What did Bill do before Northern Dream was released in 1971?
Bill was involved in a number of local outfits during high school and college, including “The Teenagers”. None of them recorded. The first recording featuring Bill was around 1968, three acetates were pressed of an EP for a three-piece blues/psychedelic band called Global Village. Bill sang and played guitar on covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Long Grey Mare”, John Mayall’s “You Don’t Love Me Baby”, and Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” on this EP. Global Village’s big fame came and went when they once opened for Geno Washington. During the late 1960’s he was also involved with a loose group of musicians from the Wakefield area who recorded at a studio called Holyground. Bill only occasionally played guitar on these recordings. After Bill married his first wife Shirley, a Pentecostal Christian, Bill converted for a couple of years and joined a church group called The Messengers – later changing their name to Gentle Revolution, before he eventually recording his first solo album, Northern Dream, i
