A few months back the lovely David Christie of the 'Doo Dah Diaries' asked if I would like to put into words my experiences of being on tour with the Rutles last December.. and this was to be included in the next edition of 'A Pictorial History of Gargling' the Bonzo newsletter, Issue 21, edited and published by David. This particular issue is a special edition celebrating 10 years of the Doo Dah Diaries project.
These Issues, along with the website cover all the correlated news on everything Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band based. David has dedicated years of his life researching and documenting the history, life and times of the band and all the individual members on going projects, Live shows and anything connected. Quite a feat!
David is also the official photographer at Bonzo Dog (and related) shows and has a stock of really wonderful photos.
So, it's an honour for me to be included in this issue and hope you enjoy the read.
You can find all info on the Doo Dah Diaries here - http://doodahdiaries.com and sign up to the newsletter today!
I hope you enjoy reading about my escapades here below.
Bye for now
Phil x
Printed in issue 21 of 'A Pictorial History of Gargling! Bonzo news from David Christie's Doo Dah Diaries
Ho
Holy Shit.. Oh What Fun
Well,
where to start?...
I've
been a fan of the Rutles and Neil Innes since I was a little kid and
I've known Neil since meeting in 2010 when my old band, The B Goodes
entered his consciousness and we were asked to perform with him for 4
consecutive weeks in Ipswich. Great times.
In
2014 Neil asked if I would perform keyboards in The Rutles & The
Bonzo Dog Band at KOKO in Camden for the 50th
anniversary gig. This was a huge thrill, an honour and a bit of a
whirlwind if I'm honest, stepping into a band and onto a stage with
lots of amazing, well known people who were heroes of mine that I had
never met before, for one gig. I didn't know if it would happen ever
again and didn't really expect it to.. So I pinched myself (Ouch).
Roll
on Christmas 2015 and I found myself on a 10 date tour playing
keyboards and singing in The Rutles! Amazing!
This
time I felt a lot more comfortable and was very excited as I knew I'd
be around great people I'd met previously and knew it would be a lot
of fun.
The
band consisted of Neil, John Halsey (possibly funniest man on earth),
Elliott Randall (Legend) and 'Rutling' Ken Thornton (The Rutles
Bible).
Along
for the ride was my good friend Jay Goodrich (hairy), who was asked
to stand in for the great Mark Griffiths on Bass guitar. Not an easy
feat but he was nothing less than excellent, if I may say (and also,
was now the youngest member of the band instead of me, Ha).
Full
band rehearsals took place for the whole of the week leading up to
the tour and we were looking forward to singing the phrase 'Ho Holy
Shiiiit' at people..
The
first 2 dates were with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band continuing their
50th
celebrations in Bristol and then at the Indigo O2, London. We mixed
it up and had some great guest singers such as Michael Livesley and
David Catlin Birch. With a few small variations to the set this was a
bit of a replay of the performance at KOKO, so everyone seemed a lot
more ready and raring to perform, knowing what was expected of them..
but nothing is ever the same when you perform with the Bonzos!
anything could happen! And it did!
I
was able to take it in a bit more this time around and experience it,
chatting to all these great legends as well, lovely people. I also
knew, playing and singing these classic Bonzo songs with all these
great people might not happen again for me.
I
love all their songs and they were such fun to perform - Mr Apollo,
Busted, Urban Spaceman, Pink Half Of The Drainpipe, Equestrian
Statue, Canyons.. but the one that tickled me most was Rhinocratic
Oaths. The sounds I got to play on that song literally made me laugh
out loud every time, as they were such fun and just kept looping
round and round and feeling more absurd each time. Wonderful!
After
these two shows we were off and running as the Rutles, free to be
silly in a new way around North England (mostly) and also up to
Glasgow for a great show.
Over
the first couple of gigs, I was learning about people in the band and
what they like to do on tour. John Halsey always had myself and Jay
in stitches. On the first few dates (in Leicester, Liverpool,
Glasgow..) without us knowing, he would pick on one of us in the
middle of the show, during a song John would switch on a pre recorded
drum loop, then leaving the drums playing, he would pick up his
phone, speak to someone for a bit, finish the conversation by saying
something like “yeah, Love you, bye!” and then say “Oh Phil,
that was your wife”. Just Classic!
We
quickly got into a routine and from the first show it sounded great
(we were tight as a band and not just in our trousers) and any
worries about remembering important parts of songs were all for
nothing. Every Rutles crowd was incredibly appreciative and you could
tell they knew every song inside out and wanted to join in and so it
was a really together feeling.
A
nice moment was coming on stage at the Manchester O2 to the whole
crowd singing Happy Birthday to Neil.. and then later that same gig I
think they ejected someone for being too rowdy and abusive.. ah
Manchester we love you.. Rock n Roll!
For
some reason it seemed the organisers of a lot of the gigs thought we
ate nothing but Scottish Oat Cakes, Houmous and drank Ale, as this
was all they provided.. this did less to prepare us for the gig ahead
but became a running joke and made our bellies swell. Blimey!
Also,
most dressing rooms were curiously lacking in any places to hang your
clothes.. this led to Neil drawing his own very accurate looking
hanger on a wall and fooling others. Oh what fun!
The
big moment in our show that we were building to each night was 'Barry
Woms Christmas Spectacular'. A truly joyous moment when Barry (John)
would don his Santa outfit whilst we would start singing 'Ho Ho Ho..
Oh What Fun' in an old country style whilst he would be followed by a
giant star on a really long fishing line across the stage and start
singing 'IIII was born under a waaandering star'. We would send
people away with 'Ho Holy Shiiiiit' in there minds at the end of each
night. At Norden Farm Arts Centre in Maidenhead the crew had secretly
arranged a giant avalanche of snow to fall on John as he sang this
number. We were all pleasantly surprised and it lasted the whole
song. A great picture. Superb!
We
also had Elliott Randall playing with us, who is a great guy and
added his incredible guitar playing to the show and also his dancing
at one point! He included a little segment of his 'Reeling in The
Years' solo for good measure in the middle of 'Hey Mister'. Along
side Elliott was our own incredibly talented Mr Rutle – Ken
Thornton, who knows every Rutles guitar riff and harmony back to
front and was a great help for myself and Jay being new to it all.
Cheers Kenneth!
The
last few gigs, we certainly felt more finely tuned and were closer to
home playing in Norwich at the Waterfront one night, which was a
lovely gig. This was the scene for one of my favourite John Halsey
quips.. he had just done his spectacular as Father Christmas.. gone
off stage, had a quick change, came back on to Neil saying “Father
Christmas was just here!” and John, with perfect comedy timing said
“Was he young, slim, good looking?” Neil - “hmm... yeeeah”
John said (with a knowing nod) - “could have been me”.
Marvellous!
I
was able to catch this on video, so do look out for it on the
YouTube.
There
were many musical highlights for me, too many to write about all of
them.. but I truly loved and felt honoured being the guy harmonising
with Neil on songs such as 'With A Girl Like You' (probably my
favourite Rutles song), 'Major Happy' and playing all the different
trumpets, strings, accordions, flutes.. you name it on 'Back in 64',
'Doubleback Alley' 'Another Day', 'Piggie In The Middle' to name a
few.. then everyone busting out on 'Get Up And Go'.. great songs,
great gigs.
As
we played our final gig in Corby to a very warm crowd I was aware the
tour had happened and was over too quickly. We were ready to take on
lots of other towns with this great show. I'm hoping we'll get to do
it all again somewhere, sometime and I'll get to be Phil 'Triple
Decker' Jackson (Neil's name for me.. sounds a bit rude if you ask
me) again.
To
everyone who came to the shows I hope you had fun and I hope to see
you soon.
Thanks
for reading.. and the good times.
Phil
A link to my Christmas tour video diary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0bcQr2l2Ug
