WILLIAM LYALL

William Lyall biography
William "Billy" LYALL - Born 26 March 1953 (Edinburgh, Scotland) - 1 December 1989

UK composer and keyboardist will probably be best remembered for his band tenures. He started out as a member of Bay City Rollers, but when he decided that he should create a better future elsewhere he hooked up with fellow Scot and former Bay City Rollers member David Paton to form Pilot. Two ssuccesful albums later Lyall decided to quit, his musical aspirations being of a more sophisticated nature than what Paton wanted.

To realize his ambitions Lyall decided to record a solo album. With a major cast of guest musicians the end result was released in 1976 as Solo Casting, a production described as a subtly more sophisticated version of Pilot's non-single material.

This was to be Lyall's only solo production. One might suspect that the disco and punk waves about to hit the UK played a role, as the label attitudes to art rock soured due to that, but we'll probably never truly know. Following his solo album Lyall worked as a musician for a number of artists, The Alan Parson Project and Dollar amongst them. William Lyall passed away in 1989, just 36 years old.