This band started out as [The Bonzo Dog Dada Band] but in 1967 they became [The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.] In 1968 they shortened their name to just [Bonzo Dog Band,] without a the definite article, "The," in front. Toward the end of their recording years, they went back to the moniker, [The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.] Most people just called them, [The Bonzos.] Created by a group of British art-school students, they combined elements of traditional jazz, psychedelic rock, avant-garde art, and comedy. Besides, perhaps, Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (with whom they were sometimes compared), the [Bonzo Dog Band] were the most successful group to combine rock music and comedy.

FORMATION & EARLY YEARS (1962-1966): Rodney Slater, a saxophonist, had been playing in a traditional jazz band at the Royal College of Art, with Roger Wilkes, a trumpeter, Chris Jennings, a trombonist, Tom Parkinson, a sousaphonist, and Trevor Brown, who played the banjo. This group, led by Wilkes, recruited Vivian Stanshall, a tuba plater, but later also lead vocalist and the player of other wind instruments, as well as fellow art student, Rodney Slater, a saxophonist. It was Slater who christened the band, [The Bonzo Dog Dada Band,] after [Bonzo the Dog,] who was a popular British cartoon character created by artist George Studdy, in the 1920s, and Dada, the name of an early, 20th century art movement.

Not long after two more faces were added to the line-up: Goldsmiths College lecturer, Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell and songwriter/pianist, Neil Innes. According to Innes' website, the Bohay-Nowell was added to Dudley's name by Stanshall.

The band still needed a drummer drummer, and Slater found Martin Ash, who later took the stage name of Sam Spoons. Shortly afterwards, Spoons got them their first pub gig, where they were noticed by Roger Ruskin Spear, the son of the British artist, Ruskin Spear. With his interest in the manufacture of early electronic "gadgets d'art" and sound-making systems, Spoons soon became an integral part of the band.

The line-up changed again with the departure of Roger Wilkes. He was replaced by, trumpeter, Bob Kerr. On Stanshall's invitation, the final founding band member, "Legs" Larry Smith, joined in 1963.

The band played up to 5 pubs a week in the London area, becoming popular with the bar owners for their "drinking" music. People stayed and drank more beer when [The Bonzos] played. Reg Tracey, a music producer, spotted them at the Tiger's Head in Catford, England, and took them under his wing.

Tracey secured a deal for them with Parlophone Records in April of 1966. Their first single was a cover of the 1920s, British classic, "My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies," which was backed with "I'm Going to Bring a Watermelon to My Girl Tonight," the latter being rather too risqué for radio. And a second single, "Alley Oop," a cover of the Hollywood Argyles song, backed with "Button up Your Overcoat" followed in October of 1966. Unfortunately, neither single sold well.

A MOVE FROM JAZZ TO ROCK (1967): Although [The Bonzos] had started out playing jazz, they decided to embrace rock in order to counter claims that they were beginning to sound like The Temperance Seven and The New Vaudeville Band, both well-known jazz bands in England. In fact [The Bonzos] were asked to perform as the New Vaudeville Band, but they declined. Around this time, Bob Kerr left [The Bonzos] and joined The New Vaudeville Band. He later went on to create his own group, Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band, which combined the lunacy of the early [Bonzo] sound with music having a great deal in common with the Temperance Seven.

As the band's popularity increased, they were asked by Paul McCartney, of the Beatles, to appear in the film, [Magical Mystery Tour] at the end of 1967, performing their song, "Death Cab For Cutie." Around the same time, they began appearing, as the resident band on [Do Not Adjust Your Set,] a children's show notable for starring several future members of Monty Python's Flying Circus: Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The band performed every week, as well as sometimes partaking in comedy sketches.

Moving over to Liberty Records in 1967, they changed their name to [The Bonza Dog Doo Dah Band,] and released their first album, [Gorilla,] which included "Jazz, the song Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold" which parodied their early jazz roots and featured some of the most deliberately inept jazz playing ever recorded. The record company allowed only two hours of studio time per track, so it was completed in a single take to allow for the far more complex, "The Intro and the Outro," in which every member of the band was introduced and played a solo, starting with genuine band members, before including such improbable members as John Wayne on xylophone, Adolf Hitler on vibes, and J. Arthur Rank on gong. Other "performers" introduced, who might not be recognized outside the UK are, Val Doonican, Horace Batchelor, and Lord Snooty and His Pals. URBAN SPACEMAN & BEYOND (1968-1970): Now using the name, [Bonzo Dog Band,] they had a hit single in 1968, with "I'm the Urban Spaceman," produced by Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon, under the collective pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth."

The anarchic, twelve-bar blues, "Trouser Press," featuring a solo by Ruskin Spear on a genuine trouser press that he had fitted with a pickup mic, gave its name to an American anglophiliac, rock magazine [Trouser Press.]

"Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?," lampooned the British blues boom, while tap dancer/drummer, "Legs" Larry Smith was an onstage hit with his sexually explicit dancing. Many of their songs parodied parochial, suburban, British attitudes such as the song, "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe," from the album, [The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse] (1968).

In 1969 they released their third album, [Tadpoles.] Most of the songs on this album were also performed by the group from [Do Not Adjust Your Set.] The same year they released their fourth album, [Keynsham,] and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. Keynsham is a small town near Bristol in south-west England. The name of the album was almost certainly derived from an advertisement on Radio Luxembourg for a dubious method of forecasting results for football matches (and using these results in football pools). In the advertisement, which was of great length, "Horace Batchelor," inventor of "the amazing Infra Draw method," would repeatedly spell his postal address of K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M for those listeners who wished to purchase his secret.

Also in 1969, [Bonzo Dog Band] toured the United States with, The Who. and appeared at the Fillmore East Hotel with, The Kinks. Introduced as a "warm-up act" for the real show, [The Bonzos] rushed out and did a series of frenetic calisthenics. True to the dada spirit, Stanshall performed a mock striptease and Ruskin Spear, with a platoon of robots (including one that sang "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" while actually blowing bubbles), did whatever he did without regard for what the rest of the band was doing.

Their performance of the song, "The Canyons of Your Mind," featured such an incredibly bad guitar solo it wound up delighting the audience. The success of the first American tour saw them make another trip at the end of 1969, but they were unhappy on this tour as Stanshall started to suffer from stage fright, which led him to increase his alcohol intake, plus the fact that management shockingly failed to tell Ruskin Spear that his wife had suffered a miscarriage. The band had a meeting and decided to split on their return to the U.K. The group played their final gig in January 1970.

FIRST REUNION (1972): While the group formally disbanded in 1970, their record company compelled them to reunite in late 1971 to fulfill a contractual obligation and record a final album. Titled, [Let's Make Up and Be Friendly,] the album was released in 1972. The lineup of the [Bonzo Dog Band] that made the "Friendly" LP, featured only Stanshall, Innes and bassist Dennis Cowan; although Ruskin Spear appears on one track, and "Legs" Larry Smith on two. Rodney Slater is also listed in the album's credits, as appearing "in spirit."

SECOND REUNION (1988): Various members of [The Bonzos] (including Stanshall and Innes) reconvened again in 1988, to record a new single, "No Matter Who You Vote For the Government Always Gets In (Heigh Ho)." The recording was meant to tie in with a current British election, but was not released in time; instead, the single came out just prior to the next British general election in 1992. The recording was to be Stanshall's final recording with the band, as he died in 1995. Coincidentally, one of [The Bonzos'] song titles, "Cool Britannia," was revived as a media label for late, 1990s, United Kingdom, under Tony Blair.

THIRD REUNION (2006-2008): On January 28, 2006, most of the surviving members of the band played a concert at the London Astoria hotel, to celebrate the band's official 40th anniversary. Neil Innes, "Legs" Larry Smith, Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater, Bob Kerr, Sam Spoons and Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell appeared. There were also a number of special guests attempting, with various degrees of success, to be Vivian Stanshall. The various Stanshall impersonators included Stephen Fry, Ade Edmondson, Phill Jupitus and Paul Merton (who needed to read the words to "Monster Mash" from cue cards at the show). The classic [Bonzo] stage antics were very much in evidence, including performances on the "Theremin Leg and Trouser Press." The show was filmed and was broadcast on [BBC Four] and also released on DVD in May 2006.

A countrywide tour, with Ade Edmondson and Phill Jupitus, followed during November 2006, starting in Ipswich and ending with two nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire, where Paul Merton and Bill Bailey joined in for a handful of songs. David Catlin-Birch (guitar and vocals) joined the band for the tour; Catlin-Birch has also been a member of the bands, World Party and The Bootleg Beatles.

Officially calling themselves [The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band] again, in November 2006, the group released a live double CD of the Astoria concert titled [Wrestle Poodles... And Win!]

On 10 December 2007, the band released their first new studio album in 35 years, a 28-track album titled [Pour l'Amour des Chiens] ("For the Love of Dogs" in French.)

The reunited lineup were due to perform again in [The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band Christmas Show] on Friday December 21st, and Saturday December 22nd, 2007 at the Shepherds Bush Empire hotel in London, but the shows were postponed without explanation. The shows were later played in 2008. Since then most of the members of the band decided to go their separate ways, making another such a full reunion unlikely.

However, Rodney Slater, Roger Spear, Sam Spoons and pianist David Glasson (ex Whoopee Band member) have been performing regularly as, [Three Bonzos and a Piano.] Formed in October of 2008, they have undertaken regular gigs (about 2 or 3 per month), which have included from time to time, "Legs" Smith and Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell and thus now constitute the largest number of surviving [Bonzos] playing together on the planet. In 2010, [Three Bonzos and a Piano] issued a new CD, [Hair of the Dog,] featuring new numbers from all band members and some re-workings of older favorites.

Neil Innes is touring the USA in 2009/2010, having performed a number of shows in 2009 in the UK.

• BAND MEMBERS: The core members of the group for most of the band's career were:
• Vivian Stanshall (trumpet, lead vocals)
• Neil Innes (piano, guitar, lead vocals)
• Rodney "Rhino" Desborough Slater (saxophone)
• Roger Ruskin Spear (tenor sax and various contraptions)
• "Legs" Larry Smith (drums)

The band's onstage line-up varied, sometimes on a weekly basis, and they also invited a number of guest musicians into the recording studio. Additional members of various duration include: Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, Martin "Sam Spoons" Ash, "Happy" Wally Wilks, Tom Parkinson, Chris Jennings, Claude Abbo, Trevor Brown, Tom Hedge, Eric Idle, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Leon Williams, John Parry, Raymond Lewitt, Sydney "Big Sid" Nicholls, James "Jim Strobes" Chambers, Bob Kerr, Dave Clague, Joel Druckman, "Borneo" Fred Munt, Chalky Chalkey, Dennis Cowan, Aynsley Dunbar, Jim Capaldi, Anthony "Bubs" White, Andy Roberts, Dave Richards, Pete Currie, Dick Parry, Hughie Flint and Glen Colson.

• DISCOGRAPHY: Studio albums:
• 1967 [Gorilla] (as [The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band])
• 1968 [The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse] (chart #40) (released as Urban Spaceman in the US.) (as [Bonzo Dog Band])
• 1969 [Tadpoles] (chart #36) (as [Bonzo Dog Band])
• 1969 [Keynsham] (as [Bonzo Dog Band])
• 1972 [Let's Make Up and Be Friendly] (as [Bonzo Dog Band])
• 2007 [Pour l'Amour des Chiens](as [The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band])
• 2010 [Hair of the Dog] (as [Three Bonzos and a Piano])

• Singles:
• 1966 "My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies" / "I'm Going to Bring a Watermelon to My Girl Tonight" (Parlophone R5430.)
• 1966 "Alley Oop" / "Button Up Your Overcoat" (Parlophone R5499.)
• 1967 "Equestrian Statue" (Liberty LBF 15040.)
• 1968 "I'm the Urban Spaceman" (UK Singles Chart: #5) (Liberty LBF-15144.)
• 1969 "Mr Apollo" (Liberty LBF-15201.)
• 1969 "I Want To Be With You" (Liberty LBF-15273.)
• 1972 "King of Scurf" (U.S.) / "Slush" (UK)
• 1992 "No Matter Who You Vote For the Government Always Gets In (Heigh Ho)"

• Compilations and miscellaneous:
• 1970 [The Best of the Bonzos]
• 1971 [The Alberts, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Temperance Seven]
• 1971 [Beast of the Bonzos]
• 1974 [The History of the Bonzos]
• 1983 [Some of the Best of The Bonzo Dog Band]
• 1984 [The Very Best of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band]
• 1990 [The] Best[iality of the Bonzos]
• 1990 [The Best of the Bonzo Dog Band]
• 1992 [Cornology]
• 1995 [Unpeeled]
• 1996 [Everybody Loves Irony]
• 1997 [Buddha Is on Mars]
• 1999 [Anthropology: The Beast Within]
• 2000 [New Tricks]
• 2002 [The Peel Sessions]
• 2006 [Wrestle Poodles... And Win!] (Recorded live.)

• IN POPULAR CULTURE:
• They are mentioned a couple of times in Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel [Inherent Vice] (pp 56, 289.)
• The psychedelic rock band [Poisoned Electrick Head] took their name from the last three words of the [Bonzo]'s song, "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe."
• Indie-rock band, Death Cab For Cutie, took their moniker from [The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band]'s song by the same name.