Bonzos are still crazy after 40 years

Next week, 40 years after they first emerged from their psychedelic kennel, the chaotic ensemble descend upon Edinburgh's Usher Hall with their own distinct mix of comic songs, madcap sketches, and maybe even the odd exploding robot.

The Bonzo Dog Dada Band, as the group was originally known, was one of the many British art college bands, such as The Who, to emerge in the early Sixties, and was formed on September 25 1962 by Vivian Stanshall and fellow student Rodney Slater.

"The name Doo-Dah comes from Dada, the early 20th century art movement we've always felt very close to in terms of pushing the frontiers of what is almost silly and rubbish to see if it comes full circle to be on the same parallel with what is actually real and serious," explains Neil Innes, one of eight original band members reunited for the anniversary tour.

"In the early 60s we were all at different art schools. I met Vivian and Rodney at Newcross, near Goldsmith College where I went to art school. They went to Central, somebody else went to the Royal College. How we met was all really haphazard, but as many as nine or ten of us would play in the Royal College of Art canteen every Tuesday night."

It was when Innes and fellow Bonzo Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell got fed up driving from South London to South Kensington for the weekly performances that the band were finally unleashed onto the public.

"We found this pub called The Bird In Hand, in Forest Hill, which had a big back room and no customers, and asked if we could play there. Then we talked the others into meeting us half way and decided to pass the hat around to cover our costs.

"When we started playing the place soon filled up and a vast amount of beer was consumed, which pleased the landlord who asked us back and put 25 in the hat.

"So really, our professional career started as an art student benevolent fund," he says with a laugh.

Influenced by the likes of The Alberts, a comedy/music troupe of the 50s, and The Goons, The Bonzos quickly developed a cult following with bizarre ditties such as Little Sir Echo.

"We used to dress up in any old thing and for at least two years just mucked about. But there was a point where we became a professional outfit - but we decided not to take notice of it because the last thing we wanted to be was showbiz twits," says Innes.

"Eventually it was Viv and Larry who said: 'Let's get all these gangster-style suits and start wearing similar things'. They were responsible for the look of the band, I was misery guts who kept saying: 'Let's all play the same chords at least 80 per cent of the time'."

Despite eschewing the commercial pop world, The Bonzos couldn't help but chart in 1968 with the Paul McCartney-produced single, I'm The Urban Spaceman, which got to No 5 - they also made a fleeting appearance in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour.

"The Beatles used to come and see us in the days when they had to wear false moustaches to go out," recalls Innes.

"Paul was down the speak-easy with us one night when Viv was moaning that we had to make a single. We didn't want to, but our manager was insisting. So Paul said: 'I'll produce it'.

"There was this wonderful moment when we told our producer/manager that we would make a single, but that he wasn't producing it. He asked: 'Who do you think you are going to get?' There was a lovely pause before we replied: 'Paul McCartney'. "

Less than a decade after they first started raising laughs the Bonzos decided to call it a day.

"It was a mutual decision. For a couple of years there had been no concerted effort to think about where we were going. People would just think of something and do it - if it got a laugh it stayed in.

"But it was when Roger's wife had a miscarriage and no-one told him for three days that we made our minds up. We all rallied around him, we were in America with TV specials all lined up, but we said: 'Right we'll go home'. And that seemed a good enough point to go home and quit while it was still good."

Sadly missing from the Bonzo's anniversary reunion will be Stanshall, who was found dead after a fire at his Muswell Hill flat in 1995.

Instead, for the Edinburgh concert, Comic Strip star Adrian Edmonson and funnyman Phill Jupitus will make guest appearances with the band.

"When Adrian Edmonson turned up for rehearsal he immediately said: 'No one of us can replace Vivian, but at least we can get the best out of the songs'," says Innes.

"And that is exactly what I'd hoped. And I think we do it in the spirit of a fond looking back, and a way of remembering some of Viv's excellent humour and mischievous talent."

• The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Monday, 7.30pm, 27.50, 0131-228 1155

Win tickets to see the Bonzos

The Guide has teamed up with the Usher Hall to give two lucky readers the chance to win a pair of tickets for Monday's Usher Hall concert.

The winners will also be presented with a copy of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band 40th Anniversary Celebration on DVD, featuring special guests Adrian Edmonson, Stephen Fry, Phill Jupitus and Paul Merton.

To enter simply e-mail your name, address and contact telephone number to [email protected] with the word DOO in the subject line by midnight on Sunday.

Winners will be chosen at random. Usual Evening News rules apply. The editor's decision is final.