Talk:Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band/Archive 1

Archive 1

PoV

I've removed the following (from the para about "Cool Britannia"):

Sadly, the pop music being recorded in Britain at the time was not nearly as creative as the Bonzos' output. That fact, a wide range of crises in the public services, and a series of unlikely winners of the annual Turner Prize helped quickly to dispel the notion that Britannia was about to regain a cool status...

It's very POV. --Camembert

Still lots of povness here. Probably needs a cleanup notice. Lee M 00:26, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'm not very familiar with the band, but this article seems decidedly non-encyclopedic... a little like a "Behind the Music" special, maybe. DukeOfSquirrels 12:35, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

The article still suffers from too much unsourced opinion, despite my recent culling of some text. Equally, the piece would be enhanced by more copious referencing - which it has generally lacked for a long time. In short - Wikipedia:Verifiability.

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 01:28, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Can 'Blue Men Sing the Whites' lampooned the British Blues Boom, did it? If lampooning means to publicly ridicule I think this statement is wide of the mark and an inadequate PoV. If you were actually around at that time you'd know that people like Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton etc did the great service of reverentially taking Blues Music and selling it not only to the UK but back to the US to the benefit of not only those people but many of the great Blues artists of the USA. (see Scosese's Blues Music series) However in true British style (at that time) the intellectuals amongst the Blues cognoscenti worried endlessly that it was actually acceptable for White boys (in England) to sing the Blues. Hence the ironic title of the song. I'd also finish this by quoting an interview with Viv printed in Mojo c.1999 in which he more or less stated that any riduculing of others was only ever done with reverence. He actually criticised modern humour for attacking easy targets and being downright nasty. When the Bonzos made you laugh at spotty English etc. boys playing the blues it was done with warmth. (Victor Middlesex (talk) 20:28, 6 February 2015 (UTC))

Quite agree. Perhaps "wistfully teased" would be better. Martinevans123 (talk) 21:10, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Nice one!(Victor Middlesex (talk) 04:06, 7 February 2015 (UTC))

individual ex-Bonzos

I removed a paragraph on Vivian Stanshall as, although it was well written, it seemed to say nothing of substance that wasn't in the article on the man. Ditto for Neil Innes. I shunted a paragraph about Roger Ruskin Spear to a new article I created for the purpose. Not quite knowing what to do about the one-sentence paragraph on "Legs" Larry Smith, I moved it to the bottom of the article. -- Hoary 06:16, 2005 Feb 27 (UTC)

I've added a request for an article on Legs Larry Smith. Thanx if you have a PC and can do it............Raymi

Discog

It's probably my own personal taste that I think the Singles and LPs should go together, but I don't think that all of the albums need their US catalogue numbers (does it serve any purpose? If any cat. no. is required then surely we should use the British ones). I also think there's too much detail on the discog. It should be more of a list and shouldn't be quite so descriptive. It just makes it look scruffy. --NoNameR

• I agree, it's a matter of taste. In theory, it should be a matter for Wikipedia:Manual of style but I couldn't find anything on discogs last time I looked (though perhaps I didn't look as hard as I might).

I think you're right about the American cat labels, but I was loathe to remove them, especially as most people round these parts are American (I'm British).

I disagree, however, that albums and singles should be listed together - I don't think that's usual for a discog. I also disagree with putting all info on one line, rather than having the title alone with further details below as I don't think that's any tidier, per se.

I suggest we leave it as is for a few days and see if anyone else contributes to this discussion - see if we can get a consensus. --bodnotbod 00:47, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

On second thoughts, I really like the way David_Bowie_discography is laid out. Contrast with The_Beatles_discography. Plenty more inspiration at List_of_discographies --bodnotbod 01:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm always of the opinion that articles on things that are British should pertain to their Britishness. i.e. a Bonzos discog should reflect their British output first, and American output second. Yes, the Bowie discog does look good. Why I wanted to stick singles and albums together was that it helps 'tell the story' to see them like that. One can see which album followed which single, which singles came from which albums, etc. I'm quite keen that this article becomes a really good Bonzos chronology/biog as, although there are a lot of good webpages out there, none gives a thoroughly comprehensive history that compiles all of the available information. I've been hoping that this article could become that article. --NoNameR

I do like your use of pictures. Another problem with the Bonzos online is that, despite being a hugely visual medium, they're very poorly represented in that way online. Making the non Viv and non Neil members more identifiable is definitely a good thing! --NoNameR

Well I've put the discography into "Bowie format", which also seems to comply well with the nearest I could find to a Wikipedia policy on discogs at Wikipedia:Filmographies_and_Discographies. Apologies to those that added some of the fine details such as cat no.s etc, but I do feel that concise and tidy (Tidy & Nice) works well on an article such as this. --bodnotbod 14:00, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Removed some New Vaudeville stuff

I've removed the following:

"The changeover was hastened by the success of The New Vaudeville Band of which founder Geoff Stephens attempted to hire The Bonzos to be The New Vaudeville Band. Only Kerr was interested, so he left the Bonzos to help Stephens form a touring version of The New Vaudeville Band. Kerr patented The New Vaudeville Band's appearance after The Bonzos leading to accusations that The Bonzos were copying The New Vaudeville Band."

From what I can recall from Ginger Geezer I know what this is getting at, sort of. But I find I get a headache every time I try to parse the sentences and I can't seem to think how to fix it. At any rate, there must be a much, much better way of expressing whatever it is it's trying to say. --bodnotbod 12:20, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I do think that this definitely needs to stay in in some form or other - it's the 'kick' that made the Bonzos into who they became. I'll work on turning it into something rather more readable...

--NoNameR

"and this may encourage the band to stage another concert"

Whilst this maybe true, it is not based on any evidence that there will be another concert. So it has been removed.

• Fair enough. Word on the street is that the celebs involved are applying friendly pressure for another gig at a bigger venue. --bodnotbod 23:02, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

• or tell all the Emo kids who like Death Cab for Cutie this is where theu got their name--Hailey 20:36, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

• [sigh] Death Cab isn't emo... but that's a different discussion. DukeOfSquirrels 12:32, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Cornology box set

I just created the article Cornology with the complete work of The Bonzos. How is it? Steelbeard1 22:22, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't the main title of this article be "Bonzo Dog Band"?

As the article itself makes clear, they are far better known by the shorter name, which was their official name for the great bulk of their career. BTfromLA 22:55, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

I moved it. Anyone who disagrees can move it back if they really want to Snoopydance 01:36, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

The Beatles' miscellanea

Check The Beatles' miscellanea to see if there is anything in it you can use. A lot of 'miscellanea' needs to be trimmed (as linked articles are improved) so please feel free to use anything before certain sections get zapped into the ether... ThE bEaTLeS aka andreasegde 16:30, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I assessed this article

as a start because of POV and formatting issues. 03:13, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Renaming this article

Now that the group is officially calling themselves The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band again, how do we rename this article without wiping out this talk page? Steelbeard1 01:48, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

It requires a Move function, done by an administrator. Is it really necessary, though? The page already exists - it redirects here - so it's not like people can't find it. (Plus - we'll then have to enter the hyphenate-or-not argument: Their own Web site has it both as "Doo-Dah" and "Doo Dah"! - DavidWBrooks 13:10, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

The request has been posted in Wikipedia:Requested moves. Also, the current band logo shown on their official web site and both their 2006 live and forthcoming studio album hyphenates Doo-Dah. Steelbeard1 17:07, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Moved to Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. By the way, any person can move, not just an admin. Will ^(talk) 00:40, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Appearance on BBC's Blue Peter

I remember the Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band (I always remember them fully titled, the shorter title not nearly so much fun) appearing on the children's TV program Blue Peter - does anyone else? Doesn't seem to be in the annals, and it was quite an 'adventurous' choice for a children's program at the time. ixo (talk) 17:08, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

The last sentence of the History section covers this. Chemical Engineer (talk) 22:50, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

One Off "Members" vs. More Long-Term Members

It might just be me , but it seems odd to see band members like Vernon Dudley,Sam Spoons,Dave Clague & Dennis Cowan ... lumped together with other one time / singular appearance musicians.

For example: Vernon & Sam not only appear on "Gorilla" , they are with the band in the 1st series of "Do Not Adjust Your Set" & "The Magical Mystery Tour". As well as both being involved in the re-union shows!

Dave Clague is on half of "The Donut In Granny's Greenhouse" album , some of the "Do Not Adjust Your Set" appearances and the "Tadpoles" album. ( Not to mention several 45rpm single sleeves. )

Dennis Cowan is on the "Tadpoles","Keynsham" & "Let's Make Up & Be Friendly" albums - more than half of the band's output! , as well as the 2nd series of "Do Not Adjust Your Set".

Perhaps there needs to be a "Secondary members" section? A more defined output of the noted additional musicians? Harvey J Satan (talk) 18:25, 7 September 2014 (UTC)

It's not just you. I agree completely. Just because someone once stood on the same stage does not make them members of the band in any way. As far as I understand it, Neil and Vivian would let anyone at all up on the stage in the very early days. They didn't take themselves seriously as a "band" so what did it matter? This means the list of every single person who ever played with what would become the official Bonzo Dogs could go on and on. With this in mind, even a secondary list is rather pointless once you realize how many names could be added.Stellabystarlight (talk) 21:14, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

It doesn't seem as if anyone cares about your suggestion, Harvey J Satan, so why not just do it and see if they notice and/or care then?Stellabystarlight (talk) 21:43, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Or , maybe the page just isn't as monitored as you think? No sense in getting snippy Stella. Mine was but a suggestion. If I were seeking power over the article , I'd've done like so many other wikiwankers , and done it. I like to leave suggestions for the person writing the article , leave it to them to change / or not change their body of work , either way is fine. If I'd said YOU MUST CHANGE THIS NOW! … you'd have a case. Harvey J Satan (talk) 17:57, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

Good idea. Fully support. Common practice for some bands, I think. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:17, 23 May 2016 (UTC)