The Bonzo Dog Band: Loose Caboose

This first caught my eye when I discovered Goldmine and started devouring their dealer ads in the mid-90s; it's a bootleg on the Amazing Kornyfone Record Label from 1976, full of out-of-print tracks by the Bonzo Dog Band and its various members. It popped up on eBay recently so I grabbed it...you, uh, don't need to do likewise. Consider this reference-level material only for the dedicated fan.

"Button Up Your Overcoat", "I'm Gonna Bring a Watermelon To My Girl Tonight", "Alley Oop," and "My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies" were originally released by Parlophone as singles in 1966, and were later remixed for stereo and collected on the 1971 various artists comp The Alberts / The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band / The Temperance Seven. Interesting to note that the original version of "My Brother Makes The Noises for the Talkies" apparently included the "Cuckoo Song" made famous by Laurel and Hardy, which was cut from all future CD reissues, no doubt for copyright reasons.

"Fiddle About" / "Tommy's Holiday Camp" is from a 9 December 1972 performance at the Rainbow Theatre, London, of the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Measham performing The Who's Tommy, featuring Viv as Uncle Ernie.

"Death Cab for Cutie" is from the movie Magical Mystery Tour. "The Young Ones", "Are You Havin' Any Fun?" and "Paper-Round" are Viv Stanshall singles. "What Noise Annoys a Noisy Oyster" and "Oo-Chuck-a-Mao-Mao" are Neil Innes singles. "Trouser Freak", "Trouser Press" and "Dropout" are all Roger Ruskin Spear solo cuts.

And everything else is from...Do Not Adjust Your Set, or Beat-Club, or possibly other TV or radio broadcasts. That's the trick with bootlegs, is that they're never well-documented, because the sources weren't well-documented, because who cares it's a bootleg wheeee look at us we're bootlegging. Sound quality is OK to poor throughout. So, not much of a keeper, but I had to satisfy my curiosity!

Button Up Your Overcoat
Shirt
Hello Mabel
Fiddle About / Tommy's Holiday Camp
The Young Ones
Oo-Chuck-a-Mao-Mao
I'm Gonna Bring a Watermelon To My Girl Tonight
Alley Oop
What Noise Annoys a Noisy Oyster
Death Cab for Cutie
My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies
Da Story of Da Bonzo Itself [aka The Bride Stripped Bare By "Bachelors"]
Ready-Mades
Canyons of Your Mind
Trouser Freak
Trouser Press
Dropout
Paper-Round
Are You Havin' Any Fun?
Urban Spaceman

Album audio & artwork

Vivian Stanshall & Kilgaron: The Young Ones / Are You Havin' Any Fun? / The Question

I've no idea how and why Viv hooked up with the band Kilgaron and recorded these cuts for EMI's Harvest Records imprint in 1976, but bless 'em both for doing it. Cliff Richard and the Shadows recorded "The Young Ones" in 1962 and gawdalmighty it's a bucket of effluent, and Viv's drunken delivery gives it exactly what it deserves (when Rik Mayall was helping create a show about four youthful post-punk oiks sharing a flat in 1982, his character's obsession with Cliff naturally led to them naming the show after the song). "Are You Havin' Any Fun?" is a foxtrot from Jack Yellen and Sammy Fain's 1939 musical George White's Scandals, and Viv's cover is very much in the wheelhouse of the Bonzo-ic tendency to recusitate pre-war dance tunes. And "The Question", which has never been reissued on CD, is a return to Viv's penchant for doing oddball vox-pop interviews with confused civilians on the street as he once did in the classic "Shirt". (For higher-quality versions of the first two cuts, please be sure to pick up EMI's fine 2007 remaster of The Bonzo Dog Band's Keynsham.)



The Young Ones
Are You Havin' Any Fun?
The Question

Record audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Vivian Stanshall: Labio-Dental Fricative / Paper-Round

In the UK this single was credited to the Sean Head Showband; in the USA it's just credited to Viv Stanshall. It's an utterly charming pair of tunes by Viv, who was on the rebound from the recently-defunct Bonzo Dog Band, but this eclectic group of collaborators (Viv, Eric Clapton, bassist Dennis Cowan, and percussionist Remi "Mr. Magic" Kabaka) never produced any other material. The A-side of this 1970 single survives on CD in many Bonzo collections, but "Paper-Round" has never been officially reissued.

Labio-Dental Fricative
Paper-Round

Record audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Neil Innes: What Noise Annoys a Noisy Oyster / Oo-Chuck-a-Mao-Mao

I've been chasing one of these for years: the last of 4 singles that Neil Innes recorded for United Artists, with an A-side that's never been reissued on CD. Neil's 1973 United Artists album How Sweet to Be an Idiot and most of the rest of those singles' non-album cuts were collected on a CD you should get, Re-Cycled Vinyl Blues.

What Noise Annoys a Noisy Oyster
Oo-Chuck-a-Mao-Mao

Record audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

فيروز Fairuz: يا غزيل Ya Ghozayel / هلا لا ليا Hala la Laya

A swell recent find from the Pasadena City College swap meet: an early pair of sides by Fairuz, turquoise songstress of Beirut. This record dates from 1957, the year Parlophone / Voix de L'Orient released her first LPs.


يا غزيل Ya Ghozayel
هلا لا ليا Hala la Laya

Record audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.