FROM THE EAST END OF LONDON, TO HOLLYWOOD
The life of a session musician and composer
Alan Parker is a guitarist and composer whose career began as a 15 year-old leading the resident band in an East End pub, The 2 Puddings, which was frequented by the Kray Twins.
However, but for miraculous good fortune his story may have ended before it began, when a German V1 Flying Bomb destroyed the terraced house next door, killing all the occupants, while the infant Parker was asleep in his cot.
After winning a competition, the great classical guitarist Julian Bream took the young musician under his wing, and while still a teenager, Parker started playing in several of the most popular dance bands of the day.
He moved into session work and during the most vibrant period of British pop music, he performed on countless records, including No Regrets by The Walker Brothers, Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man, David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel, Jimi Hendrick’s All along the Watchtower, and the first 2 Beatles records.
The session musician can be called on for all sorts of engagements, and Parker was hired for many television productions, both live and recorded. As a composer he has written the music for TV series such as Dempsey and Makepeace, Minder, Van der Valk, and Coast. After working with the great American film composers, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, and Lalo Schifrin, he ventured into movies, with scores including What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Jaws 3D, Stormbreaker, American Gothic, The Glory Boys, Victoria & Albert, and Up on the Roof.
Alan’s life exhibits an enormous amount of focus and drive, but there have also been many unplanned events that led to extraordinary experiences. In this book, Parker tells how he came to play the sitar on The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood, how Ronnie Kray tried to persuade him not to leave the band at The Two Puddings pub; how he drove across London in full Black and White Minstrel costume and make-up; how he featured in one of Monty Python’s most famous sketches; and how he came to own one of Roy Orbison’s famous Gretsch-Gibson guitars, and Jimi Hendrix’s acoustic guitar, which was given to him by Hendrix in March 1970.
This is the story of a man whose work has been heard by hundreds of millions of people over his 60 year career and has been responsible for many important moments in British musical history.
Your evening
Date: Wednesday 21st October
Doors open: 7:00pm
Talk starts: 7:30pm
Interval: around 9:00pm for around 20 minutes
Talk restarts: 9:20pm (ish!)
Evening ends: 10:00pm (ish!)
