Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for acting as Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield’s album Tubular Bells.

For some reason I woke up singing this in my head. This man was a wonderful loon and we lost him too early. Whe he died in a fire I was living in Deptford with a group of people, one of whom was his cousin who seemed amazed that I knew his work so well. My sister and I had a copy of “Gorilla” as young kids on the Dansette and we knew those songs (and still do) off by heart.

Years later I would also meet the hillarous Neil Innes - a genuinely lovely man who was every bit as cosistently funny off duty.