Wonderful Neil Innes wows Knaresborough
Neil Innes, Frazer Theatre, Knaresborough.
THERE'S still life in the old Bonzo Doo Dah thingamajiggy dog yet.
But which life is the question? In a career spanning almost five decades, Neil Innes has proven himself a master of music, comedy, musical comedy, satire, satirical music. . .
Tonight, in front of another sellout crowd in the Frazer Theatre for local promoters Kula Productions, Innes treats us to a bit of the lot and a lot of bits.
Oh, he is a man to mess around. Surrounded by various guitars, keyboards and minor props, he plucks gems from the deep past, near present and present present from the debris spread around him on stage like the scattered fragments of a mind too clever for his own good.
With a twinkle in his eye and the timing of a great stand-up, Innes is profound and silly or is that profoundly silly?
One-minute political activist and human rights agitator, the next jingoistic, silly French accent impersonator, the binding element to this impressive jig and hop through the canyons of his mind; from the Bonzos' surreal hit I'm The Urban Spaceman, and the acerbic God is Love from his 1977 solo album Taking Off, to the more recent call to arms Ego Warriors, is his grumpy refusal to lie down and take life the way it is.
Hence the title of his current tour, A People's Guide to World Domination, and those new songs attacking complete bankers and total celebrities and utter politicians.
Dreamer, lollard, ne'er do well, enfant terrible grown older, the highlights ought to be those witty gems from his work with the brilliant Monty Python – Brave Sir Robin, The Philosopher's Song and Runaway – or the smart and zippy medley from his now legendary Beatles spoof The Rutles – including Doubleback Alley and Cheese & Onio
But no. What's most impressive isn't the way his crowd-pleasing and crowd-baiting draws a stream of banter and guffaws and good-natured heckling amid the relaxed ambience of this glorious little theatre.
It's the poignancy and subtlety at the heart of his strait-laced mickey-taking take on a Sinatra-style, Vegas bar-room ballad called Down That Road which he pulls out of the bag for a surprisingly touching end to a wonderfully wayward evening.
"Yes, I went through the 60s, now I'm going through them again," complains Neil Innes, aged 65, in one of many quite frankly irritating moans about how rubbish being 'old' is.
C'mon Neil, pull zee udder von. There's no real point in worrying about your age until you act it.
Graham Chalmers
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Monday 21 May 2012
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