Neil Innes

Neil Innes was renowned as one of the greats of musical comedy, a pianist and songwriter who could match satirical lyrics with great pop melodies. Born in Essex and spending part of his childhood in post-war Germany where his father was a soldier, Innes attended Goldsmith's art college in London. It was there that he encountered Vivian Stanshall, Larry Smith, Roger Slater and Roger Ruskin Spears, with whom he formed the nucleus of the Bonzo Dog Dada Band. Tired of explaining what the Dada art movement was, the band then changed their name to the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They were influenced by jazz, pop and Dadaism and recorded four albums, 'Gorilla' (1967), 'The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse' (1968) 'Tadpoles' (1969) and 'Keynsham' (1969). They scored a top five hit with the Kinks-like satirical single 'I'm the Urban Spaceman' in 1968, produced by Paul McCartney. They wrote the song 'Death Cab for Cutie' for The Beatles' 1967 film 'Magical Mystery Tour'. Despite their success they split up in 1970. Through the band's appearances on the comedy TV show 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' Innes had became friendly with the members of the popular TV comedy show 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. He became the unofficial seventh member of Monty Python, recording songs for their TV shows and appearing in some of their sketches. His song 'How Sweet to Be an Idiot' appears on the 1974 Monty Python album 'Live at Drury Lane'. He also wrote songs for the Monty Python films, including 'Brave Sir Robin' and 'Knights of the Round Table' for 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' in 1975. Innes famously provided the whistle on Eric Idle's 'Always Look On the Bright Side of Life' used in the 1979 film 'Monty Python's Life of Brian'. He collaborated with Eric Idle on the 1975 TV series 'Rutland Weekend Television' and wrote the series' soundtrack album 'The Rutland Weekend Songbook' in 1976. This lead to Innes' best-remembered project, spoof Beatles band The Rutles, which started as a sketch on the show and spawned the 1978 film 'All You Need Is Cash' on which Innes starred as the John Lennon figure of Ron Nasty. He wrote 20 Beatles parodies for the soundtrack including the Lennon-esque spoof 'Cheese and Onions'. In 1996 Innes recorded another album of Rutles music, 'Archaeology', a parody of the Beatles' 'Anthology' album Innes was also busy with his solo career in the 1970s recording the Beatles-influenced 'Lucky Planet' with the band World. He released the solo albums 'How Sweet to Be an Idiot' in 1974, 'Taking Off' in 1977 and 'The Innes Book of Records' in 1979. With former members of Scaffold, including Paul McCartney's bother Mike McGear, he formed the band GRIMMS, releasing three albums, 'GRIMMS' (1972), 'Rockin' Duck' (1973) and 'Sleepers' in 1975. In the 1980s he moved into children's TV work, providing music and voiceovers for series such as 'The Raggy Dolls', 'Puddle Lane', 'The Riddles' and Tumbledown Farm.' After a lawsuit Oasis had to credit Innes as the co-writer of their 1994 hit 'Whatever', as the song appeared to borrow from the chorus of 'How Sweet to Be an Idiot'. Innes continued to perform live in the new millennium, including the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band reunion at the Astoria in 2006 and a Rutles 30th anniversary tour in 2008. Innes died at the age of 75 in December 2019.

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