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. Th.....MORE.....(full Bonzo Dog Band biography) ←