Vivian Stanshall - Are You Having Any Fun? (1990)

As promised on Friday, here's the first of two posts from the legendary Vivian Stanshall. Born Victor Anthony Stanshall in 1943, he is, of course, best know for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They were actually named following a word game that Stanshall played with co-founder Slater, in which they cut up sentences and juxtaposed fragments to form new ones and 'Bonzo Dog/Dada' was one result which they liked. The band initially performed under this name, but grew tired of explaining what Dada meant and so it became the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, 'doo-dah' being a quaint expression that both Slater's mother and Vivian himself used to describe everyday objects. After acquiring a manager, they went full-time and were booked on the working men's club circuit, mainly in the north of England, and in 1967 they appeared in The Beatles' television film 'Magical Mystery Tour', performing Stanshall's 'Death Cab for Cutie' during the strip club scene. This led to a spot as the house band on 'Do Not Adjust Your Set', a weekly children's television revue series that also featured pre-Monty Python appearances from Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones. 
In 1968 the band scored a surprise top-ten hit with 'I'm The Urban Spaceman', co-produced by Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon under the alias 'Apollo C. Vermouth'. After a couple more successful albums they decided to split whilst they were still friends, and in March 1970, they played their last show at Loughborough University. Following the split Stanshall formed a number of short-lived groups during 1970 alone, including biG GRunt (including former Bonzos Roger Ruskin Spear and Dennis Cowan, and with Anthony 'Bubs' White on guitar), The Sean Head Showband (again featuring Cowan and White), Gargantuan Chums, and the slightly longer-lived Bonzo Dog Freaks with Innes and the ever-faithful Cowan and White. Early that year, biG GRunt recorded a well-received John Peel session for BBC Radio 1, but despite this promising start they dissolved during their first UK tour when Stanshall became incapacitated by the onset of an anxiety disorder which caused a nervous breakdown that would continue to plague him for the rest of his life. He soon recovered sufficiently to record and release his first solo single 'Labio-Dental Fricative/Paper Round', credited to Vivian Stanshall and The Sean Head Showband (an oblique reference to Stanshall having shaved off all of his hair during his breakdown), and featuring Eric Clapton on guitar. 
Later in the year, his single version of Terry Stafford's song 'Suspicion' was released, credited to Vivian Stanshall and Gargantuan Chums and featuring Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who, with the b-side being 'Blind Date', the only officially released track by biG GRunt. In early 1971, Stanshall returned to touring with a new band, Freaks. This group recorded a BBC radio session for John Peel that featured solo numbers by Stanshall and Innes, alongside tracks from The Bonzo's yet-to-be-released 'Let's Make Up And Be Friendly', and it also marked the first appearance in any medium of an episode of Stanshall's magnum opus, 'Rawlinson End'. Further singles were rare, but avidly welcomed by his fans when they appeared in 1974 and 1976, as were the Peel sessions that he was continually offered by his DJ friend. In 1973 he recorded his contribution to the 'That'll Be The Day' soundtrack album, although the song didn't make the film, and one of his last recordings was for a charity album in support of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre, put together by the New Musical Express, and featuring his '(There's) No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car'. 
Vivian Stanshall was found dead on the morning of 6 March 1995, following a fire at his flat. 
I hope that this collection of non-album singles, choice radio sessions, and the afore-mentioned charity record and film soundtrack work, is a fitting tribute to a unique character, for whom it can honestly be said 'there'll never be another like him'.  

Track listing

Vivian Stanshall & biG GRunt 
01 Eleven Moustachioed Daughters (John Peel session 1970)
02 The Strain (John Peel session 1970)
03 Cyborg Signal (John Peel session 1970)
Vivian Stanshall & The Sean Head Showband
04 Labio-Dental Fricative (single 1970)
05 Paper-Round (b-side of 'Labio-Dental Fricative')
Vivian Stanshall & Gargantuan Chums
06 Suspicion (single 1970)
Vivian Stanshall & biG GRunt
07 Bind Date (b-side of 'Suspicion')
Vivian Stanshall
08 Lakonga (single 1974)
09 Baby Tunde (b-side of 'Lakonga')
Vivian Stanshall, Keith Moon, Jack Bruce, Ronnie Wood & Graham Bond
10 Real Leather Jacket (from the 'That'll Be The Day' soundtrack album 1973)
Vivian Stanshall
11 Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (John Peel session 1975)
Vivian Stanshall & Kilgaron
12 The Young Ones (single 1976)
13 Are You Having Any Fun? (single 1976)
14 The Question (b-side of 'The Young Ones'/'Are You Having Any Fun?')
Vivian Stanshall & The Big Boys
15 (There's) No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car (from 'The Last Temptation Of Elvis' 1990)