'TIS the season for two silences. But, in true Bonzos tradition, founder-member Neil Innes, by way of introduction, paid tribute to their former charismatic frontman Viv Stanshall, who died in 1995, by announcing: "For all those who cannot be here tonight, I thinks it's appropriate we should remember them with ... a minute's cacophony!"
Cue 60 seconds of earshattering screaming, yodelling and wind instrument flatulence from the remaining members of the band gathered together for this one-off 40th anniversary celebration.
It set the scene for a whimsical night of irreverence, enhanced by guest appearances from longtime fans Ade Edmondson and Phill Jupitus, who filled Stanshall's trousers admirably.
To see and hear the Bonzos once again is to step back in time to a gentler, more innocent age where vaudeville, trad jazz and rock was melded with inventive stage gadgets and wit which, like the Pythons in the comedy sphere, pricked holes in a puffed-up British establishment that took itself far too seriously.
With Innes expertly orchestrating matters centre stage, the highlights were many, including a text-book rendition of the wacky calypso Look Out There's A Monster Coming by a garishly-suited Jupitus, who played it pure Sam Spade Deaf School for the film noir spoof, Big Shot.
Edmondson, too, hammed it up Stanshall-style, with a pompous rendition of I'm Bored, before leaping offstage dressed in beak and feathers to encourage selected members of the audience to squawk "Hello!!!" during the eponymous Mr Slater's Parrot.
But, lest we forget, there was also the virtuosity of the band's original surviving members, who have lost none of their joie de vivre.
