Peter Williams

Peter Williams

Peter James Williams was born in Christchurch, New Zealand on April 03rd, 1942.  His first musical activity was around 1960 in Christchurch as the lead singer with The Silhouettes, and he went on to join Max Merritt and The Meteors making it over the ditch to Australia where he effectively remained domicilied for around 30 years.

With Max Merritt and The Meteors

Later with Max Merritt and The Meteors

The Mixtures

During his time in Australia he joined The Groove, which was formed in Melbourne in 1967 and was touted as Australia’s first Supergroup due to its amazing compomlement of highly experienced musos.  The Groove won the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds in 1968.  After two or three Australian tours they availed themselves of their Battle of the Sounds prize and sailed off to England in March of 1969 on the Sitmar Line’s Fairstar.  The Groove was back and forth across the English Channel working mainly in France, Central Paris, coastal resorts, Le Touqet, mountain resorts, Grenoble and Megeve.  They worked regularly in trendy London venues of the time The Marquee, The Pheasantry, La Val Bonne, The Revolution and others.

The Groove in Paris

The Groove winning Hoadley's Battle Of The Sounds

With The Groove in Paris

After The Groove broke up Peter decided to concentrate on songwriting, and eventually (after modest successes in that sphere), he was offered a job in The Mixtures who had arrived in the UK from Melbourne.  Their first British album was recorded for Polydor after The Pushbike Song made it to number two on the charts behind George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord.  The Mixtures toured the UK and Europe extensively, and undertook a 10 week tour of Australia, before returning back to the UK, where they had a change of record company to United Artists.  After The Mixtures Peter settled in Western Australia and formed a six piece group called Brix.  In 1995 Peter returned to New Zealand to live premanently.

The Mixtures

The Mixtures

The Mixtures Live

The Mixtures live

Peter has recorded on a pluarality of labels including MV, Viking, RCA, EMI, United Artists, Columbia, Fable, and Festival.  He has appeared extensively on TV on shows such as Go Show, Kommotion, The Johnny O'Keefe Show, It's All Happening! Tonight Show and Top Of The Pops, as well as The Roger Whittaker Show.  He's toured with The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Chuck Berry, The Searchers, Herman's Hermits and Cliff Richard.

Rob Carpenter, Peter Willaims and Peter Sowden - Slippin' Away

Peter Williams in gig mode

Additional Peter Williams information is available on the Andy Shackelton website .....

http://www.ashack.co.nz/nzmusic/musicians/peter_williams.htm