40 Fun Facts About The Rutles

Which rock star plays a TV reporter whose microphone is stolen mid-interview in the Rutles film All You Need Is Cash?

George Harrison backed the Rutles from the start, urging Eric Idle and Neil Innes to make a film that would deflate the myths around his old band.

In the Rutles film All You Need Is Cash, which American singer introduces the band to tea, causing a scandal?

Bob Dylan gets the credit for the tea that shaped the Rutles' greatest work, and the outcry begins when Dirk McQuickly publicly admits to enjoying it, with biscuits.

Rutles manager Leggy Mountbatten disliked the band's music in All You Need Is Cash but signed them for their what?

Trousers were the attraction: Leggy Mountbatten spotted the Rutles at Liverpool's Cavern Club and thought little of their playing, as his mother recalls in the film.

Rutles songwriter Neil Innes won a share of the royalties from Whatever, a 1994 hit for which Britpop band?

Oasis settled out of court because Whatever borrowed part of the melody of Innes's song How Sweet to Be an Idiot; the Rutles' Shangri-La later made a sly reference to it.

Leggy Mountbatten, the manager who signs the Rutles in All You Need Is Cash, is a parody of which Beatles figure?

Brian Epstein is the model, and the joke runs in the family: the manager's mother, Iris Mountbatten, is a parody of Queenie Epstein.

Eric Idle, who co-created the Rutles and played Dirk McQuickly, was a member of which British comedy troupe?

Monty Python had finished its television run the year before Idle launched Rutland Weekend Television, the sketch show where the Rutles were born.

Which indie band is named after a song that Rutles songwriter Neil Innes's old group performed in a Beatles film?

Death Cab for Cutie took their name from a 1967 song Innes co-wrote with Vivian Stanshall; its title came from a pulp crime magazine he found in a street market.

Before Eric Idle and Neil Innes chose to spoof the Beatles, the Rutles were first conceived as a parody of which band?

The Rolling Stones were the first target, under the name the Rutland Stones; when the Beatles took over as the subject, Idle suggested 'Rutles'.

Ron Nasty, the Rutle played by songwriter Neil Innes in All You Need Is Cash, is a parody of which Beatle?

John Lennon enjoyed the joke: he loved the film and refused to return the videotape and soundtrack he had been sent for approval.

All You Need Is Cash tells the Rutles' story in which comic film style, later made famous by This Is Spinal Tap?

Mockumentary is the word for a spoof documentary, and the Rutles got there six years before This Is Spinal Tap applied the trick to rock bands in general.

Like the Beatles before them, the Rutles served a long apprenticeship at the Rat Keller, a club in which city?

Hamburg's Rat Keller kept the Rutles playing nightly for fifteen months, and in the rush to get home they left behind Leppo, the fifth Rutle.

Chastity, played by Gwen Taylor in the Rutles film All You Need Is Cash, is a parody of which real person?

Yoko Ono is the target; Gwen Taylor, a Rutland Weekend Television regular, also plays the mother of the Rutles' manager in the film.

Arthur Sultan, the Surrey Mystic who takes the Rutles on a retreat in All You Need Is Cash, spoofs which guru?

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is the model; Henry Woolf plays Arthur Sultan, whose isolated hideaway for the four Rutles is near Bognor.

Doubleback Alley, a track on side two of the Rutles' 1978 soundtrack album, is a pastiche of which Beatles song?

Penny Lane is the model. Neil Innes said he wrote the Rutles songs from memory, deliberately not going back to listen to the Beatles' records.

All You Need Is Cash drew the lowest ratings of its week when which American network first broadcast it?

NBC showed the Rutles film on 22 March 1978 and it finished bottom of the prime-time table; five days later it fared far better on BBC2.

Ron Decline, the feared promoter who parodies Allen Klein in All You Need Is Cash, is played by which comedian?

John Belushi was one of a crowd of Saturday Night Live players in the Rutles film: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner all appear too.

Which Saturday Night Live producer suggested turning Eric Idle's short Rutles sketch into a full television film?

Lorne Michaels made the suggestion after Idle screened the Rutles clip on the show in October 1976, and he turns up in the film as a merchandiser.

Which of Eric Idle's former comedy partners plays Rutle Corps press agent Eric Manchester in All You Need Is Cash?

Michael Palin's Eric Manchester is a parody of Derek Taylor, the Beatles' press agent, and he is the man being interviewed while the office is looted.

The title of the Rutles' 1996 reunion album, Archaeology, is a play on which Beatles retrospective series?

Anthology was the Beatles' archive series of the mid-1990s, and delays to its third volume meant the Rutles' spoof reached the shops on the very same day.

In All You Need Is Cash, the Rutles' retreat with Arthur Sultan ends when Leggy Mountbatten takes a teaching job where?

Australia is where the manager emigrates to teach, news the film treats as a tragedy; two of the Rutles then found the money-losing Rutle Corps.

In All You Need Is Cash, Ron Nasty claims his remark comparing the Rutles to God was really about which singer?

Rod Stewart was the name supposedly misheard, but the damage was done: people were buying Rutles albums simply to burn them on bonfires.

Which Rutle, who never speaks a word in All You Need Is Cash, is rumoured to have died and been replaced?

Stig O'Hara is the silent Rutle, and the rumour has a Madame Tussauds wax model taking his place, a send-up of the 'Paul is dead' hoax.

Which American singer-songwriter plays himself in All You Need Is Cash, interviewed about first meeting the Rutles?

Paul Simon appears uncredited as himself, as do Mick Jagger and Roger McGough, all recalling a band that never existed.

The Rutles take their name from Rutland, which is known for holding which distinction among England's counties?

The smallest county in England inspired Eric Idle's sketch show about a tiny regional television station, and the band was a running joke on its name.

Neil Innes, who wrote every Rutles song, first found fame in the 1960s with which comedy rock group?

The Bonzo Dog Band, in full the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, were favourites of the Beatles, who gave them a spot in a 1967 television film.

Leppo, the long-lost 'fifth Rutle' of All You Need Is Cash, is a parody of which early member of the Beatles?

Stuart Sutcliffe is often called the 'fifth Beatle', and Leppo's name doubles the joke by echoing Zeppo, the fifth Marx Brother.

Piggy in the Middle, the longest track on the Rutles' 1978 soundtrack album, is a pastiche of which Beatles song?

I Am the Walrus is the model. Innes sang lead on the Rutles songs that resembled one Beatle's style, while drummer John Halsey sang a single Ringo Starr-type number.

The Rutles' soundtrack lost the Grammy for Best Comedy Recording to which comedian's album A Wild and Crazy Guy?

Steve Martin won, and there was a coda: he was among the celebrities interviewed in Eric Idle's 2002 follow-up film about the Rutles.

Brian Thigh, who turns down the Rutles in All You Need Is Cash, recalls which label's rejection of the Beatles?

Decca turned down the Beatles, and Dan Aykroyd's Brian Thigh, an ex-record producer in the film, is a parody of the label's Dick Rowe.

Which Rutles song was reportedly left off the 1978 LP after a Beatle warned it was too close to the original?

Get Up and Go echoed Get Back so closely that one of the Beatles reportedly warned their songs' publisher might sue; it finally surfaced on the 1990 CD.

Eric Idle's roving narrator in the Rutles film All You Need Is Cash is a parody of which British television journalist?

Alan Whicker is the model for the narrator, one of three parts Idle plays in the film alongside Dirk McQuickly and a visiting Californian professor.

Paul McCartney, under the alias Apollo C. Vermouth, produced which 1968 hit for Neil Innes's pre-Rutles band?

I'm the Urban Spaceman reached number five in Britain and won Innes an Ivor Novello Award; McCartney also played ukulele at the eight-hour session.

Which South African musician, a Beach Boys member in the early 1970s, played the Rutles' silent guitarist?

Ricky Fataar joined the Beach Boys with a bandmate from the Flames, and he later became Bonnie Raitt's long-serving drummer.

Eric Idle mimed as Dirk McQuickly in All You Need Is Cash, so which guitarist really sang the character's songs?

Ollie Halsall sang them, slightly sped up, and played the lead guitar parts; on screen he had only a cameo as Leppo, the fifth Rutle.

John Halsey, who played Rutles drummer Barry Wom, had earlier drummed on which Lou Reed album produced by David Bowie?

Transformer was one of Halsey's many sessions; he also drummed in Neil Innes's band Fatso, the regular musicians on Rutland Weekend Television.

Which New Zealand-born actor, a Rutland Weekend Television regular, played Rutles manager Leggy Mountbatten?

Terence Bayler came to the part through Eric Idle's sketch show, and decades later appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Neil Innes gave up half the royalties on fourteen Rutles songs when which owner of the Beatles' catalogue sued?

ATV Music settled for 50% of the fourteen album songs even though Innes hired a musicologist to defend them; the six left off the LP stayed wholly his.

Which Rutles song turned up on a 1978 Beatles bootleg, Indian Rope Trick, wrongly credited to a real Beatle?

Cheese and Onions fooled the bootleggers; Neil Innes had sung it at a piano on Saturday Night Live in 1977, in character as Ron Nasty, before the Rutles film was made.

Which American label released the Rutles' 1978 soundtrack album after its chairman, Mo Ostin, met Idle and Innes?

Warner Bros. Records released it, and the liner notes jokingly give the names of the Warner brothers as Stan and Reg.

Which Neil Innes pastiche of the early Beatles did the Rutles perform in their first Rutland Weekend Television sketch?

I Must Be in Love sounded so 'Beatle-y' to Innes that he pictured it filmed like A Hard Day's Night, and the Rutles grew from that idea.