Ray Williams has been in the music and film business since the age of 16. After meeting Cathy McGowan, the presenter of legendary UK music show 'Ready Steady Go', she invited him to the show, where he became a fixture as an unpaid assistant. Cathy realized he needed 'a proper job' and introduced him to Beatles publicist Brian Sommerville who needed an assistant. Ray took the job and worked with The Kinks, Sonny & Cher and Tommy Roe.
As head of A&R for Liberty Records he placed an advertisement in the NME looking for talent. The young, undiscovered Elton John responded to the ad. Ray introduced him to lyricist Bernie Taupin, forging one of the most prolific and celebrated songwriting teams in rock history. That pivotal moment changed the world – Elton John was recently named the Billboard Top Male Solo Artist of All Time.
Ray subsequently became personal manager for Elton John during his first five albums before going on to manage Gerry Rafferty's Stealers Wheel.
At Liberty, Ray also signed and managed Jeff Lynne and The Idle Race.
Ray has been the music supervisor on more than 70 films, television projects, including the multi Academy Award-winning film (1988) Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor that included Best Original Music Score (David Byrne,Ryuichi Sakamoto & Cong Su') and Bertolucci's 'The Sheltering Sky (1990) that won the Golden Globe Best Original Score composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto with additional music by Richard Horowitz and has worked with many composers including Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, Howard Shore, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Eric Serra.
His passion for helping new and emerging talent has lead him to develop a precleared music licensing rights, music supervision platform Crumbs Music based in Chapel Hill-Raleigh North Carolina where he now lives.
As head of A&R for Liberty Records he placed an advertisement in the NME looking for talent. The young, undiscovered Elton John responded to the ad. Ray introduced him to lyricist Bernie Taupin, forging one of the most prolific and celebrated songwriting teams in rock history. That pivotal moment changed the world – Elton John was recently named the Billboard Top Male Solo Artist of All Time.
Ray subsequently became personal manager for Elton John during his first five albums before going on to manage Gerry Rafferty's Stealers Wheel.
At Liberty, Ray also signed and managed Jeff Lynne and The Idle Race.
Ray has been the music supervisor on more than 70 films, television projects, including the multi Academy Award-winning film (1988) Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor that included Best Original Music Score (David Byrne,Ryuichi Sakamoto & Cong Su') and Bertolucci's 'The Sheltering Sky (1990) that won the Golden Globe Best Original Score composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto with additional music by Richard Horowitz and has worked with many composers including Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, Howard Shore, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Eric Serra.
His passion for helping new and emerging talent has lead him to develop a precleared music licensing rights, music supervision platform Crumbs Music based in Chapel Hill-Raleigh North Carolina where he now lives.