“Ian broke his wrist. We took him to the hospital and he got a cast put on. And we knew the session was coming up…” Up close with the 1974 Les Paul Custom that Ian Bairnson used to play the solo on Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights – with his arm in a cast

Iain Bairnson's 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom.

Ian Bairnson was already a successful session musician before he joined the band Pilot back in the early 1970s. The band’s single Magic was an instant hit on its release in 1974 and served to introduce Ian to Alan Parsons, who produced the early Pilot albums.

This led to Ian becoming a member of The Alan Parsons Project, playing on all the band’s album releases. Sadly, Ian was diagnosed with a progressive neurological condition in 2018 and passed away in 2023 after a long battle with dementia.