Hair of the Dog, by Three Bonzos and a Piano. (Repeat Performance records)

“Who kept the dogs in!” comes the fearsome shout heralding the arrival of Three Bonzos and a Piano, the self-styled villains of vaudeville, and a bite-sized line up of arguably the world’s silliest group – the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Bonzos’ purists will no doubt be keen to sniff out this debut album from the quartet, and as Roger Ruskin Spear’s clarinet, Sam Spoon’s clattery (is that a word? Ed) old drum kit and Rodney Slater’s saxophone kick in on the opening track Keep the Dogs In, Mrs Jones, we’re safely back in familiar territory – a Spike Jones-inspired ditty about one week in the Bonzos’ 1960s heyday at the Fiesta Club, Stockport.

As Spear explains: "It’s real life. Rodney really did wipe his bottom on Neil’s [Innes, piano] music in the middle of the road when he’d had a curry. Rodney really was the vulgarian. I did walk out into the stage with no trousers on because I got bored one night. And [Smith, drummer and tap dancer] Larry and [vocalist] Viv really did have a union with the landlady’s daughter in the front room and she caught them at it. So it’s all true life drama.”

Stand out tracks include the Slater-penned Senior Moments (surely the only song to contain the phrase “spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch”) and White Van Man – “He’ll pollute your urban space with open window drum & bass”, as well as the nod to his late pal Vivian Stanshall, with Ginger Geezer, a song written by the late vocalist for his Teddy Boys Don’t Knit album.

Other gems include Spoons’ Out of the Box – an Oliver Postgate pastiche of nonsense – and pianist Dave Glasson (ex-Whoopee Band and Slightly Dangerous Brothers) finally setting his biscuit poem to music with his song, simply called Biscuit.

It’s an album full of good tunes, little gems, oddities and complete rubbish. And Bonzos’ fans wouldn’t have it any other way. And in a world dominated by 50 Cents and Tinchy Stryders don’t you just wish they’d wheel the band on unannounced at some hip hop night, and let them launch into “I think I am a biscuit...”. That’s what I call keeping it unreal.

For album information see threebonzosandapiano.co.uk. Three Bonzos and a Piano play the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, on Saturday, February 6