It would really be a shame if the most important pop group in the world had not been parodied by something or someone. So it’s not surprising that the Beatles enjoyed that privilege many times. The most perfect imitators by far of the moptops were The Rutles (also called: The Prefab Four).This (imaginary) band in fact was a spin-off of a humorous TV show the BBC brought out in 1975 and 1976: thirteen episodes entitled Rutland Weekend Television (RWT), itself again a parody of BBC competitor London Weekend Television (a daughter of commercial channel ITV). The RWT series was written by Eric Idle and Neil Innes after the demise of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a satirical program they both had participated in. During the episodes of Rutland Weekend Television the idea came up for a Beatles parody.
And Rutland? That really exists: it is the smallest County of England. And that in fact is also the joke: such a mini-shire would only have been able to finance a very modest transmitter. And the weekend programming of such a miniature station would not have been something to look forward to either of course.
Rutland: the Rutles owe their name to it. And to complete the joke: thanks to the successful TV program The Rutles really went on tour, really went into the recording studio and the band really scored two serious hits in England (see in this context also Spinal Tap).
Active: 1975-1978; 1996-1997; 2002, GBR
Site: http://www.rutles.org/
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