Also known colloquially as the Bonzos, a band created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz, psychedelic rock and avant-garde art, the Bonzos came to the attention of a broader British public through a children's television programme, Do Not Adjust Your Set.

The Bonzos were formed in September 1962 when Vivian Stanshall (tuba, but later lead vocals along with other wind instruments) and fellow art student Rodney Slater (saxophone) met. Slater had previously been playing in a trad jazz band at college with Chris Jennings (trombone) and Tom Parkinson (sousaphone). Eventually they recruited Roger Wilkes (trumpet) and Trevor Brown (banjo) from the Royal College of Art as they slowly turned their style from more orthodox music towards the sound of The Alberts and The Temperance Seven. Vivian was their next recruit and on that day in 1962 he and Slater christened the band the Bonzo Dog Dada Band.

Not long afterwards, the band added two more faces to the line-up: Goldsmiths College lecturer Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell and his lodger, songwriter/pianist, Neil Innes. The band had been working with drummer Tom Hedges before Slater found Martin Ash, who later took the stage name of Sam Spoons and shortly afterwards got them their first pub gig, where they were noticed by Roger Ruskin Spear. Ruskin Spear had an interest in the manufacture of early electronic gadgets/objets d'art and sound-making systems and soon became an integral part of the band.

The line-up changed again with the departure of Wilkes and John Parry, the trombonist. The two were replaced by, respectively, Bob Kerr and Big Sid Nichols. The final 'classic' band member, 'Legs' Larry Smith joined in 1963, as a tuba player and tap-dancer (but later as a drummer), on Stanshall's invitation.

The band's fortunes began to increase when their manager, Reg Tracey secured them a deal with Parlophone Records in April 1966, and a couple of singles were released. Although the Bonzos had started out playing jazz, they decided to embrace rock in order to counter claims that they were beginning to sound like The Temperance Seven and The New Vaudeville Band.

As the band's fame increased, they appeared as the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's show notable for having several future members of Monty Python's Flying Circus (Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin) in the cast.

Moving over to Liberty Records, the Bonzos released their first album, Gorilla, which savagely parodied their early trad jazz roots and featured some of the most deliberately inept jazz playing ever recorded.

They had a hit single in 1968 with I'm the Urban Spaceman produced by Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon. The Beatles were great fans of the group and featured them performing the song Death Cab for Cutie in their film Magical Mystery Tour.

Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? lampooned the British blues boom and tap dancer/drummer Smith was an onstage hit with his lubricious dancing. Many of their songs parodied parochial suburban British attitudes, notably My Pink Half of the Drainpipe on the album The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse.

In 1969 they released the album Keynsham and also appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. The Bonzos toured the US with the Who and also appeared at the Fillmore East with the Kinks.

While the group formally disbanded in 1970, their record company compelled them to reunite to record a final album titled Let's Make Up And Be Friendly recorded in 1971 and released in 1972.