Bill MacCormick

He is the second son of Ewen and Olwen MacCormick who married in 1946 after serving together in the RAF.

His older brother, Ian MacCormick (also known as the music journalist and writer Ian MacDonald) was born in 1948.

After attending primary schools in Brixton they were both awarded free places at Dulwich College.

There MacCormick met Phil Targett-Adams (now better known as Phil Manzanera) and they developed an interest in playing music.

William MacCormick (born 15 April 1951) is an English bassist and vocalist.

He is also a politician and author.

In 1966 MacCormick's mother worked with Honor Wyatt, the mother of drummer Robert Wyatt, and MacCormick saw his band Soft Machine play their first gig in August 1966 at Coombe Springs in Kingston and, thereafter, became a regular visitor at Honor Wyatt's house in Dalmore Road, West Dulwich, where the band lived and rehearsed.

In 1968 Manzanera and MacCormick formed a band at Dulwich College with a floating membership except for drummer Charles Hayward, two years their junior.

Under the name Pooh and the Ostrich Feather they played gigs around the school and at parties.

MacCormick and Manzanera both left Dulwich College in 1969 and they reunited with Charles Hayward the following year to form a band called Quiet Sun.

They recruited keyboard player Dave Jarrett and, briefly, sax player, Dave Monaghan, but were unable to find a suitable bass player.

MacCormick, who was to sing and play drums, learnt the bass parts to the various compositions in order for the band to rehearse and continued as the bass player until the band broke up in the summer of 1971.

One of the band's last gigs was supporting Symbiosis at Portsmouth Polytechnic.

This band featured Robert Wyatt who was about to leave Soft Machine and, when he did, he contacted MacCormick asking him to play bass in a new band to be called Matching Mole.

They were joined in the band by the Phil Miller and Caravan's keyboard player Dave Sinclair.

They recorded an album for CBS in December 1971 (released simply as Matching Mole in April 1972) and Dave Sinclair was replaced by New Zealand keyboard player Dave MacRae in February 1972.

The band toured intermittently until September 1972 when Robert broke it up.

It had recorded its second album, Little Red Record, the previous month.

MacCormick briefly joined Daevid Allen's Gong in France in the autumn of 1972.

In the spring of 1973 he persuaded Robert Wyatt to form a new version of Matching Mole which would also feature sax player Gary Windo and keyboard player Francis Monkman recently of Curved Air.

Unfortunately, after a serious accident involving Robert, the project was abandoned.

That autumn MacCormick played on two tracks of Brian Eno's first solo album Here Come the Warm Jets.

Having joined the Liberal Party in 1973 and after being a candidate in the 1974 Council elections in the London Borough of Bromley, he was selected to stand as the Greater London Council candidate in Beckenham in 1981 and as a borough council candidate in 1982.

In 1974 MacCormick decided to pursue his interest in politics and was awarded a place at the London School of Economics to start in September 1975.

in the meantime, Manzanera was planning to record his first solo album (Diamond Head) but had booked extra studio time in order to record Quiet Sun's unrecorded material.

The original band was reformed and, assisted by Eno and his brother Ian MacDonald, the album Mainstream was recorded.

In the summer of 1976, Manzanera, MacCormick and Eno along with drummer Simon Phillips, Francis Monkman and slide guitar player Lloyd Watson formed the short-lived 801 which played three gigs and recorded an album 801 Live, released in late 1976.

Ian and MacCormick then continued writing and recording with Manzanera over an extended period producing the album Listen Now, released in 1977.

A new version of the 801 was formed in order tour to promote the release of Listen Now in the autumn of 1977.

This consisted of Manzanera, MacCormick, singer/guitarist Simon Ainley, Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson and keyboard player David Skinner.

In early 1978 work started on Manzanera's third solo album, K-Scope, which MacCormick partly wrote and on which he played and sang.

Roxy Music then reformed to record Manifesto.

Later that year MacCormick was invited to join Random Hold, a band formed by guitarist David Rhodes and keyboard player the late Dave Ferguson.

Along with ex-Glitter Band drummer Pete Phipps they toured the UK supporting XTC and Peter Gabriel and in North America with Peter Gabriel.

They recorded a double album for Polydor Records.

The band broke up in the summer of 1980 and MacCormick left the music business to pursue his interest in politics.

In 1982 he was short-listed as the Liberal Party candidate for the Bermondsey by-election.

After Simon Hughes's election as MP he worked in the constituency and was agent in two successful Southwark Council by-elections and was assistant agent in the 1984 General Election.

Soon after he was employed as the London Area Agent by the Liberal Party and was agent in the Enfield, Southgate, by-election caused when the Conservative MP, Sir Anthony Berry, was murdered by the IRA.

In addition, he played a bass solo on Manzanera's 2004 album 6PM in the track "Wish You Well", a tribute to MacCormick's late brother Ian and was the webmaster of the official Genesis, Phil Collins and Phil Manzanera web sites for several years.