Stanshall Views
Vivian Stanshall (born Victor Anthony Stanshall; 21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995) was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
Stanshall was often called a great British eccentric , but this was a label he hated: it suggested that he was putting on an act. Instead, as he himself always insisted, ...he was merely being himself. [1] However, it is not difficult to understand why he received the label. Neil Innes said of their first meeting: He was quite plump in those days. He had on Billy Bunter check trousers, a Victorian frock coat, violet pince-nez glasses, and carried a euphonium. He also wore large pink rubber ears. [2]
Stanshall was born on 21 March 1943 at the Radcliffe Maternity Home in Shillingford, and christened Victor Anthony Stanshall. (The name and the date are certainly correct but there is much speculation about the place, with his mother herself stating Shillingford, Oxfordshire and his father claiming Walthamstow. Vivian himself said he was evacuated from the war from the east end but failed to say when.)
Although his origins were working class, Stanshall's father wanted his sons to go to public school, or at least behave in public as if they did, and pressed them to perform well in sport. Young Vic, however, was uninterested in such pursuits, preferring — to his father's horror — to devote his energies to art and music.
Stanshall Images
