Ian Bairnson (born 3 August 1953 as ''John Bairnson'') is a Scottish musician, best known for being one of the core members of

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompanie ...

. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who has played saxophone and keyboards, although he is best known as a guitarist. He is also known for preferring the sound of a sixpence to a

plectrum A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...

. Bairnson was born in

Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...

Shetland Isles Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He grew up in

Levenwick Levenwick is a small village about south of Lerwick, on the east side of the South Mainland of Shetland, Scotland. It is part of the parish of Dunrossness and the Levenwick Health Centre provides medical support for the Dunrossness area.It con ...

, in Shetland, before his family moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Midlothian, when he was nine years old, following the death of his father. He was a

session guitarist Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

before joining up in 1973 with former Bay City Rollers musicians

David Paton David Paton (; born 29 October 1949) is a Scottish bassist, guitarist and singer. He first achieved success in the mid-1970s as lead vocalist and bassist of Pilot, who scored hits with "Magic", "January", "Just a Smile" and "Call Me Round" bef ...

and

Billy Lyall William Lyall (26 March 1953 – 1 December 1989) was a Scottish musician, known for his work with Pilot, The Alan Parsons Project, and the Bay City Rollers. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lyall was a singer, keyboard player and flautist with Pi ...

in the band

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

and contributed the harmony guitar parts to their

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

single, "

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

." During this time with Pilot, he first collaborated with

Alan Parsons Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948) is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Parsons was involved with the production of several notable albums, including the Beatles' ''Abbey Road'' (1969) and '' Let It Be'' ...

, the record producer on their debut self-titled album. It was this relationship that helped incorporate most of the band's members (bassist/lead singer Paton and drummer

Stuart Tosh Stuart Mcbeath Tosh (born 26 September 1948), also known as Stuart Tosh, is a Scottish drummer, songwriter and vocalist. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He recorded and toured with a succession of bands during the 1970s and 1980s, including ...

) into the Alan Parsons Project. He played the distinctive guitar solo on the track "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" from Parsons' '' I Robot'' (1977) album. As a guitarist, he has been featured on every Alan Parsons Project album, including the 1984 side project

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

. He has played on

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

's first four albums ''

The Kick Inside ''The Kick Inside'' is the debut studio album by English art rock singer Kate Bush. Released on 17 February 1978 by EMI Records, it includes her UK No. 1 hit, "Wuthering Heights". The album peaked at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart and has been ...

'' (1978) (notably playing the guitar solo on "

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...

"), '' Lionheart'' (1978), ''

Never for Ever ''Never for Ever'' is the third studio album by English art rock singer Kate Bush, released on 7 September 1980 by EMI Records, it was Bush's first No. 1 album and was also the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Ch ...

'' (1980) and ''

The Dreaming The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...

'' (1982). He has also played with the band Bucks Fizz for whom he co-wrote two of their

Top 20 A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

hits, "

If You Can't Stand the Heat ''If You Can't Stand the Heat...'' is the eleventh studio album by English rock band Status Quo. Recorded at Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, Holland, and produced by Pip Williams, it was released in October 1978 and reached #3 in the UK album c ...

" (1982) and " Run for Your Life" (1983). In 2009 he appeared on the album of the German bass player Chris Postl, ''Parzivals Eye''. Chris Postl played in

RPWL RPWL is a German progressive rock band. Their music is distributed by their label Gentle Art of Music. History This band was formed in 1997 in Freising, Germany as a Pink Floyd cover band. The band's name is a combination of the first letters of ...

, a German band. Bairnson lived in Spain from 2003 till 2013, where he had a recording studio and continued working as a session guitarist. He has toured with a number of different bands, the latest being Junk (Bairnson, Pau Chaffer, Sarah Rope and Ángel Celada). Along his session career he has played on more than a hundred albums in different styles. For example:

Yvonne Keeley Yvonne Keeley (born Yvonne Paaij, 6 September 1952) is a Dutch pop music singer. She is the sister of Patricia Paay. She began her career as a session singer in the music industry in London. She was the girlfriend of Steve Harley of Steve ...

Joe Cocker John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...

Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...

, Chris DeBurgh,

Mick Fleetwood Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of th ...

Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...

. He played live with Sting,

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

Beverley Craven Beverley Craven (born 28 July 1963) is a British singer-songwriter best known for her 1991 UK hit single " Promise Me". Her album '' Change of Heart'' was released in 2014 and '' Mixed Emotions'' in 1999. Biography Early life Craven was born ...

and many more. After moving back to UK in 2013, Bairnson got together with David Paton and produced an album called ''A Pilot Project'' where they paid a homage to

Eric Woolfson Eric Norman Woolfson (18 March 1945 – 2 December 2009) was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of The Alan Parsons Project. Together with Parsons they sold over 50 million albums worldwide. ...

’s legacy. In November 2016 Paton and Bairnson got together again, touring Japan with a Pilot revival and some Alan Parsons Project songs as well. In 2019, Bairnson added guitar solos to two songs from Alan Parsons' new album, '' The Secret'', specifically the tracks "Years of Glory" and "I Can't Get There from Here".

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bairnson, Ian 1953 births Living people Musicians from Edinburgh People from Lerwick Scottish rock guitarists Scottish male guitarists Scottish saxophonists British male saxophonists People associated with Shetland Shetland music Pilot (band) members British soft rock musicians 21st-century American saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians The Alan Parsons Project members