Former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman was born in 1936, a turbulent year of three kings, that saw Adolf Hitler's alleged master race significantly whupped by Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics. Not being a man widely renowned for his sportsmanship, Germany's sulking Führer duly unleashed a World War that saw four-year-old Wyman (still known by his birth name of William George Perks or, less formally, Billy), evacuated from a modest, blitz-lashed three-up/three-down family home in Penge, South-east London to the relatively leafy enclave of Mansfield Woodhouse, 15 miles north of Nottingham.
Relocating to the countryside had a profound effect on young Bill. But after playing truant from school to experience more of it, he was packed off, back to London, from a pregnant mother (reluctantly inattentive thanks to Bill's two younger siblings), to a truly inspirational grandmother, Florence Jeffery, who profoundly influenced the man that he became.
Coerced into leaving school early by an unimaginative authoritarian father, who'd found him a job as a bookmaker's clerk, Bill was then called up for National Service with the Royal Air Force, and while serving in Germany he discovered skiffle and, via a finger-shredding, tea-chest-and-broom-handle baptism of fire, the bass.
Upon returning to civilian life, Bill married in '59, formed the Cliftons in '61, and while just warming to fatherhood joined Brian Jones's blues band, the Rolling Stones, in '62. The Stones, as they came to be known, created quite the stir with their long hair, iconoclastic demeanour, penchant for urinating on garage forecourts and finger-snapping brand of no-holds-barred rhythm and blues. In fact they conquered the known world. You might have even heard of them.
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Denne historien er fra November 2024-utgaven av Classic Rock.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Dream Theater
With friends (and bandmates) reunited for the band's 40th anniversary, it'll be a special night for fans at Wembley Arena.
Royal Republic
Livewire, turbo-harmonised, disco-rocking Swedes get ready for upgraded UK and Europe dates.
GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'
In 1968 the MC5's Kick Out The Jams album was a grenade thrown into the music scene. In the decades since, Wayne Kramer acted as guardian of the band's legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.
THE KILLING FLOOR
Now revered as a linchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin' Wolf's London sessions in 1970, with a superstar cast that included some of England's rock royalty, came out of a chance encounter several months earlier at a gig in San Francisco.
ROGUE TRADER
Recording almost everything on his latest album himself and putting it out on his own label, Tuk Smith followed the adage that if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.
BILL WYMAN
WW2 evacuee, RAF airman, Rolling Stone, hit solo artist, bandleader, author, restaurateur, archaeologist, cricketer... Even just his time in The Greatest Rock'N'Roll Band In The World is storied, but there's been much, much more to his life than that.
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
For some people, travelling life's road is easy. For lifelong worrier Myles Kennedy it's anything but. But with his brand new solo album The Art Of Letting Go he's learning just what that title says.
ALL ABOUT BEING LOUD
In an exclusive extract from his Fast Eddie biography Make My Day, long-time Motörhead associate Kris Needs looks back at the making of their game-changing Overkill album and the subsequent killing-it UK tour.
Nikki Sixx
The Mötley Crüe bassist on making new music, replacing Mick Mars, work-life balance, learning when to say no...
Bobbie Dazzle
Meet the West Midlands singer bringing back upbeat music, fun and fashion of the 70s.