Fan Clubs and Fanzines
The Vivian Stanshall Preservation Society(1992-1994)
VSPS was a short-lived group, dedicated to keeping Vivian in touch with his fans and vice versa. Unfortunately it existed during a period of very poor health for Vivian and this, along with the ever-changing address of VSPS, led to its painfully short lifespan.
John Blaney explains...
The Aldershot show took place after the residency at the King's Head. I bought a signed copy of This Fish Is Loaded at the gig - I've scanned Viv's contribution to the book - which is dated 1991 although the gig could have been in 1992. I say that because I joined the VSPS in 1992 so probably got to hear of the club from attending that gig. I seem to recall it was part of a tour but sadly I didn't keep anything about it. Viv had a small band, maybe a three-piece. I can't remember if Rodney Slater was part of the band. I do remember Viv being completely unable to tune his guitar and having his road manager do it for him.
A great show, Viv was on top form. I've also scanned
the programme for the Stinkfoot shows that took place at the Bloomsbury
Theatre. Despite mixed reviews, I thought the production was great. Super
songs, great performances, what more could you ask for.
I was a member of VSPS for the very brief two-year period in
which it was up and running. I have, I think, pretty much everything
they produced, including a letter from Viv that was sent out to
members.
Here we have scans of the 4 issues of which we have copies:
Issue 1 – cover
– page 1 –
page 2 – page
3– page 4–
page 5– page
6– page 7–
page 8–
page 9– page 10
Issue 4 – page 1 – page 2 – page 3
And as plain text:
Doo Dah
Doo Dah was a magazine produced in the early eighties
for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band fan club.
Three of these magazines are known to have been produced, and it is believed
that the fan club is no more.
These magazines are an unusual size, about the width of A4, but much longer
than the usual 30 cm, they were printed in vibrant colours presumably
by silkscreen printing from their apperence.
Dean Cole was the founder and organizer of The Bonzo Dog Fan Club in the USA, this guy (Ramen Dialis ?) was one of the members but there are no contact details.
These magazines were aquired by Brian Bashford via a
small ad in Record Collecter that was advertissing wanted tapes, this
was around 1992/93
'You got it, Crockett - I'm an old Bonzoz fan all the way! I was one of
the first 50 members of Doo Dah, Dean Cole's legendary International Bonzos
Fan Collective from the mid 80s. If I were to be completely honest I'd
have to list about 20 more Bonzos songs in the "Happy" section!
If their cover of "Tubas in the Moonlight" can't make ya feel
happy, nothing will! Great to hear from another Bonzo fan!'
Posted by: Flamen Dialis | October 7, 2004 04:32 PM
We shall be getting in contaact with Dean Cole before the next issue, so we'll let you know what else we may find out.
Here we have scans of the first issue:
Issue 1 – cover –
page 1 – page 2 – page
3– page 4– page
5– page 6– page
7– page 8–
page 9
