Wilfy Williams is a man on the up. You’ve probably never heard of Wilfy, but he was once a familiar sight busking in Southsea and Havant.
Forged in the crucible of Portsmouth acts Daily and The Fret, culminating in The Fret being hand-picked to play the after=show party after the Happy Mondays’ Brixton gig, during their reformation tour. However Williams was devastated in 2008 by the sudden death of Fret front man, Deano Clark, an event that still resonates with him to this day.
But you can’t keep a good man down, and resolving to make his name in the music business, he applied for and was accepted by the British Academy of New Music to study music editing and performing. And it was there that he made a decision that would lead to the next stage of his life when he auditioned to be an official busker on London Underground. Impressing them with his enormous repertoire of popular songs, he was immediately given a license, and is now one of their most popular buskers, playing to thousands of commuters every week.
Wilfy doesn’t just play other people’s songs though. He is a talented and prolific singer/songwriter in his own right. His influences include The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Nirvana, although his folky, soft-rock vibe is entirely his own.
And that is not the only string to this talented musician’s, bow. By night he can be found in top London clubs, DJ’ing with such luminaries as former Libertines Pete Doherty and Carl Barat. And when Noel Gallagher was looking for a DJ to perform at the after-show of his High Flying Birds tour, Wilfy Williams got the gig.
So when I say Wilfy Williams is a man on the up, you don’t have to take my word for it. Recently Radio One came calling, and Wilfy performed for the nation on the influential unassigned slot, and no doubt this is just the beginning. Wilfy is now working on his first album, and his debut single, Nicola is available to download on all eplatforms.