Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall (March 21 1943 – March 5 1995) was an English musician, writer, wit, and raconteur, probably best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but also known for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.

Early life

Stanshall was born Victor Anthony Stanshall at the Radcliffe Maternity Home in Oxford on 21st March 1943. Originally from Walthamstow - a suburb on the borders of East London and Essex - his mother Eileen had moved to Shillingford, Oxfordshire during the Second World War to escape the bombing, and lived there happily with her son while her husband Victor (a name he had adopted in preference to his christened name of Vivian) served in the RAF. With the end of war, the family moved back to Walthamstow and his father returned.

Related Topics:
Oxford - Walthamstow - Shillingford - Oxfordshire - Second World War - RAF

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Things at home quickly became fraught. Although he was of working class origins, Mr Stanshall wanted his son to go to public school and pressed him to perform well in sports. Young Viv, however, was completely uninterested in such pursuits, preferring - to his father's horror - to devote his energies to art, music and literature. Consequently, he grew up living a dual life: at home, he would have to speak "properly" or face a beating from his dad; on the street he spoke with a broad Cockney accent in order to avoid a beating from his peers.

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As a teenager he secretly joined a gang of local teddy boys, attracted both by the rock'n'roll and the clothing. Even among such dandies, though, Vivian was a bit of an oddball. The polished vowels that had been bashed into him kept leaking out, and his cockney mates looked upon him as something of an amusing freak.

Related Topics:
Teddy boys - Rock'n'roll

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Around this time, the Stanshall family moved to the Essex coastal resort of Southend-on-Sea. Here, a teenage Vic managed to earn some money doing various odd jobs at the "Kursaal" funfair. These included working as a bingo caller and spending the winter months painting the fairground attractions.

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In order to put aside enough money to get himself through art school (his father having refused to fund it), Vic spent a year in the merchant navy, where he made a very bad waiter, and learned how to knit. Then, in a telling act of anti-paternal rebellion, he changed his first name to Vivian - the very name his father had abandoned - and enrolled at Central School of Art in London. Here, Viv and fellow students including Rodney Slater, Roger Ruskin Spear and Neil Innes, who was studying music at Goldsmiths College, decided to form a band.

Related Topics:
Knit - Central School of Art - Rodney Slater - Roger Ruskin Spear - Neil Innes - Goldsmiths College

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