Career
Spear is best known as a former member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. He wrote such songs as "Shirt", "Tubas in the Moonlight" and "Trouser Press". He is also well known for his robot creations, and the theremin leg - in 'Noises for the Leg', amongst other tunes.
After the Bonzos parted company Roger was part of the short-lived band biGGrunt, with Vivian Stanshall. He released a 4-track EP 'Rebel Trouser' ('Trouser Freak/'Trouser Press'/'Release Me'/'Drop Out' United Artists UP 35221) and two solo albums, 'Electric Shocks' in 1972 (United Artists UAG 29381, re-released 1997 on DJC Records DJC005), and 'Unusual' in 1974 (United Artists UAS 29508), from which were taken the singles 'On Her Doorstep, Last Night/Frank the Ripper' (United Artists UA 35683) and 'I Love To Bumpity-Bump/When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba Down in Cuba' (United Artists UP 35720) Roger also toured extensively (and tirelessly) with his solo show Roger Ruskin Spear and his Giant Kinetic Wardrobe (aka Giant Orchestral Wardrobe). In 1979, Roger formed Tatty Ollity with Dave Glasson, former Member of Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band, Sam Spoons and Dave Knight (now deceased). They released a single, 'Punktuation' on Rough Trade. In 1982 (from November 3), Roger took part in the new Channel 4's 'Cut Price Comedy Show', a weekly confection of corny sketches and ironic, end-of-the-pier fun - as the IMDB database puts it, 'the Cut Price Comedy Show was an (intentionally) corny sketch series with a heavy dependence on the kind of 'jokes' you'd find on an ice cream stick and a budget that seemed to have been scraped together from copper coins found in the gutter outside the studio. But that was the point - the title made it clear that it was going to be penny-pinching, barrel-scraping stuff, right? Trouble is, that didn't make it as critic-proof as you might think, and the tabloid scribes fell over themselves to scold the then-new channel for squandering airtime on something so bereft of invention. The show ran for ten programmes and was then dropped.
In 1985, Roger and Dave Glasson formed The Slightly Dangerous Brothers, producing a single, 'Let's Talk Basic', with a video featuring some of Roger's robot creations. In 1991, Roger played saxophone in Vivian Stanshall's show 'Rawlinson Dog Ends' at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London. Roger had also played on Stanshall's album 'Teddy Boys Don't Knit' (1981 Charisma CAS 1153) and has appeared on albums such as the Scaffold's John Gorman's 1977 album 'Go Man Gorman' (DJM REcords DJF 20491). Roger was also a member and co-founder of Bill Posters Will Be Band.
As of 2010 Roger has been performing regularly with Three Bonzos and a Piano, which is made up of former Bonzos Rod Slater and Sam Spoons, together with Dave Glasson (the piano),they are also often supported on guitar by Andy Roberts (the Liverpool Scene and the Scaffold etc.).
In addition to his musical activities, Spear taught 3D design part-time at the Chelsea College of Art before retiring.
Read more about this topic: Roger Ruskin Spear
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