The “Golden Hits Of The 70s” 

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PILOT

“MAGIC”

(David Paton, Bill Lyall)

EMI 3992

No. 5   July 12, 1975

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In the early ’70s, vocalist/keyboardist/sometime flutist Billy Lyall (b. Mar. 26, 1953, Edinburgh, Scotland)

was the head engineer at Edinburgh’s Craighall Recording Studio.  It was there that he met again with

bassist Dave Paton (b. Oct. 29, 1951, Edinburgh) and drummer Stu­art Tosh (b. Sept. 26, 1951, Aberdeen),

two frequent session players.  Billy and Dave had for a moment been involved in an initial formation of

what would become the Bay City Rollers, then a mere Beatles cover band.  In 1973, the three decided to

form a rock’n’roll group, and derived the units name from the initial letters of each surname (Paton, Lyall,

Tosh).  No one noticed at the time that there was already a recording act named Pilot.  No matter–that

BLUE CHEER spinoff crashed after a lone album.

Early in 1974, the threesome created some demos and took them around in search of a record deal.

Attracted by their Hollies-like harmonies and Sgt. Pep­ per styling, EMI took a bite and ushered the guys

into the Abbey Road studios in London.  Alan Parsons, the studios long-time engineer, was given the task

of pro­ducing Pilot’s first product.  The Beatle-esque “Magic” and the follow-up, “Just a Smile” (#90,

1975), were both pulled from the band’s self-titled LP.  These disks chart­ed extremely well in the U.K., as

did two other 45s.  Overall, the group seemed to fare better in England than in the States:  “January,” their

third U.S. single, was number one over there but only reached number 87 (in 1976) over here.

Before Pilot bailed out, guitarist Ian Bairnson (b. Aug. 3, 1953, Shetland Isles) was added to the group’s

line-up.  By their third album, Morin Heights (1976), Pilot was a fairly accomplished outfit.  An

unsuccessful fourth LP, Two’s a Crowd, appeared in the States on Arista in 1977, but by this point–and

for the remainder of the ’70s and part of the ’80s–Pilot (minus Lyall) was absorbed into the Alan Parsons

Project.  Each ex-Pilot person did session work:  most notable is Tosh’s late ’70s studio stint with 10cc.

Lyall, meanwhile, had a solo album (Solo Casting, 1976) released on EMI, became a member of the short-

lived Runner, guested on ALI THOMSON’s first two albums and joined the short­ changed Dollar.  Billy

Lyall died in December 1989.