March 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the heady days when those loveable moptops - Dirk, Nasty, Stig and Barry conquered America with The Rutles: All You Need is Cash.

This week Eric Idle and Lorne Michaels are in town with Rutlemania, a "semi-spectacular tribute concert." The concert/musical features top-notch Beatle tribute band, "The Fab Four", performing as a Rutles tribute band, "The Pre-fab Four".

The multi-media experience is an "all-singing, all-dancing, all-laughing, all-jumping up and down, musical extravaganza (tea included) based on The Music, The Movies And the Lives of The Fabulous Rutles".

Upcoming performances of Rutlemania are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the 19th, 20th and 21st, at The Ricardo Montalban Theater, after which the show will move on to New York.

Yesterday The Mods and Rockers film festival pulled off a major coup by reuniting all four Rutles - Eric Idle (Dirk), Neil Innes (Nasty), Ricky Fataar (Stig) and John Halsey (Barry), live and in person for an anniversary screening of All You Need is Cash.

All you need is Cash, usually referred to as simply The Rutles, has gained a loyal cult following that rivals any science fiction movie. The rock mockumentary, made in conjunction with Eric Idle and Saturday Night Live, was co-directed by Idle and SNL's much-lauded shorts filmmaker Gary Weis.

The Rutles were portrayed by skilled musicians - Ricky Fataar was a member of the Flames and also did a turn with The Beach Boys. Drummer John Halsey was in Patto. Neil Innes, as well as writing all of the songs for The Rutles (and much of Monty Python) was a member of The Bonzo Dog Band. Eric Idle lipsynched to Ollie Halsall's singing and mimed along to Andy Brown's bass playing.

Neil Innes' songs stand the test of time. The quality of the music and the precision of the parody have turned The Rutles into their own phenomenon. You have to love a Wikipedia entry that has to use parenthesis to clarify (Real) vs. (Fictional).

Stay tuned - LAist will be bringing you full Rutles coverage all week!!!

Rutlemania

Wednesday, March 19 at 8 pm
Thursday, March 20 at 8 pm
Friday, March 21 at 8 pm

To Purchase Tickets for a Los Angeles Show :
Ticketweb

Ricardo Montalbán Theatre - 1615 Vine St, Hollywood, CA 90028

Photo courtesy of Pythonline.com

Opening scene of All You Need is Cash

Cheese and Onions scene from All You Need is Cash