Italian singer and composer, born 9 December 1950 in Naples, Italy.
Brother of artist
Of Welsh origin, he spent most of his childhood in Aberystwyth. His musical debut dates back to 1972, when Alan released on Harvest the prog-rock album "Aria", a brilliant experimental effort, also featuring such famed artists as jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty - whose consistent contribution is fully enjoyable especially in the A-sidelong title-track suite.
Alan's second full-length album "Come un vecchio incensiere all'alba di un villaggio deserto" - which followed in 1973 - was more or less along the same lines as the former, but it lacked its freshness and originality.
The third, self-titled LP - including a new version of the Neapolitan classic "Dicitencello vuje", previously released as a single - was the most controversial of Alan's early production: While leaving somehow disappointed his traditional fans, nevertheless gave him a new popularity among a larger - and maybe, but not necessarily, less demanding - public.
In 1976, Alan came back with the disco-oriented album "Sienteme, It's Time to Land", including seven out of nine tracks sung in English, but hit it really big two years later, with the greatly successful release of "Figli delle stelle" (1978), a positively disco-oriented album which resulted in one of that year's best-selling LPs.
The following releases of "L.A. & N.Y." (1979) and "Di notte" (1980) - including the hit singles "Tu sei l'unica donna per me" and "Non so che darei" respectively - were equally successful, and helped Alan establish himself as a legitimate mainstream music star.
In 1981, Alan once again astonished his fans with the gritty rock single "La strada brucia", a solid but rather overlooked attempt to break new ground in his personal musical evolution.
Unfortunately, the two following albums "Angeli della strada" (1983) and, above all, the Buddhist-inspired "Bonno Soku Bodai" (1987) weren't up to both artistic and commercial expectations, marking a kind of impasse in Alan's career.
"Radici" - a compilation of hits including two new tracks, among which the outstanding "Vola" - was released in 1992, while a new collection of old hits, "Miami", came out in 1997, this time including three new tracks: The catchy dance tune "Kyoko Mon Amour", the romantic "Una come te", and "Torna a Surriento".
In 2003, Alan finally released a whole new album, "Sottacqua", launched by the hit single "Paradiso Beach", which was performed in duet with vocalist Jenny B..
