It was just us lampooning our own peer group, saying, well hey, where did this stuff come from? And where does British guys get to be so good at it suddenly?
From Neil Innes
When we did Top of the Pops for the third time, we decided to do it as a television program here called Come Dancing, which is not as rude as it sounds.
So we used to look for funny songs, and learn them and play them. And we used to play them in pubs.
We then took a shortened version of what we'd been doing in the pubs, with the best gags and things like that, out to cabaret clubs and things in the north of England for six weeks. And we became a big success.
I wasn't aware that Track Records were interested in the Bonzos.
But I remember we sold nearly 18,000 records in one day.
As I said, when we needed to move over to rock'n'roll, Sam and Vernon couldn't quite make the shift. So that's when Larry took over on drums, and we needed a bass player.
But Dennis was a really solid musician, and we really needed somebody who could play bass like him.
In many ways, Viv and I were the only ones who were really songwriters.
Larry only ever wrote one song, and he wrote that with Tony Kaye, I think it was, from Yes.
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