Bill Oddie, one-third of the UK comedy troupe The Goodies, sadly passed away on July 25, 2026. As much a music fan as he was an avid bird watcher, Bill presented Steve Hillage with the prestigious Visionary Award at the Progressive Music Awards at Kew Gardens in 2013. And he allowed Prog to pop round his house and have a rummage through his record collection the same year...
“In my life I’ve had chunks where I’ve been into one type of music predominantly, and then it’s changed and I don’t listen to that any more. That’s happened three or four times. It seems very fickle, but it was a journey. And along the way I always listened to whatever pop songs were knocking about just for curiosity, which when I was a kid were comedy and novelty songs. They were silly but they showed me how to write songs, which I went on to do quite a lot.
