Put together by André Jacquemin, the producer behind most of the Python's studio albums, this unreleased compilation features, according to the opening announcement, "things which were never good enough to get on any other Monty Python LP - but you've gone out and bought it, so who's the mug?"

The mug - or mugs - in this case would be whoever suppressed this release which has yet to see the light of day since it was compiled back in 1987.

Chances are that nobody would have heard it at all, but for Mötorhead. Said rock group happened to be doing some final mixing for their LP Rock N'Roll at Jacquemin's Brittannia Row studios. Michael Palin, who was present in the studio, contributed some improvised amusement for the end of Side 1 and, gent that he is, got Jacquemin to run off some copies of this Python out-takes compilation for their tour-bus pleasure (a harkback to the 1970s when rock groups would cruise motorways to the sound of Derek and Clive bootlegs). The contents were as follows:

This is not an official tracklisting, as no paperwork accompanied the beer-stained tape. The title isn't official either - merely lifted from the opening announcement.

It would appear, from educated guesswork alone, that most of the selections are from the Contractual Obligation Album sessions in 1980. Alternate versions of 'Here Comes Another One' and 'I'm So Worried' aside, 'Minister Of Defence' continues the premise of Obligation's 'Bishop' as a sketch about inappropriate voice-over artistes, 'Olympic Shopping' isn't a million miles away from 'Crocodile', and - as with Obligation - there are a number of items which had previously been performed as part of non-Python productions. A version of 'Adventure' was previously issued on the Frost Report LP (1966), 'Indian Restaurant' was performed on How To Irritate People (1968), 'Memory Training' was in At Last The 1948 Show (1968) and 'Accountancy Shanty' (a different song from the one used in The Crimson Permanent Assurance) comes from Rutland Weekend Television (1975-77). John Cleese's 'Bunn Wakkit Buzzard Stubble & Boot' is also a perennial monologue, as well as being one of the original mooted titles for Monty Python's Flying Circus.

And, for real Python buffs, this little unreleased collection could even be seen as a conceptual link between Life Of Brian and Meaning Of Life:

The 'Otto' sequence on the LP is dubbed from a Life Of Brian out-take, and features the original mid-film appearance of the afeared 'Judean People's Front' suicide squad, along with their Fred Tomlinson-starred marching song. This whole sequence was printed in the Brian scriptbook and the song featured in the accompanying Scrapbook, as did a sketch called 'Brian Meets The Psychopath'. A studio re-recording of this latter item also appears on the compilation, albeit it in a modern day setting.

And, on the subject of modern-day Life Of Brian, few people are aware that the original concept involved scenes set in a public school - and that the 'Brian' parable was to be revealed via a scripture lesson. Some of this also featured in the Brian Scrapbook, while other bits were re-worked to form parts of Meaning Of Life. The 'Growth and Learning' sketch in the latter film ends with the nasty, one-sided Pupils vs Masters rugby match, but the original material included an extra scene in which a headmaster apologises to the parents of a pupil killed during the match ("We don't like to lose boys if we can possibly help it..."). This sketch (in which the parents are unfettered by the news) also features in the Scrapbook and on this out-takes LP. ('Martyrdom Of St Brian/Victor' and the school hymn 'All Things Dull And Ugly' found their place in both the Scrapbook and on the Contractual Obligation Album.)

Lastly, a never-revealed-elsewhere sketch on the compilation called 'Memory Training' - in which Cleese attempts to sell a dubious sex-reliant memory course to Chapman - ends with a long list of the towns where Life Of Brian was banned.

But, aside from the obvious historical interest for collectors, does the tape hold up as an LP of Python material in its own right? Well, we think so - it doesn't give the listener quite the same glow as the Flying Circus-period albums, but it's about as enjoyable as Contractual Obligation Album, and still proof that even cutting-room-floor Python can rival any of the so-called 'classic' sketches or songs. The highlights (eg, Palin's heavenly 'School Song') are wonderfully high, the lowlights can be excused as having been pulled out of their original context but serve to highlight the highlights, if you like. In summary, though, it's all fantastic - simply because it exists.

Search it out. A middle-ground Python fan will be vaguely interested. A huge Python fan will be amazed.

Some new notes.

A few selections from the LP - 'Mrs Particle & Mrs Velocity' and 'Psychopath' were 'released' as a hidden section in the 7th Level Meaning Of Life CD Rom game, along with a hitherto unheard (and not particularly brilliant) courtroom sketch. A full dissection of the computer games can be read at the end of our Monty Python: Films pages.

The original SOTCAA site hosted a Flash audio of the whole LP as part of this article. Eventually it was taken down although some of the more enterprising fans made their own wav files, including someone on the alt.fan.monty-python Google group. Having assembled themselves into some degree of discipline they got Kim 'Howard' Johnson to contact both the Python office and individual members Terry Jones, John Cleese and Eric Idle to request permission for the newsgroup to host an MP3. Terry Jones visited SOTCAA and, according to Daz (then webmaster of the 'Howard' Johnson site, now webmaster of Pythonet) was 'actually impressed with the whole thing'. The response from the three members however was two-to-one: Jones said 'We shouldn't stop them; they are having too much fun'; Cleese had 'no problems' with it, but Idle 'wasn't too enthused'. As such the newsgroup were advised by Johnson against hosting the LP, pending furtherness.

A bit later Johnson requested a CD copy from the newsgroup so that he could send copies to all the Pythons who purportedly had 'NOT heard the material presented in the format that this album represents' (ahem - apart from Michael Palin who bootlegged the sod in the first place! Quite why he gave copies to Mötorhead and not the other Pythons is unknown. And quite why Johnson didn't simply point the team towards André Jacquemin, who'd actually assembled the album and probably had stacks of them in his mother's garden shed, hasn't really been explained either).

As far as we're aware the matter of hosting the MP3 pretty much rested there, aside from a lot of silly lies concerning the Python office serving us with an 'infringement notice' - something which really only happened someone's hairy imagination.

The album remains unreleased.