Singer/Songwriter
Bio details:
Born in East London, South Africa on 5th February, 1951. Raised & schooled in Rhodesia. Lives in the U.K. Instruments: guitar, & bass guitar
Musical Career
Bill moved with his family from South Africa to Rhodesia at a very young age and, for a short while, lived in Shabani before moving to Umniati, then Kariba and later Que Que.
Together with school friends John and Lawrence Nielsen, and later Denis Scott, he learned to play guitar and formed his first school band.
With ‘limited talent, three chords and almost no equipment’ they played their first gigs in Kariba, Karoi and Sinoia. When possible, they would trek though to Salisbury to watch and learn from and be inspired by the likes of ‘The Etonians’, ‘The Drifters/Holy Black’ and the ‘Otis Waygood Blues Band’.
In 1968 Bill changed schools, moving to Thornhill High School, Gwelo, in order to do A levels. Here he recruited Ian Dunbar, Eric Bradnick (later replaced by Gordon Fraser) and Roger ‘Spider’ Atkinson and formed the group ‘Thyme Again’.
With help from the school they were able to buy second-hand gear from Pete Badenhorst’s band The Establishment, and began getting gigs at local country clubs and high schools including Fort Vic, Que Que, Guinea Fowl and Chaplin.
In 1970 Bill went to Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he teamed up with Alistair Coakley (later Hotline), Brian Watts and Mark Wiggett, and later Brian (Ben) Wood, to form ‘Tribe’.
Tribe disbanded after it’s members left university, and Bill played with various bands in Port Elizabeth most notably ‘Flight’ with Alan Godwin, Patrick Viviers, Geoff Siddall and John Sands. In 1977 as Flight went pro, and set off to take up a residency in Salisbury, Bill decided to leave the band to spend a year travelling in Europe. While in London he teamed up with John Cooper (who together with his sister Philippa had recorded an album called Cooperville Times in South Africa in 1969) but this was no more than a bit of fun.
Moving to Johannesburg in the 1980’s resulted in new musical projects the most significant of which was ‘Flasher’ with Chris Moore (ex Copperfield), Andy Scott, Hannes Henkel and Mark Wiggett.
Around this time Bill began writing his own material. A couple of songs were recorded with help from old friend Alistair Coakley and session input from Andre De Villiers and Dennis East .
In 1994 Bill relocated to Chester in the UK and was soon involved with the formation of a new group called ‘Geronimo’s Cadillac’. When this group disbanded he decided to focus on working solo and writing his own material, playing to audiences in local folk clubs and acoustic music venues.
A prolific writer Bill is credited with well over 50 original songs. He has recorded numerous albums and has had airplay on local radio stations including Radio Merseyside and Celtic Radio FM (Glasgow).
For the past six years he has been working with a keyboard player John Sylvester as a duo, and with other local musicians in a flexible line-up called ‘The Band Wagon’.
The Band Wagon perform regularly in Cheshire and North Wales.
Albums
Now & Then released 2005
Part Time Rebel released 2007
Making Waves released 2008
Hunting with the Hounds released 2009
Those Glory Days released 2011
Sleeper released 2013
Website: www.billmalkin.co.uk
You Tube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiUKp3inlGc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOxYyXoCr2Q