“He had an incredibly clean technique, which was very, very rare. I’ve never found it in any other guitar player”: Alan Parsons on why late Project and Kate Bush guitarist Ian Bairnson was unlike any guitarist he’d ever encountered

Alan Parsons has paid tribute to Ian Bairnson, hailing the late electric guitar player’s incredible technique as unlike any he’d ever come across.

Bairnson, who passed away April last year, crossed paths with the Alan Parsons Project leader soon after he joined Scottish rockers Pilot, whose debut album was produced by Parsons.

Parsons then recruited the Pilot musicians, Bairnson included, to form the core lineup of his eponymous musical project. Bairnson featured on every Alan Parsons Project studio record, which showcased the guitarist’s blues-informed feel, celebrated phrasing and ultra-clean technique.

It’s a style that hugely impressed Parsons, who has now claimed he’s never come across a technique that can stand up to Bairnson’s own.

“He could play the blues like no-one else,” Parsons reflects in the latest issue of Guitarist. “He did have an incredibly clean technique, which was very, very rare. I’ve never found it in any other guitar player.

“No fretbuzz, no little glitches – it was always a clean, clean sound for every note he played.”

Such a technique helped elevate the sound of every band Bairnson played in. For Pilot, Parsons says “Ian came onboard and made a huge difference to what the band was capable of”.

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And, for the Alan Parson Project, it was a similar story: “I don’t know what we would have done without Ian. He was definitely a part of the Project’s sound,” Parsons continues. “I think What Goes Up has my favourite guitar solo of anything he ever did.”

In fact, in the lead up to a planned boxset re-release of the Project’s Pyramid album, Parsons has tasked his current guitar player to “learn that solo note for note… because it’s magical”.

The What Goes Up lead effort is just one of many magical solos that Bairnson committed to tape. Another prominent example can be heard on Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, which Bairnson recorded using his trusty Gibson Les Paul.

That Les Paul – which also featured on the Alan Parson Projects records – recently went up for auction, and ended up smashing its estimates.

To read the full interview with Alan Parsons, head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist.

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