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William Edward Ritchie (born 20 April 1944, Lanark, Scotland) is a British keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of The Satellites, The Premiers, 1-2-3, and Clouds. He is generally acknowledged as being the first keyboard player in rock music to stand and take a leading role, thereby providing a model for others such as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. He is also credited as being responsible for rewriting standard songs and arranging music in a style that later became fashionable as progressive rock.〔"The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music" (muze)〕 During a Saville Theatre concert in 1967, he introduced a then-unknown David Bowie to Jimi Hendrix.〔David Bowie is, exhibition at the V & A 2013〕 ==Biography== Ritchie grew up in the Scottish village of Forth in Lanarkshire. He began playing harmonica at an early age, and when a neighbour threw out a piano, and Ritchie's parents took it in, Ritchie, at the age of 8, began playing semi-seriously, but as an almost secret activity. In 1960, Ritchie's friends, Johnny Moffat (vocals), Robert 'Flam' Fleming (guitar) (b. December 1943), William 'Big Wull' Ritchie guitar, he is also Billy Ritchie's cousin), Jim Stark (drums), and Duncan Blair (bass), formed a band called The Satellites. When asked what he would play, Ritchie decided to play electric organ, much to the bemusement of his friends. Organs were not in common use in guitar-orientated bands of that time.〔Interview by James Alexander published on Clouds website〕 In 1964, a band called The Premiers, based in Edinburgh, whose members were Ian Ellis (vocals), James 'Shammy' Lafferty (rhythm guitar), Derek Stark (lead guitar), Bill Lawrence (bass), and Harry Hughes(drums), decided to recruit an organist to augment their sound, and Ritchie joined. The addition prompted more changes than was intended, and despite an early success in being recorded at Radio Luxembourg in London by Cyril Stapleton, the band quickly fragmented. Derek Stark left because he felt that the organ had supplanted his role as lead musician; Bill Lawrence left following a dispute with Ian Ellis; James 'Shammy' Lafferty left because of family problems. The three remaining members, Ian Ellis, Harry Hughes, and Billy Ritchie decided to take the music in a radically new direction, and renamed the band 1-2-3.〔"All Music Guide"; Clouds by Bruce Eder〕 1-2-3 was one of the earliest bands to play a form of inventive rock music that became a blueprint for what would later be called progressive rock. The band's set consisted of standard pop and blues songs, but in Ritchie's hands, these pieces were studiously reshaped and rewritten, to become, in essence, new. There was nothing remotely like it around.〔"The History of Scottish Rock and Pop" by Brian Hogg, Guinness/BBC publications〕 The set included early rewritten versions of songs by David Bowie (I Dig Everything) and Paul Simon (America, The Sounds of Silence), both completely unknown at that time. Some months after their debut at La Bamba club in Falkirk, 1-2-3 decided that the band would have more chance of success in London, where they arrived in February 1967. A 'legendary' residency at the Marquee club quickly followed,〔"The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music" (muze)〕 and the band were signed to Brian Epstein and NEMS management. Following Epsein's death however, manager Robert Stigwood failed to capitalise on the momentum of the Marquee performances, and the band left NEMS late in 1967.〔"All music Guide" Clouds by Bruce Eder〕 1-2-3 was then signed to The Ellis-Wright Agency, which would soon be called Chrysalis, and the most commercially successful part of the band's career began, under the new name of Clouds. Several major tours and three albums and several single releases followed, but real success proved elusive, and the band broke up in October 1971. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Billy Ritchie (musician)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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