Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead is the 1974 debut solo album by British musician, writer and comedian Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...

.

Stanshall had been the frontman of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a British rock group notorious for its riotous stage act, involving comedy and theatricality. His solo career was haphazard, but after a celebrated cameo appearance on Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield

Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...

's 1973 multi-platinum Tubular Bells

Tubular Bells

Tubular Bells is the debut record album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973. It was the first album released by Virgin Records and an early cornerstone of the company's success...

 he was signed to Warner Bros. to make this album.

The album featured various former members of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (Neil Innes

Neil Innes

Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...

, Bubs White) and Traffic

Traffic (band)

Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...

 (Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood

Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

, Jim Capaldi

Jim Capaldi

Nicola James "Jim" Capaldi was an English musician and songwriter. His musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic in Birmingham with Steve Winwood, and the band's psychedelic rock was influential in Britain and the United States...

, Reebop Kwaku Baah). It sold poorly upon release, with only an estimated 5,000 copies pressed before it was deleted. It remained unavailable until its reissue on CD in 2010 by Harkit Records in the UK.

The album's title is a reference to a game played by members of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band when travelling between concerts, in which players made up ridiculous interpretations of road signs. ("Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead" was a Stanshall favourite as an alternative interpretation of the sign meaning "road works ahead".)

Side 1

1. Afoju Ti Ole Riran (Dead Eyes) (Vivian Stanshall/Gaspar Lawal)
2. Truck-Track
3. Yelp Bellow, Rasp Et Cetera
4. Prong
5. Redeye

Side 2

1. How The Zebra Got His Spots
2. Dwarf Succulents
3. Bout Of Sobriety
4. Prong & Toots Go Steady
5. Strange Tongues

Personnel

• Vivian Stanshall
  Vivian Stanshall
  Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...
  
   - vocals, recorder
  Recorder
  The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
  
  , euphonium
  Euphonium
  The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...
  
  , ukulele
  Ukulele
  The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
  
  , Chelonian pipes
• Anthony "Bubs" White: electric guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Steve Winwood
  Steve Winwood
  Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
  
  : bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , organ
• Gaspar Lawal - talking drums, congas, xylophone
  Xylophone
  The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
  
  , drum kit
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
   on "How The Zebra Got His Spots"
• Neil Innes
  Neil Innes
  Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
  
   - piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , slide guitar
  Slide guitar
  Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
  
  , organ on "How The Zebra Got His Spots"
• Jim Capaldi
  Jim Capaldi
  Nicola James "Jim" Capaldi was an English musician and songwriter. His musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic in Birmingham with Steve Winwood, and the band's psychedelic rock was influential in Britain and the United States...
  
   - drum kit
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , lesser log
• Deryk Quinn - cabassa, Nigerian coffee tables, greater log
• Ric Grech
  Ric Grech
  Richard Roman Grech was a British rock musician.-Career:Grech originally gained notice in the United Kingdom as the bass guitar player for the progressive rock group Family. He joined the band when it was a largely blues-based live act in Leicester known as the Farinas; he became their bassist in...
  
   - violin
• Reebop Kwaku Baah - congas on "Prong & Toots"
• Doris Troy, Madeline Bell, Barry St. John - backing vocals
• Ayus Ape, Gani, Gaspar Lawal - male Yoruba
  Yoruba music
  The music of the Yoruba people of Nigeria is best known for an extremely advanced drumming tradition, especially using the dundun hourglass tension drums. Yoruba folk music became perhaps the most prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles...
  
  chorus
• Unidentified West Indian taxi driver - bass guitar on "Lakonga" & "Baba Tunde"
• Unidentified West Indian taxi driver's friend - drum kit on "Lakonga" & "Baba Tunde"