Under the pseudonym “Apollo C. Vermouth“, Paul McCartney produced “I’m the Urban Spaceman“, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s most successful single, released in 1968.
The name “Apollo C. Vermouth” came from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who didn’t want to credit Paul McCartney on the record, to annoy their producer Gerry Bron, which they found generally unhelpful with them.
You produced the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band as APOLLO C VERMOUTH.
Yes. I loved the Bonzos: I’d been to see their show and they’d been in Magical Mystery Tour, in the strip scene at Raymond’s Revuebar. Viv Stanshall used to go to the clubs a lot, like I did, and we’d often meet all the guys late-night, chatting over a drink. He said that they really needed a single to establish them and I said, “Well what have you got? I’ve seen your act and you haven’t really got singles there.” Viv then asked if I’d produce them and I said “Yes, if you get something together.” So they sent a demo and I showed up at Chappell Studios one afternoon, talked to the engineer and got them a good sound, a bit of compression, a bit of this and that, and produced it. Within two or three hours they’d cut the track, ‘I’m The Urban Spaceman’, which turned out to be their only hit. I said “Just put me down as anything” and Viv made up the name Apollo C Vermouth. A lot of people still don’t know that I produced that track – they say “What – you produced the Bonzos? Never!” And it was fun session. I still like Viv a lot, and I loved the radio show he did.
Paul McCartney – Interview with Club Sandwich N°62, Spring 1992
I originally met Viv in the London club days, out and about on the town. We used to have drinks and a laugh together and he was a lovely, funny man. He was in The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, which I saw live on stage at the Saville Theatre a couple of times when Brian Epstein promoted shows there. They were very eccentric — sort of modern yet very old-fashioned — following on from bands like the Temperance Seven. Then I phoned Viv and asked if the Bonzos would be in Magical Mystery Tour with us. They did the scene with the stripper that we filmed in Paul Raymond’s Revuebar and I think they had a pretty good time, playing while the woman took off her clothes. So Viv became a very good friend and I used to visit him at his house — I remember that he had an aquarium with turtles, at which we used to sit and wonder! Then he asked me to produce their next single ‘I’m The Urban Spaceman’, which I did at Chappell Studios. I went down there, met the guys, and Viv had a length of brightly-coloured plastic piping which made a noise when he swirled it around his head. That was to be his contribution. We chatted a while and then I produced the record. He suggested that I be credited as “Apollo C Vermouth”, which indeed I am, still, to this day. It turned out to be the Bonzos only hit, although hit singles is not what they were about anyway. I’ll always remember Viv and Keith Moon being a sort of double act, the two of them playing very, very posh English gentleman. They did have their crazy side, of course, but whenever I saw them together they were perfect gentlemen. They did a joint Radio 1 show, which I heard while driving up to Scotland and was the inspiration for Oobu Joobu. Over the following years Viv and I would see each other, on and off, at functions, but I gradually lost touch with him, so it was with particular sadness that I heard he had died. He was a wonderful man and he’ll be much missed.
Paul McCartney, 1995
Was there any thought of using Paul as a producer again? Why didn’t he do anything else with you; was he too busy?
Neil Innes: He probably wasn’t [busy], actually. He probably would have loved to. But it didn’t cross our minds. All that crossed our minds was so we could annoy Gerry [Bron – The Bonzo’s manager] even more by sort of refusing to allow Paul’s name to go on the record. So we came up with the name Apollo C. Vermouth, and we kept it like that for a good four or five weeks. In fact, the single actually got up to about #17 without anybody knowing he’d had anything to do with it. But by then, the management snapped and leaked the story. Then it shot up to #5. But by then, it had sold over a quarter of a million records in the UK alone. You could sell records in those days. I mean in recent years, I think you’ve only got to sell thirty or forty thousand to get a #1. But I remember we sold nearly 18,000 records in one day. It’s extraordinary. Those were the days. It’s probably [why] so many gangsters got into record companies.
Interview with Neil Innes – From Bonzo Dog Band- Neil Innes interview by Richie Unterberger, January 2001
Recording sessions Apollo C. Vermouth participated in
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Recording "I'm The Urban Spaceman"
June or July 1968 ? • Songs recorded during this session appear on I'm The Urban Spaceman / Canyons Of Your Mind
