I mentioned in my post for 5 January, that the split of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band got equal front page prominence in the first week of January 1970 as the departure of two members of King Crimson. And quite right too; Robert Fripp has been responsible for many things, including some of the most sublime music of the modern era, but, as far as I am aware, he has never played a theramin leg on stage. For that, you needed the Bonzos.
As with all great bands, the Bonzos collective genius emerged from the interaction of the principal characters; the great Neil Innes of course, who died 29 December 2019, Legs Larry Smith, Roger Ruskin Spear, Sam Spoons, et al, and the ebullient, troubled front man, Vivian Stanshall. Even as they were filling their contractual commitments with gigs through to March 1970, each was also trying to work out what they were going to do with their careers (the most succesful was Innes).
In mid-January 1970, Stanshall announced the formation of a new group: BiG GRunt (sic), although the band wouldn’t record much under that name except a Top Gear/John Peel Session and a single TV appearance. The Top Gear session was broadcast 50 years ago on 21 January 1970. After the Bonzos, Stanshall had an erratic life and career until his untimely death in March 1995, though he produced at least one masterpiece in that time: Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.
BiG GRunt’s TV appearance was a performance of 11 Moustachioed Daughters, which first appeared on the Bonzo’s second album, The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse, in 1968. It was not, as asserted by whoever posted it on YouTube, a Black Sabbath parody.
Here it is, with Ruskin Spear robots, theramin leg and all:
Recent Comments