David Paton: From Live Aid to Pilot, a life in music recalled in new biography

Ian Bairnson has died peacefully one week ago at the age of just 69. Born in Lerwick, he had been playing guitar since the age of six with a style uninfluenced from the scene of the day.

This made him an in demand session musician who then joined David Paton to form Pilot in 1973. He plays the solo guitar on Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights and his creative contributions were evident within the Alan Parsons Project (again with David Paton) from 1975 – 1990.

Much of this is chronicled in a new paperback Magic – The David Paton Story (Sonicbond Publishing, £15.99).

A limited-edition hardback was published at the end of 2022 but now the illustrated paperback is out. With 160 pages he tells it like it is - and what a story it has been so far.

As the Beachcombers they played Kirkcaldy in the 1960s but recorded as The Boots due to a name clash. A brief stint with the Bay City Rollers and driving for their manager Tam Paton - no relation - led to even bigger things with the formation of his band Pilot with Billy Lyall.

Ian would join later as recordings developed and the hits started coming in not only in the UK but across the world especially Japan and Australia.

Magic was the first of these, coming from the LP From The Album Of The Same Name, top 20 in the UK but No 1 in Canada and Top 5 in the US. January was next and the first song played on Radio Forth, became number one here for three weeks in 1975 and in Australia for eight.

A decade later, nine albums with Alan Parsons Project and David was centre stage at Live Aid with the Elton John Band. He enjoyed his recordings and world tours with Elton and his fretless bass is a feature on Elton’s hit Nikita.

He played on the Kate Bush albums, sang with Paul McCartney, sessions with Chris De Burgh, Fish and Camel and toured with Rick Wakeman. From 2016 to 2019 back on the road with Albert Hammond and the solo 2020 album from that year and reviewed previously on these pages. It was time for the memoirs and here we are up to date, ready for the next chapter.