Brilliant Bills: Great Musicians Called William Quiz

Answer: The Rolling Stones

Bill Wyman comes from Sydenham, South London, most famous for its beast (a panther-like animal that has been spotted in the area and attacked at least one man), and Bill.

When he joined The Stones he had already modeled his first fretless bass, and played it in local band The Cliftons. He was also married and had a job, making his lifestyle somewhat out-of-kilter with the overall Stones' raison d'être. He stayed on for almost exactly thirty years however, and was very much one of the band's essential elements, possibly more so than we are generally led to believe.

These days he plays with the Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings and is involved in all kinds of other projects, as he always has been.

Dick Taylor formed The Pretty Things in 1963, the same year that both The Rockin' Vickers and The Kinks formed.

Answer: Bootsy

Bootsy Collins started out in The Pacemakers (which also featured his brother, Catfish) in the late 1960s. The band then became James Brown's band (known as The J.B.s). With Brown he made music history on songs such as including "Sex Machine" and "Super Bad".

He then formed The House Guests, who joined Funkadelic in 1972, first being heard on "America Eats Its Young", released the same year. By the mid-1970s he'd formed Bootsy's Rubber Band, who worked within the P-Funk collective/labyrinth.

In 2010 Bootsy launched the Funk University, which so far seems to deal with the bass guitar only, but boasts lectures in the history of funk and tutorials from big name bass players, including Bootsy himself.

Answer: Buddy Holly

"The day the music died" was 3rd February, 1959, when a plane taking Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" to their next gig crashed in Iowa, USA, killing everybody aboard.

Killdozer started willfully killing music in 1983, and they dragged their sorry behinds through the 1980s and half the 1990s, destroying taboos and leaving rock history debris in their wake. All of their stuff is heartily recommended to the fan of slow, sludgy rock with its tongue firmly stuck in its irreverent cheek, but their album of cover versions, "For Ladies Only", is surely their crowning moment.

Eddie Cochran died in a car crash in England whilst on tour in 1960. Gene Vincent was also in the car, but survived.

Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in 1963. Otis Redding died in a plane crash in 1967. Redding's plane crashed in Madison, Wisconsin, Killdozer's home-town.

Answer: ZZ Top

The Moving Sidewalks opened for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and gained quite a name for themselves, but Billy Gibbons found worldwide fame with his next outfit, ZZ Top.

The first five ZZ Top albums are firmly rooted in the blues, albeit with a cheeky twist all of their own. After "Tejas" (1976) they had a break and didn't grace us with an album until 1979 when they released "Degüello". The sound had broadened significantly, including horns on the up-tempo numbers, but it was still welcomed with open-arms by the fans. It was followed by "El Loco" which hinted at things to come.

1983's "Eliminator" was their breakthrough album, although it lost them a lot of fans of the raunchier, dirtier sound, and the wicked sense of humour seemed to have become a tad vulgar. However, the flashy videos and novelty image won them even more fans than they lost.

Answer: Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was called Lady Day by her cohort, saxophonist Lester Young (whom she nicknamed Prez), and her biography is called "Lady Sings The Blues". It makes harrowing reading, but the helpless, endearing character that shines through such a dreadful life is a welcome accompaniment to the wonderful records she left us.

Whether it be the stuff from her heyday (1940s), or her heart-wrenching yet brilliant last recordings when she was riddled with alcohol and drug addiction ("Lady In Satin", 1958), listening to Billie is a unique experience.

Billy Lee Riley was an incredible hillbilly/rock n roll artist, most famous for his brilliant song "Red Hot", which had Sun Records' boss Sam Philips chosen to promote over Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls Of Fire", might have made music history.

Billie Whitelaw was playwright Samuel Beckett's muse.

Answer: Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse had been the musical part of Danny and the Memories, later becoming The Rockets, who released just one album in 1968. They then hooked up with Neil Young, who had just come out of Buffalo Springfield, and had already released his eponymous solo debut album.

The relationship was marred by Danny Whitten's drug abuse, which led to the band being sidelined from Young's album, "After The Gold Rush", possibly leading to Molina and Talbot kicking Whitten out and recording a couple of Crazy Horse sans Young albums. Whitten was invited back to tour Young's hugely successful "Harvest" album. Rehearsals didn't work out, he was fired, and then he died of a drug overdose. Reportedly the decision haunts Neil Young to this day.

Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina still play with Crazy Horse, and Talbot has even recorded a solo album, "Alive In The Spirit World".

Answer: Keyboards

Billy Powell was actually born in Texas, but moved to Skynyrd heartland Florida as a kid and met future band-mate Leon Wilkeson at elementary school. He took up the piano at an early age and had classical training.

He started out as the band's roadie, so when the band decided to add a pianist, a role he was clearly the man for the job. He played on the band's classic albums, and was an essential element in the band's sound, and not just on the band's signature track, "Free Bird". The thought of Skynyrd without his twinkling keys is inconceivable.

Powell was part of the Skynyrd reunion in 1987, which came about after a long hiatus following the tragic plane crash that took the lives of key members (Powell was involved, but suffered relatively minor injuries), and he stayed until his death in 2009.

Answer: Television

Billy Ficca started off his association with fellow Delawareans Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell in Neon Boys, but they are only remembered as being the prelude to Television, who, alongside other musicians drawn to New York City, revamped the tired-out, trite rock n roll that was about at the time, and laid down the foundations of New York punk rock.

Avoiding the bubble-gum pop of Blondie, the minimalist electronica of Suicide, the artiness of Talking Heads, the brashness of Ramones, and the aggression of Dead Boys, Television made erudite, awkward rock that has stood the test of time, and deserve their status as a band you have to hear for the brilliant debut album "Marquee Moon" alone.

Answer: The Beatles

Billy Fury was born Ronald Wycherley in Liverpool, 1940. He had his first hit, "Maybe Tomorrow", in 1959, which led to a string of hits, although he always fell shy of the number one spot.

In 1961 he was at the peak of his powers, but his backing band, The Blue Flames, were given the boot by his manager(a move that had Georgie Fame step up to sing lead vocals and success), so a new band had to be found.

The Silver Beetles (as they were known at the time) tried out for the gig, and were apparently given it on condition that they got rid of the bassist (Stuart Sutcliffe), which John Lennon refused to do.

Billy Fury's career petered out somewhat towards the end of the 1960s, and his poor health hampered his career right until his death in 1983, aged 42.

The Crickets were Buddy Holly's band. The Wanderers were basically Sham 69 fronted by ex-Dead Boys singer Stiv Bators.

Answer: Willie Dixon

It's not too far-fetched to say that popular music would be a very different thing had there been no Willie Dixon, yet he's often over-looked and almost a footnote. This might be due to him working away very much in the background, most influentially at Chess Records where he wrote the stuff that gained him his place in music history.

Later in his career he worked tirelessly as a Blues ambassador, raising the profile of the music and more importantly, setting up the Blues Heaven Foundation "to preserve the blues' legacy and to secure copyrights and royalties for blues musicians who were exploited in the past." (Quote from Blues Foundation Mission Statement)