When we did Top of the Pops for the third time, we decided to do it as a television program here called Come Dancing, which is not as rude as it sounds.

But I remember we sold nearly 18,000 records in one day.

I used to help Viv with the chords and melodies sometimes.

I think most musicians do like to have a laugh.

I suppose we all loved those kind of sci-fi movies where terrible things came out of swamps and came to Mars. And there's usually some poor girl. All the guys are trying to desperately handle levers and saying, go to something or other.

But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.

We then took a shortened version of what we'd been doing in the pubs, with the best gags and things like that, out to cabaret clubs and things in the north of England for six weeks. And we became a big success.

But mostly, I wrote songs and Viv wrote songs.

But Dennis was a really solid musician, and we really needed somebody who could play bass like him.

Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.

In fact, Moon came on tour with us for a bit just before a big festival in Brighton, I think.

We weren't going to play the show-biz game, and be obsequious.

I mean in recent years, I think you've only got to sell thirty or forty thousand to get a #1.

I see my role in the Bonzos as being the straight man, in many ways.

So we used to look for funny songs, and learn them and play them. And we used to play them in pubs.