Parker, Alan

Alan Frederick Parker was born in Matlock, Derbyshire (UK) on 26 August 1944. He was trained by Julian Bream at London’s Royal Academy of Music. He had a successful career as session guitarist starting in the late 1960’s, and played with Blue Mink, The Congregation, Collective Consciousness Society and Serge Gainsbourg.

Much of his session work has gone uncredited, but he has been named as the electric guitarist on Donovan’s ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’, the Walker Brothers’ ‘No Regrets’, David Bowie‘s ‘1984’ and Mike Batt’s ‘The Ride to Agadir’. He played guitar on Kate’s Saxophone Song.

Parker’s later work comprised compositions for film and TV. His television work includes ‘The Glory Boys’, ‘Dempsey and Makepeace’, ‘French Fields’, ITN’s ‘News At Ten’, and the BBC series ‘Walking with Cavemen’ and ‘Coast’. His film scores include ‘Jaws 3-D’ (1983), ‘American Gothic’ (1988), ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ (1993) and ‘Alex Rider: Stormbreaker’ (2006).