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Dip My Brain in Joy: A Life with Neil Innes: The Official Biography
THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF NEIL INNES, SONGWRITING POWERHOUSE AND 'SEVENTH PYTHON', BY THE PERSON CLOSEST TO HIM
Nominated for the Chortle Comedy Awards 2025
'A lovely writer and performer. A very sweet man, much too nice for his own good...' - John Cleese
'He was a great writer and he was eccentric and he was clever without being pretentious' - Sir Michael Palin
Few individuals have had such an impact on British culture over the past fifty years as the comedy and music icon Neil Innes.
He was the songwriting powerhouse of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. Beatles muse and collaborator. Injector of art college surrealism into 1960s TV comedy. Instigator of a revolution that led directly to Monty Python, the group he repeatedly joined on screen and stage. He was Ron Nasty, co-founder of the much-loved Rutles, the 'pre-fab four'. Accidental inventor of the phrase 'Cool Britannia'. Much-loved children's TV storyteller, thinker, maker, creator, undisputed national treasure and Britain's sweet idiot laureate.
And through it all, Neil remained one of the kindest and brightest individuals in showbusiness. Musicians, comedians and fans alike loved being around Neil. He created music and joy and art wherever he went. And the person who loved having him round more than anybody else was Yvonne. Neil and Yvonne met at Goldsmiths College in the 1960s and they went on to walk hand-in-hand through life for over fifty years, until Neil's untimely death in 2019.
This book is a heartfelt, eyewitness tale of the life of one of British culture's quiet geniuses. It is tribute to life inside the circus, with the gentlest and wisest of clowns.
Nominated for the Chortle Comedy Awards 2025
'A lovely writer and performer. A very sweet man, much too nice for his own good...' - John Cleese
'He was a great writer and he was eccentric and he was clever without being pretentious' - Sir Michael Palin
Few individuals have had such an impact on British culture over the past fifty years as the comedy and music icon Neil Innes.
He was the songwriting powerhouse of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. Beatles muse and collaborator. Injector of art college surrealism into 1960s TV comedy. Instigator of a revolution that led directly to Monty Python, the group he repeatedly joined on screen and stage. He was Ron Nasty, co-founder of the much-loved Rutles, the 'pre-fab four'. Accidental inventor of the phrase 'Cool Britannia'. Much-loved children's TV storyteller, thinker, maker, creator, undisputed national treasure and Britain's sweet idiot laureate.
And through it all, Neil remained one of the kindest and brightest individuals in showbusiness. Musicians, comedians and fans alike loved being around Neil. He created music and joy and art wherever he went. And the person who loved having him round more than anybody else was Yvonne. Neil and Yvonne met at Goldsmiths College in the 1960s and they went on to walk hand-in-hand through life for over fifty years, until Neil's untimely death in 2019.
This book is a heartfelt, eyewitness tale of the life of one of British culture's quiet geniuses. It is tribute to life inside the circus, with the gentlest and wisest of clowns.
- GenresNonfictionMusic
320 pages, Hardcover
Published February 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 17, 2025
Neil Innes is the epitome of the unsung hero. The glue behind the Bonzo Dog Band, the musical brain of the Rutles, collaborator to Monty Python and originator of countless classics from How Sweet to Be an Idiot to Friends at the End, it seems ridiculous that at a point when other lesser talents were able to command stadia, or at least concert halls, he’d be playing for a couple of hundred people in a guildhall in a provincial English town. But this is the nature of the music industry – the kind of mind that produces art is not necessarily one and the same as the one which knows how to make money from it, and Neil also suffered from poor management and “friends” who lacked scruples. His death in 2019 went almost under the radar and the tribute concert last November was practically as low key as one of his own later gigs.
That there is even a biography is a fact we owe to his wife, Yvonne – someone who was with him every step of the way for over fifty years and whose own bohemian leanings created a perfect partnership with a man whose mind was generally in his own world. This is, therefore, a love letter to her life-partner, a tribute to a man who should be more than a legend in his own lunchtime. Of course, people don’t generally read biographies of people they don’t already know something about, but the thought is there.
The difficulty with this biography is that Yvonne is clearly not a biographer. Much of the story seems to be missing – we don’t know, for example, how the Bonzos were formed, how Paul McCartney came to produce their “medley of hit” or how the reunion between Neil and Viv which produced “No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In” came about. It is briefly mentioned that Neil was involved in Tiswas, the anarchic Saturday morning ITV show, but for those of us who didn’t know that, no extra information is forthcoming – leaving us none the wiser as to what he did for it (researching online reveals that he produced records for the Four Bucketeers, including “The Bucket of Water Song”). His spots on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue also go completely unmentioned.
Additionally, with her relationship with Neil, Yvonne occasionally forgets whose biography she is writing, describing her own upbringing or her gardening. Towards the end of the book she fixates on his lifestyle, something she clearly has decided was the cause of his untimely death, making the book feel more like a form of therapy for her than an actual attempt to tell his story.
That said, biographies are not a precise art - Woody Allen’s autobiography is more an attempt to clear his name than tell his story, one Abba biography spends more time talking about Agnetha’s bottom than on Bjorn and Benny’s writing process. What matters is whether the book is interesting and entertaining to its target audience. Dip My Brain in joy is perhaps a little thinner than it should be for such an accomplished life story, but it is rich in anecdote and makes the reader feel they know Neil a little better. Somehow a more professional biography wouldn’t be fitting.
That there is even a biography is a fact we owe to his wife, Yvonne – someone who was with him every step of the way for over fifty years and whose own bohemian leanings created a perfect partnership with a man whose mind was generally in his own world. This is, therefore, a love letter to her life-partner, a tribute to a man who should be more than a legend in his own lunchtime. Of course, people don’t generally read biographies of people they don’t already know something about, but the thought is there.
The difficulty with this biography is that Yvonne is clearly not a biographer. Much of the story seems to be missing – we don’t know, for example, how the Bonzos were formed, how Paul McCartney came to produce their “medley of hit” or how the reunion between Neil and Viv which produced “No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In” came about. It is briefly mentioned that Neil was involved in Tiswas, the anarchic Saturday morning ITV show, but for those of us who didn’t know that, no extra information is forthcoming – leaving us none the wiser as to what he did for it (researching online reveals that he produced records for the Four Bucketeers, including “The Bucket of Water Song”). His spots on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue also go completely unmentioned.
Additionally, with her relationship with Neil, Yvonne occasionally forgets whose biography she is writing, describing her own upbringing or her gardening. Towards the end of the book she fixates on his lifestyle, something she clearly has decided was the cause of his untimely death, making the book feel more like a form of therapy for her than an actual attempt to tell his story.
That said, biographies are not a precise art - Woody Allen’s autobiography is more an attempt to clear his name than tell his story, one Abba biography spends more time talking about Agnetha’s bottom than on Bjorn and Benny’s writing process. What matters is whether the book is interesting and entertaining to its target audience. Dip My Brain in joy is perhaps a little thinner than it should be for such an accomplished life story, but it is rich in anecdote and makes the reader feel they know Neil a little better. Somehow a more professional biography wouldn’t be fitting.
December 12, 2024
Lovely book about a lovely man.....
April 22, 2025
The story of the highly talented and unappreciated Neil Innes. An unassuming man, who lived in the moment, this leads to him not really getting the financial rewards that his work deserved (screwed over twice by Eric Idle on The Rutles and Spamalot). You can sense his wife’s frustration with this but also a recognition that this was his personality. He couldn’t be Allen Klein. He seems to be a man that just enjoyed life and took either success or setback in his stride. Though his wife suspects that some of the later blows (especially Spamalot) took more out of him than he let on. It feels a shame that he never quite got the group or project to anchor his career around. Perhaps though he wouldn’t have produced the variety of work he did. The last chapter is quite painful and I felt sorry for his wife now living his her life as a ghost, half a person.
January 17, 2025
Lovely book about a lovely man. He seems to have had a happy life with lots of friends, despite being screwed over by bad luck and bad businessmen. It's an easy-t0-read journey through Neil's life, setting the record straight about certain things but never getting into too much inconsequential detail.
A joy to read, unless you're Eric Idle.
A joy to read, unless you're Eric Idle.
January 10, 2025
Excellent. A beautiful tribute to a beautiful and much missed man
March 10, 2025
Dip My Brain In Joy
by Yvonne Innes
Art school dada music shaped our bard,
Neil Innes, treasured Bonzo Dog,
As minstrel blessed, as businessman ill-starred,
His fortunes often lost in legal fog.
He started well by marrying Yvonne
And into random projects seemed to sidle:
Do Not Adjust Your Set would lead him on
To Rutland / Rutles gigs with Eric Idle;
Thence to Monty Python, Holy Grail,
The Innes Book of Records on the box,
Homes and children, bands, the touring trail,
Mostly happy even on the rocks.
A loving, fond biography of Neil:
How sweet to be an Innes, rare but real.
by Yvonne Innes
Art school dada music shaped our bard,
Neil Innes, treasured Bonzo Dog,
As minstrel blessed, as businessman ill-starred,
His fortunes often lost in legal fog.
He started well by marrying Yvonne
And into random projects seemed to sidle:
Do Not Adjust Your Set would lead him on
To Rutland / Rutles gigs with Eric Idle;
Thence to Monty Python, Holy Grail,
The Innes Book of Records on the box,
Homes and children, bands, the touring trail,
Mostly happy even on the rocks.
A loving, fond biography of Neil:
How sweet to be an Innes, rare but real.
August 5, 2025
Very touching, introspective and uncompromising biography of the great Neil Innes, by his wife, Yvonne. Tons of detail about his musical adventures - Bonzos, Rutles, Pythons, Idiot Bastard Band, GRIMMS, many more.
Yvonne offers considerable insight into the wide variety of projects Neil was involved in - successes, "failures," subverted actions, etc. This is a very human portrait of an amazing open person.
My opinion: A pox on Eric Idle, the $$-grubbing git.
Yvonne offers considerable insight into the wide variety of projects Neil was involved in - successes, "failures," subverted actions, etc. This is a very human portrait of an amazing open person.
My opinion: A pox on Eric Idle, the $$-grubbing git.
April 17, 2025
More a memoire than an autobiography, which is actually much better. I was lucky enough to see Neil playing at a pub in Southsea. My brother and I, along with a mighty throng, gathered to see our long time hero live. He was bloody marvellous.
This beautiful tribute by his long time wife showcases both his amazing talent and his humanity. It is a truly lovely read.
This beautiful tribute by his long time wife showcases both his amazing talent and his humanity. It is a truly lovely read.
May 31, 2025
A loving and interesting biography of a talented, funny musician. Reading this I recalled the 2 concerts of his that I attended, and how he really listened to my chatter afterwards as he signed my CD. Much missed.
August 14, 2025
Too self indulgent, told though rose tinted glasses concerning Neil Innes, with a certain bitterness towards other, naively argued and felt angry rather than professional. He swims with sharks and she wants them to stroke him. Interesting.
Good audio.
Good audio.
August 30, 2025
A loving and honest tribute to a brilliant and underrated artist.
November 22, 2025
I enjoyed this book a lot Yvonne Innes is a good writer and her husband was an interesting man
May 7, 2025
Loved this one. A gentle insightful biography by his wife, this was a great read. Neil seemed a very nice man, crazy as a bag of frogs, but a creative and musical genius who I felt never got the plaudits he really deserved.
The phrase 'Oh, he was a lovely man' is scattered through the book from family, friends, acquaintances, celeb friends, critics and pop stars and I can vouch for that, for I did meet and chat with him after a show in Windsor and he was indeed a lovely man.
This is one of those books that you didn't want to end as he and wife, Yvonne, were nice company to be in and when it did end on such a sad note, I found it very emotional. Highly recommended.
The phrase 'Oh, he was a lovely man' is scattered through the book from family, friends, acquaintances, celeb friends, critics and pop stars and I can vouch for that, for I did meet and chat with him after a show in Windsor and he was indeed a lovely man.
This is one of those books that you didn't want to end as he and wife, Yvonne, were nice company to be in and when it did end on such a sad note, I found it very emotional. Highly recommended.
April 10, 2025
A nostalgic journey through the 1960s and beyond. The author, the wife of Neil Innes, tells of their life together and his musical career starting with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It is funny, sometimes sad, but very entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews