Eric Idle: Sings Monty Python

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * )

Fair enough, Idle did sing many of the most memorable Python songs, and this live-in-concert outing (with a classy band which includes jazz saxophonist Tom Scott and backing singers) has him introducing these songs with amusing nonsense and some barbed comments.

Before The Accountancy Shanty from The Meaning of Life he notes it was the only Python film made for a Hollywood studio and coincidentally is the only one which hadn't made a profit: "We portrayed accountants as pirates, where did we get that idea?"

But of course it's all down to those classics Every Sperm is Sacred, The Bruce's Philosophers Song, Sit on My Face, Penis Song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and so on.

And he includes I Must Be in Love (introduced as Sir Dirk McQuickly), the Beatles' parody written by Neil Innes for Idle's Rutles.

A one-stop shop of Python's musical wit. It is not dead, deceased, bereft of life …

Label: Shock