Captain Beaky and His Band

Captain Beaky And His Band

Captain Beaky & His Band (Not Forgetting Hissing Sid!!!) (commonly shortened to Captain Beaky & His Band or Captain Beaky) is the title of two albums (volumes 1 and 2) of poetry by Jeremy Lloyd, set to music by Jim Parker and recited by various British celebrities. The albums generated two books of poetry, BBC television shows, a West End musical, a pantomime ("Captain Beaky And His Musical Christmas" performed by Twiggy, Eleanor Bron, Keith Michell, and Jeremy Lloyd at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, London in December 1981), performances by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain, and a gala in aid of UNICEF ("The Wonderful World of Captain Beaky" performed by Roger Moore, Joanna Lumley, Jeremy Lloyd and the National Youth Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall, London in December 2011). The first album was released on vinyl in 1977 and the second in 1980 and both were re-released on compact disc in 2002.

Captain Beaky's band are called Timid Toad, Reckless Rat, Artful Owl and Batty Bat. The title track from the first album, "Captain Beaky", was released as a 7 inch single with "Wilfred the Weasel" and "Blanche" on the B side by Polydor in 1980; it reached Number 5 in the UK pop charts. The song informs us that:

The bravest animals in the land are Captain Beaky and his band
That's Timid Toad, Reckless Rat, Artful Owl and Batty Bat
They march through the woodlands singing songs
that tell how they have righted wrongs.

According to Jonathan Rowlands, the producer of both albums, when United Kingdom disc jockey Noel Edmonds heard colleague Tony Blackburn play the record, "...he grabbed it from his turntable, played it just once, and the result was that an atomic scientist who was on secondment with the British Museum, upon hearing the show and recognising that Captain Beaky's bete-noir Hissing Sid was not all that bad, wrote in proclaiming "Hissing Sid Is Innocent Okay!".

The character of Hissing Sid is a snake, mentioned in both "Captain Beaky" on the first album and "The Trial of Hissing Sid" on the second. The slogan "Hissing Sid is Innocent!" became a popular catch phrase, appearing everywhere including as a graffito on walls (sometimes as a modification for earlier "George Davis is Innocent!" graffiti, especially after George Davis' second conviction), on badges, and on car stickers.