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Neil Innes, the English writer, comedian and musician, has died aged 75.
He was best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Rutles and collaborating with Monty Python.
A spokesman for the Innes family said he had not been suffering from any illness and had passed away unexpectedly on Sunday night.
Innes had been travelling home from France with his family, who have asked for privacy “at this difficult time”.
‘Gentle soul’
“It is with deep sorrow and great sadness that we have to announce the death of Neil James Innes on 29 December 2019,” they said in a statement.
“We have lost a beautiful, kind, gentle soul whose music and songs touched the heart of everyone and whose intellect and search for truth inspired us all.
“He died of natural causes quickly without warning and, I think, without pain.”
It went on: “His wife Yvonne and their three sons, Miles, Luke and Barney, and three grandchildren, Max, Issy and Zac, give thanks for his life, for his music and for the joy he gave us all.”
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Innes in a script conference for Monty Python’s Flying Circus in 1974
The Essex-born star, who was raised in Germany, performed piano, guitar and vocals in The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – later renamed The Bonzo Dog Band – who had a hit in 1968 with I’m the Urban Spaceman. The track was co-produced by Apollo C. Vermouth – a pseudonym used by Sir Paul McCartney.
The comic songwriter penned the track Death Cab For Cutie, which was used in The Beatles’ 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour, and inspired a US band of the same name.
In the 1990s he was given a writing credit on the Oasis track Whatever, after it was found Noel Gallagher had borrowed portions of his song How Sweet To Be An Idiot.
‘The Seventh Python’
In the 1970s, Innes became closely associated with British comedy collective Monty Python and was affectionately known as “The Seventh Python”, contributing songs and sketches, as well as appearing in their films like The Holy Grail and Life of Brian.
He wrote and performed sketches for their final TV series in 1974 after John Cleese temporarily left, and was one of only two non-Pythons to be credited as a writer, alongside The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams.
A film about Innes called The Seventh Python was made in 2008.
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(Left to right) Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes, Eric Idle and Terry Jones
After the comedy group came to an end, Innes joined fellow Python’s Eric Idle on a new series, Rutland Weekend Television, which gave birth to their spoof band The Rutles – a pastiche of The Beatles.
According to Innes’s wife Yvonne, he toured with the Fab Four tribute act The Bootleg Beatles last year.
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(Left to right) Innes’ character Nasty, along with Stig, Dirk and Barry of the fictional band The Rutles
Actor and writer Stephen Fry tweeted on Monday that Innes’ band “the Bonzos were everything to me when I was a teenager.”
Screenwriter Charlie Brooker wrote he’d had The Rutles track, Cheese and Onions, “stuck in my head for approximately 40 years”.
Fellow comedy writer Danny Baker also paid tribute, posting the below picture, as well as a link to one of Innes’ tracks, Friends at the End.
“A bit numb that my friend has gone so suddenly,” wrote Baker.
“He wrote a beautiful song summing up how many of us feel today. Of course he did…”
Baby Driver and Spaced director Edgar Wright tweeted he would “raise a glass to the man”.
“Forever a fan of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band,” he wrote, linking to their 1968 track Canyons Of Your Mind.
“Allow me to share a favourite clip of them in action (with a bonkers Innes guitar solo, too). RIP Neil.”
‘Loved every moment’
In an interview in 2012 Innes reflected on the many different phases of his career.
“The thing is it all happened very quickly,” he said.
“The Bonzos lasted for just five years or so and in that time we paid off three managers and had no holidays. Then I dropped into the Python era but that seemed to be over in a flash, too. And similarly The Rutles were a brief phase… They were only intended to be a short-term, one-off gag because the timing seemed so right.”
He added: “People were desperate to get the Beatles back together and a guy in America was offering them $20m [£15.2m] each for a reunion! It was quite absurd. And George Harrison, who by then was closely involved with the Pythons, felt something even sillier needed to be done. He loved every moment of The Rutles. The 1996 revival for our Archaeology album was even funnier really.”
In the same interview he described joining the other members of Python onstage at Concert for George – a 2002 tribute to the late Beatles guitarist and Python collaborator George Harrison, at London’s Royal Albert Hall – as “probably one of the most special evenings of my life.”
Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, comedians Diane Morgan and Richard Herring, and broadcaster Gary Crowley all added their tributes on Monday too. Morgan described Innes as “one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and a towering talent”.
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