Artist:     Lynden Williams

Title:      The Clown’s Day Off

File:        Rock/Progressive

The music business is no stranger to eccentric creatives and British singer-songwriter Lynden Williams fits the bill nicely with this latest rich and exotic brew of pop/rock material.

Penned by Williams and Ollie Hannifan (Mister Kannish), it measures the duo’s fondness for music hall and Bonzo-esque ditties propped up by some fine ensemble playing from Williams’ standby crew of Dave Meros (Spock’s Beard), Nick D’Virgilio (Big Big Train) and Geoff Downes (Yes) assisting Hannifan and former Jerusalem vocalist Williams themselves.

A couple of cover songs are thrown into the mix in the form of “Hey Mister!” written by former Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes for his Rutles spin-off accompanied by “Milk Cow Blues” from The Kinks’  ‘Kontroversy’ album.

The album follows on the heels of Williams’s 2025 debut solo release, ‘I’m not a beast’ – an homage to the 1970 rock psych album ‘Volume One’ by Scottish band The Human Beast.

Also just published is Williams’s latest book ‘Bumbles’ which was initially triggered by Lynden’s admiration for Raymond Briggs’s book, ‘Fungus The Bogeyman’.

Chronicling the rise to fame of a 1960’s beat group of the same name and described as a humorous story masquerading as a colourfully-illustrated children’s book.

‘Bumbles’ chronicles the rise to fame of a 1960’s beat group, The Bumbles, from formation to the live performance of their fantastical (and thought-to-be un-performable) album, ‘Major Onions Snails For Teatime Band’ at an open air concert in the grounds of Aintree Racecourse.

The set followed their drummer, Bongo, riding a pantomime horse in The Grand National race as a publicity stunt to promote the band’s latest single, “All You Need Is Fun”.

The book’s birth follows Lynden’s admiration for the writing style of Raymond Briggs’s hilarious book, ‘Fungus The Bogeyman’.

“I was looking at Raymond’s book and was mystified by it being classified as a children’s book, when it screams out its adulthood and fun nature to readers.” explains Lynden.

“It struck me that it might be amazingly wonderful if I too could possibly write something which has the appearance of being a children’s book, but isn’t.”

Lynden took the project to fellow musician and graphic artist Bob Cooke.

“I asked if he would illustrate the story as plentifully or as childishly as he fancied. Fortunately he said, yes, and so I set about writing what has turned out to be a veritable hoot of a tale.”

Lynden describes the outcome as an abstract and humorous look at a 1960’s beat group and the times which surrounded it, whilst Bob saw it as a spoof about The Beatles.

  Bob and Lynden

Williams and Cooke’s career started together in 1971 with the Salisbury rock group, Jerusalem, signed to the cult Deram label, and managed by Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan. 

The band shared bills with some of the biggest acts of the time including Mott The Hoople, Rory Gallagher, Family, Humble Pie, Fairport Convention, Curved Air, Can, Status Quo, Supertramp, Caravan and Deep Purple, to name just a few.

Bob suffered a stroke shortly after he and Lynden had released the Jerusalem album, “Escalator” with the rhythm section of Los Angeles band, Spock’s Beard, Nick D’Virgilio and Dave Meros, and with keyboard player, Geoff Downes (The Buggles/Yes).

Tragically, Bob died in December 2024 shortly after finishing the illustrations for ‘Bumbles’.

“I’m glad it turned out to be so visually and colourfully exciting, making it a wondrous and fitting legacy to Bob’s great talents.” adds Lynden.

Published in hardback by Chalk Stream Books, Bumbles is available to order from Waterstones and other good bookshops ….

Latest album releases by Lynden Williams:

https://singsongmusic.com/new-audio-release-lynden-williams-im-not-a-beast-singsong243/