GINGER GEEZER-GINGER GENIUS
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A truly great read, at times utterly hilarious other times quite upsetting.The authors succeed in giving a totally un-biased account of Viv's life ; his highs and lows his triumphs his disasters.They dont portray him in any light, they just gave the full story 'as it happened'.Full of hilarious stories,from the Bonzo days especially.I rarely out loud when reading any book, at times this was achingly funny.It also deals with his low points-alcoholism,failed marriages,his valium addiction.Above all it is remarkably honest and frank account of a very brilliant,often mis-understood tortured man.At the time so many z list 'celebrities' write their uninteresting life stories when they are only 25, this is a brilliant dissection of a man who had about 5 normal lives at the same time.Brilliant written and wonderfully told, this is a fabulous book;The Ginger Geezer was completely unique.
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affectionate tribute to the last great English oddball
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Curious to see that many of the reviews here think that this book tries to diminish Viv Stanshall by presenting him as the eventual alcoholic, shambling, mentally squished tragedy that he became. This facet of the man can't be washed over or ignored, and perhaps forms the cornerstone on which to hang everything else - great creativity and an incredible talent for both making fun songs and projects, and for self-destruction; an incredible capacity to care for the person most of interest to him (himself) at the expense of everyone else; and the contradiction of wanting to be admired and loved, while not being 'famous'. We do get a linear narrative which I thought was well-written - laugh out loud in places, heartbreaking in others. Vivian was a mess for most of his life but left us with an incredible amount of music, art, and concepts which boomeranged away from the rest of us. How can you not love someone like that?
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last great english eccentric
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Fabulous book written about this brilliant/tragic man. From the brilliance of the bonzos through to comic opera. If it is sad to think about his untimely end, as you learn from this book the stories prove that he is one of the last great british eccentrics of the kind sorely missed today better to live life to the full then to fade away.
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A tragically short life.
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An excellent book, recounting the life, warts and all, of Viv Stanshall, the lead singer in the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band. With many interviews and photos, it charts the rise and fall of a Great Briton (accept no substitute). Stanshall was an eccentric, as wonderfully surreal as anything he recorded, and this book illustrates this with many charming anecdotes. If you want a happy ending, don't bother with thsi book. It also shows how alcoholism ended the promise of this man's life. A balanced portrait of an underappreciated artist.
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inspired insanity
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This is not so much a biography as a chronologically organised selection of Vivian Stanshall anecdotes - and nothing wrong with that, when all the anecdotes are as inspired, manic and hilarious as this. I can't remember a book which has made me laugh out loud so many times before. As well as the Stanshall stories there are also scattered comments from friends and admirers, and sharp criticism of his body of recorded work, as well as a lot of piranha stories. All in all, it adds up to an affectionate but not biased look at this man who came up with so much inspired nonsense and, in the end, only wanted to live like a civilised human bean.
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