Vivian Stanshall

Dubbed "the court jester of the underground rock scene in the 1960s" by influential DJ John Peel, Vivian Stanshall earned notice as the original tenor in the absurdist Bonzo Dog Band, although he was also a reknowned artist and comedian. Stanshall was born on March 21, 1943, in East London, England, before World War II forced him and his mother to evacuate to Oxfordshire. While attending art school under the well-known pop artist Peter Blake (the designer of the Beatles' famed Sgt. Pepper's album cover), Stanshall formed the Bonzo Dog Dada Band with flatmate Rodney Slater and ...