Newsbeat

Roger Ruskin Spear talks to Phill Jupitus on BBC 6Music

20th January 2006

This morning, Roger Ruskin Spear was the special guest on Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding's breakfast show on BBC 6Music, to promote the Bonzos' 40th Anniversary reunion gig which is taking place at the London Astoria on Saturday 28th January. Urban Spaceman brings you a transcript.

[Music: Urban Spaceman]

[Music: Trouser Press]

Phill: That is how you craft a record, ladies and gentlemen, sonic invention at its finest, er, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band there, ahhhh, with Trouser Press, and of my various that is from the album Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse, and joining us now from, er, the, er, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, a great pleasure to welcome to the studio Mr Roger Ruskin Spear, Sir! Good morning and thank you very much for coming in!

Roger: Good morning to you, good morning!

Phill: Forty years! Forty years since, er, the inception of what I think was a project by a bunch of art students, to get slightly cheaper beer, errr, and meet ladies. Would I be correct in saying that was the inception of the Bonzos?

Roger: Absolutely, got it in one.

Phill: Mmmmm!

Roger: Beer -- beer, that's what we did ... people used to think we take drugs -- no no no, it's alcohol, that's what fuelled us.

Phill: Quantities available, i mean -

Roger: Not that I drink.

Phill: Your first residency was, er, it was pub residencies that you got in the early days as students. Um, in that, were you all at the same at the same art school? This is something I've wondered, about the, I don't know a lot about the actual origins of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Roger: Well we all came from different art schools, er, Royal College, St Martin's, I came from Ealing -- which in those days wasn't an art school -- really it became an art school, a very pioneering sort of Sixties forefront of art, so we all came from different places. We ended up I think at the Royal College, you know, together.

Phill: And the time is, particularly, I remember particularly in the early days of the sort of music you were playing, these odd tunes that Stanshall would sort of bring into the mix for your sets, I understand that he would by cheap 78 rpm records and find these obscure songs and then you lot would learn them up and ...

Roger: No, no, what do you mean Stanshall brought them in? No, we, er, he came in and nicked 'em off us!

Phill: Ah, there we go! as long as we know, as long as the truth's well out, that's all I care about ...

Roger: No, the band was started by Sam Spoons and Rodney Slater, and in fact I remember seeing them supporting the Temperance Seven when I went to a dance at the St Martin's school. There was this awful band on stage, terrible, making this awful row and about a few years later I was speaking to Rod in the car and it turned out, yeah, that was the original Bonzos, the sort of full band making terrible noises.

Phill: Wow, yes. Cos the Temperance Seven -- again, this was young lads who, you know, in these days would sort of form an Indie band , were playing Trad Jazz. Trad Jazz cos my Mum was a student at the time and she would always bang on about how she loved the Temperance Seven and, er, I know Bob Kerr was sort of doing groups and things as well. What was it about Trad Jazz that attracted the youth, when rock'n'roll was in its ascendancy?

Roger: I have no idea, no idea. We were probably prematurely old anyway, when, you know -- Vernon, who now when you see him he looks just the same, he looked 70 back in the Sixties, so he does look exactly the same -- so we looked a bit old. I dunno, we liked all these old... sort of this old stuff, and actually we were the sort -- you've heard of supergroups? -- well we were the sort of antitheses of the supergroup. We were the people who were thrown out of every other Trad band for playing badly, too loudly... I was thrown out for firing guns and... sort of thing... and we just ended up at the Ken Hotel in, er, Kensington.
I had a Big Band at the time, and I'd given up, I said "I'm not running any more bands, I can't stand... you know, people hitting each other and all this sort of stuff, I'm not going to form a band". So my banjo player said "come down to this pub, there's a band getting away with murder!", he said. So I took old Lenny, me trumpet player and I took big Sid Nichols, a banjo player along, and there was Neil, Viv, Sam with his terrible old spoons and stuff, banging away -- playing awful, and Rod playing continually out of tune, erm, but the audience just went wild. And they were lapping it up, and Neil leant over from the piano and said, er, "great solo, Roger! Join the band". I said "no, no, I'm not joining any bands", I said "I'll come along to the next gig, you know, and then we'll see", and I came along to the next gig, and then next gig...

Phill: and it started this... piecemeal you became a Bonzo, you couldn't resist it.

Roger: Yes.

Phill: Erm, I tell you what, to give an illustration of some of the old songs that were given a nice polish up by the Bonzos, this is another one taken from the Doughnut in Danny's, er, Granny's Greenhouse -- er, Danny's Greenhouse? This is Hello Mabel, I'm hoping because, er, I've got two discs on the go at the same time here...

[Music: Hello Mabel]

Phill: The Bozo Dog Doo Dah band there again with Hello Mabel from The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse, with Roger Ruskin Spear. Technically I've been listening to the Bonzos back catalogue, Roger, in recent days and technically you must have been doing stuff that not a lot of other bands were having a go at. There's some lovely wine-pouring there, animal effects, you were bringing... you were hitting things in the studio (aside from each other, of course), er, it seemed that there was a great deal of imagination, and particularly stereo was a new phenomenon so you were playing around with the panning on stereo and things; was it a lot of fun, the recording process?

Roger: Oh yes, well it was, sort of pioneering times; Sgt. Pepper had just been done on four-track, we did Intro and Outro on four-track, where you, you did everything... but erm, playing things in the studios, Viv used to have the, er, what's it called? It's a large tube with a funnel at the end of it and you whirl it round your head -- whizz it right round your head -- and it's on the end of Urban Spaceman -- that sort of, er, Boy's Brigade, sort of, it's a wonderful sort of tremolo sound, and they set up four microphones, one in each corner of the studio and Viv stood in the middle and whirled this thing round his head... but kept hitting the microphones.

Phill: Ahhhh, well there you go.

Phil: Poor Viv.

Phill: Poor, poor Viv.

Roger: Yes, I mean in those days it was really four guitars and a set of drums and you set it all up and you played. So we came in with all this rubbish and stuff to record, and some people who'd been there for donkey's years -- ancient old blokes with trumpets hidden in bags, you know -- suddenly realise that here's a band that uses trumpets, I'll bring my trumpet out and start playing -- and so it released a lot of old people to help us.

Phill: And another amazing phenomenon that the Bonzos were part of, you sort of became a sort of de facto house band for the Sixties, er, The Beatles would sort of hang out and you were very popular with other groups, weren't you?

Roger: Yeah.

Phill: When did that sort of first... realise, that you were these court jesters for the swinging Sixties, really?

Roger: Well it first happened when we met our first manager, er, who was Kenny Ball's brother-in-law.

Phill: Ah!

Phil: [laughs] Well there you are then.

Phill: So he was connected!

Roger: Yes, a wonderful group called the MacGill Five. I always remember -- do you remember the MacGill Five?

Phill: Look at me.

Phil: [laughs]

Phill: You know I don't! I met Legs when I was six, come on, be fair.

Roger: Well I thought they might still be a legend, but, he even managed them. Erm, they had a hit in the Sixties. Er, no, we, erm, so Reg, dear old Reg, and if you talk to anyone else they will say "Reg sounded like this" but actually he didn't sound like that. It's the words that came out of his mouth, sounded as though he should talk like that but he said "I'll make you famous, boys!" and so he booked us into the Northern cabaret circuit.

Phill: Oh dear God!

Phil: Oooh dear me!

Roger: Which is where bands go when they've had their hit -- to pasture land. The Tempts I think had their one hit and then they... and so we suddenly found ourselves on the sort of pasture circuit before we'd eve started. And so we had to change managers. No, but yes, we were known within the industry. It was sort of getting out of that really, into the public.

Phill: And of course, er, one of the, er, properly, the image, the global image by which everyone would know the band is appearing on the film of Magical Mystery Tour which, er, working in that club with a stripper if I recall

Roger: No well there you are you see. We had this band called the New Vaudeville Band and we... cos we had Bob, dear old Bobby Kerr, he's coming back to play with us. But he nicked our act and took it to America because erm... he was a tr... dear old Lenny, my trumpet player, he couldn't stand the bleeding from his ears and all the noise and... he had headaches. So he had to give up so we had Bob Kerr on trumpet. And Bob Kerr knew Jeff Stevens who'd written the Winchester Cathedral thing, but didn't have a band. So he got Bob to have a band, and so Bob shoved off, and, erm, through that, the Scaffold -- Paul McCartney's brother, Mike McGear, sort of heard about the Vaudeville band and said "get the Vaudeville band for...." -- no, that's it, John Lennon said "get the Vaudeville band for the stripper thing in Magical Mystery Tour" and Paul McCartney's brother said "No no no, you want the Bonzos, they're the originals" so it sort of came that way. So they wanted the Vaudeville band but they got us instead.

Phill: And of course... did you ever play... did the Bonzos get to America? You did, didn't you?

Roger: Yes, twice.

Phill: How was that?

Roger: Dreadful!

All: [laughter]

Phill: In one word!

Phil: I wonder why!

Phil: Really?

Roger: Next question! No, yeah, it was, yes. We got there and really no-one knew who we were. No-one knew who we were here, really, but in America it was "Hi you guys, I've not been briefed really on who you are or whatever but I'm doing your promotion". Errrrrmm! So we did a few little gigs. We did some nice ones with The Who, on the Fillmore West,

Phil: You supported The Who?

Roger: Oh yes.

Phil: How did... what did the audience make of you?

Roger: Loved it!

Phill: Cos it was San Francisco wasn't it?

Phil: Oh of course yes, great stuff

Roger: and we had guys coming up saying, "we do tap dancing" in an American accent -- I won't do an American accent ...

Phill: Good man, good man

Roger: ... because it will embarrass... everyone. And you know, "we like to do tap dancing" and this one American person came up and said "shall I show you my finger extension?" -- err, fine! -- And he had this sort of plastic tube that he put on the end of his finger, and I said "fine", and he ... that was their sort of translation of Bonzo humour into American. But no, they loved it.

Phill: Which is odd, because it's so quintessentially English, the whole thing.

Roger: Yes, but don't they like us odd English people?

Phill: I suppose, yes, they do, yes, I suppose it was like they took to the Monty Python lot, in the wake, that sort of surreal art school humour has done extrodinarily well over there

Roger: Yeah. The Alberts, who were, er, our mentors, really, the Alberts and Temperence Seven, they had a bad time out there. The Alberts tried to actually go to America and had a wonderful show called British Rubbish, I mean it was wonderful stuff. It just didn't -- that did even worse than our tours, I think.

Phil: Ooh dear.

Phill: Blimey. I'm gonna, because we've spoken about it, I've got to work out what discs I've got in what players now, which is the level of professionalism at which I work at the moment, but er,

Roger: Well you're doing the Bonzos

Phil: I was going to say that's about right, yes,

Phill: Would that be, er, who do we have there? Er, that's someone else coming in. Er

Phil: I think Mr Legs is stuck in traffic, unfortunately.

Phill: Ohh.

Roger: Poor old Larry.

Phil: His moment in the sun, gone.

Phill: Poor Legs Larry.

Roger: I can hear him fuming now.

Phill: [laughter]

Roger: He'll be tap-dancing, well actually we might hear him tap-dancing if we listen...

Phill: We, er, you know what I think. What was the first track that I played? I played Urban Spaceman didn't I?

Phil: Yes you did.

Phill: ...which was up there which means that this is down here. And let me just find, er, where's my numbers? The Intro and the Outro No, it's not him is it? Sorry, I've become lost. Nine, there we are, we're on track nine. So, you have all got back together. The Bonzos -- this fourtieth anniversary show at the Astoria next Saturday. When you all got in a room again together for the first time, what was it like?

Roger: We haven't done it yet.

Phill: You still haven't... convened yet?

Roger: No! Monday we will convene -- the first rehearsal. It's all due to this maniac up North who seems to be sort of keen on us. You know, I mean gosh! Gosh! Forty years!

Phil: It's sold out though hasn't it?

Roger: It sold out within a week.

Phill: Unbelievably, er, you know.

Roger: So we thought we'd better do it, lads.

Phill: So you're doing this one show. Is there any hope... when we announced it here it had already sold out -- the first time we heard about it the gig was gone. And so we had an astonishing amount of email traffic and people saying "Is it a tour?" I mean, no, it's a one-off gig that's already sold out. Will there be anything off the back here? Any further...

Roger: Well, I can't say, it's confidential of course. Um,

Phill: They haven't even met yet!

Phil: No, they haven't even been together yet!

Roger: Well no, we haven't even... we've emailed one another and you know, done all that sort of business, which is a dreadful way of doing things. The only way the Bonzos ever worked was by meeting, in a room, hitting each other, you know, and at the end of it a show comes out of it. We don't know. It could be good, couldn't it, if there was another one? The response from people I've spoken to -- you know, my son's generations --

Phill: Well it was sort of stealth-promoted. There was a small advertisement and enough people found out about, it and then the Internet and then that was it, it was gone.

Roger: Well it started off really as Neil doing almost a tribute to the band but the audience sort of thought "No no no no no no, you know, come on, Bonzos!" you know, so we've had to actually put the proper... I don't think we actually started out like that, it felt we were all too old and certain people thought we couldn't play our instruments.

Phill: Aaaaahhh...

Phil: So who else is on the bill? I know you're involved Phillip, who else is playing?

Phill: Yes. Erm, is it alright to say? If we...

Roger: No not really, No, Rik, no not Rik, the other guy, Ade...

Phill: Ade Edmondson.

Roger: Yes, oh, and oh Stepehen of course!

Phill: Mr Stepehn Fry!

Roger: ...who's doing all the wonderful talk-over bits that you've just played.

Phill: Yes, Stephen doesn't do singing.

Phil: Does he not?

Phill: And Bill Bailey will be appearing as well.

Phil: Excellent!

Roger: Oh will Bill be coming along?

Phill: And Bill is doing it, yes.

Roger: Oh, cos he's a theraminist...

Phill: He is indeed!

Roger: ...and I have a theremin and we're going to probably do...

Phill: Duelling theremins!

Roger: Yes, duelling theremins.

Phil: It's a shame we're sold out!

Phill: For the first time on the West End stage, ladies and gentlemen, a marvelous moment. Er, so that gig, and I understand it's being recorded for posterity -- they're filming it aren't they?

Roger: For posteriors, yes, yes, they're gonna hope to do. The problem is, as, we're going right back forty years now, problem with the Bonzos -- visual act, dashing round all over the place -- camera-men, things, they're all a bit dozey and slow, you do a gag, they're on you two minutes later. You know, they'll miss. So we're having a meeting on Monday to try and sort that out, because the darling producer of the show wants to catch it on video. Whether it'll work, I don't know.

Phill: You never know, do you? You never know, but I'm hoping that there'll be more gigs.

Roger: Oh yes.

Phill: Because it would just be, it just would be fantastic to, well, do a big room. Do a proper sized room, let's get out there. I mean the Astoria's lovely but oh, it's a theatre show, surely?

Roger: It is. I think they're putting seats in there for it, for the oldies.

Phill: Oh!

Phil: Ooh!

Phill: That'll be nice. This is, er, I think this is one of the first Bonzos records I ever heard when I was a tiny wee lad. Roger, thank you so much for coming to see us...

Roger: It's a pleasure.

Phill: ...I shall see you at the Astoria in a couple of weeks...

Roger: Well, see you at rehearsals!

Phill: ...see you at rehearsals...

Phil: [laughs] just imagine!

Phill: ...and this, this... this is the kind of racket that these gentlemen make, er, thanks very much Roger, Cheers.

[Music: The Intro And The Outro]