Peter John 'Ollie' Halsall was an English guitarist best known for his role in the Rutles, the bands Timebox, Patto and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers. He is also notable as one of the few players of the vibraphone in rock music. He was known by his childhood nickname 'Olly' or 'Ollie' which was simply a corruption of his surname. The Ollie Halsall Archive was established in 1998, with the aim of documenting and promoting his work.
Career
"Ollie may not have been the best guitarist in the world, but he was certainly among the top two." John Halsey, 1997
Halsall began his musical career in 1964 playing drums with various local bands such as Pete and the Pawnees, the Gunslingers, the Music Students and Rhythm and Blues Incorporated. In 1965 he taught himself to play the vibraphone and was invited to London to join fellow Southport musicians bassist Clive Griffiths and keyboardist 'Professor' Chris Holmes in pop rock outfit Take Five, which became Timebox. in 1967, Halsall took up guitar. They enlisted Mike Patto on vocals and drummer 'Admiral' John Halsey. In 1970, following the departure of Holmes, Timebox evolved into the progressive rock band Patto, featuring Halsall on both guitar and vibraphone. In 1973, Halsall left to join Jon Hiseman's Tempest. After less than a year, he quit and did numerous sessions, including a track for Kevin Ayers which led to a permanent position in Ayers' band the Soporifics. He was briefly considered as a possible replacement for Mick Taylor following his departure from the Rolling Stones. His UK session work included concerts and recordings with the Scaffold, Grimms, Neil Innes, Centipede, Andy Roberts, Michael d'Albuquerque, John Otway, John Cale and Vivian Stanshall. In 1975, Patto staged a brief reunion comprising just three benefit gigs. The reuniting of Halsall and Patto sparked the formation of Boxer during 1975. They release two albums on the Virginrecord label before Patto died of lymphoid leukemia in 1979, and one posthumous album following that. Halsall's most commercially successful recording is his work on the albumThe Rutles, which reached the top 20 in the UK, on which he plays many of the instruments and provides lead and backing vocals – most notably on the tracks "Doubleback Alley", "With a Girl Like You" and "Get Up and Go". Eric Idle was cast in his place in the accompanying film and Halsall only featured in a very minor cameo role as Leppo, the fifth Rutle who became lost in Hamburg. During 1976 Halsall had rejoined Ayers with whom he stayed for the next sixteen years. For much of that time he frequented the town of Deià in the north of the Spanish island of Mallorca, commuting to Madrid on the mainland to produce and play for numerous Spanish artists, including his final work with pop rock bandRadio Futura. In the 1980s he was, together with vocalist Zanna Gregmar, part of a Spanish synth-pop band, called Cinemaspop, created by Spanish producer Julian Ruiz. They released two studio albums – 'Cinemaspop', just a collection of synth-pop covers of classical movie tunes, and 'A Clockwork Orange' which included some compositions and vocals by Halsall, as well as a bizarre electronic version of the Troggs' Wild Thing. In 1989, he replaced the ill Enrique Sierra in Radio Futura, another Spanish rock band. A finished solo album, produced by Robert Fripp, remains unreleased. Halsall died from a drug-induced heart attack on 29 May 1992 at the age of 43 in Calle de la Amargura, Madrid, Spain.
