A 'Midas' guitar amplifier, from the collection of Vivian Stanshall, founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, green-painted and modified to resemble a naked female torso, 63 cm x 61 cm.

From the personal collection of Vivian Stanshall (1943-1995), English singer/songwriter, and founder member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. This lot, along with many others in the sale, has been consigned for sale by Vivian's son, Rupert. Please see the following article on our website for further background.

https://www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk/news-item/dawsons-announce-sale-of-selected-items-from-the-collection-of-vivian-stanshall/?pc=16https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Stanshall

Andy Roberts, a friend and fellow musician comments the following around the Midas amp:

I remember Viv getting this custom amp built, but I don’t know the year. I can’t be sure whether he was in Highgate by then, or still at East End Road.

I was well aware of Midas as a company; they were at the forefront of the evolution of top end PA systems from the old column speakers that Charlie Watkins made to the ‘bins and horns with a crossover’ style of system. I had met Jeff Byers in 1972, when my band Plainsong commissioned a brand new small touring PA system from Midas. Later on I worked with Roy Harper from 1976 on, and he had a massive Midas touring desk that was used for recording as well as live shows. Even later, I think Pink Floyd were still using Midas equipment when I played on The Wall shows in 1981.

So when Viv told me he was having a guitar amp custom built by Jeff I knew to expect a very high end (and pricey!) piece of kit. Viv called it the Woman Amp, and I suspect he was more concerned with the form of it than the function. After all, he was hardly a notable guitarist, though he may have wanted to move into this field a bit. His ukeleles didn’t have pickups in them – acoustic instrument amplification was still only slowly moving from microphone to piezo and contact pickups. The main system back then was made by Barcus Berry, but I never heard Viv mention using one.

The main thing I recall was that he asked Neil Innes to paint the front cloth, because Neil was so skilled at naturalistic flesh tones. Neil did it as a favour – it wasn’t anything like a commission. Viv was mostly excited about walking onstage and plugging in between the woman’s legs, which was his idea from the start! There used to be 2 rubber bicycle horn bulbs in position either side as breasts. I don’t know when these were removed.

I estimate that this was built sometime in the 1974-1976 period. I don’t actually recall it being onstage much, but it was always around in Viv’s workspace once he had it, and I certainly used it to play electric guitar when I rehearsed at his place. It was quite an avant garde concept to have all those built in effects contained within the actual amp. In those days they tended to be pedals and outboard items rather than integral with an amp. I think that may well have been Jeff’s suggestion.

Midas still exist, but they were bought out in the early 80s, and are now owned by Behringer.