All You Need Is Cash

Outside London Airport, Fans await the appearance of The Rutles on their return to Britain. The Terminal at Speke Airport on Speke Hall Avenue in Speke, Liverpool L24.

A Presenter (Eric Idle) introduces the programme "From these streets, very close to the Cavern Rutland, came the fabulous "Rutland sound", created by the Prefab Four . . . Dirk, Nasty, Stig and Barry, who created a musical legend that will last a lunchtime." Dave W finds the 'Presenter' in Adair Road, London W10 looking across Hazlewood Crescent to Holmefield House. Hazlewood Crescent is also seen in 'I Believe in You'. (RL)

Looking north with attractive spring blossom. SJ

"They were discovered by their manager, Leggy Mountbatten, in a lunchtime disco very close to these streets. Their first album was made in twenty minutes. The second took even longer." Dave says that the 'Presenter' moves along Adair Road so that Gadsden House appears in the background. (RL)

Slightly to the right of the previous. SJ

"We look at their lives, their loves, their music. We examine some of the problems that made them what they are today." Further along Adair Road, Dave sees the 'Presenter' as crossing the un-named access road that leads to Goldborne Gardens. (RL)

The sign says 31-53 Adair Road. SJ

"And we shall also be asking some of the people who worked with them whether they were really the sort of lovable people they were made out to be. We shall be asking many people who knew them what they were really like." And here, nearly at the crossroads with Appleford Road, Dave points out that the Church of Our Lady of The Holy Souls at the far end in Hazlewood Crescent can be seen top left. (RL)

And there's the church bathed in welcome spring sunshine. SJ

A montage of The Rutles performing their memorable songs includes a scene with Barry Wom (John Halsey), Dirk McQuickly (Eric Idle), Stig O'Hara (Ricky Fataar) and Ron Nasty (Neil Innes) signing autographs aboard a ferry on the River Mersey. Looking towards Liverpool with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board offices to the extreme left and the Church of England Cathedral visible in the centre distance.

Highlights include footage of Barry's wedding. # Time goes by as we all know, naturally, People come and people go, naturally. Let's be natural. Ever since the world began, Let's be natural, every woman, every man, Let's be natural, as follows nature's plan.

Low points in the band's career are also covered. # Let's be natural. Oh, yeah.

"Yes, tonight we examine the entire legend of The Rutles. But where did the story start? The answer is: Right here! For on this very spot . . . Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly first bumped into each other." This appears to be Birkenhead Port between Seacombe and Birkenhead on the Wirral peninsula with the Royal Liver Building across the River Mersey.

"At this precise point . . . just a few feet back there . . . Ron Nasty invited Dirk to help him stand up. Dirk, merely an amateur drinker, agreed. And a musical legend was created."

"They were soon joined by their guitarist, Stig O'Hara . . . a school-leaver of no fixed hairstyle. But it would not be for another two years before they found their drummer, Barrington Womble, hiding in the van. When they did, they persuaded him to change his name, to save time . . . and his haircut, to save Brylcreem. He became simply Barry Wom." Library or news footage of the original Cavern Club at 10 Mathew Street in Liverpool 2 which closed in 1973.

"In October 1961, Leggy Mountbatten (Terence Bayler), a retail chemist from Bolton, entered their lives." Meard Street, London W1.

Bollards abound! (PW)

Leggy had lost a leg in the RAF in the closing overs of World War II, and had been hopping around Liverpool ever since." Meard Street is seen in a good number of productions including 'King of the Underworld', 'Saturday Night Out', 'Two Left Feet', 'A Woman of Mystery', 'Last Night in Soho', 'Danger by My Side', 'The Six Men', 'The Teckman Mystery' and 'Carousella'.

Outside numbers 3 and 5. (PW)

"As a child, Leggy's mother never allowed him to play with the other little boys. His father was so snobby, he wore swimming trunks in the bath to stop him looking down on the unemployed." Meard Street in Soho.

How the same corner looks 45 years on. (PW)

"But it was here, in Liverpool, th . . . . " Looking towards the skyline of New York City from the Staten Island Ferry with the Whitehall Terminal to the right.

Captured from the Staten Island ferry by Janette Cotton who explains that the buildings on the right are the same, but those left of centre are different since the rebuilding of the area following the World Trade Centre attack in 2001.

"I'm standing in the world's naughtiest street . . . the notorious Reeperbahn, Hamburg." Likely to be stock footage of Reeperbahn in St. Pauli, Hamburg.

"For four hungry working class lads there are worse places than prison. And the Rat Keller, Hamburg is one of these."

"In October 1961, Leggy was busy hopping 'round London, trying to sell their tapes." Dave W provided a few more captures from this sequence and as a result the genuine telephone box was to be seen in Queen Caroline Street, London W6 with the rear of the Peabody Trust in the back ground. Elizabeth House is out of shot to the right. (RL)

Temporary fencing, placed during repairs to the wall behind the telephone kiosk, would have marred a shot, looking south-east, showing the pavement and where the old kiosk used to be. Google maps show a more modern kiosk in situ until 2020. SJ

"In his autobiography "A Cellar Full Of Goys", Leggy Mountbatten wrote of the excitement of those early days. When they rode the go-kart to fame . . . "

" . . . and took the ferry across the Mersey to a land of riches, wealth, and heartache. Leggy put them into suits . . . he put them into the recording studio . . . and he put them into the newspapers. For The Rutles, success was only a drumbeat away." Looking towards Pier Head in Liverpool 3 with the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board offices standing from left to right.

A Pathétique News item covers the Rutles story. "It was a busy week for the Prefab Four as the fever of Rutlemania rolls over England." Keen eyed Dave W soon recognised a London scene sandwiched between two of those in Liverpool. Viewed from the top of the Pavilion Cinema, Coventry Street W1, Piccadilly Circus (before pedestrianisation took hold) looking towards (Lower) Regent Street and Piccadilly. He assumes that this is footage of what was the premier of Hard Day's Night at that cinema on 6 July 1964. (RL)

Fans line the streets of Liverpool in what may be library or news footage of Castle Street in Liverpool 2 with the corner of Brunswick Street to the left.

"Monday saw them arriving for a civic reception given by the Mayor and corporation of Liverpool to say "Thank You" to its famous four sons." Looking northward along Castle Street towards the Town Hall at the junction of Water Street and Dale Street.

The Rutles wave at their fans from the balcony of Liverpool Town Hall. Filmed for the production, this is the balcony of Liverpool Town Hall.

"On Tuesday . . . On Tuesday, Rutlemania comes to London as Rutles fans jammed Piccadilly Circus and bring London's traffic to a standstill. Look out girls, here come The Rutles." Facing the entrance of Piccadilly Circus station on the south side of Piccadilly in W1.

"The Queen, too, is a Rutles' fan and she enjoyed the command performance so much that on Wednesday they went back to her place . . ." Buckingham Palace at the south-western end of The Mall in London SW1.

Traffic but not tourist-free. SJ

". . . to receive MBEs. Well done lads! England's proud of you!"

"I'm actually standing outside the actual hotel, in which The Rutles actually stayed in 1964." Grand Army Plaza in New York 10019, New York with the Pulitzer Fountain to the left and the Plaza Hotel as the background.

Janette Cotton actually stood outside the actual hotel to take this shot.

"The Rutles' music, meanwhile, had been attracting respectable critical attention. The London Times called it "The best since Schubert". Sir Brian Morrison has been Regis professor of music at the University of Oxford for the past thirty years. We asked him: "Just how good, musically, were The Rutles?" Facing Balliol College on Magdalen Street East in Oxford, Oxfordshire.

"Stanley J. Krammerhead III, Jr. is an occasional visiting professor of Applied Narcotics at the University of Please-Yourself, California." Facing Encina Hall of Stanford University at 616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford in California.

"He is also a keen historian of pop music and we asked him "Just how good musically, were The Rutles?", But he didn't really tell us, either." Stanford University, California.

"So we went to New Orleans to find out just how expensive it is to make these documentaries."

A pan starts at the junction of Carondelet Street and Gravier Street in New Orleans, Louisiana as a streetcar on the St. Charles Line passes. The background building has since been demolished.

"I'm standing by the banks of the Mississippi. The First Na . . ." The corner of Carondelet Street and Gravier Street with Hibernia Tower to the left and the Cotton Exchange in the right background.

"I'm standing by the banks of the Mississippi, in Louisiana, the cradle of the blues. That's black music sung mainly by whites. And we're here to find out the black origins of Rutle music." In the background the Crescent City Connection bridge crosses the Mississippi River in New Orleans.

Blind Lemon Pye (Jerome Greene) tells the Interviewer that "Well, everything I learned, I learned from The Rutles", "But surely you were singing the blues back in the early thirties?", "No, I was working on the railroad."

"So where did Rutle music originate?", "Next door.", "Next door?", "Next door, at the Ruttling Orange Peel.".

"Nasty had written and published a bestselling book and only one media remained unconquered . . . the cinema!" The top of the fire escape at the rear of the Hammersmith Odeon on Queen Caroline Street W6.

"In 1965, 'A Hard Day's Rut' changed all that." The rear of the Grade II* listed Hammersmith Odeon that was seen in 'A Hard Day's Night'.

"Roger McGough (Himself) is a Liverpool poet. He's the author of many books set in and around Liverpool, including 'Mersey Sound', 'Gig', 'The Liverpool Scene' and two of his Liverpool poems are in the 'The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse'. He was born in Liverpool, attended school in Liverpool, was even married in Liverpool. And his football team is, of course, Everton. He's a member of the The Scaffold, a light comedy group who played The Cavern during the early sixties. And during those incredible years he lived, wrote, loved, watched football and drank in Liverpool. Roger, did you know The Rutles?" "Oh yes, yes." Looking towards the Royal Liver Building and the River Mersey from the Atlantic Tower hotel on Chapel Street L3.

When it's suggested that some people are saying that the band have been staying away from Liverpool now they're famous, Ron Nasty replies "No, we haven't been staying away so much as not coming here."

"At the height of Rutlemania in 1965, their drummer Barry Wom, the noisy one, returned home to Liverpool, to marry his childhood sweetheart, 23 year-old butcher's apprentice Brenda Liola."

"Inside the dimly lit, crowded church Barry got separated from his fiancé and ended up with a different bride. Barry was heart-broken, but when he looked up and saw who he'd married, he soon cheered up."

The Presenter continues "Welcome back. And it's from Liverpool that we go immediately to London." Looking towards the Royal Liver Building from the River Mersey.

"Hello, London here. And it's from London that we go to Switzerland . . . " Looking from Lambeth Bridge towards the Houses of Parliament on the SW1 bank of the River Thames.

A popular vista. SJ

" . . . to The Rutles second movie, "Ouch!" Filmed in colour, on location, very expensively NOT in London." Referring to the the documentary 'Get Up And Go' , Alan Bourke advises that this was apparently "a dry ski slope near London" adding that there were slopes at RAF Brize Norton, Bromley, Crystal Palace and Alexandra Palace at the time.

"Ché Stadium. Named after the Cuban guerilla leader, Ché Stadium. And it was here, in 1965, that The Rutles came . . . well, not here in the car park, obviously, but back there, in the stadium, that The Rutles came in 1965 to a capacity house. A sell-out." Shea Stadium on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The stadium was closed and demolished in 2008.

Officers of the NYPD escort the band to the stage. Conflicting information on-line has the interior scenes of the stadium filmed at Everton's Goodison Park as well as Queen's Park Ranger's ground at Loftus Road in London W12.

"In 1966, The Rutles faced the biggest threat to their careers. Nasty, in a widely quoted interview, apparently had claimed that The Rutles were bigger than God, and had gone on to say that God had never had a hit record. Many fans burned their albums. Many more burnt their fingers attempting to burn their albums. Album sales sky-rocketed. People were buying them just to burn."

"Following Dirk's admission that he had tried tea, Nasty was busted by Detective Inspector Brian Plant, who brought his own to be on the safe side."

"Stig, meanwhile, had fallen under the influence of Arthur Sultan, the "Surrey Mystic", who had invited The Rutles on a get-away-from-it-all table-tapping weekend near Bognor." Liverpool Lime Street station on Lime Street, Liverpool 1.

"As usual, the press followed." Platform 9 at Lime Street station in Liverpool.

New roof and platform number (NW).

# In this day and age, Love is all the rage, Life goes on, It only goes to show, It's not my cup of tea . . . Dr. Paul Flewers recognised North Sheen railway station in Richmond, Greater London, looking eastward with the block containing numbers 75 to 90 Sheen Court Road in the right distance.

Arthur Sultan (Henry Woolf) waits on the platform with his Entourage. # It's all the same to me, For we are here today, And gone tomorrow . . . The platform at North Sheen station on the line from Waterloo to Staines and Reading with Manor Road allotments as the background located by Dr. Paul Flewers.

Stig shakes Arthur's hand as the band alight from the train. Dr. Paul Flewers identifies this as North Sheen station in Richmond adding that the station buildings have since been demolished.

"But while The Rutles sat at the feet of the Surrey mystic fate dealt them an appalling blow. It was here that they learned the shocking news of their manager." Every picture is said to tell a story and so too can some windows, Geoff Dodd finds this to be our old friend Littleton Park House, a face also seen in several episodes of 'Danger Man'. (RL)

"Leggy Mountbatten, tired and despondent over the weekend and unable to raise any friends, went home and tragically . . . accepted a teaching post in Australia."

"It's significant that their first major flop, "The Tragical History Tour", immediately followed the loss of Leggy. It was not the strongest idea for a Rutles film: four Oxford history professors on a hitch-hiking tour of tea shops in the Rutland area" One of the anti-blast screens at West Malling airfield in Kent which also appear in 'Magical Mystery Tour'.

Outside Rutle Corps. head office, an Interviewer (George Harrison) questions press agent and lawyer Eric Manchester (Michael Palin) about allegations of theft. Alan Bourke tells us that in the documentary 'Get Up And Go', Michael Palin recounts that this part was shot in Golden Square, Soho . . . and this is outside number 5.

Number 5 now . . . . which has since been demolished and replaced . . . like many buildings in Soho. (PW)

"The Rutles next opened a clothes boutique in London, which lost nearly a million dollars in only three weeks before Nasty blew it up." Alan Bourke draws out attention to the documentary 'Get Up And Go' in which Gary Weis mentions that this was the backlot at Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

Personal problems now began to split The Rutles into smithereens. They would sing together, but they wouldn't talk. Pretty soon they wouldn't even sing! By March 1969, things had got so bad within the group that both Dirk and Nasty got married. Not to each other, of course . . . to women."

Dirk had become enamoured of Martini (Bianca Jagger), a French actress who spoke no English and precious little French. When they married in London the service was conducted in Spanish, Italian and Chinese, to be on the safe side.

Stig, meanwhile, had hidden in the background so much that in 1969, a rumour went around that he was dead. He was supposed to have been killed in a flash-fire at a waterbed shop and replaced by a plastic and wax replica from Madam Tusseau's. Several so called "facts" helped the emergence of this rumour." By a process of elimination Dave W finds Alma Square, London NW8 and as a result is able to detail this and the next two captures. Here, at the side of 14 Hill Road in Alma Square, with the terrace of 1 - 6 Hamilton Gardens in the background. (RL)

"One: He he never said anything publicly. Even as the "quiet one", he'd not said a word since 1966. Two: On the cover of their latest album, "Shabby Road" he's wearing no trousers, an Italian way of indicating death. Three: Nasty supposedly sings "I buried Stig" on "I Am The Waitress"" And here Dave W says, in Alma Square, London NW8 in the vicinity of 17 Hamilton Gardens. (RL)

"Stig was, of course, far from dead . . . although not, in fact, far from Esher. He'd fallen in bed with Gertrude Strange a large-breasted biologically accommodating American girl who's father had invented the limpet mine." Ignore the sign Dave W, this is on the corner of 14 Hill Road and Alma Square, NW8. Railing detail is preserved on the flight of steps to the front door. (RL)

Here's the real sign. SJ

"Nasty had flown back in a hurry from his honeymoon rally in Nuremburg to meet the most feared promoter in the world, Ron Decline. Decline had a reputation as a hard man. His only weak spot was dishonesty."

"At Rutle Corps. final meeting, 134 legal people and accountants filed into a small eight-by-ten room. Only 87 came out alive. The black hole of Savile Row had taken toll of some of the finest merchant banking brains of a generation." Found by Alan Bourke, this is looking up at number 5 Golden Square W1 with the still extant number 4 to the left.

Off angle due to being taken quickly while looking directly upwards in the pouring rain. (PW)

# Workin' up a fever In a one-horse town, was a jockey by the name of Joe. He didn't have a lot of what you might call luck, but he had a lot of get up n' go. Get up n' go, get up n' go, get up n' go back home. Get up n' go, get up n' go, get up n' go back home . . . The roof of Goldcrest's headquarters at the corner of Bourchier Street and Dean Street W1.

# Tall in the saddle in a one-horse town, Joe, he knew someday he'd hit the road, He traded with a dealer for a pick-up truck and went lookin' for a medium load. Get up n' go, get up n' go, get up n' go back home. Get up n' go, get up n' go, get up n' go back home. Looking north-east from Dean Street with the spire of St. Giles in the Fields church in the left distance.

A shot pans away from the roof where The Rutles are performing. Above Dean Street in Soho with Old Compton Street crossing to the bottom left.

As the song finishes, Police Officers make their way onto the roof to arrest The Rutles. Looking over the rooftops of Dean Street and Old Compton Street from Goldcrest's headquarters.

The Policemen ask the band to "Come along" before they are led from the roof. The roof of Goldcrest at the corner of Bourchier Street and Dean Street in W1 with properties at the junction of Old Compton Street in the background.

"Sixteen years after the fresh-faced Prefab Four first burst into the public eye, and eight years after they split up, just where are The Rutles today? Dirk has formed with his wife Martini a punk rock group called The Punk Floyd. He sings and she doesn't."

"Nasty has turned his back on the world, and sits with his thoughts and his memories. Barry is a hairdresser in the Reading area with two fully equipped salons of his own. While Stig . . . "

". . . works for Air India as an air-hostess. Fame is a fickle mistress."

"Just how many people even remember The Rutles today?" The Onslow Ford Memorial at the junction of Abbey Road and Grove End Road in NW8.

Rather isolated on a traffic island. SJ

"We asked Mrs. Emily Pules (Gilda Radner). Excuse me madam, we're doing a documentary and I wonder if you'd answer a few questions." "Sorry, I don't answer questions."

"I'm standing on the crossing where the Rutles legend ended. Here it was that the Prefab Four, the singing phenomena, made the sixties what they are today! Facing north-west on Abbey Road in London NW8.

Temporarily free but tourists are out of shot preparing for photo opportunities. SJ