The Avenue: Issue Twenty-One

The twenty-first issue of The Avenue was released on November 1, 2001. Contents included:

Current News:

The news section looked mainly at the recent annoucement that the band was breaking up. Alan explains, “I met with Ian and Stuart in my hotel room in Japan towards the end of the summer tour. We discussed the best way forward given the relatively poor sales performance of ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘On Air’ and the inactivity of the Alan Parsons Live Project band over the previous eighteen months.”

What kind of direction is Alan's next album going to be taking? Alan says, “A direction like Moby, Chemical Brothers, or the French band called Air who are rather Floydian. It has to be said that whatever we were doing on the last three albums, it just wasn't grabbing an audience. That's not to say that I'm not proud of them, because I do like them, but they didn't do anything in a mass market sort of way. The kind of artists I'd be working with will be more up-to-date, and more sound oriented than song oriented.”

In The Limelight: Gary Howard (Part Two)

Before joining forces with Alan Parsons, Gary Howard was (and still is) a member of The Flying Pickets. The second part of this interview covers Gary's work with the Live Project, as well as what he is doing now.

Tales Of...:

Part twenty one of this section brings us to 1985, where we look back at the "Vulture Culture" album. In this part, Alan tells how he got the now-famous voice-over for "Let's Talk About Me", as well as the story behind the "Let's Talk" video.

Where Do They Go From Here?

With the break-up of the band, this article looks at other members of the band and what they plan to do now. Ian Bairnson, Stuart Elliott and Neil Lockwood each share their plans for the future, as well as looking back on the past.

"Let's Talk About...":

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

In old radio interviews (ex. Rockline), Eric would often complain about not having "complete artistic freedom." If you had had "complete artistic freedom," in what ways would the Project's music have been different?

Is a CD an exact duplicate in quality of the original master tape?

Why doesn't Alan use young vocalists in his albums like Santana has done with Dave Matthews, Eagle-eye Cherry, or Mana group? It would put him on the crest of the wave.

"Watch this space! On the next album, there's definitely going to be some younger artists, and artists more identifiable by a younger audience. I have no real reason for that in the past, but I suppose I went for the people who I thought would be popular for people from my generation. I very much aimed what I did at the fans."

To the best of his memory, has Alan ever done a song in ¾ time?

Contest prizes in this issue include items autographed by Alan Parsons!

In this issue, the sheet music for the track "Prime Time" is included (part two of two), sheet music for "Ammonia Avenue", and a free "Time Machine" postcard.

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

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