Rawlinson's End by Vivian Stanshall
THE FINAL PART OF VIVIAN STANSHALL’S SURREAL COMIC MASTERPIECE
In 1978 Charisma Records released the Sir Henry at Rawlinson End album, a forty-minute introduction to the eccentric custodian of the crumbling British country estate, which incorporated characters and music from the various episodes of the Sir Henry saga, originally broadcast on the BBC’s John Peel show from October 1975 up until 1991. The BBC regular re-broadcast Sir Henry even today.
In 1980 Sir Henry was also unleashed on the public as a film, starring the great Trevor Howard and was also issued as book published by Eel Pie Publishing, owned at the time by The Who’s Pete Townshend.
The 1990s found Sir Henry used as the concept for a now legendary series of Ruddles Beer adverts that cemented Rawlinson’s End in the National consciousness.
Stanshall was a major Influence on the cream of the new wave of British comedy in the 1980s including Stephen Fry, Adrian Edmondson, Phil Jupitus and Paul Merton and he remains much loved nearly thirty years after his death.
In the years just before his untimely death in 1995, Vivian intended to generate a new album based around the content of three of the final episodes broadcast by John Peel on the BBC; Crackpot at the end of the Rainbow recorded in February 1988, The Eating at Rawlinson End, from August 1988 and The Thing at Rawlinson End, from April 1991. For decades it has been rumoured that a new Sir Henry album would be released and now finally Madfish / Snapper Music in collaboration with the Stanshall Family have made that rumour a reality.
Using all the remaining tapes from Vivian’s archive, Stanshall expert and performance artist Michael Livesley has manged to put back together the intended release, a process that he has described as similar to “putting back together a smashed vase”. The results are a revelation with the final album now a double LP containing some of Vivian’s finest work. Fans of Sir Henry, Old Scrotum, Mrs E and the various bizarre and evocative characters that inhabit the musty Rawlinson’s End will be thrilled at the imagined adventures that await them.
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