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If you can't always get what you want, you can at least sometimes get something else altogether: Pip Williams started off as a soul-boy and ended up having a two-decade career as Status Quo's producer. The Quo association has established him as one of Britain's most successful producers, but Pip's work prior to 1976 was probably more interesting, certainly in the immediate context. He was originally a guitarist, playing in Jimmy James and the Vagabonds towards the end of the 60s. Thereafter he drifted into session-work, where he met Phil Wainman; through this connexion he played on the first Sweet singles and got to know Chinn & Chapman. When that team branched off into producing, they took him along and he played the guitar on the first two Mud singles. By now he was also turning his hand to arrangements and he played on and arranged some of Biddu's best records: that's him playing the electric sitar glissando on Tina Charles's 'I Love To Love'. It was with Biddu that he was reunited with Jimmy James. The soul influence was also felt in his arrangements for Mac & Katie Kissoon and in his production for Mud - he did the Better Than Working album which contained their funkiest tracks. Within this broad range of activities, Pip reckons that his most satisfying work, certainly as an arranger, were the records he did with Colin Blunstone and Leo Sayer (he did Another Year for Leo). More significant in terms of his own career was his production of Graham Bonnet - this was the stuff that attracted the attention of Quo and took him off in a new direction. His regret now is that he's seen as a rock producer and no one asks him to do any soul arrangements anymore. |
Eddie Amoo | ||