Rodney Slater

Rodney Desborough Slater (born 8 November 1941 in Crowland, Lincolnshire) is a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, playing saxophones and other musical instruments (particularly winds).

Career

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

He was a founder member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. The band was officially formed on 25 September 1962, at Slater’s home at 164c Rosendale Road, West Dulwich, when Vivian Stanshall and Rodney met and quickly bonded, after being introduced by Slater's flatmate Tom Parkinson. At the time, Slater was already playing in a traditional jazz band at college with Parkinson on sousaphone, and Chris Jennings on trombone.

In the 2004 BBC Four documentary Vivian Stanshall: The Canyons of His Mind, Slater claims that the name was inspired by playing a Dadaist word game using cut-up technique, which involves writing words or phrases on paper, tearing the paper into strips and then randomly re-assembling the strips to form new phrases. One of the phrases created was "Bonzo Dog Dada Band": Bonzo Dog after Bonzo the dog, a popular British cartoon character created by artist George Studdy in the 1920s, and Dada after the early 20th-century art movement.

Discography

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

Albums

Singles

Solo TitleYearParrotopia!2017