As I said, when we needed to move over to rock'n'roll, Sam and Vernon couldn't quite make the shift. So that's when Larry took over on drums, and we needed a bass player.
We then took a shortened version of what we'd been doing in the pubs, with the best gags and things like that, out to cabaret clubs and things in the north of England for six weeks. And we became a big success.
In fact, Moon came on tour with us for a bit just before a big festival in Brighton, I think.
Eric Clapton always wanted to come out onstage with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder.
But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.
I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.
We weren't by any means like the Grateful Dead or something, who could just roll on and on and on.
It was just us lampooning our own peer group, saying, well hey, where did this stuff come from? And where does British guys get to be so good at it suddenly?
So we used to look for funny songs, and learn them and play them. And we used to play them in pubs.
I see my role in the Bonzos as being the straight man, in many ways.
But I mean, again, Zappa's far more musical than the Bonzos ever were.
