Price: £11.99
Format: CD
Artist: Vivian Stanshall
CatNo: SMACD932
Tags (click for related products):
Vivian_Stanshall Dog_Howl_In_Tune CD Madfish
Overseen by Andy Frizell (The Wizards of Twiddly, The Coral and Kevin Ayers), Dog Howl In Tune is the long-awaited, final and previously unreleased Rock album by Vivian Stanshall.
 
During the last five years of his life, Vivian Stanshall (Bonzo Dog Band) was working on a final album of music to follow up his much-loved 1981 release, Teddy Boys Don’t Knit. By far the most biographical album Vivian ever made, Dog Howl draws on songs from Stinkfoot and other VS projects. Goodbye Mother is the poignant last song from the unseen project Shackleton (based around the exploits of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton), whilst Boy In Darkness was written by Vivian for a project with Steve Winwood. The Beefheartian monster mash blues of Dog Howl in Tune contrasts with the wistfully melancholic No Time Like The Future, on an album that truly wears its heart on its sleeve.
 
Guest musicians include Jack Bruce, Ollie Halsall (Pato), Susie Honeyman (The Mekons), Mike Kellie (Spooky Tooth), and Neil Innes and Rodney Slater from The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. 
 
Dog Howl's tracks are taken from a selection of sixty or so finished or nearly completed recordings on the tapes left by Vivian Stanshall (who died in 1995).
 
Andy Frizell worked with Vivian briefly in 1994. Using the surviving recordings, Andy has pieced back together Vivian’s final album adding, where required, missing instrumentation but at all times paying reverence to the original vision. 
 
---------
 
Stanshall had spent his time in the 1980s working on his ‘English Comic Opera in the Grand Tradition’ Stinkfoot, which first ran at the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol Harbour in 1985, with a later revival in London. He had also found success writing material with his friend Steve Winwood co-writing the title track to Arc Of A Diver, working on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells 2 (he had been an integral part to the original Tubular Bells as the narrator) alongside various advertising campaigns. 
 
For a considerable period Vivian had wanted to record and release another rock album and had been collecting songs as far back as the 1970s. With money he earned from his advertising work he funded various recording sessions and had interest from a major record label, but sadly he tragically died in a fire before an album could be completed. 
1. Dog Howl In Tune [4:29] 
2. Made Of Stone [4:28] 
3. I'd Rather Cut My Hands [3:28] 
4. A Good Woman [4:08] 
5. Goodbye Mother [2:25] 
6. No Time Like The Future [2:57] 
7. Strongth [3:42] 
8. Gecko [2:08] 
9. Landing On My Feet [3:02] 
10. Only Being Myself [4:01] 
11. Boy In Darkness [4:49]