The incredibly sad news is spreading that Neil Innes has left us. I was a little too young for the heyday of the Bonzo Dog Band and Rutland Weekend Television, but made up for it since. The Rutles at Colchester Arts Centre was one of the best gigs I went saw all 2019, and he was in such good shape that I had high hopes of seeing him next time round.
https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/8160/neil-innes-dies
Sad news. Great man.
Sad news indeed.
Oh no! Last saw him a few years ago in Falmouth – pure joy. Here’s Blue Suede Schubert.
Something in my eye at the end of this.
This awesome track is arguably the beginning of the Rutles.
Very stunned …
And shocked.
He could do a pretty good Dylan too.
A couple of pictures from The Rutles at Colchester Arts Centre earlier this year, the last date of the tour hence possibly the last Rutles date ever. Safe travels, Urban Spaceman.
RIP Neil
When news of Alasdair Gray’s death spread on Twitter the word which cropped up most often from those who had met him was ‘humanity’. The word I keep seeing written about Neil Innes is ‘kind’.
As we reach the end of the year and people make resolutions, it might be worth making ones which will cause either of those words to be used in memory of us.
Have an up, sir.
👍
Browsing Neil’s website for the first time just now. It transpires that his most recent album, released only a couple of months ago, almost didn’t appear at all due to the collapse of crowd-funding company Pledge Music at the start of the year. The company have pretty much absconded with all, bar £3k, of the £26k that had been raised by his fans to finance all of the album’s production. Subsequent further contributions from fans via a GoFundMe appeal managed to ensure he got the project done, but sadly Neil and his wife Yvonne were still currently raising money through that channel in order to balance their books.
Talking to Neil after a Rutles concert this year, I mentioned how I’d donated to the pledge fund. He encouraged me to claim the money back as long as I’d put it back into the gofundme. I replied that I’d already done that.
He was so apologetic for me losing the money that I had to give him a hug.
Kindness indeed and a lovely man.
I shall be Rutling tonight.
Gosh. Too young, too soon, too smart, too kind, too human to cynically just play the game. The Clive James of pop music, while Clive James was the Neil Innes of singer-songwriting. We’re losing them fast now, those brilliant talents we grew up with. What we have left is the books and the music. Condolences to all friends and family. I oddly feel as if I am one of the former, though we never met. Says a lot, that.
*reaches for Bonzos boxed set, wipes tear away*
They ended up looking like each other too.
Really shitty way to end the year. Hugely talented, very modest and by all accounts a genuinely lovely man. I’ll miss him.
Oh this is desperately sad. Such a talented, versatile songwriter – funny and witty, of course, but with a great ear for melody as well. And a lovely lovely bloke too. He was still busy working and seemed younger than his years. Awful news.
I well remember the Bonzos – I loved them as a teenager. This was the one moment they almost crossed over into wider public appeal – as Neil would say after performing it ‘that was a medley of hit’.
https://youtu.be/xVr2hbE6aW0
This is really upsetting…such a talented and lovely bloke by all accounts. I shall now work my way throught the Bonzos box and Rutles albums, and a screening of the latter must be on the cards tonight.
Excellent podcast interview here. Save it for later. RIP. Another good one gone…
https://iamtheeggpod.com/2019/05/18/neil-innes/amp/
Sad to read this news today. He was a genius. The Innes Book of Records was up there with the Pythons & Spike.
Just finished watching All You Need Is Cash again…bloody heck, I’d forgotten how good this is! Mrs. T described it as ‘drivel’ – after nearly 42 years of marriage, this may mean divorce.
In the credits, I noticed the name of someone who I went to school with as a sound assistant (John Relph, in case you’re wondering) – I first listened to Sgt. Pepper round his house in June 1967…
Brilliant pisstake of Elton here – and in particular the lyrics of Bernie Taupin.
A legend that will last a lunchtime. Very talented guy, sad I never saw him (them) live.
The Rutles at The Borderline 30th August 2013 – “ooh yeah, a great sweaty one that” – Neil
https://t.co/TVKBKpz8Jq?amp=1
Can I say fuck you to Pledgemusic for stealing Neil’s cash and that utter cnut who copyrighted the Bonzo’s name for making Neil’s last year on Earth a right pain in the arse
I was there for that gig, as were you Dave. A truly fantastic night.
As it happens, I was just about to start re-digitising the two CDs I mysteriously acquired of that gig (ongoing project to replace all mp3s with lossless, where possible) when I heard the shocking news.
It does indeed suck, bigtime, that his final year was so fraught. He did manage to get that final album finished but it left his financial situation a bit precarious. Sad to think we won’t be able to witness his daft genius on stage any more.
Well that tape is mine from the night so defo lossless source
I think I originally digitised from the CDs into mp3s. Must have been when I was trying to save disc space. Now I have bags of space and they’re re-done to FLAC.
I did see the original seed of it that you put up on Dime but then I got the CDs from you at a mingle.
There’s a thread somewhere here about Gigs of the Decade. This is a very strong contender. It was indeed “a sweaty one”.
At least Neil was able to celebrate with the others getting the name back.
Have the finest guitar solo known to man.
Thanks, DFB. That’ll be a great listen, I’m sure.
Beyond what the purpose of this is…. what a fantastic sound. They are having the time of their lives.
Barry Wom is/was (with his son) the landlord of the Castle Inn in Cambridge. My pal lives round the corner and is a regular there, I saw him yesterday afternoon. It was apparently a very busy and noisy night in the Castle on Monday.
Wom also played drums on Lou Reed’s Transformer, trivia fans.