Hello to all AP fans!
I hope you will find my story a rather unique one. Back in the late 70's I went to one of the Laser Rock concerts that were playing at the London Planetarium. Does anyone remember them? It was music played to a laser light show. One of the tracks they played was "The Voice/Nucleus" from I Robot. I was stunned by this music. This was my introduction to Alan Parsons' music. Of course I then sought out everything I could find and became a great fan. However, some 12 months later, (I think around 1980/81) my story took a very unexpected twist!!!
At that time I was a police officer with London's Met Police, and on one very dull night I attended a house where a burglar alarm was sounding. Imagine my surprise and delight to find that quite by chance I was at the house of one Mr. Alan Parsons!!! He very kindly invited me in, and we chatted for a while.
Over the next few years I became a regular visitor to his house (off duty of course!!) on a social basis. I attended a couple of parties, and during one of these was introduced to David Gilmour! My wife and I regularly went for meals at his house, and over a period of time I collected quite few autographed albums which I still have. Alan also took me along to a couple of sessions at Abbey Road for the recording of the Keats album. Probably one of the greatest thrills of all was when Alan got me two tickets to a Beatles exhibition at the famous No 2 studio at Abbey road, and we were able to see first hand where all that great music was created.
Around 1985, Alan decided to move from London to Benenden in Kent. He kindly provided me with his new address and phone number, and I still have the piece of paper he wrote it on! This was accompanied by the invitation to visit at any time, and to come and see the building of his new studio. Well don't ask me why, but I never took him up on the invite. I guess I was too scared that Alan might think I was a nuisance if I followed him all the way down to Kent. I certainly didn't want him to think I was a stalker!!! Some years ago I did call the number on the paper he gave me, but of course he had long since moved.
It is only recently that, having at long last decided to join the 21st century by getting connected to the internet that I visited the AP website and here I am. I have recently emailed Alan in the hope that he will remember me and get in touch again after all these years. After all, he can't have been friends with too many policemen in his life can he??!!?? I now know that he lives in America and is remarried and no longer with Stella (Smokey). I have of course kept up with his career and have all the CD's including the DTS version of On Air, which I have to say is one of the most stunning surround sound experiences ever!!
Well that is my story. I have some great memories of spending some time with one the great writers/producers of our time, and I hope that these reminiscences will be of interest to you. I left the police a long time ago now (a long story!) but I am grateful that my time in the service got me to meet Alan. I hope that my recent email to him reaches him and he can find time to reply. It would mean so much. Maybe this story has some way of being brought to his attention?
Thanks for allowing me to tell my story and best wishes to everyone!
Submitted by Jeff Bryan.
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