Alan Wilson
Songwriter, musician, engineer, producer and label owner Alan Wilson is probably best known as founder member of Neo-Rockabilly band The Sharks. However, over the last 25 years he has been involved in several projects and activities, some of which are covered on this page. To find out about a particular subject, click the relevant button.

What are they?

	Alan Wilson endorses Dean Guitars (USA). Dean are now manufacturing a semi-acoustic guitar range called "The Psychobilly" and Alan has been given one of their Psychobilly models called 'The Cabbie' (the very first one to enter the UK) and his picture and short biography appears in the Dean catalogue as well as on their website. The Cabbie's eye-catching design is based on the colour scheme of the New York cab!
	Alan Wilson and Western Star Studio are sponsored for compression and pre-amps by Joe Meek.
	Alan also endorses Ace type 1954-s jeans from www.dress-o-rama.com
	Record Productions.com - The record producers and studio portal www.recordproduction.com

What are they?

Alan has played in a few other bands over the years, besides his main band The Sharks.

Colbert Hamilton & the New Hell Raisers

Neo-Rockabilly hero Colbert Hamilton enjoyed much success in the 80’s with radio airplay and TV appearances on shows such as ‘The Tube’. He also did a UK tour with Sigue Sigue Sputnick.

Alan joined Colbert’s live line up in 1994, just after he produced Colbert’s ‘Wild at Heart’ album. During his stay, which lasted a few years running parallel to live work with the Sharks - he did several overseas tours including Scandinavia, Holland and Germany and several UK shows. The last live performance Alan did with Colbert was a German festival in 1999.

The Frantic Flintstones

Alan has always enjoyed a great working relationship with Frantic Flintstones founder member and front man Chuck Harvey. They have co-written many songs for ‘Flintstones albums over the years. Alan was drafted into their live line up in 1998 and stayed for approx 2 years. During this time most of the work was in Holland, France, Germany and Finland. Alan left in late 2000 when he opened Western Star Studio and found that he was too busy with studio work to commit to playing in a live band. Alan & Chuck often still work together in the studio and Alan still produces the band and co-writes with Chuck. The two also have a side-project called Chuck & the Hula’s which will eventually surface on Western Star records.

The Woodies

The Woodies are a kind of hobby band and an outlet for Alan’s more Rockabilly-styled output. They have recorded many tracks over the years and appeared on countless compilations. Their last live performance was in 1999 where they played a date in Germany.

Miscellaneous

Alan has appeared on many recordings as a session musician or sometimes as a special guest. These projects include releases by John Leyton, The Pirates, Mike Berry, Graham Fenton, The Wurzels, Ian Gomm, Popeye’s Dik, Frenzy, Sue Moreno, Twenty Flight Rock, The Taggy Tones, P. Paul Fenech, Jean Vincent, The Frantic Flintstones and many, many more.

Alan Wilson has worked as an independent record producer for over 20 years and whilst he has production credits in many genre's, he has specialised in Rockabilly and Psychobilly music. Having worked in several studio's both in the UK and overseas, he is now mostly resident at Western Star - his own home studio. However, he still occasionally travels for interesting jobs.

Alan Wilson discography

Contact Alan Wilson.

Who are we and what do we do?

Department X music publishing was established in 1991. It is owned by musician and producer Alan Wilson and is administered by Nervous publishing. This means that we can utilise the knowledge and expertise that Nervous have acquired in their 25 years+ in the field of copyright and music publishing.

Titles from our catalogue of well over 600 works have been released in many countries including; the United Kingdom, Mainland Europe, Scandinavia, The United States of America and Japan.

Because our portfolio of songs has steadily grown, Department X has become a recognised name in music publishing with many artists and songwriter’s choosing to publish with us.

What was it?

Deathrow was a Psychobilly magazine started by Alan Wilson in 1993.

From its humble photocopied fanzine roots Deathrow grew into a properly printed glossy magazine serving the Psychobilly and Rockabilly scenes worldwide for approx 7 years. Its production was stopped in 2000 due to Alan’s recording workload and his newly opened studio. These days, copies of some of the rarer, early issues have been changing hands on EBay for surprising amounts.

Some of the newer issues can still be obtained from mail-order companies such as Raucous Records in the UK.

In Dec 2005 Deathrow was compiled into a 400 page book and released by Cherry Red books titled "Deathrow - The Chronicles of Psychobilly" and is available from Cherry Red

Contact Alan Wilson.

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