One More Time Before We Die

Neil Innes on the ‘non-reunion’ of The Bonzos. Interview by John Collis

In the 1960s too many art students were neglecting their studies and dreaming instead of rock ‘n’ roll. The Kinks and Pink Floyd at Hornsey, Mick Jagger in Dartford, John Lennon in Liverpool – the list could fill the page. And, in many of the London colleges, there also lurked a disparate group of Surrealists who vaguely got together, and even more vaguely rehearsed, in the canteen at the Royal College of Art in Kensington. But the magnet wasn’t so much rock ‘n’ roll as silliness – 1920s songs, eccentric costumes, Dada, exploding wardrobes. It made perfect sense.

The Bonzos emerged in 1965, and originally called themselves the Bonzo Dog Dada Band – Bonzo the Dog was a 1920s strip-cartoon character, and Dada after the pre-Surrealist art movement. Explaining the term ‘Dada’, however, apparently soon became tedious, and so it became ‘Doo-Dah’ and, ultimately, was dropped altogether.

Before we return to the 60s, we must know why the Bonzos, decades beyond their prime, recently sprinted so enthusiastically back on the road for an eagerly-awaited tour. So we start at the end, a suitably Surrealist move, with Innes as our guide.

“A company called Classic Rock Video were making a DVD, Inside the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Last September I was doing my show in …

by John Collis
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