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William 'Willie' Bath (born 21 April 1949, in Battersea, South London) is an English guitarist, best known for his work with Rough Diamond, the supergroup formed by singer David Byron in 1976 following his dismissal from Uriah Heep.

Career[edit]
Although Bath started to play guitar at a young age, it was not until the seventies he decided to make a career of it. First notable gigs were with the ’74 Rock ‘n Roll revival tour featuring Marty Wilde and Billy Fury, playing on an album, which was sold at Marty’s gigs, because he was in Mary’s band after the tour was over.

An opportunity arose to join The Wild Angels, a notorious 50s tribute act and one album was recorded, Let’s Get Back to Rock ‘n Roll on The Pye Golden Hour label.

In 1976, he successfully auditioned as bass player for Rough Diamond. He contributed to the band's debut and only album, released on Island Records, co-composing two songs: "Scared" and "Hobo".

David Byron left the band in early 1977, shortly after the album's released and was replaced by Garry Bell, a Canadian singer, who had been recommended by a friend of the band's drummer Geoff Britton. At that point, the band changed their name to ‘Champion’ and recorded one album for Epic Records, produced by Gary Lyons. With the emergence of the punk movement, many traditional rock bands, like 'Champion', fell out of favour with audiences and having played only small number of gigs in the UK and Spain, the band dissolved.

Bath eventually reemerged with a two year stint in the Jackie Lynton Band, which memorable appearances at the Reading Festival in 1981 and 1982 that featured the now immortal 'Hedgehog Song'. He contributed to Lynton's fourth solo album 'White Line' in 1983, writing the title track as well as 'I've got for you'.

With little record company support for the album, the longstanding line-up split-up, with Bath, alongside drummer Terry Greg-Short joining Peter Green's band.