Paul Williams: Difference between revisions
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Jan 24, 2023: Paul Williams old website is archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20190420115630/http://paulwilliams-uk.com:80/index.html. This is the last archived date of the site. | |||
March 1, 2019: It has been confirmed by Gary Husband and Paul Carmichael that Paul Williams has passed away: | March 1, 2019: It has been confirmed by Gary Husband and Paul Carmichael that Paul Williams has passed away: | ||
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Just like with instrumentalists, if you like what they play, you don’t want to tell them not to play that, but play this. The correct thing to do is to say, “I want you to be you!” | Just like with instrumentalists, if you like what they play, you don’t want to tell them not to play that, but play this. The correct thing to do is to say, “I want you to be you!” | ||
==Biography from Paul Williams' website== | |||
The following biography is taken from Paul Williams' website, archived here: | |||
https://web.archive.org/web/20190420115630/http://paulwilliams-uk.com/index.html | |||
The parts referring to his work with Allan have been highlighted in '''bold'''. | |||
I first became interested in music from an early age, my father being a musician - a wonderful piano player touring with bands like The Stanley Black Orchestra and Harry Roy's Band. He was also Vera Lynn's piano player. Every Sunday he would play a baby grand with invited friends and family into the small hours. When he passed away at a young age I was left to my own devices, having no idea that I could be good enough to follow in his footsteps. I had tried a few different careers - jewelry maker, window dresser and other assorted jobs, but nothing really stuck. I used to go out with friends and we all had to do different things to enjoy ourselves and others; mine was singing and playing Ray Charles songs. It was fun and it wasn't until my friend Graham told me about a band that played in the Flamingo Club in Wardour Street that I became totally obsessed with the music of Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. I would go and listen to the band as much as I could, learning some of his songs and thinking I could sing that. I finally plucked up the courage to ask if I could sing a song, I was introduced and off I went. It seemed to go okay as I regularly went and sang with the band. After a while Mick Eves the sax player came up to me and asked if I was interested in joining a band that he knew. It was called the Wes Minster Five - a five piece band with Wes as the leader; also in the band were Dave Greenslade and Jon Hiseman. I auditioned and got the job, playing around London at a lot blues and rock venues. | |||
When I was in the Wes Minster Five, Jon Hiseman had a big band and on occasions they played in Blackheath. I did some gigs with them and Dick Heckstall-Smith recommended me for the Alexis Korner Blues Band. At that time Phil Seaman was the drummer. For some strange reason Alexis said he couldn't pronounce my name so I should be called Paul Williams. I never knew there were a lot of Paul Williams's in the music business - "Oh Well". I learned a lot in a short space of time about life - it was about that time I had a memory lapse trying to tie up the dots. | |||
I can't quite remember when I met Zoot Money and the band. They had come down from Bournemouth to London to make their mark on the music scene. Zoot asked me if I wanted to join his band; he was doing the same material more or less that I did with the Wes Minster Five. At that time he had Andy Summers on guitar, Nick Newall on tenor sax and Colin Allen on drums. He said he needed a singer who could also play bass. I said I didn't know anybody. He said 'What about you?'. I said 'I don't play bass'. He said 'You could learn, rehearsals start in two weeks'. And that's how the Big Roll Band was born. Also added to the lineup was Clive Burrows on baritone sax, and later on Jeff Condon on trumpet. We did the rounds of the London clubs with a residency at the famous Flamingo Club and various other venues. We were working at a tremendous rate; our record, I believe, was thirteen gigs in eight days including afternoons, all-nighters and evenings. At that time we went to Germany for a month doing a killer 8pm to 3am three-quarters of an hour on stage and fifteen minutes off for five nights. Saturday and Sunday 3pm to 6pm, and 8pm to 3am again. We were a bit exhausted to say the least! Half the band wanted to go home; the promoter offered more money because playing american soul music, we had all the american service people coming in to hear us. It certainly made the band tight - musically that is! As time went on, we had the privilege of backing and playing on the same bill as the likes of John Lee Hooker, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Cream, Jimi Hendrix to name a few. It was a huge learning curve. | |||
After the break up of the Zoot Money Big Roll Band I thought what a waste - we were just about to break into the major league. But I didn't have time to think about it for long, as I got a phone call from John Mayall. He said he would like me to join his band. At that time I was replacing John McVie who was about to go on to big things with Fleetwood Mac. Although I wasn't with John for very long, it was very enjoyable. I made friends with the band - Mick Taylor, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Keef Hartley and John, most of whom I keep in contact with to this day. Sadly Dick passed away last year. I did record some songs with John Mayall, but by this time I was anxious to develop my singing prowess as I had really been second string in both Zoot and John's bands vocally. | |||
I had been friends with The Animals from the time they first came down to London and used to go to the Flamingo Club and the Scene Club. Allan Price wanted to stop touring and asked me if I wanted to take over. I thought it was an opportunity I should not miss and so the Paul Williams Set was alive. I attempted to record a song that was very pop oriented; although it got massive air play, it didn't get into the charts. It was a great band with some wonderful players including Alan White (Yes), Jeff Condon and Johnny Almond (Mark-Almond band). | |||
After the Paul Williams Set dissolved and everybody went their separate ways, I worked on various projects and bands that didn't quite work including Aynsley Dunbar's Blue Whale. Off we went again touring England and Europe until one night we were in Munich doing the beer festival for two nights. We played the first night. Afterward we went back to the hotel and the band were in the bar when Aynsley came up and said he was joining Frank Zappa's band, so we could carry on or not without him. Within what seemed like minutes I got a call from London - they wanted a front man for Juicy Lucy and was I interested. I said yes and jumped on the plane without telling Aynsley I had left. The band knew, and the next night when they went on without me, Aynsley asked where I was and they told him I was in London. That was that. I did finish the album off but not a lot of thought went into it - I did the vocals in about three hours! | |||
Juicy Lucy had already had a hit with 'Who Do You Love' before I joined so I had to jump in the deep end. I had started to write most of the material for the band and at a certain point Glen Campbell the slide player left to join Joe Cocker. This was after we had toured the world extensively. Different members were leaving and others joining until there was only myself and Micky Moody who I found playing in a band in Redcar. Anyway we decided to carry on, got some more players and had a minor chart hit with our second single. After the next tour supporting Joe Cocker in Europe, owing to management terrorism, money missing etc., '''I decided to leave and join a new band called Tempest - Jon Hiseman, Allan Holdsworth, Mark Clarke and myself. It was promoted as a 'supergroup' and we toured America and Europe, but after a while it wasn't working for me, so I left and so did Alan and that was it.''' | |||
'''About this time, I didn't know it, but I had contracted tuberculosis and was unable to work for about three years. After I recovered I decided to go to the US to live. Allan had wanted to form a band and asked me if I was interested, so we made an album which was very ahead of it's time but challenging. Allan came to the US and we got the project off the ground. After about five years Allan decided to go completely instrumental, and so I decided to go back to my roots where I formed Blue Thunder.''' | |||
Although Blue Thunder was my main thing, I did do a tour with Colisseum in England filling in for Chris Farlowe who was working with Van Morrison. I also recently toured with the Blues Package - John Baldry, Ray Dorset, Zoot Money, Colin Hodgkinson and Ronnie Johnson - an enjoyable 30 dates touring England, Ireland and Scotland. | |||
Paul Williams, summer 2007. | |||
[[Category: Musicians]] | [[Category: Musicians]] | ||
