To people of a certain demographic Neil Innes is a great British Institution. As a founding member of 1960s act The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band he went on to work with the Monty Python team and was a regular on British TV in the 1970s through shows such as The Innes Book of Records and the 1980s through children’s TV.
Neil Innes
He was also the man behind The Rutles, a Beatles pastiche act that ended up creating songs as good as, and at times better than the fab four themselves. Created for the 1970s TV show Rutland Weekend Television the pre-fab four ended up stars of their own mockumentary, All You Need Is Cash , which had the full backing of George Harrison and cast Innes as the John Lennon like lead singer Ron Nasty. They became and remain a cult sensation, with Innes’s wonderful ear for a tune and close affinity with The Beatles ensuring their songs live long.
For this latest outing, billed as the Tragical History Tour, Innes was joined by a couple of original members and delivered a fantastic, crowd pleasing display of Rutles classics such as With a Girl Like You, I Must Be In Luv and Major Happy’s Up and Coming Once Upon a Good Time Band’.
Their Hamburger years, in reference to the Beatles early days in the clubs of Hamburg, were also revisited through the excellently tongue in cheek Goose Step Mama.
The crowd were clearly enraptured, holding up mobile phones instead of lighters, dancing in the aisles and repeatedly shouting for the psychedelic classic Cheese and Onions.
The Rutles also donned pig masks whilst playing ‘Piggy in the Middle’ another Beatles classic……ooops, sorry I mean, The Rutles classic. Innes also put on his Lennon pink shades and ‘ban the bomb’ pendant as the Rutles psychedelic era continued, as they crowd sang along to lyrics such as “Revolution’s in the Air, I’m dancing in my underwear.”
For the encore there was a genuinely touching cover of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. Innes and Harrison were great friends, sharing the same humour, as shown by the former Beatle appearing in a cameo in the film.
The Rutles finished off with ‘Back in 64’ , a play on words from The Beatles song ‘When I’m 64.’ It is 50 years since the Beatles first emerged but their legacy clearly has a good few decades left in it yet judging by the continued affection this crowd has for the band that lampooned them so well.
Words and pictures by Arthur Hughes
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