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Move, Joe Cocker: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 July 1968

Bonzo's brilliance steals the show ...

Tiny Tim, Joe Cocker et al: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 9 November 1968

ONCE UPON a time in the land of the Charity, a concert was given in aid of all the boys' clubs all over the country. ...

Tiny Tim, Joe Cocker, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 9 November 1968

TINY'S BIG HIT ...

Urban Spacemen DO Exist! The Mad, Mad Mad World Of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 30 November 1968

CAROLINE BOUCHER INSIDE A DOO DAH DEN! ...

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse (Liberty)

Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 21 December 1968

Bonzo's latest piece of art ...

Viv Stanshall, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, at the Pop Think-In

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 December 1968

FISH: I'm trying to become a pisceculturist. I'm less interested in fish than I am in turtles really. I like evil fish of archaelogical interest ...

Bonzo Dog Band: The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse (Liberty)

Review by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 4 January 1969

ONLY JUST received this one, so can't claim much familiarity, but I like it well enough already to want to include it anyway. ...

Loves and hates of Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band

Interview by uncredited writer, Jackie, 22 February 1969

I LOVE ...

The Bonzo Dog Band: Tadpoles (Liberty)

Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 29 August 1969

LIBERTY RECORDS have gone to an almost unusual amount of trouble to supply record reviewers, deejays and other assorted irks with a copious, track-by-thrusting-track run ...

Bob Dylan et al: Isle of Wight Festival

Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 September 1969

200,000 roar approval including John, George, Ringo and wives! But Dylan didn't quite sink Isle of Wight, reports Richard Green ...

The Bonzo Dog Band, the Grateful Dead: Boston Tea Party, Boston

Live Review by Loyd Grossman, Fusion, 14 November 1969

Have You Seen My Bonzo Dog Doo Dah? ...

Bonzo Dog Runs, Fucks Itself

Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1969

NEW YORK — The Bonzo Dog Band, bitter over what they felt was shoddy treatment by their American record company, cut their second U.S. tour ...

Bonzo Dog Band: Keynsham (Liberty)

Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 20 December 1969

BRAVO BONZOS! Never a band to take the easy course or rest on past successes, they continue to advance their unique musical properties with a ...

The Bonzo Dog Band: 'We Were Unsexual, Unattractive And Musically Unexciting'

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 10 January 1970

VIV STANSHALL TALKS TO KEITH ALTHAM ABOUT THE BONZO BREAK-UP ...

The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band

Retrospective by John Mendelsohn, Fusion, 2 October 1970

IT GIVES ME limitless pleasure to inform you that, unless you're a member of a decidedly tiny minority of rock and roll women and men, ...

Vivian Stanshall

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, July 1971

"I take a hell of a lot of drugs." Says Vivian Stanshall describing how inspiration appears. "Then I go out to a hilltop with an ...

Bonzo Dog Band: Let's Make Up and Be Friendly

Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 14 September 1972

Pity.For a brief span of time that segment of the population who dwell happily in out-of-the-way corners of human consciousness had their ideal musical spokesmen ...

Vivian Stanshall: Afloat!

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978

Yes, it's the tang of the salt spray in a Force 9 from Finisterre with regard to this one, hipmates; A rollicking tale which tells how Silver's parrot changed his ...

Vivian Stanshall (1979) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages transcripts, January 1979

This is a transcript of Ira's audio interview with Vivian. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Viv Stanshall: Bonzo Bounces Back

Interview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, July 1979

Perhaps, as the curse of King Tut suggested, some legends are best left uninvestigated. Rock heroes tend to have warts, just like everybody else, and ...

Bonzo Dog Band: Cornology

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, October 1992

AH YES, THE BONZOS. Laugh? Uh. Well, did we? When an expensive CD three-pack of all their albums (plus bits) demands that the critical cobwebs ...

"Vivian, You Look Awful – Where's Your Shoes?" – an interview with Vivian Stanshall

Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, November 1992

SOME DAYS are made in heaven, some days are made in hell and some inhabit a nowhere-land somewhere in-between. ...

Vivian Stanshall 1943-1995

Obituary by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1995

VIVIAN STANSHALL died in a fire at his apartment in London on March 5. At 51 he was the Renaissance man of English absurdity. A ...

The Bonzo Dog Band: Neil Innes

Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, 26 June 1999

IF THERE was ever an equivalent to Spike Jones in rock music, the Bonzo Dog Band were it. ...

Neil Innes: Taking Off/The Innes Book Of Records

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, March 2005

A TV SHOW like The Innes Book Of Records would struggle for a terrestrial timeslot these days, but back in the late '70s former Bonzo ...

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: Pour L'Amour Des Chiens

Review by Johnny Black, MOJO, January 2008

The '60s' best-loved musical satirists return; guests stand in for Viv Stanshall. ...

Flight of the Conchords, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and other pop comedy acts

Overview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 25 May 2008

It's business time for pop comedy again – but why now? ...

ROCK CLIMBING: Jon Stewart Asks, 'Does Humour Belong In Music?'

Column by Jon Stewart, Guitarist, July 2009

HIGH SUMMER, the silly season, is the time to examine humour in music. ...

The Bonzo Dog Band: A Dog's Life

Review by David Quantick, The Word, March 2011

The ever-rising legacy of the Bonzo Dog Band — every shade of music and humour faithfully packaged in one 3CD box. ...

Killer Riffs: A Guide to Parody in Popular Music

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 October 2016

From the Residents' freakish Beatles sendups, to Spinal Tap's meta-metal escapades, to the gastronomic goofs of "Weird Al", a chronicle of those who have turned ...

see also Neil Innes

see also Vivian Stanshall

see also Roger Ruskin Spear

see also Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band

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