Al's Bio

Welcome to Alan's bio.

Childhood...
Born: 1959, Loughborough hospital.
Zodiac sign: Taurus.
Raised: Loughborough, Shepshed, Birstall (all Leicestershire, England)
Doctrination: JW - rejected when I became 18! Enough said.
Siblings: elder brother Steve, younger brother Philip & sister Samantha.
Famous as a child for: standing on rocks and looking silly!
Also famous for: drawing weird monsters, taking a portable record player to school!
First passions: Greek mythology, fantasy, sci-fi.
1960's TV memories: Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, The Munsters.
First love in music: became fanatical about T.Rex for a while.
Also liked: David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, pop single B sides.
Played bongos (also sang a little and wrote lyrics) in a school pop band called Argam
Also drummer in a jazz group, but decide drums are too tiring!
Big taste changes: Hawkwind, Kraftwerk, UFO's "Flying"
Parents split & divorce
Amazing musical discoveries...
- White Noise "An Electrical Storm"
- Spooky Tooth & Pierre Henry "Ceremony"
- Tangerine Dream "Ricochet"
Become fascinated with electronics in music
Discover lots of new things on BBC's "The Old Grey Whistle Test"
Steve & I start to compete as to who can find the weirdest music!
"The Faust Tapes" proved too weird on first try, but a year later after getting "So Far" I loved it!
Never find a girlfriend that shares my passion for "weird" music, or doesn't want to change me.
As soon as I'm able, I leave home and share a bedsit with my brother.

Late 1970's...
Backtracking slightly: Unemployed since leaving school for a year.
I eventually get a job working at a box factory. I'm good at the job, but get bored with it.
With the onset of the punk era, the search for good music dries up in local shops.
I go to London, discover Cheapo Cheapo and Record & Tape Exchange. A whole new adventure begins!
Steve & I start to write for "Face Out" fanzine and make contact with other people with similar tastes.
On one trip to London we go to visit Steve Stapleton, the week they got the test press for the debut NWW LP.
Via a strange chain of events (that I won't go into) we end up leaving Loughborough and move to Leicester.

The 1980's...
I meet Nigel Harris in a local record shop.
After the demise of "Face Out" we write for "Neumusik".
Work for a trial week at Recommended Records in London, but decide London's not for me!
During the Thatcher era, we both had plenty of time whilst unemployed to explore musical experimentation.
We record a cassette under the guise Holy Atheist, which got very mixed reviews.
After that we develop ways of creating electronic sound, collage and mixing, with very basic equipment!
Further cassettes under the name Vrije and other guises.
We meet Doj Graham (via an ad in a local record shop) and later his brother Clive Graham.
Nigel Harris joins our Zircon & The Burning Brains project.
We then adopt the new music project name of Alto Stratus.
After the demise of "Mirage" magazine, we decide to start up "Audion".
Discovering cheap bargain basements and deletions specialists in London, we start to accumulate records.
In a way all this worked towards establishing our own dream business: Ultima Thule.

The 1990's...
Ultima Thule moves from offices in Rutland Street to a shop in Conduit Street, near the Train Station.

more to follow?....

Under construction!

10 stunning life-changing albums
A French publisher asked me to compile a list of favourite important albums. Don't think it ever got published, and it's still true, so here it is...

Amon Düül II - Yeti
When I first heard this playing in a shop, I asked the lady behind the counter what it was, and she showed me, saying "Sorry, it's not for sale, I'm keeping it myself" so I had to make do with the next best thing, their third album Dance Of The Lemmings. Yeti though is the pinnacle of definitive Krautrock, and still a fresh invigorating feast for the ears.

Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill
The wonderful cover and the words "Listen to the first recording of this LSD Hashish/Fixy/Jointy sound. Take A Trip To Your inner light. See the hallucinations of reality rise out of the groove..." - made this a must-buy, even if it was only half as good as the promise. It truly blows minds and is still fresh and vital 35 years on.

Can - Tago Mago
When introducing people to Can, I tend to say "Do you want to jump-in at the deep end, or do you want an easy step?" Those wanting an easy step I suggest either Soundtracks or Ege Bamyasi, those that want a totally enveloping experience I suggest Tago Mago, the most vital and invigorating Krautrock that layers on the weirdness with each LP side.

Faust - The Faust Tapes
This so puzzled me when I first heard it that I took it back to the shop asking if I could change it for something else. Two years on (after getting Faust's second album So Far) I was ready, and it confirmed that Faust were indeed one of the most revolutionary and creative of bands on the planet! Not long after I was known to quote them as my all-time favourite band!

Kraftwerk - same
Another album that totally threw me when I first heard it. The bizarre and unique innovation of Kraftwerk's debut has made it one of the most enduring of albums. Still totally fresh and high on the weirdness scale it's scandalous that no reissue has been officially available since the 1970's.

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
I kind of slipped into discovering early Pink Floyd trekking backwards from Dark Side Of The Moon, and was continually perplexed by their diversity and innovation. Almost every Krautrock band had been influenced by Pink Floyd, and this proved to be their iconic release.

Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation
An album that came as a total surprise, after trawling backwards from 1975's Ricochet. Not a synth in sight this is Tangerine Dream in freak-out rock mode, a blatant over-the-top avant-garde step on from early Pink Floyd. It's still the album that separates the synth fans from the Krautrock fans!

United States Of America - same
When I first heard side 2 of this playing in a shop I was enthralled, and even more so when I got it home. Anyone wanting a big weird and outrageous step on from The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's should check this out. It has wonderful songs with outrageous lyrics, full of satire and risqué daring, and lots of extraordinary electronics.

White Noise - An Electric Storm
Curiosity in musicians from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop led to the discovery of this. But who could have expected such a crazy and eccentric album, Opening with erotica pop pastiche and then the crazy Here Come The Fleas, and it gets all the weirder on side 2. This opened my ears to a whole world of new possibilities and literally changed my life!

Yatha Sidhra - A Meditation Mass
Because of its timeless enigmatic quality I've often named Yatha Sidhra's sole album as my all time favourite "Desert Island Disc" and it's still not dated after 30 years. It's mixture of electronics, ethnic elements and majestic aura is firmly in a world all of its own. You can put it on repeat and let it play all day, it's that good!