Neil Innes

“I mean in recent years, I think you've only got to sell thirty or forty thousand to get a #1.”

“But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.”

“So we used to look for funny songs, and learn them and play them. And we used to play them in pubs.”

“We weren't going to play the show-biz game, and be obsequious.”

“I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.”

“I wasn't aware that Track Records were interested in the Bonzos.”

“Viv had this kind of stage presence where you couldn't ignore it. He walked onstage, he looked dangerous. You just didn't know what he was going to do.”

“In fact, Moon came on tour with us for a bit just before a big festival in Brighton, I think.”

“But Dennis was a really solid musician, and we really needed somebody who could play bass like him.”

“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 think most musicians do like to have a laugh.”

“In many ways, Viv and I were the only ones who were really songwriters.”

“I used to help Viv with the chords and melodies sometimes.”

“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.”

“Larry only ever wrote one song, and he wrote that with Tony Kaye, I think it was, from Yes.”

“And Roger was crazy with his robots and everything.”

“But I remember we sold nearly 18,000 records in one day.”

“Eric Clapton always wanted to come out onstage with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder.”

“Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.”

“But I mean, again, Zappa's far more musical than the Bonzos ever were.”