I’d hoped we would maybe make it out of this decade without another loss of the stellar kind but no such luck. Farewell Neil Innes at the age of 75. There’s an obvious choice for a song to celebrate what he could do, but I have another from the same period that I hold as a greater favourite, from dozens of Saturday and Sunday mornings on Junior Choice. Farewell, Mr Urban Spaceman, it had to come true one day, thanks for staying in orbit as long as you did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMysqk51r88
I am devastated. I spent all morning mourning by posting songs from his entire career: The Bonzos, Grimms, the World, Fatso, The Rutles, and all of his solo albums. I saw the Bonzos at the Fillmore East, sharing a bill with Spirit & The Kinks. I saw him perform with Monty Python. And I saw him do 2 solo shows in small clubs, the most recent of which was about 20 years ago. I kept hoping that he’d tour the US again.
Should anyone ever invent a commercial Time Machine, I have a short klist of bands I want to see live. The Who vie with The Beatles for top spot (The Who come close but it’d be the Fab Four any day) and The Small Faces are a very close third. But I’d be up for the Bonzos any day.