Peter John "Ollie" Halsall (14 March 1949 – 29 May 1992) was an English guitarist, songwriter, and singer, best known for his role in the Rutles, the bands Patto, Timebox, and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers.
In 1965 he taught himself to play the vibraphone and was invited to London to join fellow Southport musicians bassist Clive Griffiths and keyboardist 'Professor' Chris Holmes in pop rock outfit Take Five, which became Timebox.
Halsall's most commercially successful recording is his work on the album The Rutles (1978), which reached the top 20 in the UK,[3] on which he plays many of the instruments and provides lead and backing vocals – most notably on the tracks "Doubleback Alley", "With a Girl Like You" and "Get Up and Go".
They released two studio albums – 'Cinemaspop' (1983), just a collection of synth-pop covers of classical movie tunes, and 'A Clockwork Orange' (1984) which included some compositions and vocals by Halsall, as well as a bizarre electronic version of The Troggs' "Wild Thing".
[2] Halsall has been described as an influence by Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe, Allan Holdsworth, Kee Marcello of Europe and Cheap Trick's guitarist Rick Nielsen.