Gareth Williams (23 April 1953 – 24 December 2001)[1] was a British musician best remembered as the bassist and vocalist for the experimental rock group This Heat.
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Gareth John Williams, musician was born in Cardiff, Wales on April 23, 1953. Williams was educated at Greenshaw High School in Sutton, Surrey. Further to studying for his A-levels he spent a period of time in Newfoundland, Canada. Around the mid-1970s he was working in a London record shop. An avid record collector, Williams made himself known to drummer Charles Hayward and guitarist Charles Bullen. This eventually led to the formation of This Heat where Williams proved to be a revelation, a maniacal and intuitive performer on bass guitar and keyboards.
In the mid-1970s, Williams, Hayward and Bullen founded This Heat. This Heat were a group who anticipated punk and whereby experimentalism engaged them way from mainstream success. Regardless of this Williams and This Heat built up a solid base of passionate admirers. The trio shunned musical technique in favour of accident. They played their first concert in Feb 1976, only days after their formation. During the early days improvisation dominated the performance, but gradually they encompassed both abstract and formal, where trance-like soundscapes merged into violent - danceable – anthems with cascades of noise and silence. In 1977 John Peel featured This Heat on his BBC Radio 1 show. This Heats performance proved an intoxicating hybrid of music played exceptionally noisily, usually in complete darkness, with a proto-punk attitude. The first album This Heat (1979) was two years in the making. The maxi-single Health and Efficiency (1980) permitted Williams to demonstrate his now considerable skill. Deceit (1981) was to follow, but by then Williams had left the band.
Williams went on to study Kathakali dance drama in Kerala in southern India. He also was to co-author the first Rough Guide to India whilst studying Indian religion and music at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies.
Williams in 1985 created Flaming Tunes with his friend Mary Currie. The music was raw, sorrowful songs, released in a hand-coloured cassette package.
During the 1990s Williams briefly joined his This Heat band mate Charles Hayward in the avant-rock band Mind the Gap. He also was to feature in Hayward's monthly Accidents & Emergencies series at the Deptford Albany Empire. Williams went on to be a promoter, a DJ and he recorded zealously at home with the singer Viv Corringham and furthermore with This Heats engineer Martin Harrison.
Williams died of cancer on December 24 2001, aged 48. Williams is survived by his partner, Nick Goodall.
Many musicians recognise This Heat as an influence to their music. This includes The The, Matt Johnson (singer), Steve Parry Hwyl Nofio. Compact discs were to revive interest in This Heat with the re-release of the albums along with the archival 'Out of Cold Storage' 6 CD Box set : This includes Made Available/John Peel Sessions, Repeat, Deceipt, This Heat Live 80/81, Health and Efficiency and This Heat