|
 Neil
Innes began his musical career with The
Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
while still an art student at Goldsmiths
College School of Art, University of London.
His early hit – I’m the Urban
Spaceman – produced by Apollo C. Vermouth
(aka Paul McCartney) topped the UK charts in
1968 .
The Bonzos also featured in the innovative children’s TV series,
Do Not Adjust Your Set,
with Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, David Jason and
Denise Coffey.
Neil later joined forces with Monty
Python on albums, films and concert tours.
Then came Rutland Weekend
Television
with Eric Idle and The Rutles
and
Saturday Night Live’s
parody of the Beatles story,
All You Need Is Cash,
starring Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray,
Mick Jagger, George Harrison and Paul Simon. Neil wrote and produced all
the songs and the album was nominated for a
Grammy.
In 1979, the first of 3 six-part TV series -
The Innes Book of Records
- was broadcast by BBC2.
Since then Neil has presented a wide variety of children’s television
programmes, including the award-winning
Book Tower
and Puddle Lane,
plus scripts and voices for the
Raggy Dolls –
which ran to over 100 episodes.
In 1992
he wrote a self-help book entitled
Gloom, Doom and Very Funny Money – economics for half-wits.
He wrote and released a new Rutles album,
Archaeology
in 1996.
A
13 part TV series on the English language,
Away With Words was aired in 1998 and
1999 (Anglia /
Discovery).
In 2000 Neil returned to performing live with a one-man show of music and
comedy,
Innes Own Words,
travelling
round the UK as well as to Australia, Japan and the USA.
In 2001
he released
Recollections 1,
2 &
3
– three CDs of retrospective material.
In 2002
Neil took his one-man show to
New Zealand
for a four week tour.
2003 Melbourne Comedy Festival
and held his first ‘art’ exhibition
‘Objets Dada’
since 1965.
In 2004 the Rutles
played
Glastonbury
to huge acclaim and later Neil took his one-man show,
Innes Own Words,
on a two month tour of
America
visiting virtually every state.
This was followed by a
UK
Rutles Tour
with John Halsay
-
drums;
Micky Simmonds
-
keyboards; Mark Griffiths
– bass guitar; JJ Jones – percussion and
Rutling Ken Thornton
-
lead guitars.
In 2005 Neil released his new CD ‘Works
in Progress’
just ahead of his successful Innes
Own Words
UK
tour
in March. On this tour he was joined by JJ Jones – drums and
Tom Fry – double bass.
He
embarked on a
UK Rutles tour
and took his
one-man show -
Ego Warriors
- to
Edinburgh
this
August.
Neil recently went to America to promote
Spamalot,
and his radio series, Innes Own World,
(first aired on BBC Radio 4 in 2003)
was broadcast in June on
Sirius Satellite Radio
in the USA.
He will be returning
to the US in the
autumn for a three week
Ego Warrior
residency in New York.
At the
moment Neil is lining up an
Ego Warrior
UK tour
for spring 2006 followed by an autumn 2006 tour of the
USA.
|
