The New Vaudeville Band

Bob Kerr then formed his own group, Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band, which continues to perform today. See P Funk mythology. The group enjoyed success for two years until the novelty wore off. Of particular interest are the spacy themes of Starchild, Sir Nose and other recurring characters from multiple albums. The lead singer of the touring version of the group was Alan Klein who was billed as 'Tristram--Seventh Earl Of Cricklewood'. With the ensuing albums, Parliament became one of the most respected bands on the 1970s, and are now recognized as one of the forefathers of funk music. Only Bob Kerr from that group was interested, so he left The Bonzos to help Geoff Stephens form a touring version of The New Vaudeville Band. 1975 saw the release of Chocolate City, which also enjoyed moderate success; the titular track reached #24.

He contacted a real group called The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band which played similar music at the time. The song was the biggest hit of P Funk's career. With Geoff receiving several requests for The New Vaudeville Band to tour, he had to put together a group as the song was recorded by studio musicians hired only for the recording session. In the early 1970s, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Catfish Collins joined Funkadelic, which released five albums by 1974. With only moderate success, the Funkadelic signed with Casablanca Records as Parliament, releasing "Up for the Down Stroke" (off the album of the same name) which reached #10 on the R&B charts but peaked at #63 Pop. To his surprise, the song became a huge international hit and became a #1 song in the USA. The legal problems with the name "The Parliaments" were resolved in 1970, and Clinton signed all of Funkadelic to Invictus Records under the name Parliament, releasing Osmium ("The Breakdown" reached #30 on the R&B charts in 1971) but the name Parliament was then abandoned for some time, as Funkadelic was much more successful. The New Vaudeville Band was a group created by songwriter Geoff Stephens in 1966 to record his composition "Winchester Cathedral" which was a song inspired by the dance bands of the 1920s. Soon, Parliament was created in addition to Funkadelic and the two bands consisted of essentially the same people (see List of P Funk members), though both released albums under their respective names.

The name was soon abandoned due to legal issues with Revilot and Atlantic Records, and most of the same people recorded under the name Funkadelic, which consisted of The Parliaments' backing musicians, most importantly Billy Bass Nelson. Parliament was originally The Parliaments, a doo-wop group based out of George Clinton's Plainfield, New Jersey barber shop.