Gordon was a local man who knew Robert Fripp as a boy and later joined King Crimson. He left the band due to musical differences and went solo resulting in a couple of decades playing pubs and clubs. He hit the big time in 2001 with the single "How wonderful you are" and the album "Harry's Bar".
Things did not quite play out as he might have hoped, his autobiography "The road to Harry's bar." spells out what happened; the tricks and turns within the music business will I am sure resonate with Bill.
He spent the subsequent years doing things his way making the music he wanted rather than what record companies wanted him to make.
From his website
"A note to assist DJ’s and Presenters in future interviews
Why am I doing this album?
2019 has been spent in absolute heaven working alongside Paul Buck and Jon Sweet, the sheer joy of creating a thing of exquisite beauty is the whole reason for doing this, no other reason.
With the greatest respect that is who I am, a jazzy singer songwriter at his peak working with the arranging genius of Paul Buck and the production genius of Jon sweet. I am no longer wasting any of my time squabbling with useless and greedy managers and the dimwitted and badly educated who claim to be music executives in the MD’s chairs at major corporations masquerading as record companies. That is the world they choose to live in, that world of pure number crunchers. How many YouTube followers, how many Facebook followers, is it trending? etc., etc. Accountants, lawyers and social engineering gone literally mad creating a world of madness and ugliness beyond belief.
That is not the world I choose to live in and thankfully I no longer have to. In fact, I was doing nicely thank you before 2001 and the big success so called and there is a life without Facebook. A very good life as it happens.
This is my success, this album, what I hold in my hand right now is all I need or want. Dear DJ/Presenter. it’s nice to see you again and have a chat, but I’m not here to sell you anything. That job doesn’t interest me as money is not my god and I didn’t come all this way to become a double-glazing salesman. And being a celebrity is a totally vacuous existence, it’s rather pathetic in my view. My former manager and Warner Bros had me appearing in cookery programs and garbage shows like ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’. What has that to do with what I do? Nothing, nothing at all. That sort of thing can kill an artist’s ability or desire to continue as an artist. Now I’m happy. I answer to nobody. I have become a true artist and I am happy to be in my garret because I am enriched with riches beyond anything Rockefeller could ever have imagined. Amy Winehouse i am not. I am alive and well. If i had continued under the vicious control of others I would be dead like Amy and countless others who gave into those monsters who prey on us like the pigs at the trough they are.
And I have a beautiful wife who inspired every word, and every note of it all. I have become a truly happy soul.
Amen."
The album "The cat who's got the cream."
"A lot of the songs on the new album will be called ‘Jazz’ by those who feel the need to categorize. But there’s a song that Don Williams could have done. It’s country. There’s a song that Ray Charles could have done so it could be described as a blues and jazz and country album. Or we can say the boy writes songs and sings in a jazzy bluesy style. It’s not complicated when you remember The Beatles and how things were once before the idiots took over an industry and managed to destroy it. Unless of course it was intentional. Then it does get complicated. There’s a song about that too.
My brief time as a pop celebrity felt like a prison to me. My freedom was taken away. I was kept completely in the dark and put into a cage , taken to market and sold like some dumb farm animal. A pig farmer was my so called manager. How apt. It’s not for me. Jazz is Freedom. If it has to be categorized then that is what it is. But those who really know , know that Jazz is another word for freedom and know better than to try to categorize or analyse.. The album is a songwriter at work. and any songwriter wants his songs to be popular. Not for the money. To confirm his belief that he is doing the job well. I believe the new album more than demonstrates that. And it’s real. It comes from real experiences like the songs of old did. Not out of some marketing manager’s mind who hasn’t a clue about anything except making money. And look where that took us. Smart, really Smart. Not my idea of freedom at all."
That's a shame. I always thought he had the more distinctive voice of the early K. Crimson singers, "Lizard" always being my favorite of the bunch. How many more people will we lose this year? And... will this year ever end?