Before Alan Parsons started his own project, he worked as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios and earned his first album credit with the Beatles Abteistrasse. He went on to construct records with John Miles, the Hollies, Al Stewart and Pink Floyd. He is particularly known for his sonic contributions to Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece The dark side of the moon.
In 1975, The Alan Parsons Project was formed with producer and songwriter (and occasional singer) Eric Woolfson. Together, Parsons and Woolfson released 10 highly acclaimed studio albums that rarely performed live. The project ended in the late 1980s. Since then, Parsons has released four albums under his name and began touring regularly as the Alan Parsons Live Project in 2003.
On the CD / DVD set The NeverEnding Show: Live in the Netherlands, the Alan Parsons Live Project plays a sprawling set at Tivoli in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Surrounded by a cast of musicians and singers, Parsons stands at the center of the stage, manning most of the night with acoustic guitars and leading his eight-person crack-jack unit while they organize recreations.
From “Damned If I Do”, “Time” and spirited versions of “Don’t Answer Me” and “Psychobabble” to older pieces like “The Raven” and “(The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether ”, both from 1976 Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe.
This is an extensive 20-song set that ends with a studio recording of a peppy whistle-led, rather beatlesque “The NeverEnding Show,” allegedly taken from the studio album Alan Parsons is working on. Until then, the live portion is enough to convince everyone that Alan Parsons has had an incredible career as an engineer, producer, songwriter and musician.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.