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Neil Innes (born December 9, 1944) is a British writer and performer of comic
songs, best known for playing in the Bonzo Dog
Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.

Innes was born in Essex, England|Essex, and
studied at the Norwich School of Fine Art, from
which he was thrown out around 1963, allegedly for
"spending all day playing music, instead of making
things".

In the period 1962 to 1965, Innes and several
other art school students started a band which was
originally named The Bonzo Dog Dada Band after
their interest in the art movement Dada, but which
was soon renamed the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (Often
shortened to The Bonzo Dog Band).  Innes, with
Vivian Stanshall, wrote most of the band's songs,
including "I'm the Urban Spaceman", their sole
hit, and "Death Cab for Cutie" (which inspired
Death Cab for Cutie|an American musical group of
the same name), which was featured in the Beatles'
film Magical Mystery Tour.  

In the 1970s, Innes joined with Eric Idle, of the
Monty Python team, to create the television comedy
series Rutland Weekend Television. This show
spawned The Rutles (the "prefab four"), a Beatles
parody band, in which Innes played the character
of Ron Nasty, who was loosely based on John
Lennon.  Innes played Nasty in All You Need Is
Cash.

Innes also contributed to the Pythons' final BBC
TV series in 1974 - he wrote a squib of a song
called "George III" (sung by a pastiche black
American girl group) which appears in the episode
"The Golden Age Of Ballooning", he wrote the song
"Where Does A Dream Begin?" (included in the
episode "Anything Goes: The Light Entertainment
War") and he co-wrote the "Most Awful Family In
Britain" sketch in the last episode, "Party
Political Broadcast".  He is one of only two
non-Pythons to ever be credited writers for the TV
series, the other one being Douglas Adams (who
co-wrote another sketch in "Party Political
Broadcast," in which a patient profusely bleeding
from the stomach is made to sign numerous
senseless forms before being treated).

Innes appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
playing a head-bashing monk and the leader of Sir
Robin's minstrels, and in Terry Gilliam's
Jabberwocky (film)|Jabberwocky. He also appeared
with the Pythons at their legendary Hollywood Bowl
concert.  Because of these long-standing
connections, Innes is often referred to as "the
Seventh Python".

On BBC television, he performed songs and sketches
in The Innes Book of Records, punning on the
Guinness Book of Records. The series has not been
repeated.

During the 1980s, Innes found a new, younger
audience, when he played the role of the Wizard in
the children's television series Puddle Lane.

He also voiced the 1980s Children's cartoon
adventures of The Raggy Dolls, a motley collection
of "rejects" from a toy factory. The 65 episodes
for Yorkshire television included the characters
Sad Sack, Hi-Fi, Lucy, Dotty, Back-to-Front and
Princess.

== External links ==

*
http://bridge.anglia.ac.uk/~systimk/music/Bonzos/N
eil.Html biographical information by Ian Kitching
* http://www.neilinnes.org/index.htm "Words of
Innespiration – The Lyrics & Unplanned
Career of Neil Innes" – an unofficial site