Rawlinson End Radio Flashes
Rawlinson End Radio Flashes were thirteen 20-minute radio shows, produced by Vivian Stanshall (of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) for BBC Radio 1 between 1975 and 1991. The earlier ones became the basis for his album, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (recording) (1978).
Background
Stanshall's first foray into radio began in 1970, when producer John Walters recruited him to substitute for BBC 1 radio DJ John Peel when Peel went on holiday.[1] Stanshall created what he called "Radio Flashes" which consisted of playing records he liked, interspersed with spoken links and pre-recorded comedy bits. He created mock advertisements for large animal repellents such as "Repellaphant," "Rilla-Go" and "Rhi-No." He wrote and performed surreal continuing serials about the imaginary adventurers of Colonel Cnutt, starring himself, Who drummer Keith Moon (Stanshall's close pal) and Walters. Stanshall, Moon and Walters performed at least five of these Radio Flashes during the early 1970s.
In 1972 Stanshall created a similar track for the Bonzo Dog Band's post-breakup contractual obligation album, Let's Make Up and Be Friendly. It was a nine-minute serial entitled "Rawlinson End" and told the story, in music and words, of a very dysfunctional British family.
Walters suggested to Stanshall that the Rawlinson End saga could be expanded for the Peel show, and Stanshall readily agreed.[2] Beginning in 1975 thirteen episodes were produced, each roughly twenty minutes long, featuring guest musicians and voices along with Stanshall's own cast of absurdist characters.[3]
1996 reductions
In 1996 various parts of the series were edited down to five 14-minute programs running Christmas week for Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4, in tribute to Stanshall who had died in 1995. These excerpts reportedly made even less sense than the originals.[4]
- Monday 23 December 1996: Sir Henry Entertains (edits of programmes 5 and 7)
- Tuesday 24 December 1996: Cabbage Looking in Mufti (edit of programme 8)
- Wednesday 25 December 1996: A Christmas Eating at Rawlinson End (edit of programme 9)
- Thursday 26 December 1996: The Hatching (edit of programme 10)
- Friday 27 December 1996: Diplodocus vs Concreton (edit of programme 11)
Episode list
At present the original radio series remains unreleased, but exist as off air recordings made by listeners at home. The quality ranges from good to excellent.
| No. | Title | Recorded | Broadcast | Songs | Including | Opening | Guest Musicians | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Aunt Florrie Remembers, from Rawlinson End, Part 21 | 16 October 1975 | 27 October 1975 | Aunt Florrie's Waltz, Socks | Even the rats are hunchbacked, distrusting dentists | "The story so far: Sandra still smells, and Hubert has been sick." | Pete Moss (bass, piano, accordion, violin, cello), Mox (harmonica) and Bubs White (guitar, banjo, ukulele) | 9:11 |
| #2 | Christmas at Rawlinson End, Parts 1 & 2 | 2 December 1975 | 22 & 23 December 1975 | Torture My Tortie, Convivial Vivisectionists | Roxanne, awful squid marks, the sundial business | "Cannibalism at the Cine-Go-Go, or, you CAN have your kike and heat it. The story so far." | Julian Smedley (violin, mandolin), Andy Roberts (dulcimer) | 17:31 |
| #3 | Christmas at Rawlinson End, Parts 3 & 4 | 2 December 1975 | 24 & 25 December 1975 | Tonight We'll All Get Tight, All That Would Wash, The Party's Over | Uncle Otto, roar of the end, a half for Chuck | "Ralf heaves to. The story at once." | Julian Smedley (violin, mandolin), Andy Roberts (dulcimer) | 20:18 |
| #4 | Part 34: An Absence of Whelks | 21 March 1977 | 6 April 1977 | Nice & Tidy | Hubert recalls, the history of broadcasting, Saint Epilonia, Ralf's musings, The wind in the willows, back at the Great House, the impossible shot | "The story so far: Loathsome Gerald has been caught observing the sun through a telescope and his squint is now permanent." | unlisted | 14:19 |
| #5 | Part 35: Spades Balls and Sausage Trees | 11 May 1977 | 23 May 1977 | Interlewd, Sitting in a Sunken Garden | Sir Henry wakes, tongue sandwiches, Henry's rhinoceros tyranny, instant karma, the gibber poem, Mrs Radcliffe emerges | "English as tuppence, changing yet changeless as canal water, nestling in green nowhere, armoured and effete. Bold flag-bearer, opsimath, eremite, feudal, reactionary Rawlinson End. The story so far." | Zoot Money (guitar, piano, vocals), Barry Dransfield (violin, cello) | 11:56 |
| #6 | The Road to Unreason (aka An Entrance of Trousers) | 24 August & 14 December 1977 | 19 December 1977 | Convivial Vivisectionists, Mrs Radcliffe (The Beast Inside) | Aunt Florrie recalls, shell shock, troops in the city | "The story so far: Hubert is growing mustard and cress in his left ear and performs even the most intimate of office with his head inclined to one side. Sir Henry's neck has healed nicely and Mrs Radcliffe has been banished from the house. Now read on dot dot dot." | Zoot Money (guitar, piano, vocals), Mox (harmonica, flute) | 15:59 |
| #7 | A Fall of Felt Hats (aka Cantor's Home - Ten Lengths Clear of the Field) | 29 March 1978 | 5 April 1978 | Florrie's Waltz, Fool & Bladder, Interlewd, Smeeton | face jumping competition | "The story so far: The hapless and unusual Hubert, having unhappily chanced upon Sir Henry reliving the bombing of Dresden, has received a terrific thrashing and a crippling kick in the fork. He is now in disgrace, condemned to his room." | Julian Smedley (violin, mandolin), Jim Cuomo (clarinet, recorder, celeste, leg) | 16:14 |
| #8 | Part 37: Cabbage Looking in Mufti | 18 July 1978 | 25 July 1978 | Zulu Song, Anonymous Barbers, Stripe Me a Pinky, Fresh Faced Boy, Ginger Geezer | Hubert shunned, Henry makes up, Hubert's stilts, P.C. Gibbon surveils, Art History, The Sewerage Works, phantom trousers | "The story so far: After the worm chewing outrage and Philippa Portley's continued and hysterical nausea, Hubert has been declared definitely off his chump by the Rawlinson family." | Julian Smedley (violin, mandolin), Pete Moss (bass, piano, accordion, violin, cello) | 18:36 |
| #9 | Gooseflesh Steps, Part 1: The Hatchling | 11 December 1979 | 24 December 1979 | Cracks Are Showing | Rawlinson Shall Violently Punish, Sir Henry's blemish, the preparations for the eating, may God make you fart, Ben Quakebuttock comes to dinner, first courses | "Dr Headstuffing held the winking scalpel aloft with the delicacy and firmness of a man who knows his job. The shaking had stopped and from the liver bared before the blade to his noble mind pulsed a ligament of concentration." | Pete Moss (piano, doublebass, violin, mandolin, backing vocals), John Kirkpatrick (accordion, concertina, jews harp, backing vocals) | 11:37 |
| #10 | The Crackpot at the End of the Rainbow | 23 February 1988 | 18 April 1988 | It's Murder Living Next Door, In The Garden, The Iguanadon | Here we are again, the dark bulb, under the sea | "For the last nine years Rawlinson End endured. But like the maze that grew before the great house, its inhabitants were pickled, corkscrewed, maddened and without light." | Pete Moss (bass, piano, accordion, violin, cello), Kenny Baldock (bass), Dave Swarbrick (violin, mandolin) | 18:27 |
| #11 | The Eating at Rawlinson End | 9 August 1988 | 23 November 1988 | You'll Have A Nervous Breakdown Sure as Eggs is Eggs, Appearances Are So Misleading, Hubert's Buzzing Song, Sperling Is Right, Scrotum's Song | The Fool and Bladder, six privies, what's wrong with most people | "In the blue wardrobe of Heaven are many unused clothes, too tight fitting yet too beautiful to throw away. And in that wardrobe we hang our likenesses - yellow diaries, yellowed with yesterday, thumb-smeared with tomorrow. But the now - the present - like the hollow screech of ancient flamingos in search of shrimps, is still vibrantly, shocking pink." | Pete Moss (bass, piano, accordion, violin, cello), Dave Swarbrick (violin, mandolin), Tony Roberts, Danny Thompson (bass) | 20:35 |
| #12 | Cackling Gas Capers | 6 April 1991 | 29 May 1991 | Octavio, Tour De Farce, Achmedillo, Peristaltic Waves | The consecration of Rawlinson End, the sauropod, Henry awoke on the billiard table, seems to me you're in need of treatment | "The exhausted egg yolk sun yawned and hoisted itself through the smug green smog wafting from Concreton estate, and split dawned, smearing the sky like the yellowy stain round a bath plug." | Dave Swarbrick (violin, mandolin), Tony Roberts, Danny Thompson (bass), Rodney Slater (saxophone), Roger Ruskin Spear (saxophones, clarinet, piano, guitars, percussion), Henry Lowther (trumpet), John Megginson (bass, keyboards), Les Cirkel | 22:39 |
| #13 | The Thing at Rawlinson End | 1991 | 21 September 1991 | The Thing, The Queen's Hat | A guide in the way of success, trapped in the fridge, I hate prejudice | "The story so far: Bugger it. It's complete rubbish anyway." | 15:53 | |