Bil Wyman Modifying the Rolling Stones' VOX AC30 Amp, The Band Were Impressed By His Amplifiers

Wyman was born as William George Perks in Lewisham Hospital in Lewisham South London, the son of bricklayer William George Perks and Kathleen May née Jeffery. One of six children, he spent most of his early life in Penge Southeast London, Wyman described his wartime childhood as scarred by poverty, having survived The Blitz and enemy fighter plane strafing that killed neighbours. Wyman attended Oakfield Primary School, passing his eleven plus exam to gain entry to Beckenham and Penge County Grammar School from 1947 to Easter 1953, leaving before the GCE exams after his father found him a job working for a bookmaker and insisted that he take it. In January 1955 Wyman was called up for two year national service in the Royal Air Force, In the autumn after signing for an extra year he was posted to Oldenburg Air Base in North Germany, where he spent the rest of his service in the Motor Transport Section. He heard the beginnings of rock and roll in dancehalls such as Zum Grünen Wald and after purchasing a radio also on American Forces Network. In August 1956 he bought a guitar for 400 Deutsche Mark and in 1957 formed a skiffle group on camp with Casey Jones. Wyman took piano lessons from age 10 to 13 A year after his marriage on 24 October 1959 to Diane Cory an 18 year old bank clerk, he bought a Burns electric guitar for £52 on hire purchase, but was not satisfied by his progress. He switched to bass guitar after hearing one at a Barron Knights concert, He created a fretless electric bass guitar by removing the frets on a second hand UK built Dallas Tuxedo bass and played this in a south London band the Cliftons in 1961. He legally changed his surname to Wyman in August 1964, taking the phonetic surname of a friend Lee Whyman with whom he had done national service in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1957. When drummer Tony Chapman told him that a rhythm and blues band called the Rolling Stones needed a bass player, he auditioned at a pub in Chelsea on 7 December 1962 and was hired as a successor to Dick Taylor. The band were impressed by his instrument and amplifiers one of which Wyman modified himself and a Vox AC30, Wyman was the oldest member of the group. In addition to playing bass Wyman frequently provided backing vocals on early records, and through 1967 in concert as well. He wrote and sang lead on the track In Another Land from the album Their Satanic Majesties Request which was released as a single and credited solely to Wyman, making it his first official solo single. The song is one of two Wyman compositions released by the Rolling Stones, the second is Downtown Suzie on Metamorphosis a collection of Rolling Stones outtakes. The title Downtown Suzie was chosen by their erstwhile manager Allen Klein without consulting Wyman or the band, The original title was Sweet Lisle Lucy named after Lisle Street, a street in the red light district in Soho London.
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