Bill Wyman
The early bass player of the Rolling Stones is a rock legend. Bill Wyman (* on October 24th 1936 as William George Perks) was the bassist for the Stones for 31 years and significantly shaped the style of the legendary rock band. He was, just like his colleague Charlie Watts (dr), always in the shadow of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. He was hardly ever present in the media´s headlines and didn´t have much of a chance to materialize his musical ideas within the band, but was always appreciated as a bass player. Bill Wyman then went under contract with Dallas Ltd. (London) in 1964 to promote the Framus Star bass. The prospective superstar made this instrument famous worldwide - just like Paul McCartney did with the German Hofner bass equivalent. In the mid sixties Wyman predominantly played the Star bass model with the attached pickup plate and the big body - mostly with a round, but occasionally with the pointy cutaway. The Framus Star bass of this kind therefore was called at times "stone bass".
In the seventies and eighties he released a few albums under his own name and with "Willie And The Poorboys" but never really managed to break through as a soloist. Then again he received a lot of support and recognition for his involvement with an organization whose mission was to battle multiple sclerosis. Bill Wyman then announced in 1992 that he would leave the Rolling Stones. Wyman, who also plays autoharp, guitar, vibraphone, glockenspiel, keyboards, percussion and cello, is busy and successful on stage with his band Rhythm Kings till today. Also his miscellaneous books about the Stones and the history of the blues became standard works.