Neil Innes performs two of the quickest versions of his hit song “Urban Spaceman”.

The first is accompanied by “Testing” and is taken from Late Night Line-Up - a kind of late night BBC arts show that kicked-off in the 1960s and was revived in the 1980s. The second is from the brilliant series Rutland Weekend Television, which spawned The Rutles.

Innes is a favorite at DM, for his brilliant musical talents and his incredible back catalog as Bonzo, Python, Rutle and Book of Records. Like the dear olde Ginger Geezer, he is one of the few artists I return to with an obsessional passion. Indeed, m’colleague Richard and I have had phases when we’ve played nothing but the Bonzos for weeks on end.

My earliest memory of “Urban Spaceman” is looped to clips of playing space walks and moon landings with my brother on summer-lit lawns, at my grandparents’ house. Of wearing cardboard space helmets given away free with tasty fruit pastilles called Jelly Tots, and watching the Bonzos on Do Not Adjust Your Set. It was also the first time I learned the lyrics to a song, and became fascinated with its meaning. Who was this “Urban Spaceman”? And why didn’t he exist?

Later, in the 1970s, Innes starred, wrote and performed 3 series of The Innes Book of Records, one TV’s truly brilliant and original shows. Sadly, the BBC has been loathe to rescreen or even release this classic piece of musical culture since. But thankfully there is a petition up-and-running to get the Beeb to pull its finger out and do something useful about it ASAP. So, if like me, you want to see Neil Innes’ genius show, then please click here and sign the petition. Thank you!
 

 
More from the fabulous Neil plus bonus clip of when a Bonzo met The Beatles, after the jump…
 
With thanks to NellyM
 

 
Oh fuck yes, they are going to release the Beatles’ 1967 TV special Magical Mystery Tour on Blu-ray, with a new 5.1 surround soundtrack. Having my appetite whetted for more Beatles in surround by the excellent Love 5.1 special DVD edition and the great 5.1 mix on the new Yellow Submarine Blu-ray, I’m all over this one, too.

For me, the jewel in this particular crown will be getting to hear a surround sound mix of “I Am The Walrus,” one of my top favorite songs of all time. Can you imagine?

Several well-known Beatles bootlegs have let the multi-tracks for this song escape over the years and there is a “naked” mix of just the guitar, bass, drums and vocals floating around out there (no orchestra or sound effects) that sounds just like a Niravana demo (seriously). (Think about it, the guitar part is really monotonous, almost punky):

In September 1967, The Beatles loaded a film crew onto a bus along with friends, family and cast and headed west on the A30 out of London to make their third film, this time conceived and directed by The Beatles themselves.

“Paul said ‘Look I’ve got this idea’ and we said ‘great!’ and all he had was this circle and a little dot on the top - that’s where we started,” (Ringo)

In the wake of the extraordinary impact of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and the One World satellite broadcast of “All You Need Is Love,” The Beatles devised, wrote and directed their third film, Magical Mystery Tour, a dreamlike story of a coach day trip to the seaside.

The film features a fabulous supporting cast of character actors and performers, (including Ivor Cutler, Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Nat Jackley, Derek Royle, and the inimitable Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band).

Apple Films have fully restored the long out-of-print, classic feature film for October 8th release worldwide (October 9th in North America) on DVD and Blu-ray with a remixed soundtrack (5.1 and stereo) and special features.

In the DVD extras there is also going to be material featuring Ivor Cutler and Traffic (doing “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush”) that was shot for Magical Mystery Tour but not included in the final edit

On a weird personal side note, when I was 11, during a double bill screening of Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine at the local library in 1977, I went blind for about an hour. True story.
 

 
Thank you, ifthenwhy!

 
As much as I try not to post kitteh-related stuff on DM, THIS video could not be avoided.

Thank you, Internet!
 

 
Via BuzzFeed

 
GULP. I remember this like it was yesterday: DEVO guest-starring on the short-lived high school TV comedy Square Pegs in 1983.

Below, DEVO appear as themselves at “Muffy’s Bat Mitzvah.”
 

 
Static Cling get gonged on The Gong Show some time in 1978.

Status Cling wasn’t the band’s real name. It was The Barf and they were three skateboard punks from Southern California. Apparently they recorded an album’s worth of material but I can’t find any of it anywhere.

This reminds me a bit of The Dickies and Circle Jerks in Captain Sensible drag.
 

 
Oingo Boingo on The Gong Show after the jump…

 
Boing Boing just directed me to a 2002 episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where Cramps’ frontman Lux Interior provides the voice for the lead singer a band called the Bird Brains. Gotta share. Awesome.
 

 
Video proof, below:
 

 
Via High Definite

 
Warning: if you haven’t watched last week’s heart-pounding epsoide of Breaking Bad yet—there’s a spolier in this clip.
 

 
Via BuzzFeed

 
The wit and wisdom of Charles Manson.

Charles Manson, the right man for the right time. If he hadn’t existed, society damn well would have created him - a nail in the coffin of the counterculture, the peace movement and the Aquarian Age. Jim Thompson meets “Be Here Now.” When Rolling Stone goes so far as to call him “the most dangerous man alive” you know the hype machine is in overdrive. I can think of dozens of men who were alive in the the 1960s and 70s who were far more dangerous than Manson…starting with Richard Nixon, William Calley and the CEOs of Monsanto Corporation and Dow Chemical, the creators of Agent Orange and napalm.

Think what you will, Charley occasionally makes some good points…in those moments of clarity when he’s not a raving lunatic.

Charlie Rose is unusually tightlipped in this interview, thank goodness.
 

 
Steve Martin conducted this awkward/awesome interview with Richard Pryor when he was the guest hosting for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show on June 19, 1978. Glen Campbell was also on the couch that night.