02 November 2008 Sunday – Holiday camp? Vivian Stanshall

So far as I am aware, my new tenant has only spent one night in the studio to date. He turns up sometimes and there will be a concentrated 5 to 10 minutes of loud banging, which sounds like someone chiselling stone. Either he is knocking out a new window, or he is a sculptor. Only time will tell.
By 9 am the rain is hammering down on the roof and slightly later than that , bee man arrives in his van. The banging is more muted today. Perhaps he is making things from beeswax, but I did see him carrying a round café style table and also about 6 metal shelves into the house yesterday.
He is usually dressed the same, with green trousers and a navy blue jumper with a horizontal white band at chest height. Today he has added a long overcoat to his ensemble and the leather shoulder bag is not in evidence.
I decided to paper the clothes / storage alcove today. It took all afternoon but finally I was able to hang up my paste brushes for the day.
Around midday, three people dressed in red anoraks and carrying rucksacks and a cool bag arrived to visit Daveed.
They did not leave again, so they must be spending the night in the studio.
In the evening, HB made skype contact with her new webcam. The beauty of having a web cam connection is that you can check on general health and well being of the person on the other end. HB looked well enough but the hairdo was a bit wavy I thought J
I tidied up the apartment a bit and poked some holes in the new wallpaper so that it will be easy to find them when I put the clothes rails and shelf brackets back on the wall once the paper has dried.
I then settled down to watch “Sir Henry” again. The director and 2 of the cast provide a commentary which is just as interesting as the film. They seem not to have had a clue what the film was about until 2006 when they made the commentary.
For more information about Viv Stanshall, click on the YouTube links below.

Viv Stanshall Part 1

Viv Stanshall Part 2

Viv Stanshall Part 3

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End film trailer

Viv Stanshall lived on a boat in Bristol for a time. The boat was / is / became the Thekla which was / is a night club / gig venue. He died at the age of 51 and it was a tragic and horrible death.
He retired to bed in his flat in London accompanied as usual by a bottle of brandy and a cigarette. He must have spilt the brandy, the cigarette set it alight and he burned to death.

I remember the blue and cream "Dansette" record player that we had when we lived in Dingwall, in the Highlands of Scotland in the 60's and 70's. My parents did not have many records. "West Side Story", "Porgy and Bess". "Peter and the Wolf", Nat King Cole spring to mind. The singles we had were, Herman's Hermits "Mrs Brown you've got a lovely daughter", Kenneth McKellar's "Granny's Hieland Hame", Kenneth represented the UK in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "A man without love" how different from today's entries.... 9th place with Ireland and Luxemburg giving a total of 8 points.
"The story of Christmas", Terry Jack's "Seasons in the sun" and The New Vaudeville Band's Peek-a-boo / Winchester Cathedral.
What is he rambling on about? I hear you cry. Well the whole point was to show that we had a Viv Stanshall / Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band single in our collection. Now I find out that it was a copycat group the New Vaudeville Band. I will now retire to mon lit and weep.