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Reviews
Having performed as both Stanshall and Peter Cook, Perret will soon no doubt turn up as the Bootleg Christ.
To be as life-affirmingly chaotic as The Bonzos takes a large amount of genius. To successfully recreate that chaos takes a level of mental instability and talent scientists are still trying to calculate.
Resistance was futile in the face of such dexterously reproduced grooves.
- Jem Roberts, Kettering magazine, May 2005
Gonzo Dog has everything you need
Rating: ****
It's a reasonable guide to a band's persuasive qualities when you find yourself, against all sense, standing to attention and saluting the National Anthem. It was, I think, the first time I've done that since I was in the Life Boys. But it was also the first time I've seen the Gonzos. For anyone not in on the joke, the Gonzos are a Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band tribute act. If that means nothing to you, think: mayhem. And if you're of a nervous disposition, jugglers playing codpieces with thimbles are the least of your worries. You may be called on summarily to do animal impressions, dance onstage. Or let the backing singer use you as a gym horse. Quite apart from this, the Gonzos do the Bonzos very well. Their frontman presents a very plausible Viv Stanshall, complete with mad monologues. The music is vaguely ordered chaos, with sackings, resignations, and guitar solos that self destruct. And the hits - Urban Spaceman, Mr Apollo - stick in your head all the way home.
Juvenile? Maybe, but it's also as much fun as you can have without having to call a lawyer.
- Rob Adams, Glasgow Herald, 9 August 2002
You miss them at your peril!
Rating: no drams (maximum rating)
In the mid 20th Century music in Europe was in flux, so were musicians. New Movements and fashions appeared weekly (or possibly weakly? Ed) but now many of the greats are forgotten, consigned to dry historical texts and heaps of rarely played vinyl records. It is important that these seminal works are occasionally aired and examined though we may not fully understand the relevance of their intricate forms.
In this context, the latest concert tour by the Gonzo Dog-Do Bar Band is problematic. It does little to explain the social relevance of the Trouser Press, though my Shirt particpated in the performance. I am also no wiser about the whereabouts of the Urban Spaceman. What I can say is they do give us a faithful interpretation of some of the greatest works of the unhinged movement in British music. I say again miss them at your peril. Fundamentally to understand our civilisation this deranged entertainment must be preserved.
I must credit the immense contribution of Matthew Perret and Jeremy Limb, nightly endangering their sanity, and the audience's, to sustain this miracle. Assisted ably, at least some of the time, by Dan Mersh and Paul Litchfield, and several other odd characters. Sadly when I saw them Al Mitchell was too ill to appear. If some of your brain cells are still intact, get along to the Pleasance Dome and let the Gonzos scramble them forever.
- Neil Ingram, www.edinburghguide.com, 3 August 2002
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