Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Crying In The Rain (Dunfermline, 2013)

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• published: 27 Feb 2015
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Exclusive interview with Bill Wyman: "I'm as proud of the Rhythm Kings as I was of the Stones." BILL WYMAN has found success in many fields since leaving the Rolling Stones, writing nine books, staging exhibitions of his photography and running his famous ‘Sticky Fingers’ restaurant in London. He has also a deep interest in archaeology and can often be found unearthing Roman antiquities on his Suffolk estate. However, Bill’s first love remains music and he returns to Dunfermline next month with his star-packed Rhythm Kings alongside fellow legends, Albert Lee on guitar and jazz/blues singer Georgie Fame. The gig on 20th November at the Alhambra - where they enthralled fans in 2009 - is the only Scottish date on their 26-stop UK tour. “You’ve been specially chosen,” Bill laughed when he spoke to the Press. The special guest star this time is American folk-blues singer Maria Muldaur, an old friend of Bill’s and best-known for her hit ‘Midnight at the Oasis’. “I saw her in London and she blew me away. I asked her if she would want to play with the Rhythm Kings and she said she’d be honoured so it’s a mutual admiration society. “We’re going to be doing our usual variety of music and entertaining with a lot of humour, a lot of jazz, blues, soul, rock-a-billy, early rock ‘n’ roll, ballads. “We know how to entertain an audience. We should, we’ve been doing that for years and that’s why we’re always asked back to these places. No one else plays the variety of music we play.” Their continuing success saw the all-star line-up invited to play Glastonbury this year. Bill went on, “Georgie and Albert are our two stars and we have Beverley Skeete, our lovely rhythm queen, she’s just fantastic. “It’s lovely to do. I do so many things in my life. I write books, do archaeology, photo-exhibitions. I’ve got the restaurant, bringing up my family etc, so I wouldn’t do this unless it was a great pleasure. “I do it every year because I just love getting out, playing with these guys, having a ball and seeing the audiences going away with smiles on their faces. “They usually give us standing ovations at the end of the concerts and it’s just a pleasure to do it. “We make a special effort to announce the dates in the summer and ask the guys to leave a space in their diaries because they’re all out there busy with their own careers. “I ask them to save the dates over five or six weeks. In the summer we do festivals and sometimes in the spring we do a tour of Europe. “If somebody’s already booked up for when we’re playing I just have to replace them. It’s a bit like a football team, you have to bring people off the bench. “If Albert Lee’s in America I can see if I can bring in Andy Fairweather Low or Martin Taylor, the jazz guitarist, so there are people who are available as replacements if someone’s got a red card or is injured. “We usually do three or four dates in Scotland but this is the only one this time so we’re hoping our fans will travel to Dunfermline. We’ve got a lot of fans in Scotland. “We’ve been going a good 12 years now and the band we’ve got touring this year is the same as when we started with the exception of the keyboard player. Otherwise it’s exactly the same band. It’s become like a family thing. We have our own identity but we do have guests all the time. “When I left the Stones I didn’t do any music for a couple of years. I was focused on all the other things I was doing like my restaurant, getting married again and having a family. “Then I thought when I came back into music I’d do something different this time. I wanted to have a band of friends around to play great music and a great variety of music. “Mix it all up with a variety of singers and that’s the way it’s turned out. That’s the charming thing about this band. “They’re great to watch entertainment wise. There’s a lot of amusement, a lot of fun on stage as well as great quality in the music. I’m very proud of them. "I’m as proud of the Rhythm Kings as I was of the Stones and the other band I was in, Willie and the Poor Boys (a 1980s project with Charlie Watts, Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, Chris Rea and others).” “When we go on tour we’ve got just three days off in five weeks. If you’re going to do it, do it. Don’t mess around. That’s what we do. Jump on the bus and away we go, very low-profile. No pressures, you go out and enjoy yourself.”