First of all - apologies for lateness of blog. All sorts of things hit us when we got back home and has taken weeks to get back to normal. Also huge thanks to Phill for letting me use some of his backstage photos to add to my own. Please enjoy

Cool Britannia - all.
At the end sparkly firework showers of light erupt from the stage, thankfully taking the place of the loud bang which used to deafen anyone standing nearby for a good half of the show.

By a Waterfall - David
A young Bootleg Beatle on lead guitar and vocals. Neil and he first met filming an ad. A Paul McCartney look alike was needed, and someone recommended David. Looking like a Beatle is not his only attribute. He also sings and plays beautifully.

My brother - Neil with Roger on sound effects
The audience all join in with this seminal Bonzo recording, while Roger attempts to keep up with the words by making the appropriate noise on his 'Rowmonium"

I'm bored - Adrian
First entrance by Adrian drawing a cheer from the audience. He strides onto the stage and gives an hilarious and totally idiosyncratic interpretation of Viv's song

Look at Me I'm wonderful - Larry
Larry at his smoothest in sparkling jacket, cooing to the audience in a short diversion that was to get longer and longer as the tour progressed.

Monster Coming - Phill
Initially he had the words written on the sides of his maracas.

Falling in Love - Vernon Dudley Bohey Nowell
This lasts a good five minutes during which Vernon changes costume twice - a german helmet and a wig - singing and playing the musical saw as only he can. Spell binding

Jazz Delicious Hot - Rodney/Roger/Bob
Real Deuragon Arms stuff. The three of them spread themselves across the stage and blow for all they are worth. Raises a huge cheer. Old Bonzo stuff at it's best.

Noises for the Leg - Roger/Neil
Roger exposes his theramin leg. As he moves his hand up and down it makes amazingly loud and evocative noises. Neil wrote some 'music for the leg' and he plays this as Roger titillates the audience.

Mr Slater's Parrot - Adrian
Another hilarious entrance by Adrian - in a red and blue parrot suit. During the song he jumps down into the audience. This later was to turn into crowd surfing, yelling 'hello' until he gets shot by Phill with a blowpipe.

Big Shot - Phil/Neil
Phill's cue for another seminal song. He sits behind a large round table and waits till Neil hands him a mike and then he speaks 'Bigshot'. Neil plays the piano behind him, interspersed with sax solos from Rodney.

Hello Mabel -Neil/Larry
This is very funny. Halfway through the song Larry comes coyly out onto the stage dressed as the worst sort of aunt you can imagine and then tap dances, beads and skirts flying everywhere

Sound of Music - all
A total cacophony ending the first half - later this changed and two more songs were added.

We are Normal - all
The original recording of 'We Are Normal', where people in the street were asked if they were normal, is played as the band quietly go to their instruments at the start of the second half. As the 'interviews' stop the band starts. For those people who listened to the Bonzos years ago, it was fantastic to hear those voices again.

Robomania- Roger and his incredible robots
Bubble blowing, stripper and feather head all as they were in the old days. Great fun- the audience love it.

What Do You Do - Neil/Phil/David.
A real rock song in the best Bonzo tradition of the occasional, almost straight, song- until you listen to the words.

The Strain - Ade.
One of the funniest of the songs Ade sings, in which he holds very little back

Equestrian Statue - Neil
The Bonzos first hit and the audience love it

Jollity Farm-Larry.
This was to become a total trial to Larry who could never remember the words. It didn't really matter - the audience filled in the memory blanks. At the end Larry gets heckled by one of the crew and rushes off stage to sort him out. The time this took varied with the complexity of the backstage areas in each theatre. When he finally gets to the heckler there is a mock fight and a body ( lifelike but stuffed) gets thrown from balcony. Very funny.

TouserPress - Roger with Ade
Brilliant song with the trouser press exploding and Ade and Roger doing a 'trouser-press' dance.

Little Sir Echo - Bob/Sam
This is the song where Sam is a puppet on Bob's knee. He blows smoke out when Bob inhales and sings in a gluggy sort of way when Bob drinks. Brilliant.

Rhinocratic Oaths - Ade/Neil
It is a challenge to anyone to remember the words and the phrasing of Rhincratic Oaths. Also a challenge to Neil who has to co-ordinate quite a complicated score with the singer/speaker so that they hopefully end at the same time. This is one the songs Viv was best known for, so it is quite a responsibility to get it right. Stephen Fry did it brilliantly at the Astoria and now Ade picks up the gauntlet, so to speak, getting it right first time.

Sport -David Ade and Phill
David sings falsetto as the 7 stone weakling. Then he's joined by 'macho' - Ade and Phil.

Mr Apollo-Neil/Phill
Another rocker of a number - which caused a lot of casual dancing. When the band gets a chance to do a real stomper they go for it.

Keynsham Neil/David
Have to admit this has always been one of my favourites musically and lyrically speaking. Later it became clear that hosts of people loved the song. Sam Spoons does his block juggling on this one, and at the end, Les Deux Collapsos -Roger and Larry dressed in tights and stripy tops, run on to perform two show- stopping feats of daring.

My Pink Half Ade/Rodney
In which Rodney has a hard time keeping a straight face. Ade's expressions are priceless - we are all often reminded what a good actor he is. Rod and Ade work together beautifully.

Monster mash Larry/Roger/Sam Spoons
Larry sings the song, which ends with a frankenstein-type metal stretcher carrying a prone Sam Spoons, who leaps up and performs an amplified spoons solo, ending up with an explosion.

Urban Spaceman- Neil with Bob Kerr on flexible trumpet at the end.
The Bonzo's 'medley of hit' . The audience love it singing along, clapping, cheering.

Canyons -Phill
Has to be Phill's seminal number. He is dragged onto the stage by Tim and Justin Spear and stood up at the mike wearing an Elvis impersonator's costume. He does the number like the 'after' of a 'before and after Elvis' at one point descending into the audience to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of hapless females. Absolutely brilliant.

Intro and Outro
In which Neil introduces the whole ensemble, trying hard not to forget anyone-more difficult than it seems as they move about.

Head Ballet
Probably the most heart warming part of the whole show and one really appreciated by the audience. In this, just the old Bonzos perform the Head Ballet, then stand in line, link hands and take a long bow - the audience won't let them go.

Busted
Whole cast with Ade and Phil acting out the story and Neil and David on the song.At the end of the song there are police sirens and 'police' come on from stage right mustering the performers over to stage left leaving Vernon playing 'Silent Night' on the musical saw. The whole cast join in singing the last few bars.
Great ending and, of course, the audience stand up and clap for a good five minutes - many leaving with tears in their eyes, never having expected to see the Bonzos play together again.

We get to the hotel to be told some of the rooms won't be ready till 6pm which would mean sitting in the lounge for 4 hours. Have to kick ass to get a room before then, but when we finally get a room it is luxurious, the pillows soft, the beds wide. Huge kingsize towels, fruit, biscuits with the tea things. Neil almost asleep, but suddenly it's showtime. The theatre is old and dirty and we are told that this show is the last before a two- million pound refurbishment takes place.

The stage is a lot smaller than Ipswich so the crew have to work hard to fit all the accoutrements in. There is the Rowmonium which makes all the sounds for "My Brother makes the noises for the talkies'; a round table at which Phill sings 'Bigshot'; a wheeled metal stretcher on which Sam is wired up to do a 'frankenstein' spoons solo; robots.

Phill has hurt his leg - nothing to do with the Bonzos originally but exacerbated by his run up to the balcony to heckle Larry. Jumping off the stage in 'Canyons' probably doesn't do it much good either. Reminded me how it was to be young - taking huge risks with your body knowing it will heal. Nowadays not so sure, so far less of the wall climbing and cissy-calling antics of the old days. Walking in a straight line and answering to your name seems enough to expect. Still having a problem with mikes and spacing - all the action seems to be happening in front of Neil's piano leaving the rest of the stage virtually empty. Back to the theatre where the dressing room is a long narrow cold affair with no windows. Pretty depressing really but the guys just have to make the best of it. Quick exit from the theatre after the show and back to the hotel. Next morning a walk along the sea shore more than compensates for the strains of the night before.

NOVEMBER 6th CARDIFF
Another long ride - around 3 hours mostly spent 'Twaddling', reading, sleeping.
Get to the Juries hotel where the foyer looks like a scene from The Prisoner -or maybe Alice in Wonderland, with a huge clock dominating the area. We have a couple of hours before we leave for the theatre, which is just a walk away. A nice surprise awaits - when you actually find them, the theatre has very nice dressing rooms with sofas, a green room and a large open stage with raised seating to the back of the theatre. A huge foyer, so the merchandising people can really spread out. Backstage a couple of stage costumes, Neil and Phill's have gone astray so Scott, the runner, goes out to find the coaches which have had to park quite a way from the theatre, to retrieve them.

Rehearsals over, band and crew eat in the restaurant and then it's on with the show. The audience is wildly enthusiastic, but again there is something wrong with the line up and when the show is over Rodney is not happy. It is to do with how people are using the mikes and spacing themselves on the stage so that Rodney - an original Bonzo- is unable to get through to the front to do his solos- there is so much clutter etc etc. This time things had to change. After tonight, the mikes would be spread across the stage and performers given particular mikes to use -not always remembered in the heat of the moment- but this way, it would look much less cluttered, no one would block anyone else and Rodney would be able to get out to the front where he should be. He was definitely one of the stars of the formative Bonzo years and he doesn't seem to have changed a bit. Lovely guy.

NOVEMBER 7th BRISTOL
Very early in the morning, well before breakfast, and in the hazy mist, Mickey went off to play a round of golf. So he was the only one late for the bus in the morning, in spite of the overindulgence of the night before. Mickey actually persuaded Neil to bring his clubs, but so far the weather has stopped any ventures in that direction for Neil. The journey after that was brief and we arrived at the Marriot with an hour to spare before getting to the theatre. Marriots are generally good hotels with comfy beds and soft pillows so was looking forward to getting some sleep later that night.

The Colston Hall was an old civic building, rather grandiose but with a rabbit warren of rooms backstage. The Bonzos drew the bad card comfort-wise and had a dressing room with six hard chairs. However there were sofas in the band room so generally slipped between the two rooms according to need. There was a copious bar in the foyer in front of which the merchandisers set up their lengthy stalls. Sarah, Larry's wife turned up with their two tiny daughters, dressed as immaculately as Larry, in little pink check suits. They were so happy to see him in the theatre but screamed as soon as he came on to the stage. They couldn't understand why they couldn't be with him. So Sarah had to take them out. On stage, however, things had changed. All the mikes were being used, so the set opened up and Rodney was able to get to the front - the change for him was palpable. The whole thing at last looked balanced. The only Drrrrrr moment was when one, who shall be nameless, suddenly decided to take one of the mikes in the last number to play his ukele and sing. That meant Phil had to move up one, then Ade, so that Neil, always the gent, stepped back from his mike and tried to continue playing the guitar without his monitor. Anyway the audience were not aware of anything going pear-shaped. They loved every single minute of it and the band spent ages signing mountains of memorabilia. Phil and Ade seem to be morphing into musicians - Ade plays the trumpet - he played the cornet as a kid but still brave of him to risk Jazz Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold. He managed it well and got applause from both the audience and the Bonzos. Phill is playing the ukulele - which I can't hear amongst the general din, but gather it is giving him a huge f***** buzz.

Back at the hotel, we found the other half of our family- Rein, Richard, Simmie and Mark and as no-one seemed to want to go to bed - we stayed up reminiscing and catching up on family news till well into the early hours, just pausing to sing the first of many 'Happy Birthday's to Rodney as the clock struck 12.01am.