| Bill Wyman |
| Born |
24 October 1936 (1936-10-24) (age 70)
 London,
England |
| Genre(s) |
Rock and roll
Blues-rock
Psychedelic rock |
| Affiliation(s) |
The Rolling Stones
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
The Cliftons |
| Label(s) |
Velvel
Koch International
Rolling Stones Records |
| Years active |
1962 - Present |
| Official site |
www.billwyman.com |
Bill Wyman (born William George
Perks on 24 October 1936) was the bassist
for the English
rock
and roll band The Rolling Stones from
its founding in 1962
until 1993.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
life
- 2 Music
Career
- 2.1 Musical
instruments
- 2.2 Personal
life
- 2.3 Outside
of music
- 3 Solo
albums
- 4 Bill
Wyman's Rhythm Kings
- 5 Solo
singles
- 6 Bibliography
- 6.1 Archaeology
- 6.2 Rolling
Stones
- 7 External
links
|
Early life
Bill Wyman (real name Bill Perks) was born at Lewisham
Hospital, Pied Heath Road, Ladywell, Lewisham, South
London the son of a bricklayer and spent most of his early life in Penge, then in the
county of Kent,
England.
He attended Beckenham and Penge Grammar School from 1947 to Easter 1953, leaving before
the GCE exams after his
father found him a job working for a bookmaker and insisted that he take it.
Music Career
Wyman took piano lessons from ages 10 to 13. After his
marriage, he bought a guitar, but wasn't satisfied by his own progress.
After hearing a bass guitar at a Barron Knights' concert, he fell in
love with the sound of it and decided that this was his instrument. He
created the first fretless electric bass, by removing the frets from a bass
guitar he was reworking, and played this in a local south London band,
The Cliftons. He began calling himself Bill Wyman using the surname of
a friend with whom he had done National Service in the Royal
Air Force.
When drummer Tony Chapman told him of a fledgling
rhythm and blues band called The Rolling Stones who needed a bass
player, he applied for the job and was officially hired in December
1962, as a successor of co-founder, Dick
Taylor. Although The Stones were impressed by his instrument
and amplifier, they weren't too fond of Wyman's style and personality
(probably influenced by the six-year age gap). Although he developed
into a strong bass player and a key-element in the group's sound, Wyman
always remained something of an outsider in the Stones during the
following decades. Wyman's work as a Rolling Stone after the first year
or so of being in the band, both in the studio and during concerts,
rarely involved vocals. One notable exception was the song "In Another
Land", released both on the Their Satanic
Majesties Request album and, oddly enough, also
as a solo Bill Wyman single. A second Wyman penned song, "Downtown
Suzie", was released on a collection of Rolling Stones outtakes, with
the title of the song altered by Rolling Stones manager Allen
Klein without informing either Wyman or the band.
In the 1970s and early '80s he released three solo albums,
none of which was particularly successful. The last one, 1982's
eponymous new-wave rock offering, gave him a European hit single, "(Si,
Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star", a parody on his French rock star exile
status.
The mid eighties also saw Wyman compose original music for two
films by Italian film director Dario Argento - 1985's Phenomena
and 1987's Terror At The Opera.
He also produced/managed some groups like rockers Tucky
Buzzard.
Wyman kept a detailed daily journal of his days with the
Rolling Stones. He used this journal extensively in writing his history
of the Rolling Stones Rolling with The Stones and
also his Stone Alone autobiography.
Evidently Wyman maintained a friendly relationship with
guitarist Mick Taylor, the first member
of the Rolling Stones to voluntarily leave the band. He continued to
work with Taylor on solo projects from time to time after Taylor left
the band.
Along with Charlie Watts, Wyman kept a
low profile in comparison to Jagger and Richards. Although his personal
life was sometimes stormy and his affair with 13-year-old Mandy
Smith highly publicised, he came through his tenure as a Stone
relatively unscathed. Wyman was, by all accounts, the most sensible and
level headed of all the Stones, refusing to partake in the dizzying
effects of drink and drugs. This could have been, to some extent, due
to his age - he was the oldest member by some years. Always on the
outside, it was said that he never really "joined" the band after
thirty years.
Wyman says he created the essential riff to "Jumpin'
Jack Flash", although Mick Jagger and Keith
Richards dispute the claim and are credited with writing the
song (Keith Richards even played the bass on it, much to Wyman's
chagrin).
In the 1980s, distance grew between the other band members and
Wyman due to, amongst other things, the Mandy Smith affair (see below).
After having contributed to the album Steel
Wheels (1989), he decided he'd had enough of
it, but took some time to finalise his decision. The Stones regretted
his leaving but didn't seem too weakened by it. Instead of choosing a
permanent replacement, they recruited several bass players to support
them during recordings and concerts, the first of whom, Darryl
Jones, made the strongest impression.
Wyman continues to tour with his backing band, The
Rhythm Kings, which has featured such musicians as Martin
Taylor, Albert
Lee, Gary Brooker, Terry Taylor -
formerly with Tucky Buzzard, Mike
Sanchez and Georgie Fame.
Following his 70th birthday in October 2006, he undertook
another British tour.
Musical instruments
Wyman is an adept musician, teaching himself to play several
instruments including autoharp, guitar, vibraphone, glockenspiel,
piano, organ,
synthesizer,
percussion
and cello.
He has also contributed backing vocals. His innovative bass sound came
not only from his home-made fretless bass, but from the "walking
bass" style he adopted (largely inspired by the odd couple of Willie
Dixon and Ricky Fenson) and his tight work with Charlie
Watts. Their sound not only anchored the group, but
exemplified the "heartbeat and pulse" idea behind ideal rhythm sections.
Personal life
At age 47, Bill Wyman began a relationship with 13-year old Mandy
Smith, with her mother's blessing. Six years later, they were married,
but the marriage only lasted a year. Not long after, Bill's 30-year-old
son Stephen almost married Mandy's mother, age 46. That nearly made
Stephen a stepfather to his former stepmother. (If Bill and Mandy had
remained married, Stephen would have been his father's father-in-law
and his own step-grandfather.)
He was also very close to the late Rolling Stones
founder/guitarist Brian Jones. In books and
other reflections made in the Stones' later eras and his "post-Stones"
life, he is the only band member who (vocally) holds Jones in any kind
of esteem, though Watts has said many glowing things about Brian's
musical prowess – for example, at several points in Stanley Booth's True
Adventures of the Rolling Stones. He was also the only member
of the group that didn't visit Brian Jones' home to inform him of his
dismissal. He did attend Jones's funeral a month later.
Outside of music
Away from the Stones, Wyman pursued numerous interests
including opening up the now successful "Sticky Fingers Café" in 1989,
a celebrity rock 'n roll-themed bistro serving American cuisine. These days
he divides his time between his manor in Suffolk and a house in the south of France.
Former Stones manager Andrew
Loog Oldham admits that of all the Stones, Wyman is the one most at
peace with himself, and he continues to prove that there is life after
thirty years in one of the most successful band of all time
He is also an amateur archaeologist and has a hobby of Relic
hunting, going as far as having a letter published in The Times
about his hobby (Friday 2 March 2007.) There is even a metal
detector that bears his name on the market.
Solo albums
- Monkey Grip (June 1974) UK #39 [1 wk],
US #99 [11 wks]
- Stone Alone (March 1976) US #166 [5 wks]
- Bill Wyman (April 1982) UK #55 [6 wks]
- Willie & The Poor Boys (May
1985) US #96 [12 wks]
- Stuff (October 1992 in Japan and
Argentina only, 2000 UK)
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
- Struttin' Our Stuff (October 1997)
- Anyway The Wind Blows (February 1999)
- Groovin' (May 2000) UK #52 [3 wks]
- Double Bill (May 2001) UK #88 [2 wks]
- Just For A Thrill (May 2004) UK #149 [1
wk]
Solo singles
- (Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star (July
1981) UK #14 [9 wks]
- A New Fashion (March 1982) UK #37 [4 wks]
- Baby Please Don't Go (June 1985) US
Mainstream Rock #35 [7 wks]
Bibliography
Bill Wyman has authored or co-authored the following titles
Archaeology
- Bill Wyman's Treasure Islands ISBN 0-7509-3967-2
Rolling Stones
- Stone Alone ISBN
0-306-80783-1
- Rolling with the Stones
ISBN
0-7513-4646-2.
- Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey ISBN 0-7513-3442-1
- The Stones - A History in Cartoons ISBN 0-7509-4248-7
The latter three books and Bill Wyman's Treasure Islands all
written in collaboration with Richard Havers
External links
| v • d • e The
Rolling Stones
|
| Mick
Jagger • Keith
Richards • Charlie
Watts • Ron Wood
Brian
Jones • Bill Wyman • Mick
Taylor • Ian Stewart
See
also
Chuck
Leavell • Darryl
Jones • Andrew
Loog Oldham • Allen
Klein • Nicky
Hopkins • Bobby Keys
• Jimmy
Miller • Jim
Price • Billy
Preston
Related
articles
Discography •
The
Glimmer Twins • Jagger/Richards
• Nanker
Phelge • Rolling Stones Records •
Rock and
Roll Circus
Categories
The Rolling Stones •
Members •
Albums •
Singles •
Songs •
Tours •
Films
|
