Author: DOuG pRATt

Pythons before Monty

If you poke around the videos that show up after the Bonzo Dog Band skit-song I used in my last Neil Innes post, you’ll find this amazing video.

http://youtu.be/-VxV0ZjOcQg

Keep in mind this was before Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And these are cartoons that Terry Gilliam did for the programme.

http://youtu.be/edsgfNFjLYw

As I pointed out years ago, Gilliam had met John Cleese in New York in 1965, and they collaborated on a somewhat notorious magazine project. Later, at the same time when Palin, Idle, and Jones were being very silly with Innes and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Cleese and Graham Chapman were working with Marty Feldman.

http://youtu.be/DAtSw3daGoo

So, in a way, Gilliam was the bridge between the two camps — Palin-Idle-Jones and Cleese-Chapman — and Neil Innes was the de facto seventh Python.

And, of course, they just have to knock Belgium, don’t they? 😉

Japan’s K3?

I have been told by a K3 fan that the equivalent of K3 in Japan is a girl group called Perfume.

http://youtu.be/NBCAPakjr8k

Interesting, but no other Pop act in any culture or language can match this. K3 rules!

http://youtu.be/pBEK2h8QuIY

K3’s usual target audience is kids, but they branch out — Karen Damen in particular, who was in a play called Taxi, Taxi.

This is Karen in a TV show that was on, yes, Nickelodeon. Standards are a bit different in Europe!

Barnes is back with his Back Pages

Just in time to celebrate Bob Dylan turning 70 on Tuesday, Barnes Newberry returns to radio with My Back Pages. When? Tomorrow morning at 8! Barnes says…

Okay folks, looks like it is ON tomorrow at 8 am for the debut of My Back Pages with Barnes Newberry. Please join us online at mvyradio.com to pre-celebrate the 70th birthday of His Bobness! Thanks for all your early good wishes (to us both!) and of course, a big thanks to MVY.

WMVY is a commercial FM station on Martha’s Vineyard, and mvyradio is a public Net-only station, and that’s where Barnes will be. It has high-quality (96k) audio, and I’ll be listening on my excellent-sounding Logitech Squeezebox Radio. Note: mvyradio will be posting the complete Neil Innes show I attended last Saturday, A People’s Guide to World Domination, in its archives, and I’ll link to it when available.

Follow-up: Well, that was disappointing. There was a technical screw-up at the station and the show didn’t play over the live stream. It can be heard at this link.

Innes much as Ron’s Nasty

From Neil Innes last Saturday I got a typically nasty autograph from his Rutles alter ego, Ron Nasty.

After Innes and the Bonzo Dog Band were in Magical Mystery Tour with the Beatles, they were on a BBC TV show for kids called Do Not Adjust Your Set, where they met Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam.

http://youtu.be/AI4ekBi5Hhc

During A People’s Guide to World Domination last Saturday night, Innes sang the “Brave” Sir Robin song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail…

… but he didn’t do the famous Knights of the Round Table song, for which he wrote the tune but not the words, which were by Cleese and Chapman.

http://youtu.be/sGAYk5VWkTw

A People’s Guide to World Domination is a wonderfully funny and engaging show, mixing British music hall humor with social satire. When Innes was in town he did this interview, and on his way up to Boston he stopped at the NPR music studios in Washington, for a Tiny Desk Concert. When I saw Innes he didn’t play Urban Spaceman, a Bonzo-era favorite, but you’ll hear it here.

A tip o’ the virtual toupee to Samjay, for spotting a Rutles song in the credits when he saw The Robber last weekend. It’s I Love You, from the Rutles second album, Archaeology.