It’s often a question that comes up ‘Why did Bill leave The Rolling Stones?’ I don’t know the answer. Why would you leave the ‘Greatest Rock’ n’ Roll Band’ in the world? I saw Bill play with The Rolling Stones twice, once in the 70’s, once in the 80’s. Like Charlie Watts (Stones drummer) there were claims that he didn’t do that much, butBill just made it look easy, he was that good. He is what they call a ‘bass player’s player’!

So Bill went solo, and went wherever the fuck he wanted to. He does not need the sales, he has the gold records. Bill’s solo career has been chequered to say the least, but one thing you can’t say is it has been prolific or indeed safe!

This collection spans four solo albums and Bill’s work with The Poor Boys alongside Charlie Watts, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Free/Bad Company/Queen vocalist Paul Rodgers, and Rhythm Kings (Bootleg Kings), who feature Albert Lee and Peter Frampton, amongst others in it’s ranks. It’s these two acts that make up the backbone of disc II in this set.

There is a tendency to forget that Bill loves Rhythm and Blues, before it got taken over as R’n’ B and seemed to lose the ‘Blues’ element forever. It’s a throwback to the kind of bands that anyone over the age of forty used to see week-in and week- out at their local pub. In a way that’s the crux of the matter, the best pub band in the world ever, I don’t mean that with any disrespect because there are some great songs here, played by musicians at the top of their game, but you know just what I mean… Plenty of the songs that Bill and his band play are lost classics; and they play with fervour and emotion; panache and style; often loose, often walking the line between shambles and genius. But this is pure and simple, Rock ‘N’ Roll…

As for disc 1, it just deals with Bill’s solo albums from the star studded debut MONKEY GRIP in 1974, into it’s follow up in 1976 STONE ALONE from where this collection takes it’s name. Both show a band member flexing his muscle, going down roads not previously allowed. White Lightning and A Quarter To Three are standout cuts from these two. Seems like the ‘Day Job’ took over because Bill did not get to album III until 1982, with the self-titled BILL WYMAN spawning Je Suis Un Rock Star and Come Back Suzanne, six tracks feature from this record. Bill was in danger of being more in the public eye than the Stones at this point and his well documented public life was certainly adding to his ‘Notoriety’ with the ladies!

Sometimes being ‘Notorious’ was more Bill’s thing than being ‘Famous’Bill who jumped from The Rolling Stones a year later in 1983. Many would say that the band merely ‘continued’ without him. I would go so far to say that it was not until 2005’s A BIGGER BANG that they creatively replaced Bill. Wyman then took 10 years until he followed up with solo album #4, which was called simply STUFF. There are only three tracks from this record, but each is worthy of a place.

As a body of work, Bill sits in 2006, 30 years since those initial two albums having released just another two. One hopes this collection is not the end of Bill’s solo years, he has much to say and I would like to see how he deals the cards in the digital age. I always thought of The Rolling Stones as a ‘Band of Brothers’ - five guys who just wanted to play the blues. They became part of a 60’s double act alongside that ‘other’ group from Liverpool that changed music forever. Bill has his place in Rock ‘N’ Roll history assured, he’s having fun, doing his thing, but Bill, this is a great way to close a chapter, but before you go, just one more for the road!

Jj Haggar: 2006