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Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Still Barking: Boxset Review

John Barlass
bonzo

The definitive Bonzo Boxset: 7 years in the making and featuring just about everything that the Bonzos ever committed to vinyl, tape or celluloid.  The Bonzo completist’s dream product…

Release Date:  14th December 2024

Label: Madfish Music

Formats: 17xCD, 3xDVD plus extras

A TOUGH 7 YEARS – BUT THEY MADE IT!

Hi there! – Happy you could stick around…!!

It was a tough seven years and three of those who set out on the voyage to bring this definitive boxset compilation of the (almost) complete works of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band didn’t make it to the final destination.  Along the way, there were challenges to unearth recordings that, it was thought, may have been lost forever and, overshadowing the entire enterprise, the right of these pioneers of comedy rock to use their own name – the name by which we all know and love them – was won after fighting a potentially crippling court case.  But they made it, and Still Barking, a gargantuan collection of (literally) all things Bonzo is finally with us.

The boxset was the brainchild of Neil Innes, The Bonzos’ musical spearhead.  Sadly, Neil was one of those, along with erstwhile bassist Vernon Dudley Bowhay-Nowell and percussionist Martin Ash (better known as Sam Spoons) who didn’t get to see the culmination of this mammoth project.  Nevertheless, Still Barking was steered over the finishing in line, with the three surviving Bonzos – “Legs” Larry Smith, Rodney Slater and Roger Ruskin-Spear at the project’s helm.  And proud mariners they are indeed.

A GLORIOUS PACKAGE

It’s a glorious package, of that there’s no doubt.  The sheer volume of stuff that’s included is positively mind-blowing.  It isn’t cheap by anybody’s reckoning but the Bonzos’ fanbase is a highly-committed one and there’ll be no shortage of fans willing to shell out around £250 for a package that features:

super deluxe

A limited edition ‘Super Deluxe’ version of the boxset also features:

PARLEZ-VOUS BONZO?

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band surely need little introduction.  Formed in 1962 by art college students Vivian Stanshall and Rodney Slater, they began life as a traditional jazz ensemble with a stock-in-trade that leaned heavily on parodies of the popular music of the 1920s and 1930s.  Their art school training encouraged the nascent band to think outside the box and it wasn’t long before elements of other music styles – Mariachi, pop and psychedelia, for example – started to find their way into the band’s repertoire, alongside slapstick comedy and bawdy seaside humour.  They were welcomed by London’s burgeoning underground scene and became firm favourites of many of the movers and shakers of the day – and they acted as an effective moderating force for those around them who may, otherwise, have been tempted to take themselves a little too seriously.

The impact of the Bonzos is as strong today as it was when the band were at their peak.  The members of their fanbase are a special breed: mainly (but by no means exclusively…) males in the age range 65-85, they speak a special language, a language that’s peppered with instantly recognizable statements and catch-phrases.  Kindred spirits are spotted by their utterances of snippets like: “Hark, I hear the Temple Bells,” “Have you watered the brains today, Igor?” “I see you have the same problem with your trousers that I do” and, after listening to someone recall a tale of woe, “Sometimes, you just can’t win.”  Celebrity fans such as Stephen Fry, Adian Edmondson, Phil Jupitus and Paul Merton have all been known to speak “Bonzo” and, If you’ve read this far, I reckon that you probably speak it yourself.  If you don’t, you’ll definitely know someone that does.

TREASURES – FAMILIAR AND BURIED

The majority of Bonzo followers will probably already own a significant chunk of the audio material included here.  The band’s five original studio albums – Gorilla (1967), The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse (1968), Tadpoles (1969), Keynsham (1969) and Let’s Make Up and Be Friendly (1972) variously in mono and stereo formats, are spread over discs 1-7 of the set. 

They’re fine albums, all of them, and across their tracklistings, there are so many songs that, truly, have made my life worthwhile.  Cool Britannia, Jollity Farm, The Intro and The Outro, Big Shot (Gorilla), We Are Normal, Trouser Press, My Pink Half of the Drainpipe, Rhinocratic Oaths (Doughnut…), Hunting Tigers Out in Indiah, I’m The Urban Spaceman, Mr Apollo, Canyons of Your Mind (Tadpoles), You Done My Brain In, The Bride Stripped Bare By ‘Bachelors,’ Sport, Mr Slater’s Parrot (Keynsham), and The Strain, Rawlinson End and Bad Blood (Let’s Make Up…) are all delightfully daft tunes, all performed masterfully, and it’s impossible to tire of any of them.

singles

The compilation of singles that constitutes Disc 8 of the set is exhaustive in the extreme – 27 tracks that start with The Bonzos’ 1967 debut single, My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies bw I’m Going to Bring a Watermelon to My Girl Tonight, through the chartbusting I’m the Urban Spaceman (a #5 UK hit in 1968) and including US and German releases of songs like Mr Apollo and Canyons of Your Mind. 

Again, much of the material on this disc will be familiar to hardcore Bonzo followers but, perhaps, the real item of buried treasure on Disc 8 is the cod-reggae No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In (Heigh Ho).  It’s a previously unreleased song from the 1972 Let’s Make Up… sessions, written by Neil and Viv and, with lyrics like: “…Posters in suburbia, experts on TV – don’t let them disturb ya, they’re just the powers that be,” it’s probably even more relevant to today’s political landscape than it was then.

hidden gems

I’m always a little wary of collections of demos, rehearsals and out-takes and I’m usually of the opinion that songs and noodlings that failed to make the final cut of an album are left off for good reason, and the 33 tracks that constitute Discs 9 and 10 to this boxset certainly offer a case to support that point of view but, having said that, there are quite a few gems hidden amongst the alternate versions of well-loved album tracks. 

The 1930s jazz of On Her Door Step Last Night, complete with sound effects worthy of My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies and a sax sound that replicates Harry Corbett’s Sweep puppet, would have slotted comfortably onto any of the Bonzo albums; the band’s wonderfully camp version of Sonny & Cher’s Bang Bang is hilarious and it’s fascinating to hear how Viv’s ultra-English tones manage to deliver a convincing, smooth version of Blue Suede Shoes. 

The uncut version of Rhinocratic Oaths serves to demonstrate just what a stroke of genius it was to suddenly cut the album version of the song as soon as Viv’s anecdotes were delivered and the parallels between The Bonzos and The Mothers are made obvious by the manic doo-wop of The Mr Hyde in Me.  Boo is a light-hearted ghost story that would have sat comfortably alongside Monster Mash on the Tadpoles album and Boiled Ham Rhumba, The Bonzos’ ode to a tin of cat food might be throwaway, but it’s tremendous fun.

Things, maybe, start to flag a bit with Disc 12 of the set.  Dubbed The Studio Bonzo Backings, the disc collects a batch of lo-fi studio lark-abouts.  They’re funny and, for Bonzo archaeologists, they’ll be fascinating but, in truth, Disc 11 is of lasting interest only to the real completists amongst us.

AUDIO HIGHLIGHTS

Perhaps the real audio highlights of this extensive collection can be found amongst the 61 tracks extracted from BBC sessions that took place between November 1967 and April 1969 that occupy Discs 13-15.  Songs of the day are delivered in styles that range between pared-back and utterly anarchic – the performance of Monster Mash on the 5th December 1967 edition of Top Gear is particularly notable in this respect – with lots of offbeat fun thrown in for good measure.  The 12-second burst of Gary Puckett’s Young Girl isn’t to be missed and the band’s parody radio show, The Craig Torso show is a slice of classic Bonzo mayhem. 

a good year for spoof radio broadcasts

1967 was a good year for spoof radio broadcasts; The Who devoted a whole album to the concept when they released The Who Sell Out in December of that year, but The Bonzos beat them to it – albeit by only a month – with this glorious routine.  It’s almost believable in places and, with its jingles (“Craig Torso is wonderful,” sung to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down), phone-ins and a delicious mickey-take of Michael Miles’ Yes/No Interlude from his 1960s Take Your Pick show – performed to the tune of With a Little Help From My Friends, it’s sheer radio gold.

The live performances captured on Discs 16 and 17 are, truth be told, a little on the messy side but, as historic documents, they’re invaluable – make sure that you don’t miss the Bonzos’ chaotic parody of the Pinball Wizard intro that they inserted into their 17th October 1969 Fillmore East set – I assume to the surprise and delight of that night’s headliners, The Who…

A VERY VISUAL ACT…

But, above all, the Bonzos were a very visual act and it is, without doubt, over the three DVDs that complete this boxset, that the greatest enjoyment is to be gained.

The Bonzos made their first TV appearance in early 1966, when they performed a version of Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey on Blue Peter and that appearance is included in this set, alongside appearances on ITV’s New Faces and that excellent Colour Me Pop performance.. 

Not included is the cameo that exposed The Bonzos to a widespread national audience when, on Boxing Night, 1967, they were featured in The Beatles’ TV movie, Magical Mystery Tour, performing Death Cab for Cutie.  Some may consider the non-inclusion of that particular clip to be a glaring omission (on the other hand, it’s widely available elsewhere…) but any disappointment on that score is adequately compensated for by the Do Not Adjust Your Set footage that forms the bulk of the video material included here. 

salvaged from the ravages of time

Only 14 of the original 29 episodes of the show have survived the ravages of time and, from those 14 episodes, 12 Bonzo performances have been salvaged.  It was the place at which many of us made our first acquaintances with The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and, if your admiration of The Bonzos dates back to those same post-school Thursday teatime shows as mine does, these clips will bring the memories flooding back.  Viv’s deadpan MC of The Intro and The Outro and, particularly, Neil’s rolling and tumbling ecstasy as he plays the discordant guitar solo in Canyons of Your Mind:  they’re present and correct and, some will no doubt argue, they’re almost worth the price of this boxset on their own.

Still Barking has been a labour of love for the surviving Bonzos and, at times, an agonizing challenge.  It’s a delightful product – something to savour and browse – and it will keep its lucky purchasers engaged for months to come – Christmas is coming so why not give your loved one a very special prezzie that he/she will cherish forever.

We at At The Barrier have had the enormous privilege of chatting to those three surviving band members – have a read of our recent interviews with Rodney Slater and Roger Ruskin-Spear.  And watch out for our extensive interview with “Legs” Larry Smith – coming to these pages very soon…

It was a momentous day! Watch Rodney Slater, “Legs” Larry Smith and Roger Ruskin-Spear realise the fruits of seven years’ dreams, when they unboxed Still Barking for the first time:

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