On the Road in America
Billy is out in America at the moment, on the road with Roger Daltrey and the band for A Great Night Out. Nine shows are behind us now, with thirteen still to play.
The response has been quite something. Full rooms, voices singing back from the dark, and a welcome every night that none of us take for granted. There is nothing much like standing on a stage a long way from home and hearing a crowd that already knows the songs.
One thing in particular has made this run special. Roger and the band have been playing two of Billy's songs in the set, Without Your Love and Waiting For A Friend. Hearing your own songs come back at you from a stage that size, night after night, is not something you ever quite get used to.
Thirteen nights remain. If you are anywhere near one of them, Billy and the band would love to see you there. Click the poster for the remaining dates.
Billy's great friend Leo Sayer heads out on a UK tour this autumn, named after his hit version of Billy's own song. Twenty dates from Bexhill to Edinburgh.
Billy's 1968 debut was the star lot of Tony Calder's record collection at Wessex Auction Rooms, selling for £6,500. One of the rarest records in the world, only 100 copies were ever pressed.
Billy joins Sir Roger Daltrey's hand-picked band for A Great Night Out, a North American tour running August into September 2026.
White Horse arrives on all major streaming platforms from 1st July, including the original recording of Can't Stop Loving You, later a hit for both Leo Sayer and Phil Collins.
From midnight on 1st May 2025, Love Songs (1974) will be available digitally for the first time. The start of a year-long programme bringing Billy's complete back catalogue to streaming platforms.
Celebrating 50 years. A limited run on vinyl and CD, digitally remastered by Phil Chapman, with original recordings featuring Caleb Quaye on guitar. Available on all major streaming platforms and from the shop.
Kiki Dee's Two Sides to Every Story, featuring Billy's Under One Banner, written in 1982 and produced by Pip Williams, is available once more on streaming platforms.
Yesterday's Papers produce a mini-documentary on Billy's debut album, selected by Mojo as one of the most significant albums in music history. An original copy sold at auction for £7,500.
Billy sings backing vocals on the second leg of The Who's Hits Back 2022 North America Tour, the latest chapter in a professional relationship spanning four decades.
Slim Chance announce a run of gigs around the country, joined by legendary sax, harp and whistle man Frank Mead for a vibrant run of shows.
Performing at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in New York, Taylor Swift covered Can't Stop Loving You, calling it "the most sad, beautiful song ever." Phil Collins, who recorded his own version in 2002, commented that she "absolutely nails it."
Billy's studio album released November 2016, featuring sessions at Olympic Studios, Barnes. One of the last recordings made there before the building was converted, alongside new compositions from across his career.
Billy performs with The Who at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions. The band closed out the Games with Baba O'Riley, See Me Feel Me and My Generation at the Olympic Stadium. Billy's son Morgan played bass for the show.
A folk album and long-held ambition, recorded in collaboration with brother Mike Nicholls and Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains.
Australian country star Keith Urban records Can't Stop Loving You for his fifth studio album Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, the latest in a series of recordings spanning three decades and three continents.
Sanctuary Records release a two-disc anthology spanning Billy's catalogue, from Would You Believe through to the early 2000s recordings, bringing his work to a wider audience for the first time.
Phil Collins records Can't Stop Loving You for his album Testify. First featured in a US television commercial for the Toyota Avalon, it becomes a major radio hit across America. Billy receives ASCAP Awards in both 2002 and 2003 as the song is named the most performed composition by an English songwriter.
Billy's great friend Leo Sayer is heading out on a UK tour this autumn, and it is one well worth knowing about.
The tour is named after Leo's beloved hit Can't Stop Loving You, which began life as Billy's own original song before Leo's cover helped make it the classic it is today. There is something rather wonderful about seeing that song still bringing people together and filling rooms all these years on.
Leo's Can't Stop Loving You UK Tour 2026 runs from 7th October at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill through to 15th November at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, taking in the London Palladium, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow along the way. Click the poster to see all dates, and the full details and tickets are available here.
Well, this is something Billy never expected to be writing about. A collection of records belonging to Tony Calder, who helped run Immediate Records back in the sixties, went under the hammer at Wessex Auction Rooms in Wiltshire. Sitting right at the heart of that collection, described as the star of the whole sale, was Would You Believe. It sold for six and a half thousand pounds.
For those who don't know the story, Billy was still a teenager when Andrew Loog Oldham signed him to Immediate. The songs on Would You Believe were some of the very first he ever wrote. It was recorded in 1968, only 100 copies were ever pressed, and they were sent out to radio stations. Then Immediate ran into trouble and folded, and the record never made it to the shops. For years it was almost a ghost.
Over time a few myths have grown up around it. It was never a psychedelic record, whatever anyone has since claimed. London Social Degree, for instance, was simply a comment on the world Billy saw around him at the time. And despite what you may have read, Would You Believe was never intended to be Britain's answer to Pet Sounds. That comparison never came from anyone at Immediate, nor from anyone who worked on the record. Quite the compliment, but dreamt up later by someone outside the camp entirely. The album was only ever meant to be what it is, and is best heard on its own terms.
Billy has always been fond of the cover too. Those photographs were taken in Hyde Park, and the photographer arrived with a great bendable sheet of reflective copper to catch the light. A small thing, but one he has never forgotten.
The auctioneer, Martin Hughes, was very kind about the record. He said: "I have never handled another copy of Billy Nicholls' Would You Believe, and I know I never will again. This is one of those records that most collectors will only ever read about."
It is a strange and rather lovely thing, all these years later, to see that little record spoken about like that. The reissue is available in the shop, and it means the world that people are still listening.
Following the digital release of Love Songs (1974), the next instalment in Billy's digital rollout is White Horse (1977).
Originally released as a limited-run vinyl LP, White Horse has long held cult status among fans and collectors alike.
The album includes the original version of Can't Stop Loving You, written and performed by Billy, later covered by Leo Sayer, Keith Urban, Phil Collins and Taylor Swift.
From midnight on 1st July 2025, White Horse (1977) became available on all major streaming platforms worldwide, part of the ongoing project to bring Billy's complete back catalogue to the digital world.
Five months on from the release of Love Songs Remastered, the response from listeners around the world was overwhelming. Both the vinyl and CD editions found a cherished audience, sparking renewed interest in the original Love Songs album, first released in 1974 and reissued on CD by Southwest Records in 1998.
With stocks of that original CD running low, and following many heartfelt requests, Love Songs (1974) was made available digitally for the first time.
From midnight on 1st May 2025 the album went live on all major streaming platforms worldwide, marking the start of a carefully curated, year-long digital release of Billy's back catalogue.
Yesterday's Papers have produced a mini-documentary on Billy's first album, Would You Believe. It is a fine snapshot of history, and it champions a record that was set to be a smash hit before Immediate collapsed and took it down with them.
The film opens by asking whether the album was Britain's answer to Pet Sounds. That question has followed the record for years. Billy has since given his own account of where the comparison came from, and it is worth reading alongside the film.
On its second release in 1988, Mojo selected Would You Believe as one of the most significant albums in music history. An original copy sold at auction in 2009 for £7,500.
Performing at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in New York, Taylor Swift covered Can't Stop Loving You, calling it "the most sad, beautiful song ever."
Phil Collins, who recorded his own version in 2002, commented that she "absolutely nails it."
It is the latest voice in a long line. Billy's song has been recorded across five decades and three continents, by Leo Sayer, Phil Collins, Keith Urban and Roger Daltrey among others, quietly circulating through international music since the seventies.
Billy performed with The Who at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions.
The band closed out the Games at the Olympic Stadium with Baba O'Riley, See Me Feel Me and My Generation.
Billy's son Morgan played bass for the show. It came three decades after Billy first served as Musical Director for The Who's 1981 Reunion Tour, and it remains one of the largest audiences his voice has ever reached.
Australian country star Keith Urban recorded Can't Stop Loving You for his fifth studio album, Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing.
Written by Billy and first released on White Horse in 1977, the song had already been a hit for Leo Sayer and for Phil Collins. Urban's version added a third continent to its travels.
It is a pattern that runs through Billy's songwriting: work that finds its audience through another artist's voice, sometimes decades after it was written.
Phil Collins recorded Can't Stop Loving You for his album Testify. First featured in a US television commercial for the Toyota Avalon, it became a major radio hit across America.
The song earned Billy an ASCAP Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, named the most performed composition by an English songwriter. Formal recognition for a song that had been quietly circulating through international music for thirty years.
Sanctuary Records released a two-disc anthology spanning Billy's catalogue, from Would You Believe through to the early 2000s recordings.
For many listeners it was the first time the work had been available in one place: the Immediate years, Love Songs, White Horse and the run of records that followed, gathered together and carried to a wider audience.
Slim Chance took a run of gigs around the country, joined by the legendary sax, harp and whistle man Frank Mead, making the shows more colourful and vibrant than ever.
The Phoenix Tour dates
Friday 15th October 2021, Wokingham Music Club
Sunday 17th October 2021, Half Moon, Putney
Wednesday 15th December 2021, The Water Rats, London
Fifty years on from its release, Billy's second album returns. Love Songs Remastered is a limited run on vinyl and CD, digitally remastered by Phil Chapman and carrying a bonus track.
The original 1974 recordings feature a wealth of celebrated musicians, with particular thanks to Caleb Quaye on guitar. Intimate and melodic, Love Songs forms the backbone of a catalogue that has grown in reputation across five decades.
The reissue also began something larger. It brought the catalogue to digital streaming platforms for the first time and opened a programme of annual releases that has continued since, with Love Songs (1974) and White Horse (1977) both following it into the digital world.
Billy sings backing vocals with The Who on the second leg of their Hits Back North America tour.
It is the latest chapter in a relationship that is one of the defining threads of Billy's professional life. He served as Musical Director for The Who's 1981 Reunion Tour, and returned in that role for the 1996 to 1997 World Tour, which spanned multiple continents.
Four decades of working together speaks to something producers and band leaders recognise quickly: the ability to serve the music rather than yourself.
Rosslyn Road was a folk album and a long-held ambition, recorded in collaboration with Billy's brother Mike Nicholls and Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains.
It arrived in the middle of the most sustained run of recording in Billy's career, following Snapshot (2000), Still Entwined (2001) and Penumbra Moon (2001).
The album was later reissued on CD in a new card package.
Southwest Records present Billy's album A Secret Game, a collection of revisited and re-recorded older songs alongside new compositions.
The title track drew its inspiration from a ghazal by the Persian poet Hafiz, translated by Meher Baba. Without Your Love first appeared on White Horse before becoming a hit for Roger Daltrey on the McVicar soundtrack. This new rendition carries Billy's vocal, recorded by his son Morgan on analogue tape at Olympic Studios in Barnes, the same rooms where Billy had recorded Would You Believe and Love Songs years before.
Everloving Arms, another revisited track, was originally recorded for White Horse in Los Angeles in 1976. Brief Encounter took its inspiration from the 1940s film of the same name, written from the husband's point of view.
Waiting For A Friend is a new recording of a track originally written for McVicar and sung by Roger Daltrey. Amy was written for Billy's daughter many years ago, and was recorded live by Morgan in his studio.
The sleeve was designed by Billy's son Will, around artwork by Dudley Edwards, a family friend and psychedelic artist from the 1960s who also created the Love Songs cover. The back cover carries imagery from a Chinese dream stone, bought in a Kensington antique shop.
Kiki Dee's Two Sides to Every Story features Billy's song Under One Banner, written and composed by Billy and first recorded in 1982 for Ariola, produced by Pip Williams.
Recorded many moons ago, it is now available on Kiki's four-CD release.
Disc 2, Two Sides to Every Story
Unreleased Ariola album, recorded in 1982
- Stayin' With It
- Diamond Lady
- Heart To Beat
- Nowhere To Hide
- Saviour
- Two Sides To Every Story
- Peter
- Yellow Kimono (Waiting On Tokyo Time)
- I Could Feel You
- Under One Banner
Billy will be hitting the road across the United States this August and into September as part of Sir Roger Daltrey's solo tour, billed as A Great Night Out. Roger's announcement puts it beautifully himself: "With my present lineup of nine musicians, I have this opportunity to see your beautiful country and enjoy the hospitality you have shown me over so many years. It's a lot of fun and gives me the chance to have a great night out."
Billy is part of that hand-picked ensemble, joining Simon Townshend on guitar, Jody Linscott on percussion, Doug Boyle on guitar, John Hogg on bass, Katie Jacoby on violin, Steve Weston on harmonica, Geraint Watkins on keyboards and accordion, and Scott Devours on drums. Click the poster to see all dates.
June also marks the launch of a brand new website and monthly newsletter. Be sure to sign up to the mailing list at the bottom of the page for regular news and updates from Billy.