A biography of Cliff Williams

Cliff Williams is an English bassist and backing vocalist, best known as the long time bass player of the ACDC rock band from Australia. This article looks briefly at the life and career of this rock legend.

Early life

Clifford Williams was born in Romford, Essex, in the outskirts of London before he and his family and moved to Liverpool in 1961. From a fairly early age, Williams took an interest in being in a rock band and took up playing the bass after he formed a band with some friends at the age of thirteen. Education Williams dropped out of school at the age of 16 and whilst he worked as an engineer during the day time, he continued playing in a band at night. Williams played bass in a number of mildly successful bands including the band, 'Bandit' who released their own album. However, this project soon ended and after considering retiring from music, Williams auditioned for the successful rock band ACDC following the resignation of their former bassist Mark Evans.

ACDC

Williams passed the audition and, after initially struggling to get a work permit to move to Australia, and first appeared with the band during the Let There Be Rock tour, Williams made his studio début on the band's 1978 studio album, Powerage. He is known for playing steady but basic bass lines following the rhythm guitar parts as well as providing backing vocals with rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young. Williams has been in the band ever since 1977 and continues to tour with ACDC today (August 2011).

Side projects

In 1984, Williams performed in played bass and backing vocals on Adam Bomb's song "I Want My Heavy Metal", from the album Fatal Attraction. During ACDC's hiatus in the 2000s, Williams joined Croatian musician Emir Bukovica's band Emir & Frozen Camels, with which he recorded in 2002, the album San and played in some European clubs. In 2005, Williams and ACDC singer Brian Johnson played in a hurricane relief event in Florida, promoted by the John Entwistle Foundation. Charity work Whilst in Florida, Williams met drummer Steve Luongo, president of the foundation and former member of the John Entwistle band. Luongo later brought Williams, Johnson, and guitarist Mark Hitt for the Classic Rock Cares charity project. The quartet composed and recorded ten tracks in the studio in 2007, and followed that with a tour to raise funds for the foundation. Williams is also a part of the sig forum.