Three Bonzos and a Piano, The Half Moon, Putney, London

What/Why:

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band fans will be delighted to learn that Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater and Sam Spoons have teamed up with super-pianist Dave Glasson to create more fun, music and subversive diversion in the spirit of the ageless band. Diabolical mayhem from the largest number of Bonzos still playing together anywhere on the surface of the earth. Born in a distant art school past somewhere in the sixties, Three Bonzos And A Piano unleash their Bonzo Dog classics with energetic zip and palaver. Jollity Farm, Hunting Tigers Out In India, I’m Bored, My Pink Half of the Drainpipe, Big Shot, Monster Mash, The Trouser Press, Can Blue Men Sing The Whites? and many more. Robots, smoke, unsuitable medical technology, ancient theatrical props, the kitchen sink and the audience (you get to join-in!) all combine to re-create the atmosphere of those formative years of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The Bonzos have appeared with members of Monty Python, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Kinks and The Who as well as having a Top 5 hit with Urban Spaceman. The musical missing link between The Goons and Monty Python, they featured as the house band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a fore-runner of Monty Python, with Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Jones, as well as a young David Jason. Comedians Stephen Fry, Adrian Edmondson, Eddie Izzard, Chris Morris and Bill Bailey have all named the Bonzos as a formative influence. Three Bonzos And A Piano provide a very entertaining, life affirming ‘hair of the dog’. Dadaism for the New Age delivered by the Old Sculptors of Surrealism – Vivian Stanshall’s legacy is heartily celebrated.