The Rutles - The LP Booklet - Pages 11 and 12

The LP Booklet Pages 11 and 12

In 1966 the Rutles faced the biggest threat to their careers. Nasty in a widely quoted interview had apparently claimed that the Rutles were bigger than God, and was reported to have gone on to say that God had never had a hit record.
The story spread like wildfire in America. Many fans burnt their albums, many more burnt their fingers attempting to burn their albums. Album sales skyrocketed, People were buying them just to burn them.
But in fact it was all a ghastly mistake. Nasty, talking to a slightly deaf journalist, had claimed only that the Rutles were bigger than Rod. Rod Stewart would not be big for another eight years, and certainly at this stage hadn't had a hit. At a press conference, Nasty apologised to God, Rod and the Press, and the tour went ahead as planned. It would be the Rutles' last.

A year later the Rutles were caught up in another scandal. In the heady atmosphere of the San Francisco of the mid sixties, Bob Dylan had introduced the Rutles to a substance that was to have an enormous effect on them: tea. They enjoyed its pleasant effects, despite warnings that it would lead to stronger things, and it enormously influenced their greatest work, Sergeant Rutter's Only Darts Club Band. The release of this album--a millstone in pop music history--contributed greatly to an idyllic summer of bells, flowers and tea drinking. But it was not to last. Under questioning Dirk refused to lie to the British Press and admitted not only taking and enjoying tea, but biscuits too. The Press always envious of the Rutles leapt at this opportunity to have it both ways. They grabbed the wrong end of the stick and started to beat about the bush with it. In the ensuing confusion many pop stars were arrested for using and possessing tea. Nasty himself was busted by Detective Inspector Brian Plant, who brought his own to be on the safe side. There was an immediate outcry against this Police persecution. The Times carried a full page ad calling for the legalisation of tea, and the general feeling was that the Police should stick to their proper job of collecting bribes from pornographers and protecting the Royal Family from their subjects.