The last word backroom boy Alan Parsons on his massively profitable “prog pop” profession, and takes us again to revisit the albums that have been influential to him, within the newest subject of Uncut journal – in UK retailers from Thursday, October 13 and that can be purchased from our on-line retailer.
For an artist who has bought in extra of 55 million albums worldwide, Alan Parsons will not be a face you’d instantly recognise. “It’s as a result of we by no means performed dwell, so no-one ever noticed me!” he says. “Frankly, I used to be fairly completely happy not being recognised. I noticed what different artists needed to take care of, and it was insanity. Poor outdated Paul [McCartney] couldn’t go to eating places or golf equipment. He couldn’t even be in his personal home in Sussex – he’d have followers breaking by the fences to get a take a look at him!”
Parsons has at all times been snug as a backroom boy. After dropping out of faculty on the age of 16 he launched into an EMI coaching scheme earlier than working as a “stability engineer” at Abbey Highway studios, the place he assisted on key recordings by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Hollies and Wings, and later produced enormous hits for the likes of Steve Harley, Pilot, Al Stewart and John Miles. However it was The Alan Parsons Mission, established in 1976 with the Scottish musician Eric Woolfson, that made his title. Their works weren’t a lot idea albums, extra audio musicals, themed round single topics, together with albums primarily based on Edgar Allan Poe, Isaac Asimov, Antoni Gaudí and Sigmund Freud. After 11 studio albums – which subsequent month are gathered into a brand new boxset, The Full Albums Assortment – Parsons and Woolfson break up in 1990, however Parsons has continued solo, even lastly taking his music on stage. “It’s probably not prog rock,” he says. “I’ve at all times seen it as prog pop.” Right here, he takes us by his exceptional catalogue – beginning with a ceremony of passage at notable addresses in Mayfair and St John’s Wooden.
THE BEATLES
ABBEY ROAD
APPLE RECORDS, 1969
A baptism of fireplace for the teenage studio engineer
I began working at Abbey Highway as a tape operator in October 1968, on the age of 19, and the Let It Be periods have been one in all my first jobs. I used to be despatched right down to the Apple Corps studios in Savile Row within the absence of Apple’s personal operational employees. I don’t seem within the unique Let It Be movie, however I’m in shot for a complete of about 10 seconds in Peter Jackson’s Get Again, which is a thrill! My job was to maintain the tape rolling and substitute it when wanted. The Beatles have been actually recording on a regular basis throughout these periods. However it was a month later, at Abbey Highway, that was the extra technically advanced job. Not like Let It Be, Abbey Highway was a correct studio album, like Sgt Pepper, made with nice precision. The band members would file individually, normally in Studio 2, in any respect hours, they usually at all times wanted
to be coated by tape ops. There have been seven or eight of us in complete. I keep in mind Paul doing infinite takes of “Oh! Darling”. I keep in mind George doing “One thing” and “Right here Comes The Solar” on his personal. I keep in mind John doing “Polythene Pam” and likewise coming in whereas I used to be doing the ultimate mixture of “I Need You (She’s So Heavy)” and telling me to chop it lifeless fairly than fade it out!
My line supervisor was Geoff Emerick, who was a genius. I keep in mind how he bought that fluttering impact on the synth sounds on “Right here Comes The Solar” by threading sticky tape round one of many strain rollers on the tape participant, so it was actually juddering on a regular basis.
The band have been clearly working very individually by that stage. You barely noticed all 4 of them collectively till the day they did the zebra-crossing shoot.
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