Alan Parsons

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 Roadalbum (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 not only with Pilot, but also with Cockney Rebel achieving two consecutive British Number Ones. The hits continued with HiFly and Music by 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, guitar and sang background parts 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 - an event that 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, drummer Stuart Elliott and orchestral arranger Andrew Powell, Alan dropped the "Project" identity for Alan Parsons - 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, Yes, Kansas, 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 multi-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!!

More recently, Alan's music has taken a new contemporary direction into the world of Electronica. His latest album, A Valid Path, features a number of notables in the genre including The Crystal Method, Shpongle, and Uberzone. The album also features a guest appearance by Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour. Alan’s eldest son, Jeremy also plays an active part in the computer programming of the music. 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 DualDisc. The DVD side contains 5.1 surround mixes as well as video material, including interviews with David Gilmour and The Crystal Method as well as previously unreleased music videos and concert footage.

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’s band has toured the United States, Europe, Russia and South America to promote A Valid Path. During 2006 and 2007, Alan has performed a number of astounding concerts with full symphony orchestra and a laser presentation.

In the spring of 2007, a new Sony/BMG 2-CD compilation called The Essential Collection was released containing remastered versions of all the APP hits. Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, I Robot, Eye In The Sky and Vulture Culture were all re-released at the same time in expanded form, containing never-before-heard bonus material.

Alan lives in Santa Barbara, California with his wife Lisa and her two daughters, Tabitha and Brittni, three cats, four Guinea pigs, a lop-eared rabbit, a giant Labrador called Harrow and an 18-hand Clydesdale called Dante.

September 2007

This FAQ area will comprise FAQs surrounding his work with:

• The Beatles
• Pink Floyd
• Alan Parsons Project

If you have burning questions that fall into any of these categories please send them to webmaster@alanparsonsmusic.com and they will surely help us extract answers out of the man himself... sooner rather than later.

1. Will Alan Parsons be playing any shows in my hometown in Nebraska and will he ever tour Greenland?
2. How do I book Alan and the band to play at my wedding?
3. How do I find out where he is playing?
4. Does Alan's website mail out newsletters?
5. What is the "Eye" symbol?
6. Will any concerts be televised?
7. Are the Alan Parsons albums going to be released in 5.1 Surround Sound?
8. Where can I find lyrics to the songs by The Alan Parsons Project and Alan Parsons?
9. How can I get my CD's and other items autographed?
10. What kind of equipment does Alan use in his studio/on the road (synths/mixing consoles, sequencing tools, software/hardware, guitars etc)?
11. Will Alan ever consider a huge outdoor (in the dark) gig, like Vangelis did in the Rotterdam harbour more than a decade ago?
12. Will Alan consider adding a full philharmonic orchestra at live shows so he can use 'real' strings for songs like Old and Wise and Don't Let It Show?
13. I have done a remix/remake of one of Alan's songs. How do I get permission to use it?
14. Can I use Alan's music for my "school project"/home movie/short films for private showing etc?
15. How can I get my latest musical creation to Alan? Will he produce my next masterpiece?
16. Does Alan ever collaborate with anyone and, if so, what are my chances of working with him?
17. Will Alan ever work with Pink Floyd again?
18. Will there be any more " A Walk Down Abbey Road" shows?
19 . Any chance of Parsons and Woolfson doing any further collaborating in the future?
20. What was the Projectron, which featured on some of the earlier albums?
21. Where can I buy Alan Parsons CD's and DVD's? Are all the original albums still available?
22. Is there any truth in the recent rumor that Eric Woolfson was in hospital?

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Q. Will Alan Parsons be playing any shows in my hometown in Nebraska and will he ever tour Greenland?
A. Concert tours are organized by Agents and Promoters. The Artist has little say in the process until he is presented with an offer. In conjunction with his management, he will then decide whether to accept, decline or renegotiate that offer. Alan is not deliberately ignoring your area - he just only considers shows where he has been made aware of an available venue on a particular date for a certain amount of money (Yes, he has to make a living!). If you feel that you can help make a show happen, find a reputable professional concert promoter in your area, ask him if he would be interested in The Alan Parsons Live Project doing a show and have him call or write to Alan's agent:

Bill Monot
Paradise Artists
108 E. Matilija St.
Ojai CA 93024 USA.
Tel +1 805 646 8433.

Please only call the agent with genuine proposals or offers.

Q. How do I book Alan and the band to play at my wedding?
A. Alan is happy to do private shows provided his financial and technical requirements are met for his band and crew. Realistically, you would need to book a venue with a capacity of at least 200 people. Alan and the band are available for Corporate events and festivals too. For serious enquiries, please contact Bill Monot at the address above in Question 1.

Q. How do I find out where he is playing?
A. The "Live" page on this website will always have the latest information. Check often, because sometimes shows are added at only a few weeks notice.

Q. Does Alan's website mail out newsletters?
A. Alan is planning on putting a regular newsletter on the website. There are no mailouts from the site currently. You might want to consider joining The Avenue and Roadkill websites, which do have newsletters, discussion sites, etc.

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Q. What is the "Eye" symbol?
A. Alan tells us- "The Eye of Rah is one of the most recognized symbols in existence and has great spiritual significance. The idea came from Storm Thorgerson the creator of the Eye In The Sky record cover. It has become a symbol synonymous with my identity. My wife even has one tattooed on her ankle!"

Q. Will any concerts be televised?
A. Although there are no plans for any TV broadcasts, Alan is hopeful that the live concert in Madrid will be shown, but as yet, we don't know when and where.

Q. Are the Alan Parsons albums going to be released in 5.1 Surround Sound?
A. Alan is hoping to remix some of the earlier material very soon for release on DVD. A Valid Path was released on DualDisc in the early part of 2006 and is available on this site. The only other currently available AP album in Surround is On Air, which is a DTS-encoded CD. See DTS On-Line.

Q. Where can I find lyrics to the songs by The Alan Parsons Project and Alan Parsons?
A. http://www.theavenueonline.info/site3/lyrics.htm

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Q. How can I get my CD's and other items autographed?
A. Alan often does autographing sessions after concerts. He is also pleased to sign items sent by mail to:

"AP Autographs"
Mark Bliesener
BandGuru Management
PO Box 11192
Denver, CO 80211
USA

It is important that pre-paid return U.S. postage or international postage vouchers are included as well as a suitable self-addressed envelope. Sorry, but we will not respond to any requests that do not include a return envelope and postage. Please understand we cannot accept responsibility for any lost items, so please send any valuable items by registered mail.

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Q. What kind of equipment does Alan use in his studio/on the road? (synths/mixing consoles, sequencing tools, software/hardware, guitars etc)
A. For A Valid Path, he used Steinberg's Nuendo on a dual processor PC running Windows 2000 and Steinberg's proprietary digital converters. He used both the audio recording and MIDI sequencing facilities in Nuendo. His favorite synth is Yamaha's Motif ES, which he used extensively on the latest album. He used a Yamaha 02R for monitoring, but most of the digital mixing and processing was done through Nuendo and a Houston Controller. He made good use of plug-in programs by Native Instruments, Waves and Universal Audio among others. On stage he currently uses a Gibson jumbo acoustic, a Motif ES and a Roland VS-1824 hard disc system.

Q. Will Alan ever consider a huge outdoor (in the dark) gig, like Vangelis did in the Rotterdam harbour more than a decade ago?
A. He would love to. He is just waiting for the phone call.

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Q. Will Alan consider adding a full philharmonic orchestra at live shows so he can use 'real' strings for songs like Old and Wise and Don't Let It Show?
A. Alan has always enjoyed playing with Orchestra, but budgets often make it difficult. He has played with orchestra at The Night Of The Proms in Belgium and Germany, at The World Liberty Concert in Holland and more recently with Dennis De Young (previously of Styx) in Detroit, Michigan, and with The Omaha Symphony Orchestra and The Keeweenaw Symphony Orchestra. Check the Live page for details.

Q. I have done a remix/remake of one of Alan's songs. How do I get permission to use it?
A. Any remix or cover version of any Parsons or Parsons/Woolfson composition will need clearance by the publishers. Furthermore, if you have utilized samples from any AP original recording, they will need to be cleared by the record label. Please understand that Alan cannot assist you with these clearances.

Q. Can I use Alan's music for my "school project"/home movie/short films for private showing etc?
A. Alan normally has no objection in principle to any such uses especially if they do not result in any financial gain to the user.  But strictly speaking you should seek the clearance for the composition from the publishers and for the sound recording from the relevant record label.  For The Alan Parsons Project material and Alan Parsons "Try Anything Once", the publishers are BMG Music Publishing Inc and the label is Arista, now a division of BMG Entertainment Inc. For anything else the details of the publisher and record label will normally be found on the sleeve artwork.  Contact them directly.

If you use material without permission you do so at your own risk, but in practice that risk is small because the copyright owners do not have the time to chase after you - especially for private non-commercial projects.

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Q. How can I get my latest musical creation to Alan? Will he produce my next masterpiece?
A. Alan gets an enormous number of requests to listen to material. He cannot listen to everything. If you send an MP3 to webmaster@parsonics.com we will send it to Alan but we make no promises. Alan has produced very few records in recent years outside his own name, but miracles happen.

Q. Does Alan ever collaborate with anyone and, if so, what are my chances of working with him?
A. Alan gets a large number of requests for collaborations but realistically the only ones to materialize have been from existing business contacts and artists who have already made a name for themselves. Send an MP3 to webmaster@parsonics.com - you never know.

Q. Will Alan ever work with Pink Floyd again?
A. Alan says, "I would love to. I always felt that we made a great team. The main reason why we didn't do anything together after Dark Side was that my own career as producer and artist was blossoming. Contrary to popular belief, I do not earn royalties on Dark Side. If I was to work with them again, it would be nice to get one!" David Gilmour performs a soaring solo on Return To Tunguska, the opening track on A Valid Path.

Q. Will there be any more "A Walk Down Abbey Road" shows?
A. No plans - sorry. A walk down Abbey Road was a touring entity for two summer seasons - the first with Todd Rundgren, Jon Entwistle, Ann Wilson, David Pack. The second outing was with Todd again, Jack Bruce, Christopher Cross and Mark Farner.

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Q. Any chance of Parsons and Woolfson doing any further collaborating in the future?
A. Alan tells us that future collaborations with Eric are unlikely, but they have been working together on the bonus material and liner notes for the Expanded Editions of the catalog.

Q. What was the Projectron, which featured on some of the earlier albums?
A. The Projectron was effectively an analog "sampler". It could therefore produce any sound fed into it. It was a little like the Mellotron, but was capable of much higher quality. Usually it would reproduce tape loops individually recorded to a 16 or 24-track tape machine. The attack and decay times were adjustable using voltage control technology. One of the most featured sounds is the female background vocals on Breakdown. The Projectron looked something like a keyboard synthesizer but with lots of sockets on the front panel for connections to a multi track tape machine. Sadly, there are no known photos of it and it has disappeared into the annals of legend.

Q. Where can I buy Alan Parsons CD's and DVD's? Are all the original albums still available?
A. Most of the CD's currently available in the USA are available online at the Shop page of this site. If you see "Oversold until further notice", try ordering from a non-US based site such as www.amazon.co.uk. Just search for "Alan Parsons" in "Popular Music".

Q. Is there any truth in the recent rumor that Eric Woolfson was in hospital?
A. Eric is said to be "expecting a full recovery" from recent major surgery, according to official sources.

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Discography

CDs and DVDs with one or more ALAN PARSONS song:
1a. Download a picture of all covers with one or more AP song (80MB .pdf file)
1b. Download list of various artist CDs and DVDs with AP song(s) (99MB .pdf file)
1c. Download a graph showing # of times each AP song was used (11k .pdf file)

CDs and DVDs with ALAN PARSONS Music only:
2a. Download a picture of all AP music only covers (28MB .pdf file)
2b. Download list of CDs and DVDs with AP music only (33MB .pdf file)

This discography came about when, after a Dec '04 gig, I gave Alan a shirt with a picture of this “PyramidicalParsonomics” representing about 225 CD covers, which in some way, Alan wasresponsible for or involved with. Alan quickly noticed a cover which he had not recognized and asked me if it would be too much trouble to compile a list of CDs with his songs. Since Alan had given me thirty years of the greatest sounds my ears, mind and soul could possibly imagine, I wanted this list to be along the same lines as Alan's unsurpassed sound and music quality. This is an extensive worldwide, CD and DVD only list which took almost three years to compile. Information input on lists came from my own personal collection (over 500 AP or AP related CDs and DVDs) , eBay, All Music Guide, Amazon, CD Connection, CD Now, CD Universe, German Music Express, Net Sounds Music, Google searches and many others.

LIST CONSISTS OF:

1a. COVER PICTURES (over 650) of CDs and DVDs with one or more AP song. (Pg.0)
1b. VARIOUS ARTISTS LIST of CDs and DVDs with one or more AP song. (Pgs.1-44)
1c. GRAPH showing how many times each AP song was used on various artist list. (Pg.45)

2a. COVER PICTURES (over 160) of CDs and DVDs with AP music only on one page (Pg.0)
2b. AP MUSIC ONLY LIST of CDs and DVDs including studio albums, compilations, movies, musicals, MFSLs, HDADs, interpretations, singles and interviews. (Pgs.1-12)

One might say I became a bit obsessed with making sure my work was up to Alan's quality standards. Could there be two more lists in the future??? We will be listening to your comments…
??? 3. List of AP ENGINEERED, PRODUCED and RELATED CDs and DVDs.
??? 4. List of AP VINYL (7” and 12” discs).

Your suggestions, comments, corrections or missing information of entries would be greatly appreciated and can be sent to: webmaster@alanparsonsmusic.com which will then be forwarded and verified. Thanks for looking, and a very special THANKS to ALAN and LISA for the way they do everything “Parsonomically Correct”.

Larry Willis