For
this week’s WTF Show, Lex will be playing some of mine and Anne’s
favourites, and so for a change, I have decided to compile my blog not
so much focussed on music, but on a highly intelligent, eccentric guy
that I’ve always held in the highest regard – Viv Stanshall. I suppose
that apart from displaying great wit, Viv was a poet, art lover,
satirist, actor, writer and musician. He was principally known for his
work with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, for his observations on the
English upper classes in ‘Sir Henry at Rawlinson End’ and for being
Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield’s epic ‘Tubular Bells’.
Viv
only became Vivian, via a name change in 1977, because he was actually
christened Victor Anthony Stanshall, born on 21 March 1943 in
Shillingford, Oxford. He was the son of Victor, an RAF Corporal,
later a Company Secretary, and later still Company Director, and
Eileen. During WW2, the young Victor lived with his mother whilst his
father was serving in the RAF, and he looked back on this period as his
happiest childhood time. At the end of the war, Victor Snr returned
home and the young Victor found him really difficult to live with. He
was made to speak in a ‘posh’ accent which remained with him for the
rest of his life, and Victor Snr was stern, and a strict
disciplinarian. The parents produced a second son, Mark, in 1949 and in
a similar scenario to that of his father , the young Victor never
gelled with him.
Now
resident in Leigh –on-Sea, a 16 year old Stanshall, having been a
pupil at Southend High School for Boys, wished to attend Art School.
His father would not support this is in any way, and so Vic (as he
became known) spent a year in the Merchant Navy. On return, he enrolled
at the Central School of Art & Design in London, and later met
Rodney Slater, Roger Ruskin-Spear and Neil Innes. They talked of
forming a band, and .....long story short.....the foetus of the Bonzo’s
was created. The four met in the ‘New Cross Arms’ pub and Neil was
impressed by Vic’s unusual mode of dress – Billy Bunter check trousers,
a Victorian frock coat, black coat tails, violet tinted specs, and
large rubber false ears! Innes was impressed that he was “an
interesting character”. Much of the band’s early work was based on
comedy reworkings of 20’s and 30’s songs, and like a lot of groups,
they played in local pubs. They quickly amassed many musical
instruments & props, and in 1967, now with a Manager in tow,
appeared in the Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film, in which they
played what was to become a Bonzo classic - ‘Death Cab for Cutie’.
As
a mark of his eccentricity, Stanshall was told by Manager Gerry Bron,
to shut himself away and write songs for an album, but on inspection a
few weeks later, Bron found that no songs had been written.....instead
Stanshall had used the time to build hutches for his pet rabbits! After
a surprise hit single in 1968 ‘I’m the Urban Spaceman’, a subsequent
tour of the States resulted in the band being stopped by a local
sheriff who was suspicious that firearms & drugs were being
carried. The sheriff apparently asked “How are you going to defend
yourself?” to which V.S. replied “with good manners” !!!
After
the group split in 1970, Viv, as he was then known, was involved in a
variety of bands, but developed an anxiety disorder which would plague
him for the rest of his life. To make things worse, he began drinking
heavily. However, he continued to write and had an admirer in Radio 1 DJ
John Peel. Viv was asked to deputise for Peely for a month in 1971 to
cover a holiday period. John’s then producer John Walters was left to
supervise Viv, and the programmes, called ‘Vivian Stanshall’s Radio
Flashes’ were well received.
Later
in the decade and beyond, Viv wrote a series of ‘Sir Henry at
Rawlinson End’ – ideal for Peel’s show which was famous for its
‘sessions’– and ‘Sir Henry’ was a satirical and eccentric observation of
the upper classes. Whilst mainly the spoken word is heard, these
sessions were very entertaining IMO, and some were released on vinyl.
Sadly Viv’s health worsened, and after completing the television advert
for Ruddles ale in 1994, he set about writing & recording a new
‘Rawlinson End’ album. This was curtailed by his untimely death in
1995, when an electrical fire had broken out at his flat, while he was
sleeping.
A
memorial plaque was unveiled at Golders Green Crematorium in 2015,
opposite that of his friend Keith Moon. The plaque was unveiled by his
widow Ki and his children Rupert & Silky. Following Viv’s death,
‘The Independent’ journalist Chris Welch wrote “Seen by some as a wild
eccentric, he was perhaps too large a personality for the music
business to handle”.
