Ian Bairnson

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

Ian Bairnson (b. August 3rd 1953), talented versatile internationally recognised and respected rock guitarist, member of Pilot and The Alan Parson Project is a native of Levenwick and lived in the village for the greater part of his childhood, where his father John (Jackie) owned the local general merchants shop.

He bought his first guitar at six years old for £3 15s, with some birthday money. He cites Peerie Willie Johnson who lived at Bigton at the time, on the other side of the hill, as an early influence. Ian would spend evenings visiting Willie, and listening to and learning from Willie's rhythm playing.

Ian's life saw a big change while he was still only nine, with his father's death at an un-naturally young age on May 29th 1963. Following this Ian's mother decided to sell the shop, and move the family to Edinburgh, Scotland.

In Edinburgh Ian achieved a scholarship to George Heriot's School, where he studied Spanish, art and music. Arguably though his most important education took place out of school, during the hours he spent practicing with his guitar, as by now he was becoming interested in Jazz and Blues, styles his school did not cater for. At fifteen he obtained his first Gibson guitar, a SG Standard 1961, which he paid for by taking a weekend job, playing on Saturday afternoons in the shop that sold it to him. It is said that only rarely was the guitar Ian played on any Saturday not sold by the end of the afternoon.

At fifteen he joined a four piece Edinburgh based blues band, East West, who became widely known and popular on the Scottish circuit of the day, next he joined another Scottish band called Ears, but with the record industry of the day being firmly rooted in London, England, this band was relatively short lived.

Following the demise of Ears he played with the band of Edinburgh nightclub Tiffany's, where he was later joined by bassist David Paton, an early member of the Bay City Rollers. With this work Ian was for the first time being paid a reasonable amount for his music, and was able to finance his move to London. Taking with him some tapes he'd recorded in Edinburgh, which in time led to, along with David Paton, and vocalist/keyboard player Billy Lyall, another early Bay City Rollers member, the formation of Pilot.

Once in London Ian was successful in securing session work, mainly for radio and other minor parts at first, but among these was a session for a man called Steve Harley, who Ian claims he didn't recognise until someone mentioned Cockney Rebel. Following this session Steve Harley offered Ian a job with Cockney Rebel, but after deliberating for some time he chose to stay with Pilot, notably as they'd by then secured a recording contract. Pilot's single January on EMI subsequently gave the band their first No 1 chart hit on January 18th 1975, only to be, somewhat ironically, knocked off the top slot three weeks later on February 8th by Cockney Rebel's, Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me), also on EMI.

As well as continuing with Pilot Ian became involved in recording with The Alan Parsons Project as did all of Pilot, who were the core members of the "Project". In addition he has remained in demand for session work, and over the years has recorded with many longstanding big names in the music industry including Paul McCartney & Wings, Steve Harley, Kate Bush, Chris De Burgh, Elaine Paige, Mick Fleetwood, Jim Diamond, Tom Jones, Beverley Craven and Kenny Rogers. Along with a number of shorter lived, but arguably no less successful artists in their day such as Bucks Fizz, Bananarama, Bardo, Prelude, David Van Day, David Sylvian, plus numerous other lesser well known names.

In his private life Ian married Leila Santos, a Brazilian catwalk and fashion magazine model on May 28th 1999.