William Lyall (26 March 1953 – 1 December 1989) was a Scottish musician, known for his work with

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompanie ...

, and the Bay City Rollers. Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, Lyall was a singer, keyboard player and

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

with

, and co-wrote "

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

", Pilot's 1974 hit single. He moved to London in the early 1970s and lived in a red-brick mansion flat in Fitzjames Avenue, West Kensington. He contributed to

the Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompanie ...

with fellow Pilot members, and he was an early member of the Bay City Rollers. He was the keyboard player for

Dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

between 1978 and 1982. He left Pilot in early 1976, and he released a solo album, ''Solo Casting'', later that year. In 1979, he contributed string arrangements and synthesizers to an album by the band

Runner Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

Death

Lyall died in the

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

pandemic, dying at the age of 36 in 1989. Bay City Rollers' manager

Tam Paton Thomas Dougal "Tam" Paton (5 August 1938 – 8 April 2009) was a pop group manager, most notably of the Scottish boy band the Bay City Rollers. Biography Born in Prestonpans, Scotland, he was the son of a potato merchant. Paton initially drove a ...

later said that Lyall was

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

References

1953 births 1989 deaths Scottish keyboardists 20th-century Scottish male singers Scottish flautists Musicians from Edinburgh Bay City Rollers members Pilot (band) members AIDS-related deaths in the United Kingdom Gay singers Scottish LGBT singers 20th-century LGBT people 20th-century flautists Scottish gay musicians {{UK-keyboardist-stub