Alan Glen is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 player, best known for his work with The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds

- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

, Nine Below Zero

Nine Below Zero

Nine Below Zero are an English blues band, who have a cult following throughout Europe, and were most popular in the period between 1980 and 1982.-Career:...

, Little Axe

Little Axe

Little Axe is the stage name of Skip McDonald an American blues musician. McDonald played jazz, doo-wop, and gospel when young, and moved to New York as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers.Axe joined the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bassist Doug Wimbish and...

, and his own bands

Band (music)

In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...

, The Barcodes and The Incredible Blues Puppies.

Career

Glen started playing harmonica after seeing Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

, and the 'American Folk-Blues Festivals' which visited London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His early influences being Little Walter

Little Walter

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...

, Sonny Boy Williamson

Sonny Boy Williamson

Sonny Boy Williamson may refer to either of two 20th-century American blues harmonica players, who both recorded in Chicago:*Sonny Boy Williamson I , John Lee Curtis Williamson, "The Original Sonny Boy Williamson", born in Tennessee and associated with Bluebird Records *Sonny Boy Williamson II ,...

, and Junior Wells

Junior Wells

Junior Wells , born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist...

. Early bands he was involved with were Crowjane Bluesband, The Radical Sheiks and Brothers Grimm, before going on to join Nine Below Zero

Nine Below Zero

Nine Below Zero are an English blues band, who have a cult following throughout Europe, and were most popular in the period between 1980 and 1982.-Career:...

 (1991–1995), and The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds

- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

 (1996–2003 and 2008–2009).

Glen has played on over 50 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s and recorded

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

/performed with: Alannah Myles

Alannah Myles

Alannah Myles is a Canadian singer-songwriter, the daughter of Canadian broadcast pioneer William Douglas Byles. In 1989, she released her eponymous debut album...

, Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

, Slash

Slash (musician)

Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...

, John Mayall

John Mayall

John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...

, Steve Lukather

Steve Lukather

Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...

, Skunk Baxter, (on the Yardbirds' album Birdland

Birdland (album)

Birdland is a 2003 studio album by English blues rock band The Yardbirds. The album was the first Yardbirds release in over 35 years; however, the only original 60's era Yardbirds members are drummer Jim McCarty and rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja. . New members are John Idan, Gypie Mayo and Alan Glen...

) and he recorded six albums with Little Axe

Little Axe

Little Axe is the stage name of Skip McDonald an American blues musician. McDonald played jazz, doo-wop, and gospel when young, and moved to New York as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers.Axe joined the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bassist Doug Wimbish and...

. In addition he appeared alongside Alan Barnes

Alan Barnes (musician)

Alan Barnes is an English Jazz musician.- Career :Alan Barnes attended Leeds College of Music between 1977–80 where he studied saxophone, woodwinds and arranging before moving to London. In 1980 he played with the Midnight Follies Orchestra and the following year was with the Pasadena Roof...

, Jim Mullen

Jim Mullen

Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum.-Biography:...

 and Roger Cotton

Roger Cotton

Roger Cotton is a British musician, singer, songwriter, producer and engineer. He plays keyboards and guitar. Cotton first played in his father's band at the age of 13. In the 1970s and 1980s he was a member of Peter Green's Splinter Group, The Clockwork Orange, The Bandwagon, and The Brothers...

 on the With Friends Like These album for the Barcodes, which also included Zoot Money

Zoot Money

George Bruno Money, known as Zoot Money is a British vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader best known for his playing of the Hammond organ and association with his Big Roll Band...

. He played with Peter Green

Peter Green (musician)

Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...

, Paul Jones

Paul Jones (singer)

Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio personality and television presenter.-Career:As P. P...

, Junior Delgado

Junior Delgado

Oscar Hibbert , better known as Junior Delgado, was a reggae singer, famed for his roots style.-Biography:...

 and Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...

 at the Long Beach Blues Festival

Long Beach Blues Festival

The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, was established in full in 1980, and is one of the largest Blues festivals and is the second oldest on the West Coast . It is held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the...

.

With Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...

 he recorded the album On The Road Again. Other collaborators include Art Themen

Art Themen

Arthur Edward George 'Art' Themen is a British jazz saxophonist .Themen was born on 26 November 1939 in Manchester. In 1958 he began his medical studies at the University of Cambridge, going on in 1961 to complete his studies at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1964...

, Pee Wee Ellis

Pee Wee Ellis

Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis is an American saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was an important member of James Brown's band in the 1960s and appeared on many of Brown's most notable recordings...

, Dub Syndicate

Dub Syndicate

Dub Syndicate is a dub band, formed by Adrian Sherwood, and it became a showcase for Adrian Sherwood's collaboration with Style Scott, former ace drummer with the Roots Radics and Creation Rebel....

, Paul Cox

Paul Cox

Paulus Henriqus Benedictus "Paul" Cox is an award-winning Australian film director.Cox was born in Venlo, Limburg, the Netherlands, the son of Else , a native of Germany, and Wim Cox, a documentary film producer. Cox emigrated to Australia in 1965...

, Alan Barnes

Alan Barnes (musician)

Alan Barnes is an English Jazz musician.- Career :Alan Barnes attended Leeds College of Music between 1977–80 where he studied saxophone, woodwinds and arranging before moving to London. In 1980 he played with the Midnight Follies Orchestra and the following year was with the Pasadena Roof...

, Little Axe and Gypie Mayo

Gypie Mayo

Gypie Mayo is an English guitarist, playing in Dr. Feelgood from 1977 to 1981, and from 1996 to 2004 in the re-born Yardbirds with Alan Glen....

. Glen has played at Montreux

Montreux Jazz Festival

The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...

, Brecon Jazz Festival

Brecon Jazz Festival

Brecon Jazz Festival is a music festival held on an annual basis in the rural surroundings of Brecon, in south Powys, Mid Wales. Normally staged in early August, it plays host to a range of jazz musicians who travel from across the world to take part and to many visiting tourists who are attracted...

 and Nice

Nice

Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

 Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 Festivals

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

, Hollywood House of Blues, the Hilton, Las Vegas, and The Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

, as well as various television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 performances.

Glen is cited as "one of the finest blues harp players and slide guitarists of his generation" - Soundcheck magazine. "Alan Glen is one of Britain's top harmonica players and playing of this standard will help to cement that position" - Net Rhythms. "A powerful addition to the band is harmonica player Alan Glen, who replaces Relf on the mouth harp and is himself no stranger to the blues scene" - CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

.

Selected discography

• The Yardbirds -
  • Birdland (Favored Nations
    Favored Nations
    Favored Nations is a record label started by guitarist Steve Vai and former Guitar Center owner Ray Scherr in 1999. The first album ever released by Favored Nations was Frank Gambale's Coming to Your Senses in 2000...
    
    ) - 2003
• Nine Below Zero –
  • Off the Hook (China Records
    China Records
    China Records was a record label founded October 1, 1984 by Derek Green. Its top-selling artists were Art of Noise, Morcheeba and The Levellers....
    
    ) - 1992
  • Hot Music for a Cold Night (I.R.S. Records
    I.R.S. Records
    I.R.S. Records was a record label, started in the United States in 1979 by Miles Copeland III along with Jay Boberg and Carl Grasso. Miles was also the manager of Wishbone Ash, The Police, and later, Sting, as well as other bands. I.R.S. was the sister label of Copeland's Illegal Records .I.R.S...
    
    ) - 1994
  • Best of Nine Below Zero (I.R.S. Records) - 1994
  • "Ice Station Zebro" ( Pangea Records ) - 1995
  • "'Live' in Europe 1992" - ( Floating World Records ) 2011
• Dr. Feelgood –
  • On the Road Again (Grand Records) - 1994
• Little Axe –
  • Slow Fuse - (M&G Records
    M&G Records
    M&G Records was a record label founded by Michael Levy after he sold his previous label Magnet Records in 1988 to WEA for an estimated £10 million.- History :...
    
    ) - 1996
  • Hard Grind - (Fat Possum Records
    Fat Possum Records
    Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording hitherto unknown Mississippi blues artists . Recently, Fat Possum has signed younger rock acts to its roster...
    
    ) - 2002
  • Champagne and Grits - (Real World Records
    Real World Records
    Real World Records is a record label started in 1989 by Peter Gabriel to record and produce world music.-Overview:The label grew up alongside the success of the WOMAD festivals and Peter Gabriel's exploration of music from other cultures, and helped push world music into the general public's...
    
    ) - 2004
  • "Stone Cold Ohio" ( Real World Records ) - 2006
  • Bought for a Dollar, Sold for a Dime" - (Real World Records
    Real World Records
    Real World Records is a record label started in 1989 by Peter Gabriel to record and produce world music.-Overview:The label grew up alongside the success of the WOMAD festivals and Peter Gabriel's exploration of music from other cultures, and helped push world music into the general public's...
    
    ) - 2010
  • "If you want loyalty,buy a Dog" ( On-U Sounds ) 2011
• Junior Delgado –
  • Reasons (Big Cat Records
    Big Cat Records
    Big Cat Records is a UK record label. It launched around 1990 and originally specialized in industrial and noise-rock releases. Operated a US office in NYC for a few years. Purchased by V2 Records in 1996, at which point their roster became much more diverse in style...
    
    ) - 1999
• Dub Syndicate –
  • Acres of Space (Lion & Roots) - 2001
  • Rasta Far I (Collision Cause Chap) - 2006
• The Barcodes -
  • Keep your Distance (Note Records) - 2000
  • Independently Blue (Note Records) - 2004
  • With Friends Like These (Note Records) - 2006
  • Live - In Session for the BBC (Note Records) - 2007
  • "Be Cool - The Best of The Barcodes" ( Note Records ) - 2011
• Incredible Blues Puppies -
  • Puppy Fat (Note Records) - 2005
  • In The Doghouse (Note Records) - 2008
• Roger Cotton and Alan Glen -
  • Born in Black & White (Note Records) - 2003
• Gordon Smith -
  • "The Essential Gordon Smith" ( Note Records ) - 2009

External links

• Barcodes website
• Note Records website
• Small Planet Music website