Wednesday 8th February

Vivian Stanshall was a founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.  They were a strange mix of trad jazz and comedy and eventually a rock band.  Neil Innes was also in the band.  They had one big single “I’m the Urban Spaceman”, which was actually produced by Paul McCartney.  Viv Stanshall, a Teddy Boy really, played saxophone and euphonium and anything else you could blow.  He was also an incredible brilliant lyricist and his voice could be immaculate, posh, erudite and coarse in the same sentence.

When the band broke up, or ran out of steam Viv went solo.  He did the vocal bit at the end of Tubular Bells, but Viv was a manic depressive and an alcoholic too.  He was notoriously unreliable, missing studio recordings, live gigs and even radio slots with increasing regularity.  He was a great friend and drinking pal of Keith Moon.

But he did make at least one brilliant album.  “Sir Henry At Rawlinson End” is mostly a spoken word monologue with occasional musical interludes.  Viv weaves a hilarious but beautifully written and spoken world, centred on Sir Henry, an aristocratic and brutal alcohol swilling and foul-mouthed lord of the manor.  There are a whole cast of characters, all voiced by Viv in a range of wonderful voices.  The songs are quite funny too but bizarre in their arrangements and vocal deliveries.

There was even a film with Trevor Phillips in the lead role.  Album and film both sunk with little trace.  As did Viv.  He struggled to create a solo career, despite help from many musician friends including Steve Winwood (Viv wrote the words for Arc of a Diver) and died in a house fire, probably caused by his smoking and drinking in bed and falling asleep.  He was a true English eccentric and like a lot of very funny men he may have been desperately unhappy too.  I loved his work, a pity more people didn’t.