Alan Parsons to play benefit show for Montreal Neurological Institute

Classic rock icon Alan Parsons coming to Montreal to benefit the Neurological Institute at a concert at Place des Arts.

Alan Parsons’s songs have become staples for baby boomers and older Generation-X music lovers who were raised on FM radio with titles such as Eye in The Sky, Games People Play, I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You and Don’t Answer Me.

Now,, the 76-year-old is packing his instruments and band to perform at Place des Arts in Montreal on Wednesday for a concert to benefit the Montreal Neurological Institute.

It is a concert he promises will satisfy all his fans, he told CTV Montreal in an interview from his home in California earlier this week

“It’s a hit show, you know. It’s the songs like Eye in The Sky, Games People Play, Old and Wise, which I think is a fairly big song in Canada, (…) but I haven’t fully decided to play yet,” he said.

The concert will be a one-off for the co-founder of The Alan Parsons Project, a collective of several producers and musicians, which reached its commercial peak in the 1970s and ‘80s.

The band only started performing as a live unit in the late 1990s.

Parsons said his band‘s music was too complex to be reproduced live, until technology opened the door to live performances.

Parsons admits that touring remains a chore.

“The hard work part of performing is to travel know getting from one place to another and flying a lot,” he says.

To many, Parsons is first and foremost a music producer, who made his name as the record engineer at Abbey Road studios in London, where he worked on the Beatles’ Abbey Road and Let it Be sessions.

His work on Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of The Moon eventually paved the way for a solo career that earned him 14 Grammy nominations over five decades.

Parsons remain active to this day, but has a hard time deciding which he prefers the most between playing in a band, and sitting back behind the recording desk

“The studio was my home for so many years when I was in my late teens right up to the present day, that’s where it all started. So I‘m still very keen on the album, being in the studio,” he said.

Parsons will also spend time in Montreal in a recording studio during his visit next week.

The concert at Theatre Maisonneuve was put together by a local friend, Robert Frances, the president and CEO of PEAK Financial Group, who moonlights as a musician.

Frances, who CTV News spoke to at his studio, wanted to organize the concert to benefit the Neuro’s foundation after losing friends to brain cancer, including local drummer David Tondino.

“I‘ve been blessed to have Alan Parsons as a friend for many years, and we got to talking about this,” said Frances. “He had met the band at one point, and I shared with him the grief and the interest in trying to do something with this.”

Besides the concert, Parsons will produce a tribute album, inspired by the struggle of those who lost their battle to brain cancer, including Canadian legends like the Tragically Hip’s Gordon Downie and Rush’s Neil Peart.

“Our goal is to create a capture music that could be a medium for people to become aware of the cause of the disease and to contribute to finding a cure,” said Frances, who, like Parsons, is proficient on piano, guitar and drums.

Parsons says he’s looking forward to taking part in these sessions.

“You play a demo, you decide how to change the structure, how to change the arrangement, how to play it, who’s going to sing on it, all that stuff, so it’ll be it should be a fun few days,” he said.

Frances said the doctors and researchers at the Neurological Institute are eager to witness such generosity join their fundraising efforts.

I was always impressed by the international reputation that the Neuro has as one of the leading, if not the leading center for research involving the brain,” he explained.

Tickets for the event are still available at the Place des Arts box-office.

A limited number of VIP tickets which include a meet-and-greet session with Parsons and attendance to the afternoon rehearsals are also available.