| Alan Parsons "Live" Project
As recording engineer for Pink
Floyd's legendary "Dark Side of The Moon," producer for a number
of artists including Al Stewart, Pilot and Ambrosia, and the
main force behind multi-platinum albums by The Alan Parsons
Project, Alan became one of the most influential artists of our
time. The magic continues - live in concert with electrifying
performances of the Alan Parsons LIVE project featuring the
following songs and more:
"EYE IN THE SKY"
"I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE LIKE YOU"
"TIME"
"SIRIUS"(Chicago Bulls' Theme)
"DON'T ANSWER ME"
Personal note by CJ Hays:
I first met Alan and his wife Lisa at a concert he did in
Seattle. As an Alan Parsons Project fan for all of my adult
life, I realized the projects were studio work and I wondered if
this would translate well in a Live Concert Setting.
Well.....THE CONCERT ROCKED! It was as good, if not better then
the albums. The fans were on their feet singing along to their
favorite songs. As a booking agent/producer, I have seen
hundreds of live concerts over the years and this was by far the
most exciting concert I have attended.
There are many Alan Parson fans out there who have an ear for
quality music. The Seattle concert drew fans as far away as
Canada, Idaho and Portland. People will come far and wide to see
the show.
Click here to see photographs from the Seattle concert
Contact us
to book Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons Bio
Born in Britain on December 20, 1948, Alan soon found that his
interests lay in music. He studied piano and flute as a child
and was always intrigued by gadgetry. He picked up the guitar in
his early teens and played as a soloist as well as with various
bands at school.
One of his first jobs was at an EMI tape duplication facility in
West London. At this time he was fortunate enough to experience
the master tape of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album and that
boosted his determination to become a recording engineer. Says
Alan, "I couldn't wait to find out the secrets behind the album.
It left me totally in awe of the talent of The Beatles
themselves of course, but also the work behind the scenes in the
studio". His timing was perfect. He landed a post at the then
not-so-celebrated Abbey Road Studios and garnered significant
experience on the Beatles' Let It Be album, and actively
participated in the famous Apple rooftop session.
The Abbey Road album (released before Let It Be but recorded
later) helped Alan to make his mark with the Fab Four, although
he was only an assistant engineer at that time. Still, it
resulted in Alan going on to work as a full-blown engineer with
Paul McCartney on McCartney, Wings Wild Life and Red Rose
Speedway, including the singles Hi Hi Hi and C Moon. Alan adds
"I couldn't have asked for a better grounding in recording -
after all not many engineers got to work the greatest Rock act
of all time". He also helped out on George Harrison's All Things
Must Pass album both as an assistant and as a mix engineer.
After the experience of The Beatles, Alan worked on a number of
hits with The Hollies including He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother
and The Air That I Breathe. However, his reputation was totally
solidified with his engineering work on Pink Floyd's legendary
Dark Side Of The Moon, which earned him the first of many Grammy
nominations.
Alan soon ventured into production with the British band Pilot
and scored immediate success with the hit single Magic. (You
know - "Oh Ho Ho It's Magic!!"). Other hits followed with
Cockney Rebel and John Miles. Alan made three albums with Al
Stewart, spawning the hit singles Year Of The Cat and Time
Passages.
Along with songwriter/manager Eric Woolfson, Alan decided to
begin creating his own thematic records and founded the Alan
Parsons Project. Although he occasionally played keyboards and
infrequently sang on his records, the Project was designed
primarily as a forum for a revolving collection of vocalists and
session players - among them Arthur Brown, ex-Zombie Colin
Blunstone, Cockney Rebel's Steve Harley, the Hollies' Allan
Clarke and guitarist Ian Bairnson -- to interpret and perform
Parsons and Woolfson's conceptually-linked, lushly arranged and
orchestrated music.
The Project debuted in 1976 with Tales of Mystery and
Imagination, a collection inspired by the work of Edgar Allen
Poe. Similarly, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov served as
the raw material for 1977's follow-up I Robot. After the further
success of Pyramid in 1978, he moved to Monaco to record Eve,
acheiving a Number 1 in Germany and a Number 1 single with
"Lucifer" in 1999. The Monaco residence clearly influenced The
Turn of a Friendly Card, a meditation on gambling, recorded in
Paris in 1980. The Alan Parsons Project scored two Top 20 hits
from this album, Games People Play and Time. Having resettled
back home in England, 1982's Eye in the Sky, was their most
successful effort to date, and notched a Top Three hit with its
title track. More successes followed - Ammonia Avenue (1984),
Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987). A
brief venture into musical theatre resulted in Freudiana in
1990.The show ran for over a year in the historic Theater An Der
Wien in Vienna, Austria.
Eric and Alan then went separate ways. Eric devoted his career
to the musical theatre while Parsons felt the need to bring his
music to the live concert stage and to continue to record
conceptual symphonic rock music. With his long-standing previous
collaborators, guitarist Ian Bairnson and drummer Stuart
Elliott, Alan dropped the "Project" identity for Try Anything
Once in 1994. The partnership continued for On Air in 1996 and
The Time Machine in 1999. During this time the "Alan Parsons
Live Project" toured to sell-out audiences throughout the globe.
Alan has also played various live shows with Ringo Starr, Jon
Anderson, Alice Cooper, John Entwistle and Ann Wilson.
One of the most familiar Project tracks is Sirius, perhaps best
known as the Chicago Bulls theme and featured at countless NBA
games. P.Diddy (Puff Daddy) also chose Sirius as the backbone
for the title track of his most platinum-selling CD, The Saga
Continues. In 2000, Sirius was featured in an IMAX documentary
movie about Michael Jordan.
A long-standing fan of Alan's Music, Mike Myers as Austin Powers
in The Spy Who Shagged Me decided to name his Dr Evil
character's Death Ray "The Alan Parsons Project". Yeh Baby Yeh!!
Alan's music is now taking a new contemporary direction into the
world of Electronica. His latest album features a number of
notables in the genre including The Crystal Method, Shpongle,
The Nortec Collective and Uberzone. The album also features a
guest appearance by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Alan
says, "The industry is changing and I feel the need to capture a
different kind of audience while still keeping my identity.
Electronic music is the fastest growing music category right now
and I'm enjoying working with new people and new technology".
The album is now available on CD and will be released in DVD
formats. The DVD will contain 5.1 surround mixes as well as new
visual material.
Alan has written extensively for the Pro-Audio press and is an
acknowledged expert in 5.1 Surround Sound recording. He has
often lectured at Recording conferences and Schools of Recording
and was the keynote speaker at The Audio Engineering Society
convention in 1998.
Alan now lives in Santa Barbara, California with his wife Lisa
and her two teenage daughters, Tabitha and Brittni, four cats,
four Guinea pigs, a lop-eared rabbit and a giant Labrador called
Harrow.
Contact us
to book Alan Parsons |
