William Fay (born 1943) is an English singer, pianist and songwriter whose early releases were made on the Deram label in 1967. Following the release of his second album in 1971, Fay was dropped by the label. His work enjoyed a growing cult status in the 1990s, and his older works were re-issued in 1998 and 2004/2005. Fay's 2012 album, Life Is People, was his first album of all-new material since 1971. His most recent album, Countless Branches, was released on 17 January 2020.


Biography


Early career


Fay was born in north London, where he still lives.

His first single, "Some Good Advice" / "Screams in the Ears", was issued on the Deram label in 1967, and was followed by two albums, Bill Fay in 1970 and Time of the Last Persecution in 1971. The recordings did not sell well, and Fay was dropped from Deram soon after the release of his second album. They were re-issued in 1998, and then again in 2005.

Despite returning to the recording studio in the late 1970s, the follow-up to Time of the Last Persecution was not released until January 2005, following the reissues of his earlier works.


Cult status and comeback


Bill Fay's work enjoyed a growing cult status in the 1990s. His first two albums were re-issued in 1998, an event which Bill Fay described in 2012 as follows:

Up until 1998, when some people reissued my albums, as far as I was concerned, I was gone, deleted. No one was listening. But then I got the shock that people remembered my music. I was doing some gardening, and listening to some of my songs on cassette, and a part of me thought they were quite good. I thought, "Maybe somebody will hear them someday." That same evening, 14 years ago, I got a call from a music writer telling me that my two albums were being reissued. A shock is not gonna get much bigger than that, David [...] It was astonishing to me. I won't ever really be able to believe that it happened. That's how I feel about it. I had come to terms with the fact that I was deleted, but that I had always kept writing songs anyway and that was good enough.

In 2004, the British label Wooden Hill released a collection of demos recorded between 1966 and 1970 entitled From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock. In 2005 his late 1970s recordings were released January 2005. Entitled Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow, it was credited to the Bill Fay Group and was released on the Durtro Jnana label.

The compilation album Still Some Light appeared on the Coptic Cat label in 2010, a double CD containing a mix of older material and newer, home-recorded songs.

Life is People, released 21 August 2012 on Dead Oceans, is his first new studio LP in over 40 years.

A new album by Bill Fay was released in April 2015, titled Who Is the Sender?'. The second album track, "War Machine", came out as a single in February 2015.

A feature article entitled "Bill Fay Was a Hidden Gem. One Musician Made Finding Him a Mission" was published in the New York Times on January 15, 2020.


Discography


Albums


- Bill Fay (Deram, 1970) (studio album #1)

- Time of the Last Persecution (Deram, 1971) (studio album #2)

- Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow (recorded 1978-1981; Durtro, 2005) (studio album #3)

- Life Is People (Dead Oceans, 2012) (studio album #4)

- Who Is the Sender? (Dead Oceans, 2015) (studio album #5)

- Countless Branches (Dead Oceans, 2020) (studio album #6)


Compilation albums


- From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock (recorded 1966-1970; Wooden Hill, 2004)

- Still Some Light (2CD, recorded 2009; Coptic Cat, 2010) (compilation of early 1970–1971 studio recordings and 2009 new material home recordings)



Time of the Last Persecution


-Studio album by Bill Fay

- Released: 1971

- Recorded: October 1970

- Genre: Progressive folk

- Length: 39:22

- Label: Deram Records

- Producer: Ray Russell & Bill Fay


Time of the Last Persecution is the second album of progressive folk singer Bill Fay. Released in 1971, the album was influenced by the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. The album was re-released in 2005 with bonus tracks.


Track listing


- 1. "Omega Day"

- 2. "Don't Let My Marigolds Die''

- 3. "I Hear You Calling''

- 4. "Dust Filled Room"

- 5. "'Til the Christ Come Back''

- 6. "Release Is in the Eye''

- 7. "Laughing Man''

- 8. "Inside the Keepers Pantry''

- 9. "Tell It Like It Is''

- 10. "Plan D''

- 11. "Pictures of Adolf Again''

- 12. "Time of the Last Persecution"

- 13. "Come a Day"

- 14. "Let All the Other Teddies Know"


Personnel


- Bill Fay: Vocals, piano

- Ray Russell: Guitar

- Alan Rushton: Drums

- Darryl Runswick: Bass

- Nick Evans: Trombone


Source

- [ Ссылка ]

- [ Ссылка ]


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