This is a very dilute and brief extract of the life of Bill Bryant...

The main theme of Bill’s life has virtually always been purely and only spiritual.

Bill virtually lived with a Himalayan yogi for several intense years, and even went on to an ‘impossible’ meeting with the Mahavatar Babaji !

In short, Bill has mainly either lived with and through spiritual masters or tried to selflessly impart strength, power and self realization to those who have been close to him.

Some of my views and observations of Bill are that he seems to be a sort of cross between a child like, working class ‘bloke’ who laughs deafeningly loudly and often…Sometimes, people’s first impression of Bill, is that there’s something slightly ‘wrong’ with him. He has a slight speech impediment, and drinks a lot. The other and main side of him is he unimaginably perceptive…again, a bit like a child. He just seems to ‘know’ sometimes, as if ‘by accident’, and sometimes quite frighteningly ‘on purpose’.

I have heard Bill sometimes laughingly describe himself as a sort of cross between a man and a cosmic master, I couldn’t agree more. He is as ordinary as you want, but at the same time, he is very much is NOT ordinary ! Just standing near Bill will often instantly bring out every emotion there is that a human can have. Fear, jealousy, guilt, defensiveness, anger, love, hate, peace (if he decides)…This all takes place without Bill even speaking !

Bill is like a ‘seer’ or something. His ability to ‘see’ the potential in a given situation is amazing. He certainly brought out the best in me. Literally within the first few minutes of meeting Bill, he told me things about myself that I had not told anyone. Also, he instantly took me out of my ‘subservient’ band member thing. I used to be chronically nervous and would take the usual shelter in other band members. I told Bill that I could not sing and play simultaneously. Bill said, "yes you can", I said, "no I can’t". (This had been a problem or complex for me since all the years I had been involved in music). Within about five to ten minutes, I could sing and play simultaneously ! Somehow, he just ‘made’ me do it. I’ve seen him do this sort of thing over the years with many people in all sorts of areas.

The following biog is limited to Bill’s involvement with music only.

It has been written by me, Paul Linn, and checked by Bill…..

William Stephen Bryant was born in Stokenchurch (which is where Howard lived), Buckinghamshire on July 29th 1953. He and I share the same Birthday and were born 12 years apart, so we are both Leo Snakes, and have much in common.

Bill grew up in Rayner's Lane. His father William was a great deal older than his mother, (25 years) and died of Parkinson's disease, when Bill was just 19, leaving him to grow up alone with his mother Maureen. Bill's earliest ambition was to build his own Tardis and travel through time, being a huge fan of the original Dr Who with William Hartnell. (To this day Bill is adamant that Hartnell is the ONLY real Dr Who).

From 1971 Bill became an intense and very close follower of Indian Guru Sri Sri Mentu Mahahraj, who based his mission in Amersham, Bucks. Bills words on this is that what was gained and learned from being with the Himalayan yogi was unimaginable by most people’s imagination, and that many people would not be able to believe the story! Bill eventually instinctively and naturally then went on to emulate the ways of his guru and lived and acted similarly with other people. He constantly taught and gave talks on spirituality and self realization around the High Wycombe area, and attracted a small group of young people. Bill himself was only 21 years old at this time.

One of these was Howard Jones. Howard's brothers had been very close to Bill for some time before they encouraged Howard to come along, even though Howard was the oldest of the four brothers. Bill and Howard struck up an immediate and deep friendship, and they formed a very powerful bond. Howard was a very talented musician who had trained classically at University. Bill had been asked by Martin and Roy Jones to write down anything he felt like saying so that they could put it to music. The idea was that Bills prose-style lyrics would be put to a catchy style of pop-rock music so that the message in the lyrics could be blasted out to the world, but with minimum ambition or expectation.

One of their songs was called "Love?” which was a lyric that Bill had written in half an hour on a slip of paper outside "The Crown" in a small village called Radnage”. This same lyric eventually went to Howard, and its title changed to "What Is Love?", and ultimately earned its writers a substantial sum of money.

Bill and Howard’s relationship had become extremely close, happy and fruitful, many people in the Wycombe area had seen them to be inseparable. (Especially in the Gordon Arms).

In 1977ish, Bill asked Howard to completely stop all things to do with music for as long as would seem necessary in order to concentrate on ‘higher things’. Howard was devoted to his music, but unhesitatingly did what Bill asked. Bill laughingly and fondly describes this moment as Howard receiving his first Indian style ‘thing to do’ ! The time that passed without music was actually two years. Then one day Bill said, "OK, play music if you want." Bill had the idea that Howard's music should be new and exciting, and actually said to Howard, ‘surround yourself with keyboards (literally)’, and perform as a modern kind of 'one-man band'.

Bill insisted that Howard try to write more contemporary and catchy pop music, and get away from his leaning towards jazz and blues styles. Again, as with Howard's brothers, early expectations were not very high - neither of them had any real idea as to what extent this was going to work. The music developed, songs were written and gigs began generally in High Wycombe area. Slowly but surely things grew and grew and Howard started to attract a large and loyal following around the gig-circuit. Howard was becoming a very confident live performer and his classical training meant he was a superb keyboardist, whatever the keyboard.

One of the people who regularly attended Bills talks was a Mr. Jed Hoile. Jed also worked for Bill doing all sorts of things from car mechanics to fruit and veg selling. Bill overheard Jed roaring with laughter one day with a close friend, Bill asked what they were laughing at. Slightly embarrassed, Jed explained that they were laughing at his antics one night at a certain party, and at the way he would dance when ‘things’ got going! Bill asked more about this, and in typical Bill style, could ‘see’ the potential ! “I remember poor Jed,” says Bill, “he was so nervous the first night I asked him to do his thing at the Osbourne in Lane End.” However, it worked ! Slowly but surely, Jed got better and better at the whole idea, and eventually made the whole concept of miming to Bill’s lyrics combined with Howard’s music superb. The song, "Conditioning", was one of the earliest songs Jed mimed to, and very well done too. The lyrics to “Conditioning”, of course were originally written by Bill for Howard’s brothers, Martin and Roy.

They also planned ingenious acts between them where Jed would pretend to be an intrusive member of the audience, and came onto the stage to have 'mock fights' with Howard, and even used to 'knife' Howard, after which Howard would reappear at the back of the audience as a ghost and get back up on stage to continue playing. Another of Bill's ground-breaking ideas was for Howard to strap one of his Moog synths around his neck and to play it like a guitar. Whether or not this really was the very first example of 'round-the-neck' guitar style synths is uncertain - but it was certainly the earliest of its kind as far as Bill and Howard were concerned.

Bill at that time had a picture framing business and had about seventy pictures per week to frame, this was a great deal of work. Howard worked for Bill for free several nights per week. "We really were very close," says Bill, "yes, he did actually work for me and he did it for free for about three nights per week. In those days there weren’t so many machines available and you had to do all sorts of things like nailing by hand. I had taught myself to be ambidextrous. I taught Howard, and he was as good as me almost instantly, as he was at most things."

So, what went wrong ? Nobody seems to really know, but one thing’s for sure, Howard has virtually never even acknowledged Bills existence, never thanked him for his massive input. I, as an original fan of Howard, have hundreds of newspaper cuttings of interviews etc. Nothing ever is mentioned of Bill. He even says that he wrote songs that Bill wrote ! It seems unbelievable. Howard’s website even to this day implies that he wrote the songs that Bill wrote, and has done for years. Same old pop stars or what? There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Howard owes much of his success to Bill. I really do believe this. Howard’s talent is undeniable, but there’s no way he would have made it without Bill.