It’s safe to say there has never been a band quite like the Tubes.

The gonzo San Francisco rock group was formed in the early 1970s and was known for onstage antics that would make Ozzy Osbourne blush. On a recent trip to The Chronicle’s archive, I turned up packs of Tubes negatives that haven’t been seen in years and showcase the band in all its over-the-top glory.

The primary members moved to San Francisco from Phoenix in the late 1960s, merged from two groups, and started putting together choreographed numbers with a tight sound — and rich satire. Longtime Chronicle music critic Joel Selvin reviewed a Tubes show at the Winterland in 1975 and wrote, “This is a band of irreverent social critics in the tradition of Lenny Bruce and Frank Zappa, not Alice Cooper and Spike Jones.”

Tubes performances were full stage productions, sometimes including a car or motorcycle, a chainsaw (sans blade) and 12-foot inflatable cigarettes. They toured like a theater troupe, with a seven-man band, six dancers and a full crew. All of the songs, with such titles as “Mondo Bondage,” “Rock and Roll Hospital” and “Space Baby,” were accompanied by Kenny Ortega’s choreography.

Fee Waybill, the band’s 6-foot-4 lead singer, created the best-known character: Quay Lewd. The appearance of the British rock-star parody at almost every Tubes show was always a highlight. Mr. Lewd’s entrance was like a tightrope walk; he would stagger onstage in a silvery, tight outfit wearing 10-inch pumps, which, in the early days, Waybill made using tomato cans and beetle boots.

The Tubes had a couple of cult hits, “White Punks on Dope” and “Don’t Touch Me There,” and they topped the charts in 1983 with “She’s a Beauty.” They were on a world tour with David Bowie and Peter Gabriel and appeared on Cher’s prime-time variety show.

The Tubes aren’t usually mentioned among the best Bay Area-born and -bred bands. Members Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead) and Prairie Prince (Journey) would later play with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame groups. Dancers Jane Dornacker and Pearl E. Gates had popular bands of their own. Ortega, a local kid from Palo Alto, went on to work with Gene Kelly on “Xanadu,” and he choreographed Cher and Michael Jackson tours, a Super Bowl, a few Olympics openings, as well as the classic 1980s movie “Dirty Dancing.”

A Chronicle headline dubbed them “The Bull Moose Loonies of Rock,” which was an apt moniker. A headline in the Sunday San Francisco Examiner Magazine may have been better suited: “Masters of the Outrageous.”

Bill Van Niekerken is the library director of The San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. In his weekly column, From the Archive, he explores the depths of The Chronicle’s vast photography archive in search of interesting historical tales related to the city by the bay.