The Rutles
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia.
“You're shite, Leppo, You're out of the band.”
~ Stu Sutcliffe on Leppo
“People still ask me that to this day... and the answer hasn't changed. One word: TROUSERS.”
~ Leggy Mountbatten on album sales
The Rutles are a Liverpool rock band formed in 1962 composed of Rhythm Guitarist Ron Nasty, Bass Guitarist Dirk McQuickly, Guitarist Stig O'Hara and Drummer Barry Wom (Born Barrington Womble). The Rutles are a living Legend, and The Rutles legend will live on after many other living legends have died.
Contents |
[edit] Early History
Ron Nasty first met Dirk McQuickly in January 1959, at the now-historical address of 43 Egg Lane, Liverpool. Having joined up with Stig O'Hara (a school-leaver of no fixed hairstyle), they started playing as a trio. After 18 months, they discovered drummer Barrington Womble (whom they persuaded to change his name to Barry Wom to save time, and his hairstyle to save Brylcreem) hiding in their van, and the classic line-up was complete.
In 1960, at the suggestion of then-manager Arthur Scouse, the group went to Hamburg where, with fifth member Leppo, they played all the clubs on the Reeperbahn. It was there that Leppo crawled inside a trunk with a small German fräulein and was never heard from again. Luckily, he couldn't play anyway but he knew how to have a good time and in Hamburg, in the sixties, that was far more important.
[edit] Big Break
In October 1961, fate intervened in the shape and other attributes of one-legged retail chemist from Bolton, Leggy Mountbatten who, after falling into "The Cavern" one night, decided he hated the boys' music but liked the cut of their jib (and especially, the cut of their tight trousers). He became their manager, cleaned up their image, and touted them around the major record companies. He was shown the door at every label, eventually, they signed to Parlourphone, he asked to see their door but was refused, and their debut album, recorded in 20 minutes (their second took even longer), became an enormous success. By December 1963, they were the biggest thing ever to hit the music business, with nineteen out of the top twenty singles in the UK.
1964 saw Rutlemania go worldwide, and then some. The group swiftly conquered the U.S., while Nasty's book of comic prose, Out Of Me Head, dominated the best-seller lists. In July of that year, the group's first film, A Hard Day's Rut, was released. This was followed in 1965 by Ouch!. By this time, Rutlemania had reached such a fever pitch that crowd control was a serious problem. In August 1965, the Prefab Four played a sell-out concert at New York's Ché Stadium (named after Cuban guerrilla leader Ché Stadium), arriving a day early in order to get away before the audience arrived.
[edit] Flims
[edit] A Hard Day's Rut
Released in 1964, tells the story of a day in the life of The Rutles, It's devoid of a plot, humor and acting. It made very little money, but the soundtrack sold more than 10 million copies.
[edit] Ouch!
An Indian (Dot not Further) cult is about to sacrifice a woman to the goddess Kali. Then they notice that she doesn't have the sacrificial ring on. Then it's revealed that Berry Wom, has the ring (Which he bought on QVC) , and he can't take it off. The band is chased around London by members of the Indian cult of the Goddess Kali. In a desperate effort to dispose of the ring, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of a mad scientist(Played by Richard Dawkins and his assistant(Played by Igore}; when his equipment turns out to have no effect on the ring, the scientist decides that he, too, must somehow acquire it. In the end, when Berry is sacrificed. The Movie was banned by the Pope do to its incredibly foul language and explicit content.
[edit] Yellow Submarine Sandwich
- Main article: Yellow Submarine Sandwich
The only time the group ever made an animated movie... and failed at it. Released in 1968 and later made into an album.
[edit] Tragical History Tour
Relesed in 1967 The Rutles made their self-indulgent TV movie about four Oxford history professors on a tour around Rutland tea-shops, the movie was regarded as a failure, despite the success of the soundtrack.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Bigger Than God
In 1966, controversy hit the Rutles when Nasty was quoted as saying that the group was 'Bigger than God'. In the Southern and Mid-Western United States this sparked a fierce backlash in the form of massive public burnings of Rutles albums, album sales sky rocketed , people were buying albums just to burn them. However the whole controversy turned out to be a misunderstanding. Nasty, talking to a slightly deaf journalist, had said that the Rutles were "Bigger than Rod." Rod Stewart would not be big for another eight years. The band continued with their planned US tour, but it would be there last
[edit] Tea
The group bounced back with the release of their 1967 hit album Sgt. Rutters's Darts Club Band, though this too was misted over in controversy when the group claimed they wrote it under the influence of tea, which they had been introduced to by Bob Dylan.
When Nasty was arrested for possession of it, there was a national outcry and a full-page ad in The Times calling for it to be legalised. (All five members of The Rolling Stones had been arrested already, and a British MP had been caught nude with a teapot).
[edit] Leggy Gos Down Under
More bad news followed for the group. While staying with the mystic Arthur Sultan at his retreat in Bognor Regis, the band heard that Mountbatten had tragically left them, emigrating to Australia, where he accepted a teaching post.
[edit] The End is Nigh
In April 1968, the group launched their new record company, Rutle Corps. Despite signing up some promising talent (notably: Arthur Hodgson and the Kneecaps. Kramer and the Dakotas, and the 'French Beach Boys', Les Garçons de la Plage), poor financial management (mainly on the part of Stig O'Hara's financial planner, Ron Decline) finally led to the label's ultimate failure. Around this time, a 'Stig is Dead' rumour, prompted by both many obscure clues within the band's songs and album covers (including a track which, when played backwards, reportedly said 'Stig has been dead for ages, honestly') and the fact that even as 'the quiet one" Stig hadn't spoken publicly in five years began to circulate, prompting Barry to stay in bed for a year (either as a tax dodge or as an attempt to start his own 'Barry is Also Dead' rumour).
In June of 1968 Nasty vistied an exhibition of broken art at The Pretentious Gallery in Soho. The art had all been dropped out of tall buildings and put on display. Amongst the little piles of rubble, Nasty found the artist herself, Chastity, a simple little german girl, who's father had invented World War Two. Chasitity fascinated him with her destructo-art. They talked all though all the night, while she outlined her plans to drop artists out of planes. Nasty adored her. They announced their engagement next day, at a press conference held in his shower.
It was in this atmosphere that the group's final release, Let It Rot, was recorded. Soon afterwards, the band fell apart amid much legal wrangling, with McQuickly suing Nasty and O'Hara, Wom suing McQuickly, Nasty suing O'Hara and Wom, and in all the confusion, O'Hara accidentally suing himself. Wom had some success with his solo LP, When You Find The Girl Of Your Dreams In The Arms Of Some Scotsmen From Hull, but like the other members, soon drifted into obscurity, punctuated only by the making of a 1978 retrospective documentary, All You Need Is Cash. McQuickly formed the punk rock group Punk Floyd with his French wife, Martini (he sings; she doesn't); Nasty turned his back on the world; Wom became two hairdressers; and O'Hara is working for Air India as an air hostess.
It is rumored that The Rutles acquired all their music from others. Many people said that they stole it from New Orleans blues legend Blind Lemon Pye, but he said that the Rutles music came from his next-door neighbor Ruttling Orange Peel. Ruttling claimed that he DID write the music, but his wife clams that he is always lying. She said that he also claimed to have started the Everly Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Lawrence Welk. The only band with nothing to be blamed for were Two Humps.
[edit] Discography
- Please Rut Me (1962)
- Meet The Rutles! (1963)
- A Hard Day's Rut (1964)
- Rutles For Sale (1964)
- Ouch! (1965)
- Rutle Soul (1965)
- Rutler (1966)
- Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band (1967)
- Tragical History Tour (1967)
- The Rutles a.k.a. "The Shyte Album" (1968)
- Yellow Submarine Sandwich (1969)
- Let It Rot (1970)
- All You Need Is Cash (1978)
- Archeology (1996)
- Lunch... And Tea (2006)
[edit] The Beatles
The Beatles are one of the most well known Rutles tribute band and the
[edit] Cirque du Soleil
