This the story of four Liverpool lads who shook the world. From humble beginnings in the Cavern Club, the Rutles achieved huge fame, played to screaming hordes at Che Stadium (named after that famous Cuban revolutionary … Che Stadium) and turned the world on to the pleasant effects of tea with masterpiece album Sgt Rutter’s Only Darts Club Band. The Prefab Four (Ron Nasty, Dirk McQuickly, Stig O’Hara and Barry Wom) may have disbanded acrimoniously in 1970, but songs such as ‘Hold My Hand’ and ‘Cheese and Onions’ remain beloved classics the world over. Now the band have reformed, pop-pickers can relive the glory days of Rutlemania.

The bizarro-world narrative of Neil Innes and Eric Idle’s Beatles spoof, the Rutles, is a comic masterpiece. The 1978 mockumentary, All You Need Is Cash, is a counter-factual romp, bursting with daft puns and glorious music. The Maharishi Yogi becomes Arthur Sultan, the Surrey Mystic; classic albums include Please Rut Me and Tragical History Tour. Neil ‘Ron Nasty’ Innes’ songs, however, are the film’s greatest achievement; pitch-perfect pastiches – often as good as the real thing. ‘I Must Be In Love’, with sublimely banal lyrics (‘I feel good, I feel bad, I feel happy, I feel sad’), is an utterly joyous homage to 'A Hard Day’s Night', while ‘Let’s Be Natural’ distils the White Album into a dreamy psychedelic ode. An ex-member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and a Monty Python acolyte, Innes has revived the Rutles several times, without Idle. This time, he says, really is the last time, so ‘Twist and Rut’ your way to the Liquid Rooms to hear Ron and co unleash their hair and their noise.

Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh, Tue 27 Aug.

THE RUTLES - Cheese And Onions (1969)