1. John "Ian" Bairnson was a Scottish musician and member of Pilot and the Alan Parsons Project.
16 Facts About Ian Bairnson
2.
Ian Bairnson was a multi-instrumentalist, who played saxophone and keyboards, but mainly performed as a guitarist, which he played with a sixpence.
3.
Ian Bairnson was born in Lerwick, Shetland, on 3 August 1953.
4.
Ian Bairnson grew up in Levenwick, in Shetland, before his family moved to Edinburgh, Midlothian, when he was nine years old, following the death of his father.
5.
Ian Bairnson learned how to play the guitar when he was six.
6.
Ian Bairnson was a session guitarist before joining up in 1973 with former Bay City Rollers musicians David Paton and Billy Lyall in the band Pilot, contributing the harmony guitar parts to their hit single "Magic".
7.
Ian Bairnson played the distinctive guitar solo on the track "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" from Parsons' I Robot album.
8.
Ian Bairnson remained with Parsons after the dissolution of the Project, playing guitar and saxophone in the studio and as part of the live band and writing several songs for the albums Try Anything Once, The Very Best Live, On Air and The Time Machine.
9.
In 2019, Ian Bairnson added guitar solos to two songs from Alan Parsons' new album, The Secret, specifically the tracks "Years of Glory" and "I Can't Get There from Here".
10.
Ian Bairnson played on Kate Bush's first four albums The Kick Inside Lionheart, Never for Ever and The Dreaming.
11.
Ian Bairnson played with the band Bucks Fizz for whom he co-wrote two of their Top 20 hits, "If You Can't Stand the Heat" and "Run for Your Life".
12.
Ian Bairnson toured with a number of different bands, the latest being Junk.
13.
Ian Bairnson played live with Sting, Eric Clapton, Beverley Craven and many more.
14.
In November 2016 Paton and Ian Bairnson got together again, touring Japan with a Pilot revival and some Alan Parsons Project songs as well.
15.
Ian Bairnson lived in Spain from 2003 to 2013, where he had a recording studio and continued working as a session guitarist.
16.
On her Facebook page, she subsequently announced that Ian Bairnson had died on 7 April 2023, following a long time with dementia.