From the mastermind of 'Spamalot' comes The Rutles
BEDLAM: “I don’t think anyone has ever tried this insanity before,” says Idle, right, with Rutles songwriter Neil Innes, during a Montalban Theatre rehearsal. Email Picture
Eric Idle hopes 'Rutlemania' will catch fire again at the Montalban. Ouch!
IT was shaping up as the quintessential theater-world nightmare. Deep into rehearsal, barely 72 hours before the curtain would rise on this world premiere, the show's creator sat silently in a darkened theater, a potential disaster brewing before him. As the climactic musical number began, the onstage drummer began scrambling to locate a vital piece of missing equipment.
He'd lost his pig nose.
Out in the house, Eric Idle remained unfazed. No wayward snout was going to stop the reincarnation of his whimsical pop-music creation, the Rutles, nor his enjoyment of this utterly surreal career moment.
"It's really fun, it actually is," Idle said a few minutes later in the cramped office of the Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood, where "Rutlemania" opens a water-testing five-performance run starting tonight and continuing through Friday.
"I don't think anyone has ever tried this insanity before," he added, with the barely concealed snicker of a schoolboy sneaking a devious gag past the headmaster. "It's a tribute to people who never existed."
It's also a tribute to an act whose legacy, Idle famously predicted in 1978, "would last a lunchtime."
The former Monty Python writer and actor and mastermind behind the Python-inspired Broadway and Las Vegas hit musical “Spamalot” conceived "Rutlemania" to ratchet up the absurdity of the 30th anniversary of "All You Need Is Cash," the Idle-scripted and emceed mockumentary about the British pseudo-supergroup that virtually gave birth to the cinematic genre.
Two screenings of the film on Monday at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre, part of the ongoing Mods & Rockers Film Festival, will be accompanied by a Q&A with the original participants: Idle, singer-songwriter guitarist Ricky Fataar and drummer John Halsey. It will be the first time the "Prefab Four" have ever come together in public.
"Rutlemania" is another animal, part stage play, part movie, part rock concert. It tells the band's Beatle-esque story with film clips and live performances of Innes' wickedly clever songs, among them "Hold My Hand," "Cheese and Onions," "Piggy in the Middle" (hence the need for the porcine proboscis) and "Ouch!"
The music will be played not by "real" Rutles Dirk McQuickly (Idle), Ron Nasty (Innes), Stig O'Hara (Fataar) and Barry Wom (Halsey), but by the Fab Four, a veteran Beatles tribute band.
In short, impersonators saluting parodists.
"I get bored with regular concerts," said Idle, an L.A. transplant who turns 65 in two weeks. "After the lights go down and the fireworks go off, it's always the same. Everything's been done. It will be interesting to see what comes of this."
For Innes, the former Bonzo Dog Band singer-songwriter dubbed "the seventh Python" by other members of the troupe, "Rutlemania" is groundbreaking in a different way: It's the first time he's heard the songs performed by anyone other than himself.
"I went to a Beatlefest in 1994," Innes said, "and it was the first time I really got a sense that people loved the Rutles almost as much as they loved the Beatles."
Fans weren't the only ones who took to the Rutles. Idle likes to tell the story of the time he and Innes visited George Harrison at his house in the late-'90s when Ringo Starr was there. At one point, Harrison and Starr started singing "Ouch!" to the Rutles' Paul McCartney and John Lennon doppelgangers -- a moment of inverted reality that still makes both men smile.
The Rutles were born in 1976 as a bit on Idle's short-lived post-Python BBC series "Rutland Weekend Television," a precursor of sorts to "SCTV," ostensibly offering programming of a cash-strapped rural British television station.
When invited to appear on NBC's then new "Saturday Night Live," Idle brought along the Rutles clip, shot in black-and-white à la "A Hard Day's Night." "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels was sufficiently impressed to wangle financing for a full-length TV film, "All You Need Is Cash."
Mods & Rockers festival organizer Martin Lewis points out that the Rutles made television history when it aired: "It was the lowest-rated show of the week, and it turned out to be the lowest-rated program of the year."
But the Rutles refused to die.
"People still watch the film," Idle said. "Who's watching the episode of 'Charlie's Angels' that was No. 1 that week?"
Rhino Records reissued the cult-favorite soundtrack album in 1990, the same year a Rutles tribute album was released featuring new versions of Innes' songs by indie rockers including Syd Straw, Shonen Knife and Galaxie 500. Four years later, in part inspired by his experience at the fan convention, Innes performed at the Troubadour, backed by the Beatles tribute band the Moptops, as Ron Nasty and the New Rutles, an offshoot of a 25th anniversary Monty Python salute.
The enthusiastic response led Innes to create the 1996 follow-up album "Archaeology," another witty play on the Beatles legacy riffing on the Beatles' then-current "Anthology" album and TV series. That project went off minus Idle, as there was no film component, but Idle was back on board for the film sequel and update, "Can't Buy Me Lunch," in 2003.
Idle, Innes and Fataar showed up in 2001 for a Museum of Television & Radio Rutles salute on the occasion of the original film's DVD release. Rutles videos are now popular fare on YouTube, and there are websites dedicated both to the real-world story of the project ( http://www.rutlemania.org) and the fictional history of the band ( http://www.rutles.org).
Idle, who periodically posts humorous dispatches as a sports columnist for the Monty Python website Pythonline, doesn't know whether there will be life for "Rutlemania" beyond these anniversary shows.
The success of "Spamalot" has given him the financial luxury of mounting more experimental fare, such as his play "What About Dick?" (which he staged in November, also at the Montalban Theatre).
He considered fashioning stage versions of Python's "The Life of Brian" and "The Meaning of Life" films, but concluded that the religiously irreverent "Brian" wouldn't fly with U.S. audiences, and "Life" simply "doesn't have a story" that would translate to the stage.
Those experiences made him realize there's no point in pushing "Rutlemania" too hard before he sees the public reaction.
"The important thing when something doesn't work," he said, "is to not do it, just because you can do it."
It's been a Hard Days Night & i've been working like a dog!
Mods & Rockers festival organizer Martin Lewis points out that the Rutles made television history when it aired: "It was the lowest-rated show of the week, and it turned out to be the lowest-rated program of the year."
LOL! I wish I could see this. I really enjoyed "Spamalot". I know "Holy Grail" by heart, but Idle had spruced up the story by including lampoons of famous Broadway shows and also taking a poke at modern culture.
He's also obviously a wise man: "The important thing when something doesn't work," he said, "is to not do it, just because you can do it."
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
One Thing I Can Tell You Is You Got To Be Free Words Of Love
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I love The Rutles:
I have always thought in the back of my mind, "Cheese and Onions". I have always thought that the world was unkind, "Cheese and Onions". Do I have to spell it out ? "C-H-E-E-S-E A-N-D O-N-I-O-N-S", oh no.
X Man or machine (Man or machine) Keep yourself clean (Keep yourself clean) Or be a has-been (Ah-ah) Like Dinosaur, oh oh-oh.
Y Man of advise (Man of advise) For ev'rything nice (Ev'rything nice) You'd better think twice (Ah-ah) At least once more, oh oh.
I have never seen any of it, is it worth checking out? what is it about? Who started it? Did the beatles like that they were being mocked?? Is it a good mock or a cynical mocking?
Looking through the bent backed tulips to see how the other half lives.
I just adore the Rutles! I have "All You Need Is Cash" on DVD-- it's time for another spin.
As you saw above, George thought it was hilarious to the point of sending himself up (his Rutle counterpart is Stig who is "thumped" by Big Valerie). Eric Idle reports that John and Yoko enjoyed their bit of ridicule as well, which Eric was nervous about, as he had cast Yoko as a Nazi ("She really has a great sense of humor" he said). Paul was reportedly rather uncertain about the whole thing, but Linda thought it was so fantastic he came around to her viewpoint. Or so the legend goes!
Honestly, the more you know about the Beatles, the funnier the movie is, because lots of jokes are based on detailed knowledge of the original Fab Four.
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
Honestly, the more you know about the Beatles, the funnier the movie is, because lots of jokes are based on detailed knowledge of the original Fab Four.
Gosh that looks great! I don't know when I will be able to check it out, my boyfriend hates the beatles, and hates satire films like those, so I will have to watch it when he is at work or something, but I Really wanna see it now, where can I find the films in their entirety?
Looking through the bent backed tulips to see how the other half lives.
In the late Seventies, Eric Idle, a former member of the hugely successful Monty Python comedy team, conceived the most spectacular Beatles parody – ‘The Rutles.’
Eric had been given his own half-hour BBC 2 series which he called ‘Rutland Weekend Television’, taking the name from the smallest British county.
In one episode he introduced the Rutles in a sketch that featured the Neil Innes number ‘I Must Be In Love.’ The Beatles spoof went down so well that Eric decided to plan a full-scale script and Neil set to work composing a series of songs parodying various Beatles numbers.
The programme was first broadcast in America on NBC TV in mid-March 1978 and the British screening took place on BBC 2 on 27 March.
The Rutles career closely parallels that of the Beatles: In Liverpool at the beginning of the Sixties, Arthur Scouse, who has won the Rutles in a bet, decides to send them to Hamburg. The liner notes on the Rutles album take up the story:
“Thinking that Hamburg was just outside Liverpool, they accepted. It turned out to be not only in Germany, but in the very worst part of Germany. The Reeperbahn in Hamburg is one of the naughtiest streets in the world. This is where they ended up, far from home – and far from talented.
In those days there was a fifth Rutle, Leppo, who mainly stood at the back. He couldn’t play the guitar but he knew how to have a good time, and in Hamburg that was more difficult. For five hungry working-class lads there are worst places than prison – and the Rat Keller in Hamburg is one.
For fifteen months, night after night, they played the Rat Keller before they finally escaped and returned to Liverpool. In the rush they lost Leppo. He had crawled into a trunk with a small German fraulein and was never seen again.”
The Rutles career begins to take off when they are discovered at the Cavern Rutland in 1961 by a retail chemist from Bolton called Leggy Mountbatten.
The liner notes continue:
“Dirk McQuickly, Ron Nasty, Stig O’Hara and Barry Wom received their biggest boost to fame when Leggy bought them trousers. He’d also bought them suits, arranged photographic sessions, made tapes and took the material down to London where most people were impressed – by their trousers!
“Their A&R man Archie Macaw was to say, “He showed me the tapes and photographs of the Rutles. They were pretty rough but they had something. I think it was their trousers.”
“He recommended them to music publisher Dick Jaws, who was to say: “I liked the trousers right away. I’d been in the garment trade myself and knew a thing or two about inseams, and these were clearly winners.”
As the Rutles begin their rise to fame they travel on a ‘ferry ‘cross the Mersey’, and their fans are shown chasing policemen at a concert. Mick Jagger comments on how he first met the group: “I suppose when we were living in Edith Grove in London and we were living in squalor and we didn’t have any money and there were the Rutles on TV with girls chasing them and we thought this can’t be difficult, so we thought we’d have a go ourselves.”
Mick relates how the Rutles came to see the Rolling Stones at Richmond when they were billed as the South’s answer to the Rutles. Dirk was trying to hustle them to record one of his songs. Mick describes the Rutles appearance at Che Stadium and events at Bognor, when he joined the Rutles in a mystical experience.
“We all got on the train together and someone was very late, one of the girls, they’re always late. Nasty thought we were trying to get on the Rutles mystical bandwagon, which wasn’t true at all, we were just as eager to find out what was going on at this board-tapping thing at Bognor as anybody
“Anyway, we had a bit of board-tapping and nothing much happened, we didn’t reach anywhere much, and we had to spend the night there in a youth-hostel type place and I remember I was with Marianne Faithfull and we only had single beds in the hotel so Marianne and I put the beds together so that we could sleep together on the floor and Nasty came in and said, “Oh, Mick, all you think about is fucking sex, man. We’re down here for board-tapping, not sex!”
A Pathetique News item ‘The Prefab Four’ is shown and then we join the Rutles at their Civic Reception in Liverpool. As Rutlemania hits Britain, they appear at the Royal Variety Show, where Nasty bows to the Royal box and says, “We’d like to dedicate this next number to a very special lady in the audience tonight…Barry’s mum!”
The group have hit after hit in the charts: ‘Rut Me Do’, ‘Twist And Rut’ and ‘Please Rut Me.’
They are presented with MBE’s, conduct a press conference, fly to the United States, where they have another press conference. In New York, Bill Murray, a D.J., latches on to the group.
Paul Simon recalls the group and tells how he first noticed Rutlemania during a trip to England early in 1963: “There were music papers, I don’t remember the names – Mersey Beat, Rutle Beat, there might have been one called Rutlemania, but they were just focussed on the activities of the Rutles,” and he mentions the first time he met Nasty:
“I met Nasty about two days after I met Dirk. They were together and we were at the screening of some avant-garde film in a hotel in London. He was there and Dirk was carrying this portable tape machine with him and whoever he spoke to he’d put the microphone out in front of them and it was extremely intimidating. It was intimidating anyway to be in the same room with them.”
He went on to say, “People say who will be the next Rutles, you know. I don’t think there will be a next Rutles. I think there will be something else, you know, some other entirely new transformation.”
Rutland Television sent a commentator – Eric Idle – to trace the Rutles story. Following scenes of their American debut on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show,’ the commentator brings us back to modern times as he moves from California to New Orleans seeking interviews with legendary musicians such as Blind Lemon Pye and Rambling Orange Peel. We see covers of albums such as ‘A Hard Day’s Rut’, receive garbled recollections from real-life Liverpool poet Roger McGough and view clips from Australia, London and Greece.
Brian Thigh, a record company executive, then tells how he turned down the opportunity of singing with the group.
The band is next shown filming ‘Ouch!’ in Switzerland; we then follow them on their second tour of America when they appear at the Che Stadium, named after the famous guerrilla leader. The group arrive at the gig by helicopter a day early, which enabled them to leave before the audience arrived – although, with so much noise, nobody really noticed they weren’t there!
After further reminiscences from Mick Jagger, the Rutles’ story is taken up to 1966, when Nasty was misquoted about God.
American papers claimed that he had said that “The Rutles are bigger than God.” As a result, Rutles records were burned and there was a huge anti-Rutles campaign until Nasty explained that what he had actually said was that they were bigger than ‘Rod’, meaning Rod Stewart, who wouldn’t become a big star for another eight years.
Another controversy arose the following year when Bob Dylan introduced them to tea. They claimed that the pleasant effects of a warm cuppa inspired them to create the great ‘Sergeant Rutters Only Darts Club Band’ album, a milestone in rock music history.
Paul Simon discusses the Rutles once more and we are treated to gossip about the group’s romances. After comments by David Frost we hear of the group’s dismay when Leggy left them to take up a teaching post in Australia in 1968.
Inspired by their new guru, Arthur Sultan, the Surrey mystic (a hot shot on a Ouija board), they made their TV special ‘Tragical History Tour.’ This was the story of four Oxford History Professors on a walking tour of English Tea Shops. It was a flop and they were savaged by the critics.
Dirk and Nasty flew to New York and announced the launch of their own business empire, Rutle Corps – a project doomed to failure.
As Rutles Press Agent Eric Manchester discusses the venture, members of the staff loot their offices and Hell’s Angels arrive. The Rutles then become involved in the animated feature film ‘Yellow Submarine Sandwich.’
Nasty meets an artist called Chastity at an exhibition of her Destructo Art. He falls in love with this sinister figure in SS uniform; meanwhile Stig falls in love with a large-breasted American lady called Gertrude Strange and Barry spends a year in bed as a tax dodge. Stig has earlier been the subject of a ‘Stig is dead’ rumour following bizarre ‘clues’ on the Rutles ‘Shabby Road’ album.
Ron Decline is called in to run their Rutle Corps, but this much feared figure causes them further problems. They make ‘Let It Rut’ in 1970, filming on the rooftop of the Rutles Corps building.
Finally, they begin to drift apart, with Dirk joining the Punk Floyd, Barry becoming a hairdresser and the others involving themselves in various ventures. The Rutles era has come to an end.
The film was made on location in Liverpool, London, New York and New Orleans, and was conceived and written by Eric Idle, who also took the roles of S. J. Krammerhead and the commentator.
The Prefab Four were: Eric as Dirk McQuickly (the Paul figure), Neil Innes as Ron Nasty (the John figure), John Halsey as Barry Wom (the Ringo figure) and Rikki Fataar as Stig O’Hara (the George figure). The film was directed by Gary Weis and Eric Idle.
George Harrison made an appearance as an interviewer and, in addition to Mick Jagger and Paul Simon, other rock celebrities appeared in the film. The cast included: Bianca Jagger (Martini); Gwen Taylor (Chastity); Carinthia West (the Bigamy Sisters); Penelope Tree (Penelope); Terence Bayler (Leggy Mountbatten); Michael Palin (Eric Manchester); Frank Williams (Archie Macaw); Barry Cryer (Dick Jaws); Robert Putt (roadie); Dan Aykroyd (Brian Thigh); John Belushi (Ron Decline); Al Franken, Tom David (Decline’s henchmen); Jeanette Charles (HM, the Queen); Ronnie Wood (I. J. Waxley, a Hell’s Angel); Gwen Taylor (Mrs Iris Mountbatten); Ollie Halsall (Leppo); Gilda Radnor (passer-by); Bill Murray (Bill Murray the K); Jerome Green (Blind Lemon Pye); Bob Gibson (Rambling Orange Peel); Pat Perkins (Mrs Peel) and Bunny May (journalist).
In addition to lovingly recreating all the major events in the Beatles chequered career, The Rutles project was meticulous in its attention to detail.
Neil Innes’ excellent parodies of the Beatles music was released as an album, ‘The Rutles’ on WEA Records. As well as writing the music and lyrics, the album was produced by Innes, who played guitar, keyboards and sang. The other musicians included Ollie Halsall (guitar/keyboard/vocals); Rikki Fataar (guitar/bass/vocals/sitar/tabla); John Halsey (percussion/vocals) and Andy Brown (bass).
The songs featured in the actual mockumentary were: ‘Goose-Step Mama’; ‘Number One’; ‘Baby Let Me Be’; ‘Hold My Hand’; Blue Suede Schubert; ‘I Must Be In Love’; ‘With A Girl Like You’; ‘Between Us’; ‘Living In Hope’; ‘Ouch!’; ‘It’s Looking Good’; ‘Doubleback Alley’; ‘Good Times Roll’; ‘Nevertheless’ ‘Love Life’; ‘Piggy In The Middle’; ‘Another Day’; ‘Cheese and Onions’; ‘Get Up And Go’; ‘Let’s Be Natural’.
There was also an album issued on 24 February 1978 featuring the tracks: ‘I Must Be In Love’; ‘Ouch!’; ‘Living In Hope’; ‘Love Life’; ‘Nevertheless’; ‘Good Times Roll’; ‘Doubleback Alley’; ‘Cheese And Onions’; ‘Another Day’; ‘Piggy In The Middle’; ‘Let’s Be Natural’.
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I love the bit about Bob Dylan introducing them to tea; the improbable images it conjures up are hilarious. I also can't help but wonder if Barry Wom's idea of spending a year in bed as a tax dodge isn't worth a try.
It was Neil Innes' wife Yvonne who designed the George Harrison garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. She said, “I believe that if he hadn’t been a musician, he’d have gone on to become a landscape gardener. He had the ability and was fascinated by gardening.”
Yvonne used to help George with his designs for gardening at Friar Park, the 120 room Victorian mansion which George lived in. She also says, “He had a natural eye for where things should go in a garden. He would buy rocks or plants and place them very precisely and in such a way that they always looked absolutely perfect.
“I’d wanted to go a garden here for Chelsea for George for a while. I know most people never saw the garden side of him. Olivia was really supportive of the idea.
The first area of the garden was set against a red brick background and reflected George’s early days in Liverpool. Next there was a Sixties section with bright flowers to simulate psychedelic colours’ All George’s favourite bits of greenery were featured and there was a huge glass sun with the titles of George’s songs etched onto it. Interwoven with his song lyrics there was a photograph of him and a large ‘Here Comes The Sun’ emblem. The more mature years were featured in the next section which was a tranquil lawn of moss, ferns and grasses. The final part of the garden represented George’s spiritual life and his belief in an afterlife, with an oriental style pavilion surrounded by fragrant flowers.
Aw, that's such a sweet story about Yvonne and George's gardening.
I will definitely see the Neil Innes documentary when it comes out... but only if it's an untold story.
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
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