The Avenue: Issue Twenty

The twentieth issue of The Avenue was released on July 1, 2001. Contents included:

Current News:

The news section looked mainly at the "Walk Down Abbey Road" tour. This tour would feature Alan, along with Todd Rundgren, Ann Wilson (of Heart) and John Entwistle (of The Who) playing Beatles tunes, as well as their own hits.

This issue featured a special collectors item: a custom postage stamp. In conjunction with Canada Post, four "Time Machine" themed stamps were created, and randomly distributed on the first 320 envelopes. The artwork was by Ben Liebrand who also created the Time Machine video. 100 sets of stamps were also made available.

In The Limelight: Gary Howard (Part One)

Before joining forces with Alan Parsons, Gary Howard was (and still is) a member of The Flying Pickets. The first part of this interview covers the early years: his early interests in acting, joining The Flying Pickets, and his work on the "Freudiana" album.

Tales Of...:

Part twnty of this section brings us to 1984, where we look back at the "Ammonia Avenue" album. Of special interest were photos taken during the production of the "Don't Answer Me" video, which give the readers a chance to see how the video was made.

Where Are They Now? (Part One)

This is a look back at the Billboard chart of Oct 16, 1982. The idea was to see how the competition has fared, and whether Alan's recent performance on the singles chart is unique to him, or whether other artists are suffering a similar fate. That is, do Jackson Browne, Men At Work, and Chicago have the same power they had back in the early eighties?

"Let's Talk About...":

This time in our question and answer section, Alan covers a wide range of questions...

For the cover artwork, does Alan have influence? Does he have the last word about it?

Are all "Stereotomy" compact discs coded in Ambisonics or only some versions?

Besides the 11 Grammy Award nominations and receiving the Les Paul Award, has Alan won or been nominated for any other awards?

"There was a Japanese 'Best Producer' award for Al Stewart's 'Year of the Cat'. I won two New Musical Express awards for 'The Raven' and Pilot's 'Magic'. There was also an engineering award for 'Let Yoruself Go' from Music Week which is a UK trade paper."

Contest prizes in this issue include: the chance to win a Flying Pickets CD autographed by Gary Howard. Plus, more items autographed by Alan Parsons!

In this issue, the sheet music for the track "Prime Time" is included (part one of two), as well as a discography page which looks at more unusual and rare items.

This, and much more is happening in Issue Twenty of The Avenue!

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