THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT: Alan Parsons in conversation with Joel McIver
About this Event
Streaming live from Santa Barbara, join ALAN PARSONS in conversation with JOEL McIVER. Joel will be in person & in the room...
In 1976 The Alan Parsons Project released their debut album, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allan Poe, and it became an instant classic of prog rock. Fifty years later the Project track ‘Sirius’ (from 1984’s Eye In The Sky album) became one of the most widely heard pieces of music on the planet as it was played at FIFA World Cup games as the teams took to the field. Between 1976 and 1990 The Project released ten world-wide best-selling albums and scored Top Ten single hits in the USA and Europe and yet they were never actually a ‘proper’ band. The Project never toured or performed live, and the recordings featured a shifting team of musicians and singers, among them Allan Clarke of The Hollies, Steve Harley, Colin Blunstone, John Miles, all of the band Pilot, and session players with astounding credits to their name. The only two names which were constant were those of Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons. The first a songwriter, composer and manager, the latter a storied recording engineer and producer who worked on some of the biggest-selling albums of the late 1960s and 70s.
For the first time, the story of how The Alan Parsons Project became such an innovative and internationally successful rock music phenomenon is told in this book, in full and by the people who were part of The Project. Using archival interviews and recently discovered recordings of Eric Woolfson (who died in 2009) along with new interviews with Alan Parsons and musicians who played on The Alan Parsons Project recordings, the evolution, development and success of The Project from 1975 until 1990 unfolds in full colour and detail. The story is illustrated throughout using rare and previously unseen photographs and memorabilia from the Woolfson family archives.
In August of 2026 PROG magazine devoted a whole issue to the 50th anniversary of the release of The Project’s debut album, which is proof, if needed, of the value placed on the legacy of the work of Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons.
This, the first official book by and about The Project demonstrates why they are such a unique and influential part of music history.
The book is available to pre-order, together with further information at:alanparsonsprojectbook.com
About Alan Parsons:
Alan Parsons began his professional career as a recording engineer at Abbey Road studios when The Beatles were making Abbey Road and Let It Be. He engineered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon and produced countless hit albums in the early 1970s, among them Cockney Rebel’s Psychomodo and Al Stewart’s Year of The Cat. After meeting Eric Woolfson, he turned down Pink Floyd’s request to work on Wish You Were Here in favour of helping turn Woolfson’s idea of a suite of songs based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery & Imagination into what became the first of ten multi-million-selling albums credited to The Alan Parsons Project – a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that they never toured or performed live.
Following the dissolution of The Project, and since 1999, Parsons has toured the Alan Parsons Live Project, playing original Project music and newer, self-created material. A Grammy Award winner for the remastered 35th anniversary release of the Project’s Eye In The Sky album in 2019, since when a track from the album, ‘Sirius’ has become famous around the world for being played at major at sporting events, Parsons continues to perform, create new music and produce others at his own studio in California.
He received an OBE in 2022.
About Joel McIver:
Joel McIver is the author of Rocket 88's forthcoming official biography of The Alan Parsons Project, with a foreword by the late Clive Davis, and interviews Alan at 8.45pm on Friday 13 November.
Joel has written a further 37 books since 1999, a couple of international bestsellers among them, and contributes to a wide range of music and film publications as a journalist. In addition, he is the editor of The Bassist magazine, once ran an award-winning podcast called Dead Rock Stars, and regularly appears on TV and radio.
A species of prehistoric starfish, Ophiolofsson joelmciveri, was named after him in 2024.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 11.55 to GBP 13.70
