43 Facts About Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall lived with his mother while his father served in the RAF during the Second World War.

Vivian Stanshall described this early period as the happiest time of his childhood.

Vivian Stanshall's father made him speak with a "plummy" accent for which he later became known.

The family moved to the father's hometown of Walthamstow, Essex, where Vivian Stanshall's younger brother Mark was born in 1949.

When he was 10, the Vivian Stanshall family moved to the Essex coastal town of Leigh-on-Sea.

Vivian Stanshall attended Southend High School for Boys until 1959.

Vivian Stanshall then studied at Walthamstow College of Art, where he met fellow students Ian Dury and Peter Greenaway.

Vivian Stanshall said he was a very bad waiter, but became a great teller of tall tales.

Vivian Stanshall enrolled at the Central School of Art and Design in London.

Vivian Stanshall joined fellow students in forming a band.

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band were named after a word game that Vivian Stanshall played with co-founder Slater, in which they cut up sentences and juxtaposed fragments to form new ones.

The band initially performed under this name, but grew tired of explaining what Dada meant; hence they changed it to the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, 'doo-dah' being a quaint expression that both Slater's mother and Vivian Stanshall himself used to describe everyday objects.

When Bron arrived at the location to check the progress of these endeavours, he found that Vivian Stanshall had not written anything at all and had instead built a variety of hutches for his pet rabbits.

Vivian Stanshall formed a number of short-lived groups during 1970 alone, including biG GRunt, The Sean Head Showband, Gargantuan Chums, and the slightly longer-lived Bonzo Dog Freaks, with Innes and the ever-faithful Cowan and White.

In early 1971, Vivian Stanshall reunited again with Innes, Cowan and White as 'Freaks' to tour new material.

Vivian Stanshall was a regular guest, broadcaster and presenter on numerous series on BBC radio.

In one quite possibly apocryphal example, Vivian Stanshall visited a tailor's shop where he admired a pair of trousers on display.

When Vivian Stanshall protested, the two men fought and split the trousers in two, so that they ended up with one leg each; the tailor, understandably, became furious.

Thanks to his association with John Peel, in 1971 Vivian Stanshall was asked to fill in for the disc jockey while he was on a month's holiday.

Vivian Stanshall had developed what many consider to be his seminal work, Rawlinson End, as a spoken word performance piece during the first few years of the 1970s, recording an early version as part of The Bonzo Dog Band's reunion project Let's Make Up And Be Friendly.

Vivian Stanshall had been playing around with the Rawlinson characters for some time, and they were first referred to on the Bonzos' 1967 number, "The Intro and the Outro": 'Great to hear the Rawlinsons on trombone.

In 1978, Vivian Stanshall released an album, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, that reworked some material from the Peel sessions.

At the time, Vivian Stanshall was living on The Searchlight, a houseboat that he had bought from Denny Laine and kept moored near Shepperton on the River Thames.

Vivian Stanshall lived on The Searchlight from 1977 to 1983, and recorded and produced the second 'Sir Henry' album on it during a period of debilitating physical illness.

Vivian Stanshall regularly performed live with Grimms, as well as occasionally working with The Alberts and The Temperance Seven during the first few years of the decade.

Vivian Stanshall was a frequent contributor to BBC radio at this time, appearing weekly on Start The Week and Jack de Manio Precisely, and on the BBC television satire series Up Sunday.

In 1973, Vivian Stanshall recorded tracks for the soundtrack album of the movie That'll Be the Day backed by Moon, Ronnie Wood, Graham Bond and Jack Bruce, and collaborated on numerous musical projects, making a memorable appearance as the Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's 1973 album Tubular Bells.

In early 1974, Vivian Stanshall wrote, arranged, and quickly recorded his first solo album, Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead.

In 1975, Vivian Stanshall provided the narration for Peter and the Wolf, produced by Robin Lumley and Jack Lancaster and featuring, among others, Gary Moore, Manfred Mann, Phil Collins, Bill Bruford, Stephane Grappelli, Alvin Lee, Cozy Powell, Brian Eno and Jon Hiseman.

Vivian Stanshall wrote the script for the film adaptation of the same name, later produced for Tony Stratton Smith's Charisma Records company in 1980.

In 1982, Vivian Stanshall provided a spoken word segment on "Lovely Money", a single by The Damned.

Vivian Stanshall joined her on it in 1983, when they opened the doors of the theatre.

Vivian Stanshall wrote 27 original songs for the opera, sharing book and lyric writing with his wife.

In 1968, Vivian Stanshall married fellow art student Monica Peiser, and their son Rupert was born that year.

On 9 September 1980, Vivian Stanshall married Pamela 'Ki' Longfellow, an American writer who had a daughter from an earlier relationship.

Vivian Stanshall celebrated Silky's birth in "The Tube", and his marriage to Ki in "Bewilderbeeste", both songs being included on his album Teddy Boys Don't Knit.

Vivian Stanshall later gave his wife the name of 'Ki' from a dream.

Vivian Stanshall confessed to having been terrified of his father, who he said had always disapproved of him.

Vivian Stanshall said on the same programme that his father had never shown it, not even on his deathbed.

Vivian Stanshall was found dead on the morning of 6 March 1995, after an electrical fire had broken out as he slept in his top-floor flat in Muswell Hill, north London.

Vivian Stanshall needed a producer to channel his energies, but always wanted to remain his own boss, having suffered too many perceived indignities in his early experience of the music business.

On 22 December 2009, BBC Radio 4's series Great Lives featured a programme on Vivian Stanshall, who had been nominated by Neil Innes, with Ki Longfellow as expert witness, hosted by Matthew Parris.

Vivian Stanshall is represented in the work by two quotes and his name.